Title: Animal Welfare Discourse and Consumer Preferences in Germany

Presenter: Achim Spiller

Abstract:

Discussions about animal welfare and the ethical assessment of livestock husbandry have increased markedly. The social acceptance of animal husbandry and the meat industry has fallen massively in recent years. After the BSE crisis in Europe at the beginning of the new century, the farm animal welfare discourse has been extended and new NGOs have entered the debate. Over a long period, the sector avoided the public discussion and reacted via lobbying and low profiling public relations. The results were massive political regulations in some parts of the sector (e. g., abolition of cages for laying hens) and new trends in consumer behavior (e.g., increasing number of vegetarians). Recently, political circles, industry and civil society have responded with various initiatives. The scientific council "Agricultural Policies" at the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture published an extensive report "Pathways to a socially accepted livestock husbandry in Germany", which estimates the costs of the necessary improvements to be around 3-5 billion euros p. a. (http://www.bmel.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/EN/Ministry/ScientificAdvisoryBoard-Pathways.pdf?__blob=publicationFile). Classical voluntary labels as well as new concepts of sector initiatives (mass balance approaches) were introduced. We will discuss these recent developments of the farm animal welfare discourse in Germany. Additionally, studies on the perception of modern animal husbandry, changing consumer preferences and willingness to pay for different marketing initiatives will be presented. Amongst other things, we use image-based survey methods to reveal consumer preferences. In general, a significant gap between social expectations and the farm technologies used can be observed.

About the author:

Achim Spiller is a Professor of Food Marketing at the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at the University of Goettingen, Germany. His main research areas are food quality and safety, branding/labelling, management in agribusiness, consumer behavior, organic food, and animal welfare from a market research perspective. Inter alia, he is a member of the scientific council "Agricultural Policies" at the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, member of the Board of Trustees of "QS Qualität und Sicherheit GmbH", the major certification scheme for agriculture in Germany, Chairman of the scientific council of the Animal Welfare Label of the Deutsche Tierschutzbund (German Society for the Protection of Animals), and member of the expert council of the German Food Suply Chain Association "Die Lebensmittelwirtschaft e.V." Moreover, Achim Spiller is elected member of the Academy of Science of the University of Göttingen (since 2013).

www.agrarmarketing.uni-goettingen.de