Since announcing its Farm to Fork Strategy, the European Commission has been striving to reform animal welfare regulations. However, some Member States have implemented their own national policies, such as the culling of male chicks after birth, resulting in an unequal degree of animal welfare among the Member States. In response, the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) surveyed 8,000 individuals in eight countries to assess consumer demand for enhanced animal welfare rules in meat and fish. Initial data indicate that customers desire improved animal welfare and corresponding labeling, but are they ready to pay for it?
Almost 90% of consumers in the EU favor new legislation to enhance the wellbeing of farmed animals, such as increasing living space and prohibiting cage systems. Consumers also want to learn more about how farmed animals are raised and want reliable labeling. 72% of respondents wanted the method of production marking to be applied to items other than eggs.
Consumers also have poor faith in firms’ promises about animal welfare, with 84% responding adversely to ‘welfare-washing’, in which operators pretend to have greater animal welfare standards than they really do. Three out of four customers want to know more about how animals were grown for items like meat and dairy because they believe they don’t know enough. Industry should consider hard before indulging in ‘animal welfare-washing’, since it might permanently damage their companies’ image.
In actuality, upgrading animal welfare standards is not inexpensive, thus the issue becomes: who should pay for it? 74% of poll respondents felt the EU should assist farmers with funding to adopt better welfare criteria. BEUC emphasized that the EU and national governments must guarantee that the costs of this transformation are appropriately distributed throughout the value chain and not borne only by consumers.
