Public opinion on UK milk marketing and dairy cow welfare

Abstract

Interview questionnaires were administered to the general public in central Scotland and northern England during summer 2007 to investigate consumer awareness of UK dairy production methods, welfare issues and recognition of ‘quality assurance’ product logos. Fifty percent of respondents gave UK dairy animal welfare a positive rating. Recognition of individual quality assurance logos was poor and 75% of respondents stated that they did not intentionally seek to buy products with any of the logos. Respondents’ perceptions of good dairy welfare included: appropriate feeding, good stockmanship, plenty of space, freedom to roam/free range and environmental cleanliness. Half of respondents felt they were poorly informed about food production and the majority of respondents (68%) would like more information on food production. Respondents believed that information on animal welfare provided by veterinarians and farmers would be reliable. Most respondents (93%) said they would pay more for good dairy welfare. The findings show that the general public are interested in animal welfare but could be better informed on dairy animal production and welfare. Veterinarians and farmers may have a potentially important role in providing this information with increasing demand for higher welfare provenance products potentially helping to improve animal welfare.

How might the public contribute to the discussion on cattle welfare? Perspectives of veterinarians and animal scientists

“…However, public understanding of animal welfare and farming practices is mediated by a range of socio-demographic factors (see Clark et al 2016;Cornish et al 2016;Evans & Miele 2019). When members of the public are asked to self-assess their level of knowledge, many report that they know little about production methods (Frewer et al 2005;Boogaard et al 2006;Ellis et al 2009;Cummins et al 2015;Eurobarometer 442 2016;Cardoso et al 2017); to some extent this may even reflect willful ignorance (McKendree et al 2014;Bell et al 2017). However, when people are directly tested on their knowledge, a more complex picture often emerges; for example, in a previous study we found that public participants often already knew about lack of pasture access and other housing practices for dairy cattle (Ventura et al 2016a).…”

Plant-Based Dairy Alternatives—A Future Direction to the Milky Way

“…Additionally, it has been discovered that consumer ideals of sustainability, health, and naturalness overlap when it comes to organic products [10]. Even though there is little evidence to support this claim, consumers tend to believe that organic dairy products are naturally healthier, more natural, better for the environment, and better for animal welfare than their conventional counterparts [11][12][13].…”

Assessing short-term economic consequences of cow-calf contact systems in dairy production using a stochastic partial budgeting approach

“…Public concern for the quality of life of farm animals has received much attention in recent years (Ellis et al, 2009;Ahmed et al, 2020). In the dairy sector specifically, lack of cow-calf contact (CCC) after birth is one of the more contentious practices, which is generally controversial for the public (Busch et al, 2017;Placzek et al, 2021;Sirovica et al, 2022).…”