Welfare Attributes Research Articles

The role of ethical orientation in animal welfare choice behaviour: A segmentation study

Consumers are becoming more and more conscious about their consumption choices, demanding more sustainable, healthy and fair options. Meat consumption especially is under scrutiny for environmental as well as ethical reasons. We develop a set of items to measure ethical orientation and apply it to consumers’ choices of meat products with 3000 consumers across six European countries (Denmark, Germany, Spain, Poland, Netherlands, Italy). We find consumer preferences to be similar across countries, with two thirds of consumers showing a preference for animal welfare attributes, especially outdoor access. Consumer segments can be differentiated based on their degree of ethical orientation, environmental concern, level of trust in the food system and price sensitivity. Ethical orientation differentiates between consumers’ self-reported welfare meat purchases. Our results contribute to the literature on consumer behavior regarding farm animal welfare across different meat product and countries.

Suppliers' Perspectives on Cage-Free Eggs in China.

Successful promotion of cage-free eggs supports a housing system offering potential for improved hen welfare. As the world's largest egg producer and consumer, China offers much potential for welfare improvements. We examined 10 Chinese companies supplying cage-free eggs (four using indoor systems, six with outdoor access) to understand their strategies to promote cage-free eggs to businesses and consumers. We purposively sampled 12 employees from these companies familiar with production or sales. We conducted two-three semi-structured interviews per participant, collected public online documents (including online shops and social media content), and recorded field notes. We analyzed the data using template analysis to generate key results. Participants reported buyers being unfamiliar with 'animal welfare' and 'cage-free', but familiar with concepts associated with 'free-range'. Participants considered three attributes when promoting cage-free eggs: price (engaging buyers who were willing to pay more), experiential attributes (e.g., taste, accommodating buyer preferences), and non-sensory credence attributes (e.g., cage-free production, improving buyers' understanding and trust). Our results are not generalizable, though they may be transferable to similar contexts. Understanding how companies promoted cage-free eggs to buyers may help inform promotion of other animal products with welfare attributes. Simultaneous efforts are needed to ensure actual welfare improvements on farms.

The Impact of Covid-19 on Urban Planning of Port Harcourt City, Nigeria

Background: Coronavirus disease is a communicable and contagious respiratory disease that has not only affected human social lives, interactions and relationships but equally changed other significant patterns of people’s normal lives, and there is need for a robust urban planning to meet the emerging changes. This study sought to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the inhabitants of Port Harcourt City and its implications on urban planning in Port Harcourt City, Nigeria. This study examined how the COVID-19 pandemic affected human interactions and business activities, and its implication on urban planning in Port Harcourt city. Methods: The study adopted descriptive survey design with questionnaire used for data collection. Port Harcourt inhabitants aged 18 years and above were studied using four major clusters in Port Harcourt city. Purposive sampling technique was used to select participants from five most affected COVID-19 business areas in each cluster in the year 2020. A total of 400 participants assessed on people’s economic activities and welfare attributes using Likert-scale. Data were analysed using simple percentages, mean and standard deviation. Results: Major findings revealed that COVID-19 negatively affected the lives of people, closure of markets and other economic centres, lack of face-to-face communication and interaction, change in people’s social welfare and lifestyle, to halt in education and academic activities, restriction in movement and transportation, and household welfare challenges. It is suggested that policymakers should intensify efforts to ensure coronavirus is eradicated by providing COVID-19 drugs to all Nigerians. Conclusion: The study underscores the urgent need for comprehensive measures to mitigate the multifaceted impacts of COVID-19 in Nigeria, emphasizing equitable access to essential medications as a crucial strategy for combating the pandemic's adverse effects on society. Novelty: This research offers novel insights into the broad-ranging impacts of COVID-19 on various aspects of life in Nigeria, highlighting the imperative of equitable access to medications as a pivotal solution.

Can Data and Machine Learning Change the Future of Basic Income Models? A Bayesian Belief Networks Approach

Appeals to governments for implementing basic income are contemporary. The theoretical backgrounds of the basic income notion only prescribe transferring equal amounts to individuals irrespective of their specific attributes. However, the most recent basic income initiatives all around the world are attached to certain rules with regard to the attributes of the households. This approach is facing significant challenges to appropriately recognize vulnerable groups. A possible alternative for setting rules with regard to the welfare attributes of the households is to employ artificial intelligence algorithms that can process unprecedented amounts of data. Can integrating machine learning change the future of basic income by predicting households vulnerable to future poverty? In this paper, we utilize multidimensional and longitudinal welfare data comprising one and a half million individuals’ data and a Bayesian beliefs network approach to examine the feasibility of predicting households’ vulnerability to future poverty based on the existing households’ welfare attributes.

Financing Laws of China's Big Health Industry PPP Projects: A Discussion Paper

At present, China's big health industry is developing rapidly, but due to its characteristics of heavy assets, slow returns and public welfare attributes, the further development of the big health industry is mostly restricted by factors such as policy supervision, capital reserves, technology and technology [iResearch, 2019]. The introduction of the PPP model into the field of general health is conducive to the formation of benefit sharing, risk sharing and long-term cooperative relations between the government and the market [Ding C et al.,2019]. This article analyzes the legal concerns of the PPP project financing process in the big health industry, discusses the design of appropriate system construction, legalizes the space for the legalization of financing rules at the legal level, and then straightens out the system and conditions for the realization of PPP project financing in the big health industry in China so that The health industry will become a new growth point for China's economic development in the future.

Consumer trust and willingness to pay for establishing a market-based animal welfare assurance scheme for broiler chickens

The aim of this study was to examine Finnish consumers' preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for measures to improve broiler chicken welfare and to examine how familiarity with animal production farms, trust in food system actors, and views concerning the responsibility for animal welfare were associated with the WTP. A survey instrument, including a choice experiment, to study consumer preferences for food quality attributes was developed. The survey data were analyzed using a latent class model and logistic regression analysis. The results suggested that Finnish consumers tend to have a positive WTP for improvements in farm animal welfare (FAW) in broiler production, although WTP varied by consumer segment. Five different consumer groups with different levels of WTP for specific welfare attributes were identified. The highest WTP was estimated for an additional space allowance for the birds and enhanced litter quality monitoring at the farm. In conclusion, there is demand for animal welfare labeled broiler chicken among Finnish consumers. However, consumer expectations are heterogeneous, and different strategies can appeal to different segments. While one consumer segment prioritizes FAW over price, another segment emphasizes low-priced products and considers mid-market products appealing. Moreover, public policies are an important tool for enhancing FAW for a large proportion of consumers, and public actions are therefore warranted. Finally, engaging with animal protection organizations (as mediators) and being open to consumers can be an effective strategy to build confidence in premium products.

Do Consumers Value Welfare and Environmental Attributes in Egg Production Similarly in Fresh Eggs and Prepared Meals?

Food items are increasingly chosen based on sustainability attributes as the public is becoming increasingly aware of the environmental and animal welfare impacts of production systems, in addition to the traditional consideration for nutrition. Although surveys have been used to investigate the demand for these attributes in unprocessed products, little information exists on how these attributes impact consumer preferences in the case of processed products or prepared meals. This study uses a stated preference survey to examine Quebec (Canada) consumers' preferences for eggs from four production systems with different impacts on animal welfare and on the environment. We compare the respondents' choices of fresh eggs and two prepared meals that contain eggs. Furthermore, we examine the shift in choices following information treatments on animal welfare, nutrition, or environmental impact attributes. Results indicate that respondents choose eggs from more sustainable production systems more frequently when included in prepared meals than in their unprocessed form. The provision of information led participants to update prior beliefs and revise their initial choices, especially for animal welfare attributes.

Construction Thought and Promotion Path of One-off Dialing Service of Transportation Service Supervision Telephone

As the transportation industry has the characteristics of multi-level, cross-regional, and cross-domain, and taking into account the public welfare attributes of service supervision telephones, the construction of 12328 telephones has a strong system, integrity, and coordination. It is necessary to use the ‘coordinate all the activities of the nation as in a chess game’ mentality, unified planning, unified deployment, unified standards, and unified promotion of 12328 telephone construction. The construction process must be led by the government and promoted throughout the country. Overall, the 12328 telephone construction promotion path is through the comprehensive integration of top-level designs in different dimensions, such as informatization, standardization, and institutionalization, in order to realize the national traffic and transportation service supervision telephone ‘12328’ one-off dialing service, the provincial and municipal data networking and sharing, and business and system collaboration.

Paying for animal welfare? A hedonic analysis of egg prices

AbstractWe investigate whether consumers are willing to pay a premium price for animal welfare attributes of foods they eat. To answer this question, we carry out a hedonic analysis of the retail eggs prices in Croatia. Scientific evidence clearly supports the notion that birds' wellbeing is higher in cage‐free systems than in a typical cage system. Therefore, there is a clear link between production systems and animal welfare. We use the retail level monthly data for 2017 on sales quantities and unit values of all fresh egg stock keeping units from all stores belonging to one of the largest retail chains in the country. The estimation results of the equilibrium hedonic price equation model shows that holding other attributes constant, the clean price premium for cage‐free eggs is 15 cents per 10‐egg carton or 7.8% of the retail price. Although the implicit price premium for cage‐free eggs is relatively modest, there are not that many people actually willing to buy them. Because only 2.2% of all eggs sold by the retail chain were actually cage‐free, the average per‐person willingness to pay for cage‐free eggs is only 0.3 cents for a 10‐egg carton [EconLit Citations: D12, L66, M31].

A Customer-Centric Approach to Bid-Based Transactive Energy System Design

This study demonstrates how bid-based transactive energy system designs can be formulated from a customer-centric vantage point to encourage voluntary customer participation. Supportive evidence is provided for distribution systems populated by households with smart electric heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. The optimal form of a household’s bid function is first derived from dynamic programming principles, based solely on the household’s general thermal dynamic and welfare attributes. The quantitative form of this optimal bid function is then explicitly derived, given quantitative forms for these attributes. A method is also developed for the systematic construction of household types based on these attributes. Bid comparison, peak load reduction, and target load matching test cases conducted for a 123-bus distribution system illustrate the usefulness of these methods for ensuring bid-based transactive energy system designs are able to align system goals and constraints with local customer goals and constraints.

Hot and bothered: Public attitudes towards heat stress and outdoor access for dairy cows.

On many dairy farms cows are kept indoors. Providing outdoor access is often considered desirable, but housing can protect animals from aversive climatic conditions. For example, by providing shade and fans, indoor housing can protect cows from heat stress they might otherwise experience on open pasture. This study tested how public attitudes to cattle rearing varied when participants were experimentally assigned to different scenarios using a 2 x 2 factorial design varying pasture versus indoor housing with or without heat stress. Participants (n = 581) were randomly assigned to a single scenario, and attitudes in response to the scenario were measured using a Likert scale (1 = “strongly disagree” to 5 = “strongly agree”). We also asked open-ended questions allowing participants to explain their responses. Participants responded most positively to the scenario that provided both pasture access and protection from heat stress (Likert 4.1±0.08), and least positively to scenario with indoor housing and heat stress (Likert 2.2±0.08). However, when the different animal welfare attributes were in conflict (i.e. naturalness as provided by pasture, and biological functioning/affective state as associated with protection from heat stress), participants placed priority on the latter: they were more supportive of the scenario providing indoor housing that protected cows from heat stress (Likert 3.5±0.08), than they were of a pasture rearing system that exposed cows to heat stress (Likert 2.4±0.08). Open-ended responses indicated that participants viewed the lack of protection from heat stress as a failure in the farmer’s duty of care towards the cow. We conclude that participants valued both access to pasture and protection from heat stress for dairy cows, but prioritized protecting animal from heat stress when these features were in conflict.

Specifics of Organic Food Markets’ Demand

Summary Organic food market in Serbia is characterized by underdeveloped supply and limited demand. Demand of organically produced food has certain specifics. Paper analyzes research results of domestic and foreign authors aiming to identify key characteristics and to carry out a systematization of the factors that determine demand and consumption of organic products in Serbian and foreign markets. The aim of the research is to develop demographic profile of organic consumers, and to provide a picture of “typical” organic consumer. Most authors agree that there is a positive correlation between the level of education and consumption of organic products. Studies conducted in Serbia suggest that concern for health is one of the most important factors of buying organic products, while foreign customers, in addition, are also motivated by environmental and animal welfare attributes, and with desire to consume “local” food. In both groups of consumers sensory characteristics of the product were recognized as the key factors for the consumption of organic products. Price is one of the relevant factors that limit the purchase of these products. Significant attention was paid to marketing channels. Since domestic organic producers are underdeveloped and unadjusted to customers’ requirements, getting familiar with the basic characteristics of buyers of organic food is the starting point for development of adequate marketing concept for growers, processors and retail of this group of products.

Consumers demand for products with animal welfare attributes

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to assess Scottish consumers’ demand for animal welfare and organic pork. The paper also tried to answer the following questions: first, are animal-friendly pork and organic-pork complements or substitutes (competing)? Second, what is the relationship between pork products with different animal welfare labels (i.e. “freedom food” pork vs “specially selected pork”)? Third, does the demand for animal-friendly and organic pork vary with the level of deprivation of the area where consumers are living?Design/methodology/approach– The dataset used in the analysis is the Kantar Worldpanel dataset for Scotland, which contains weekly data of food and drink purchases for consumption at home, covering the period 2006-2011. The panel is representative of the Scottish population and covers about 3,694 households. The linear version of the almost ideal demand system was estimated. Then, the own- and the cross-price elasticities as well as the expenditure elasticities for the 22 food categories and products were computed.Findings– The results indicate that when the price of animal-friendly pork increases, consumers decrease their consumption of this product and substitute it by organic pork or regular pork, especially in the case of fresh pork, bacon and sausages. It was found that products with different animal welfare accreditation are substitutes in the eyes of Scottish consumers and are, therefore, competing for the market share of animal-friendly foods. The results also show that the demand for animal-friendly pork is more elastic in the most deprived areas in Scotland.Originality/value– To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that estimates the demand for conventional, animal-friendly and organic pork using a scanner data in Scotland and controlling for the variation by area of deprivation.

Retail channel and consumer demand for food quality in China

In the wake of the supermarket revolution, consumer concerns over food safety in China have resulted in an accelerated change towards the procurement of food products from modern retail channels. We employ discrete choice experiments to assess consumer preferences for food quality attributes across various retail channels using primary data from Beijing, China. Results suggest that consumer willingness to pay for food safety is retail channel invariant, while preferences for organic and Green Food certification are product and retail channel specific. We find evidence of emerging consumer preferences for animal welfare attributes. Implications for food retail managers and agribusinesses are discussed.

Non-Monetary Assessment of Pro-Poor Growth In Nigeria: Evidence From Demographic and Health Surveys

Poverty analytical approaches have recently considered households’ deprivation in several welfare attributes in what has been tagged multidimensional poverty. This approach has been well embraced due to acceptability of human development indices as a parameter for comparing welfare across different segments of the population. In this study, non-monetary indicators of welfare were aggregated into composite welfare indicator for pro-poor growth assessment. The 1999, 2003 and 2008 Demographic and Health Survey data were analyzed using the poverty equivalent growth rate (PEGR) and growth incidence curves (GICs). Results show that although sometimes pro-poor, non-income growth rates in many of the zones and states were negative between 1999 and 2003. In the 2003–2008 period, some more positive values were obtained. Specifically, between 1999 and 2003, there was pro-poor growth in non-income poverty in the north-western zone with urban areas benefiting more than rural areas. In the North East zone, there was pro-poor growth between 1999 and 2003, while none was pro-poor between 2003 and 2008. In the North Central zone, all the sectoral results for between 1999 and 2003 had negative growth rates. In South West zone, the growth rates for all the analyses are with negative growth rates between 1999 and 2003. In the South South zone, all the sectoral results had negative growth rates and pro-poor. In South East zone, between 1999 and 2003, all the sectoral results are with positive growth rates and pro-poor. In the combined households (Nigeria) analysis, that all the results had negative growth rates. There is therefore the need for ensuring proper monitoring of non-income poverty across different zones and states in order to ensure adequacy of different mechanisms for tackling it.

On the use of multicriteria optimisation for electric energy planning

Power systems planning is intrinsically multiobjective in nature. The paper discusses the advantages for energy planning of approaches based on multicriteria methods. The generation expansion problem is used as an illustrative example. Two distinct methods are discussed: an interactive tricriteria linear programming tool (TRIMAP) developed at the Department of Electrical Engineering of the University of Coimbra, and an outranking method (ELECTRE IV). The context and the aims of each method are sketched using a case study. The objectives considered in the first method are the total system cost, the environmental impact and a reliability function. In the second, a set of economic and welfare attributes are used for evaluating several alternatives which may be obtained with the aid of a screening process of the output of the first method.

Comparing Consumer Preferences for Livestock Production Process Attributes Across Products, Species, and Modeling Methods

Consumer preferences for four livestock products were investigated to determine consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for livestock production process attributes. We use an inferred method of attribute nonattendance (ANA) using the coefficient of variation on individual specific parameter estimates to assess the variability of preference intensity for various product characteristics. We find that accounting for ANA did not significantly impact mean estimates of WT P. Implications of our findings on the reliability of existing work in the area of consumer preferences for animal welfare attributes are discussed.

What Foods are Identified as Animal Friendly by Italian Consumers?

In the Italian market, voluntary certifications implying higher levels of animal welfare generally fall into wider production schemes. Despite of the results of EU surveys indicating that about 50% of Italian consumers can easily identify and find animal-friendly products, they still are distributed scarcely or discontinuously in the main retail chains. To assess the apparent contradiction between the intricate information consumers receive from labels and their declared awareness about animal welfare, a survey was conducted in Emilia Romagna region on 355 Italian consumers (face-to-face interviews based on a structured, semi-close-ended questionnaire). Overall, consumers showed a low degree of knowledge about animal welfare attributes, animal farming conditions and animal protection policies (about 30% of correct answers), and a low level of awareness of the effects of their purchasing choices on the welfare of farmed animals (22%). The respondents also showed difficulties in identifying animal-friendly products and often confused them with other certified foods, having sometimes a weak connection (or none at all) to animal welfare (e.g., Protected Designation of Origin products). However, most consumers declared to be ready to pay a premium price in name of animal welfare. In conclusion, a labelling system for the welfare content of animal-derived foods is confirmed to be an effective strategy to compensate the efforts of farmers in improving animal welfare, provided that the information given is clear and able to fill the substantial lack of consumer knowledge.

Pro-Poorness of Households’ Access to Safe Drinking Water in Rural and Urban Nigeria

Enhancing households’ access to safe drinking water is a development objective that is universally embraced. This study analyzed the extent of pro-poorness of households’ access to safe drinking water in the geopolitical zone, states and rural/urban areas in Nigeria. The data used were the demographic and health surveys of 1999, 2003 and 2008. Fuzzy set approach was used to aggregate welfare attributes before computing the pro-poor policy indices (PPPI). Results show that access to safe drinking water was largely anti-poor in rural areas, while it is pro-poor in urban areas. In the urban areas, Enugu and Zamfara states had the worst results (anti-poor). States with speedy water programme interventions Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Nasarawa, Niger, Ondo, Osun, Anambra, Enugu and Imo. It is was concluded that meeting the MDG target on safe water is daisy for Nigeria and a steady and consistent effort in addressing problems related is required.

Consumer Preference for Eggs from Enhanced Animal Welfare Production System: A Stated Choice Analysis

The first choice experiment investigated consumer preferences for different housing systems, while the second investigated consumer preferences for attributes of a housing system. Each choice experiment had two information treatments. In both treatments, a description of each housing system was provided, while in the second treatment, there was additional information regarding the consequences (in terms of effect on birds) of each housing systems based on scientific research. The results indicate that Canadian consumers are willing to pay a premium for eggs from free run and free range systems, but not for eggs from enriched cage systems. There are also positive marginal WTPs for cage-free, outdoor access, access to nests box, perches, scratching pads and more space. In both choice experiment, the WTP for enhanced animal welfare attributes are lower in treatment 2 (with additional information) than treatment 1. Consumer preference for outdoor access is quite consistent across two choice experiments.