Aurelia Schütz
Aurelia Schütz completed her bachelor's degree in equine business at Nürtingen-Geislingen University (HFWU) in 2015. As part of her thesis, she conducted an experimental study on cross-species social learning in horses, which sparked her interest in scientific research. She then moved from her Swabian homeland to Göttingen, where she successfully completed her master's degree in agricultural sciences with focus on agribusiness in 2018. Even though she switched from horses to pigs for her master's thesis, this did not affect her interest in scientific research and she decided to pursue a PhD. Thus, Aurelia Schütz became a PhD student at the Chair of Marketing for Food and Agricultural Products in 2018, where she is working on the social perception and evaluation of livestock farming - especially pig farming.
Research focus:
- Perception and evaluation of husbandry systems and animal welfare measures (i.e. environmental enrichment)
- Dealing with trade-offs from a societal perspective
- Potential of innovative information tools (i.e. VR glasses) to increase transparency in livestock production
- Schütz, A., Sonntag, W., Christoph-Schulz, I., Faletar, I. (2023). Assessing citizens’ views on the importance of animal welfare and other sustainability aspects in livestock farming using best–worst scaling. Front. Anim. Sci. 4:1201685. https://doi.org/ 10.3389/fanim.2023.1201685
- Schütz, A., Busch, G., Sonntag, W.I. (2023). Systematically analysing the acceptability of pig farming systems with different animal welfare levels when considering intra-sustainability tradeoffs: Are citizens willing to compromise? PLoSONE 18 (3), e0282530. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282530
- Schütz, A., Kurz, K., & Busch, G. (2022). Virtual farm tours—Virtual reality glasses and tablets are suitable tools to provide insights into pig husbandry. Plos one, 17(1), e0261248.
- Busch, G., Schütz, A., Hölker, S., Spiller, A. (2022). Is pet ownership associated with values and attitudes towards animals? Animal Welfare, 31(4), 447-454. https://doi.org/10.7120/09627286.31.4.011
- Schütz, A., Busch, G., Sonntag, W. (2020): Environmental enrichment in pig husbandry – Citizens’ ratings of pictures showing housing elements using an online-survey. Livestock Sciences, 240 Doi: 10.1016/j.livsci.2020.104218
- Environmental Enrichment in pig husbandry – Consumer comparative assessment of different housing elements based on a pictorial survey
Research projects:
"Verbesserung der gesellschaftlichen Akzeptanz ökologischer Tierhaltungssysteme"Against the background of the social debate about the future of livestock farming in Germany, it is becoming increasingly clear that livestock farming is facing considerable, necessary innovation steps. However, this can only be achieved if the products produced also find a market outlet. Regional initiatives can be a driver of sustainable development. Within the framework of the research project, innovative marketing concepts for products from sustainable, regional livestock farming will be designed and analyzed as an example in southern Lower Saxony. The project is funded by the state of Lower Saxony.
Social Lab II (finished)
Barely a day goes by without critical reports about livestock production. Even though criticism varies greatly depending on the perspective: Only a small number of people are happy with the current situation. In order to address this issue and to find goal-oriented, balanced and ethically justifiable solutions, it is necessary to break down the criticism towards current types and practices of livestock production by different social groups in a sophisticated way and to better understand its numerous dimensions. This is the task of the joint project Sociallab II, where a total of eight partners have joined forces and are working together on five work packages following an interdisciplinary approach.
"Virtueller Stall der Zukunft - Neue Konzepte für die Schweinehaltung" (finished)
Both projects have been supported by Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) funds based on a decision taken by the Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany via the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE) within the scope of the innovation support program.