Ethical, moral and social dimensions in farm production practices: a segmentation study to assess Irish consumers’ perceptions of meat quality

Abstract

Growing consumer concerns with modern farming and food production systems indicate a significant market opportunity for meat production practices that consider ethical, moral and social value traits. In the current study, we aimed to identify and characterise distinct segments of Irish consumers based on their perceptions of the quality of meat from different farm-level production practices (organic farming, high animal welfare standards, free range farming, and “natural”, treatment-free feeding regimes). An online survey was carried out with 251 Irish meat consumers. Using cluster analysis, we identified three distinct segments: “Target consumers”, “Purist consumers” and “Disinterested consumers”. Chi-square analyses revealed differences between the segments based on gender, age and meat-purchasing motivations. The results provide insight into the opportunities that exist for exploring new viable market segments as well as for engaging Irish consumers and empowering them with information around the ethical, social and moral aspects of farm-level practices related to meat production.

Co-Operation among Irish Beef Farmers: Current Perspectives and Future Prospects in the Context of New Producer Organisation (PO) Legislation

“…Internationally, the literature indicates that the existence of social capital, particularly trust between producers as a result of informal co-operation, is a significant factor in positively influencing the decision to join or establish a PO (Chlebicka, 2015;European Commission, 2018 products in a marketplace where proximity between producers and consumers is increasingly sought after (Macken-Walsh et al, 2017;Regan et al, 2018).…”

“…On the other hand, increasing attention is paid to the economic potential arising from adding value to produce rather than increasing its volume. Quality attributes are increasingly sought after by consumers (Regan et al, 2018) and in this context policy-oriented documents promote the production of food. "that is demonstrably superior from multiple (quality, safety, health and environment) perspectives" (Purvis et al, 2012, p.39; see also Bell and Shelman, 2010;Monaghan et al, 2015).…”

“…However, that is not to say that designation of more specific Irish beef products is not possible and the establishment of cooperatives to market PGI meat products is an area of potential identified specifically by ICOS (2018) 8 . Differentiating Irish produce, particularly meat as one of Ireland's largest sectors, represents untapped potential in an evolving market where quality attributes are increasingly sought after by consumers (Cotter, 2016;European Commission, 2017, 8;Regan et al, 2018).…”

Co-Operation among Irish Beef Farmers: Current Perspectives and Future Prospects in the Context of New Producer Organisation (PO) Legislation

“…For producers with established marketing arrangements with retailers/purchasers, joining a PO entailed the replacement of such arrangements with contracts between the PO and the retailer/purchaser, thus breaking the pre-existing direct link [39]. The experiences of Irish fruit and vegetable POs provide cautionary lessons in relation to the need for POs to be flexible in maintaining linkages between producers and products in a marketplace where proximity between producers and consumers is increasingly sought after [40,41].…”

“…A recent Irish study of the beef sector found that there are few, if any, economic returns from increasing the scale of beef farms [51]. On the other hand, increasing attention is paid to the economic potential arising from adding value to produce rather than increasing its volume [41]. Quality attributes are increasingly sought after by consumers and in this context policy-oriented documents promote the production of food "that is demonstrably superior from multiple (quality, safety, health and environment) perspectives" ( [52], p. 39, [53,54]).…”