16 pages., Article #: 1999, via online journal., The main purpose of this study was to determine the structure of consumer preferences
regarding information on farming system and nutritional enhancement of eggs to verify if consumers
are willing to accept products combing sustainability and nutrition related claims. The data was
collected within a CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviews) survey on a representative
sample of 935 consumers responsible for food shopping. A discrete choice-based conjoint method
was selected in eliciting consumer preferences among different product profiles with varying
levels of attributes. A hierarchical cluster analysis was used to identify four distinct clusters
that differed significantly in terms of importance attached to production system attributes and
socio-demographic profiles. The results of the experiment showed that price and farming system
had the most significant mean relative importance in shaping consumers’ preferences, while other
attributes such as nutrition and health claims, egg size, package size and hen breed were far
less important. Free range eggs had the highest relative importance for consumers despite the
fact that organic egg production systems are governed by much stricter animal welfare standards.
Our segmentation revealed that two of our four clusters may be more easily reached by information
on animal welfare related attributes in egg production than the others. The results of our study
provide the policy makers and marketing practitioners with insights applicable for communication
and pricing strategies for eggs with sustainability claims.
Available online at www.centmapress.org, Four factors and three farmer groups were identified which significantly differed regarding their attitudes towards animal welfare programs and willingness to participate in them. Authors cited evidence of need to design tailor-made strategies for communicating with farmers about this subject.
15 pages, The post-war Western world has seen a gradual shift from government to governance, a process that also concerned the issues related to agro-food sustainability, such as food quality, environmental impact, social justice, and farm animal welfare. Scholars believe that social media are a new site that reconfigures relations between various actors involved in the governance of these problems. However, empirical research on this matter remains scarce. This paper fills this gap by examining the case of Februdairy, a Twitter hashtag campaign to promote the British dairy industry, hijacked by animal protection activists. For this case, I employ the relational perspective on technology affordances—as operationalised by Faraj and Azad (in: Leonard et al. (eds), Materiality and organizing. Social interaction in a technological world, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2012)—to highlight two distinct strategic modes of embracement of social media functionalities by the opposing groups: hashtag hijacking and crowdsourcing transparency. The analysis reveals also that a pre-existing social structure of the agro-food system conditions reconfiguration of social relations by technology in a way that actually strengthens the tendency to govern the issue of farm animal protection with market mechanisms.
9 pages., Online via UI electronic subscription., A choice experiment was used to evaluate the U.S. public's willingness to pay for egg attributes including housing system, color, size, and certifying agency. A significant difference in willingness to pay for hen housing systems was found using video information treatments describing hen housing systems. Participants were indifferent between hen housing systems when they viewed video treatments describing hen housing systems. However, they clearly preferred the cage-free system when they viewed no video treatments. "Results point towards potential public misunderstanding of the costs and benefits associated with the "cage-free" egg label designation."
Available online at www.centmapress.org, Results showed that depending on expressed meta-values, respondents had different specific information sources and needs. Online sources were rarely mentioned, the majority of consumers referred to brochures, flyers and interpersonal contacts.
12 pages., via online journal, Animal welfare and environmental impacts have been emphasized in the sustainable production of livestock. Labels are useful tools for clearly providing such attribute information to consumers. The aim of this study was to evaluate how human values influence consumer segments for beef with information on animal welfare and environmentally friendly production. Using a choice experiment, we examined whether animal welfare and environmentally friendly labels, country of origin and price impact consumer choice. As results, five heterogeneous consumer classes were identified using a latent class model: label conscious, domestic beef preferring, price conscious, animal welfare preferring and not interested in production method. Almost 90% of consumers were interested in and willing to pay for beef with animal welfare or environmentally friendly label. The classes with significant preferences for such labeled beef were affected by “openness to change”, “self-enhancement” and “security”. Improving consumer attitudes and strengthening consumer perception towards labeled beef by marketers and policy makers will be required.
