Interpretive Summary: An examination of the factors that influence consumer intention to purchase higher welfare meat and milk

By: Molly E Harrison , Keelin O’Driscoll , Niamh E O’Connell , Sinéad N McCarthy

Implications

• Increased concern for farm animal welfare has led to the introduction of welfare labels on product packaging.
• Various extended theory of planned behavior models identified important additional determinants of consumers’ intention to purchase higher welfare products.
• By understanding consumer intention better, more informed future consumer research and marketing campaigns can be developed.

Introduction

There is growing societal concern for farm animal welfare and interest in production conditions (European Commission, 2022). In many countries, quality assurance labels have been established to communicate that products have been produced from animals reared on higher welfare-certified farms. In this way, consumers can choose to play a role in driving farm animal welfare improvements through their product purchases (Christensen et al., 2019). As the end stakeholder in the value chain, the success of these schemes relies on consumers purchasing these certified products. Therefore, understanding consumer behavior and intentions in relation to their meat and milk purchasing decisions is imperative to increase the potential for the success of higher welfare assurance schemes and the promotion of higher welfare farming systems.

Read more in Animal Frontiers, Advancing Animal Welfare.