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How best to improve farm animal welfare? Four main approaches viewed from an economic perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

T Christensen ,
S Denver  and
P Sandøe
T Christensen
Affiliation:
Department of Food Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 25, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark Contact for correspondence and requests for reprints: [email protected]
S Denver
Affiliation:
Department of Food Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 25, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
P Sandøe
Affiliation:
Department of Food Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 25, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Grønnegårdsvej 8, 1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
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Abstract

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Looking at the issues from an economic perspective, we examine four approaches to the improvement of farm animal welfare: legislative initiatives, and initiatives driven by producers, consumer choice (labelling), and food companies (Corporate Social Responsibility; CSR). We take as our starting point the assumption that to obtain the best possible improvements in animal welfare, a combination of all four approaches will be needed. The main focus of the paper is to show that (and how) economics and other social sciences can play an important role in determining how to design and implement these approaches most effectively. We argue that insights from animal welfare science on what constitutes an improvement in animal welfare, and how such improvements are best measured, are a necessary input to the economic analyses. Economic analyses can guide the form and extent of welfare legislation so as to set decent minimum standards of animal welfare. To exploit producer-driven animal welfare opportunities, understanding the relationship between animal welfare, productivity and other product or production characteristics is essential. To make best use of initiatives driven by consumer choice and CSR, the focus needs to be on, not simply aspects of animal welfare for which consumers are known to be willing to pay, but also other welfare dimensions viewed as essential by animal welfare experts. Finally, recent, rapid developments in the marketing of animal welfare-friendly products have demonstrated the need for more knowledge about the ways in which consumers perceive the different kinds of information used in labels and CSR strategies.

Keywords

animal welfareconsumerscorporate social responsibilityeconomicslegislationstakeholders
Type
Articles
Information
Animal Welfare , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , February 2019 , pp. 95 - 106
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

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