Animal Welfare According to Norwegian Consumers and Producers: Definitions and Implications
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Published
Dec 4, 2007
Guro Ådnegard Skarstad
Laura Terragni
Hanne Torjusen
Abstract
The objective of this article is to present the definitions of animal welfare that emerged from a qualitative study of Norwegian consumers and producers. Two questions are discussed: 1) How do consumers and producers define good farm animal welfare? 2) How do consumers and producers view the role of animal welfare regulations and labelling? Results from this study suggest that these two groups share fundamental values underpinning their conceptions. For both consumers and producers, a good life for farm animals tends to be a negotiation between care, freedom and economy. Drawing upon the theoretical discussion of how food quality attributes are established in alternative food networks and through increased regulations, we suggest that animal welfare regulations and food labelling may change producers’ and consumers’ definitions of animal welfare. This may lead to a shift of focus from 'well-treated farm animals' to a more abstract and standardised notion, where animals are perceived as 'well-produced food commodities'.
How to Cite
Ådnegard Skarstad, G. ., Terragni, L. . and Torjusen, H. . (2007) “Animal Welfare According to Norwegian Consumers and Producers: Definitions and Implications ”, The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food. Paris, France, 15(3), pp. 74–90. doi: 10.48416/ijsaf.v15i3.285.
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References
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Burton, Rob J.F. 2004. “Seeing Through the ‘Good Farmer’s’ Eyes: Towards Developing an Understanding of the Social Symbolic Value of ‘Productivist’ Behaviour.” Sociologia Ruralis 44:195-215.
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Evans, Adrian and Mara Miele (eds). 2007. Consumers’ views about farm animal welfare. Cardiff: School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University, Welfare Quality Reports no. 4.
Goodman, David. 2003. “The quality ‘turn’ and alternative food practices: reflections and agenda.” Journal of Rural Studies 19:1-7.
Guthman, Julie. 2005. Agrarian dreams. The Paradox of Organic Farming in California. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Guzman, Maria and Unni Kjærnes. 1998. Menneske og dyr: en kvalitativ studie av holdninger til kjøtt (People and animals: a qualitative study of attitudes towards meat). Oslo: National Institute for Consumer Research. SIFO Report no. 6-1998.
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Halkier, Bente, Lotte Holm, Mafalda Domingues, Paolo Magaudda, Annemette Nielsen and Laura Terragni.2007. “Trusting, complex, quality-conscious or unprotected? Constructing the food consumer in different European national contexts”. Journal of Consumer Culture 33:379-402.
Kaltoft, Pernille. 1999. “Values about Nature in Organic Farming Practice and Knowledge.” Sociologia Ruralis 39:39-53.
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Klintman, Mikael. 2006. Ambiguous framings of political consumerism: means or end, product or process orientation? International Journal of Consumer Studies 30:427-438.
Lavik, Randi and Ingrid Kjørstad. 2005. Kjøtt, holdninger og endring 1997-2004 (Meat, attitudes and change). Oslo: National Institute for Consumer Research. Report no. 5-2005.
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Lien, Marianne, Ellen Bjørkum and Elin Bye. 1998. Kjøtt, holdninger og endring (Meat, attitudes and change). Oslo: National Institute for Consumer Research. SIFO Report no. 6-1998.
Lund, Vonne, Sven Hemlin and William Lockeretz. 2002. “Organic livestock production as viewed by Swedish farmers and organic initiators.” Agriculture and Human Values 19: 255–268.
Miele, Mara and Bettina Bock. n.d.. Call for papers for a Special issue of International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food. Title: Competing discourses of farm animal welfare and agri-food restructuring.
Murdoch, Jonathan and Mara Miele. 1999. “‘Back to Nature’: Changing ‘Worlds of Production’ in the Food Sector.” Sociologia Ruralis 39: 465-483.
Murdoch, Jonathan, Terry Marsden and Jo Bank. 2000. ”Quality, Nature, and Embeddedness: Some Theoretical Considerations in the Context of the Food Sector.” Economic Geography 76:107-125.
Nygård, Berit and Oddveig Storstad. 1998. “De-globalization of Food Markets? Consumer Perceptions of Safe Food: The Case of Norway.” Sociologia Ruralis 38: 35-53.
Risan, Lars. 2003. ”Hva er ei ku?: Norsk rødt fe som teknovitenskap og naturkultur.” (What is a cow? Norwegian Red as technoscience and natureculture). Ph.D.dissertation, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oslo: Unipub.
Roe, Emma and Terry Marsden. 2007. “Analysis of the retail survey products that carry Welfare-claims and non-retailer led assurance schemes whose logos accompany welfare claims.” In Attitudes of Consumers, Retailers and Producers to Farm
animal Welfare, edited by Unni Kjærnes, Mara Miele and Joek Roex. Cardiff: School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University. Welfare Quality Reports no. 2.
Roex, Joek and Mara Miele (eds.). 2005. Farm Animal Welfare Concerns. Consumers, Retailers and Producers. Cardiff: School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University. Welfare Quality Reports no. 1.
Rogstad, Berit (ed.). 2005. Norwegian Agriculture. Status and Trends 2005. Oslo: Norwegian Agricultural Economics Research Institute.
Schipper Liesbeth, Hanne Torjusen, Volkert Beekman, Laura Terragni and Michiel Korthals. 2006. “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others: a cross-cultural comparison of human-animal relationships in Netherlands
and Norway”. Pp. 535-539 in Ethics and the Politics of Food, edited by Matthias Kaiser and Marianne Lien. Wageningen: Wageningen Academic Press.
Segerdahl, Pär. 2007. “Can natural behaviour be cultivated? The farm as a local human/animal culture.” Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 20:167-193.
Singer, Peter and Jim Mason 2006. The way we eat. Why our food choices matter. Emmaus PA: Rodale.
Skarstad, Guro Å. and Svein Ole Borgen. 2007a. Norwegian pig producers’ views of animal welfare. NILF Discusson paper 1/2007.
------. 2007b. Norwegian cattle producers’ views of animal welfare. NILF Discussion paper 2/2007.
------. Forthcoming. Norwegian poultry producers’ views of animal welfare. Storstad, Oddveig and Hilde Bjørkhaug. 2003. “Foundations of production and consumption of organic food in Norway: Common attitudes among farmers and consumers?” Agriculture and Human Values 20:151-163.
Terragni, Laura. 2006. “A country that never had a BSE crisis: Consensus and tensions in transforming the Norwegian food system.” Appetite 47:170-176.
Terragni, Laura and Hanne Torjusen. 2006. “Welche Tiere kann man mit gutem Gewissen essen, welche nicht? Das Essen von Tieren als ideal und als Dilemma.” Arbeitsergebnisse 60:53-61.
------. 2007. “People’s views about farm animal welfare in the role as consumers. Report from focus groups in Norway.” In Consumers’ views about farm animal welfare, edited by Adrian Evans and Mara Miele, Cardiff: School of City and Regional
Planning, Cardiff University, Welfare Quality Reports no.4.
Te Velde, Hein, Noelle Aarts, and Cees Van Woerkum. 2002. “Dealing with ambivalence: Farmers’ and Consumers’ Perceptions of Animal Welfare in Livestock Breeding.” Journal of Agriculture and Environmental Ethics 15:203-219.
Torjusen, Hanne. 2004. Tillit til mat i det norske markedet (Trust in food in the Norwegian market). Oslo: National Institute for Consumer Report. SIFO Report no. 11-2004.
Tovey, Hilary. 2003. ”Theorising Nature and Society in Sociology: The Invisibility of Animals. Sociologia Ruralis 43:196-215.
Veggeland, Frode. 2002. “Matpolitikkens internasjonale rammebetingelser” (Food policy: The international framework conditions). Pp. 39-63 in Matmakt. Politikk, forhandling, marked (Food Power. Policy, negotiations, the market), edited by
Hilmar Rommetvedt. Oslo: Fagbokforlaget.
Berg, Lisbet. 2000. Tillit til mat i kugalskapens tid: en komparativ kartlegging, med fokus på forbrukertillit og matsikkerhet i Norge, England og Belgia (Trust in food in times of mad cow’s disease: a comparative survey, focusing on consumer trust
and food safety in Norway, England and Belgium). Oslo: National Institute for Consumer Research. SIFO Report no. 5-2000.
------. 2002. Dyr er ikke bare mat (Animals are not just food). Oslo: National Institute for Consumer Research. SIFO report no. 10-2002.
Bock, Bettina B. and Freek van Leeuwen. 2005. “Animal welfare schemes.” Pp. 125-141 in Farm Animal Welfare Concerns. Consumers, Retailers and Producers, edited by Joek Roex and Mara Miele. Cardiff: School of City and Regional Planning,
Cardiff University. Welfare Quality Reports No.1.
Bock, B.B. and M.M van Huik. 2007. “Animal welfare: the attitudes and behaviour of European pig farmers.” British Food Journal 109: 931-944.
Borgen, Svein Ole and Guro Aadnegard Skarstad. 2007. ”Norwegian pig producers’ motivations for improving animal welfare.” British Food Journal 109: 891-905.
Bugge, Annechen. 1995. Mat til begjær og besvær: forbrukernes vurderinger og kunnskaper om helse, miljø og etiske aspekter ved mat (The delights and vexations of food: consumer attitudes towards and knowledge about the health,
environmental and ethical aspects of food). Oslo: National Institute for Consumer Research. SIFO report 6-1995.
------. 2005. Å spise middag. En mat-sosiologisk analyse (Eating dinner: a sociological analysis of food). Trondheim: Tapir Akademisk Forlag.
Bugge, Annechen and Runar Døving. 2000. Det norske måltidsmønsteret – ideal og praksis (The Norwegian meal: ideal and practices). Oslo: National Institute for Consumer Research. SIFO Report no. 2-2000.
Buller, Henry and Carol Morris. 2003. “Farm animal welfare. A new repertoire of naturesociety relations or modernism re-embedded?” Sociologia Ruralis 43:216-237.
Burton, Rob J.F. 2004. “Seeing Through the ‘Good Farmer’s’ Eyes: Towards Developing an Understanding of the Social Symbolic Value of ‘Productivist’ Behaviour.” Sociologia Ruralis 44:195-215.
Dulsrud, Arne and Lill Vramo. 2006. National Report Norway. Deliverable 1.2.3. Welfare Quality.
Evans, Adrian and Mara Miele (eds). 2007. Consumers’ views about farm animal welfare. Cardiff: School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University, Welfare Quality Reports no. 4.
Goodman, David. 2003. “The quality ‘turn’ and alternative food practices: reflections and agenda.” Journal of Rural Studies 19:1-7.
Guthman, Julie. 2005. Agrarian dreams. The Paradox of Organic Farming in California. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Guzman, Maria and Unni Kjærnes. 1998. Menneske og dyr: en kvalitativ studie av holdninger til kjøtt (People and animals: a qualitative study of attitudes towards meat). Oslo: National Institute for Consumer Research. SIFO Report no. 6-1998.
Guzman, Maria A. 2003. “Når dyr blir til kjøtt: Skeptiske forbrukere og kampen om etisk produksjon.” (When animals become meat: Sceptical consumers and the battle for ethical production). Pp. 289-314 in Den politiserte maten (Politicised food), edited by Eivind Jacobsen, Reidar Almås and Jahn Petter Johnsen. Oslo: Abstrakt forlag.
Halkier, Bente, Lotte Holm, Mafalda Domingues, Paolo Magaudda, Annemette Nielsen and Laura Terragni.2007. “Trusting, complex, quality-conscious or unprotected? Constructing the food consumer in different European national contexts”. Journal of Consumer Culture 33:379-402.
Kaltoft, Pernille. 1999. “Values about Nature in Organic Farming Practice and Knowledge.” Sociologia Ruralis 39:39-53.
Kjærnes, Unni, Mark Harvey and Alan Warde. 2007. Trust in Food : A Comparative and Institutional Analysis. London: Palgrave.
Kjærnes, Unni and Randi Lavik. 2007. “Farm animal welfare and food consumption practices: results from surveys in seven countries”, in Attitudes of consumers, retailers and producers to farm animal welfare, edited by Unni Kjærnes, Mara Miele and Joek Roex. Cardiff: School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University ,Welfare Quality Reports no.2.
Kjærnes, Unni, Mara Miele and Joek Roex. 2007. Attitudes of Consumers, Retailers and Producers to Farm animal Welfare. Cardiff: School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University, Welfare Quality Reports No.2.
Klintman, Mikael. 2006. Ambiguous framings of political consumerism: means or end, product or process orientation? International Journal of Consumer Studies 30:427-438.
Lavik, Randi and Ingrid Kjørstad. 2005. Kjøtt, holdninger og endring 1997-2004 (Meat, attitudes and change). Oslo: National Institute for Consumer Research. Report no. 5-2005.
Leach, Edmund. 1964. “Anthropological aspects of language: animal categories and verbal abuse.” Pp. 23-63 in New Directions of the Study of Language, edited by Eric H. Lenneberg. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Lien, Marianne and Runar Døving. 1996. Grønnsaker som mat og handelsvare (Vegetables as food and commodities). Oslo: National Institute for Consumer Research. SIFO Report no. 2-1996.
Lien, Marianne, Ellen Bjørkum and Elin Bye. 1998. Kjøtt, holdninger og endring (Meat, attitudes and change). Oslo: National Institute for Consumer Research. SIFO Report no. 6-1998.
Lund, Vonne, Sven Hemlin and William Lockeretz. 2002. “Organic livestock production as viewed by Swedish farmers and organic initiators.” Agriculture and Human Values 19: 255–268.
Miele, Mara and Bettina Bock. n.d.. Call for papers for a Special issue of International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food. Title: Competing discourses of farm animal welfare and agri-food restructuring.
Murdoch, Jonathan and Mara Miele. 1999. “‘Back to Nature’: Changing ‘Worlds of Production’ in the Food Sector.” Sociologia Ruralis 39: 465-483.
Murdoch, Jonathan, Terry Marsden and Jo Bank. 2000. ”Quality, Nature, and Embeddedness: Some Theoretical Considerations in the Context of the Food Sector.” Economic Geography 76:107-125.
Nygård, Berit and Oddveig Storstad. 1998. “De-globalization of Food Markets? Consumer Perceptions of Safe Food: The Case of Norway.” Sociologia Ruralis 38: 35-53.
Risan, Lars. 2003. ”Hva er ei ku?: Norsk rødt fe som teknovitenskap og naturkultur.” (What is a cow? Norwegian Red as technoscience and natureculture). Ph.D.dissertation, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oslo: Unipub.
Roe, Emma and Terry Marsden. 2007. “Analysis of the retail survey products that carry Welfare-claims and non-retailer led assurance schemes whose logos accompany welfare claims.” In Attitudes of Consumers, Retailers and Producers to Farm
animal Welfare, edited by Unni Kjærnes, Mara Miele and Joek Roex. Cardiff: School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University. Welfare Quality Reports no. 2.
Roex, Joek and Mara Miele (eds.). 2005. Farm Animal Welfare Concerns. Consumers, Retailers and Producers. Cardiff: School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University. Welfare Quality Reports no. 1.
Rogstad, Berit (ed.). 2005. Norwegian Agriculture. Status and Trends 2005. Oslo: Norwegian Agricultural Economics Research Institute.
Schipper Liesbeth, Hanne Torjusen, Volkert Beekman, Laura Terragni and Michiel Korthals. 2006. “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others: a cross-cultural comparison of human-animal relationships in Netherlands
and Norway”. Pp. 535-539 in Ethics and the Politics of Food, edited by Matthias Kaiser and Marianne Lien. Wageningen: Wageningen Academic Press.
Segerdahl, Pär. 2007. “Can natural behaviour be cultivated? The farm as a local human/animal culture.” Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 20:167-193.
Singer, Peter and Jim Mason 2006. The way we eat. Why our food choices matter. Emmaus PA: Rodale.
Skarstad, Guro Å. and Svein Ole Borgen. 2007a. Norwegian pig producers’ views of animal welfare. NILF Discusson paper 1/2007.
------. 2007b. Norwegian cattle producers’ views of animal welfare. NILF Discussion paper 2/2007.
------. Forthcoming. Norwegian poultry producers’ views of animal welfare. Storstad, Oddveig and Hilde Bjørkhaug. 2003. “Foundations of production and consumption of organic food in Norway: Common attitudes among farmers and consumers?” Agriculture and Human Values 20:151-163.
Terragni, Laura. 2006. “A country that never had a BSE crisis: Consensus and tensions in transforming the Norwegian food system.” Appetite 47:170-176.
Terragni, Laura and Hanne Torjusen. 2006. “Welche Tiere kann man mit gutem Gewissen essen, welche nicht? Das Essen von Tieren als ideal und als Dilemma.” Arbeitsergebnisse 60:53-61.
------. 2007. “People’s views about farm animal welfare in the role as consumers. Report from focus groups in Norway.” In Consumers’ views about farm animal welfare, edited by Adrian Evans and Mara Miele, Cardiff: School of City and Regional
Planning, Cardiff University, Welfare Quality Reports no.4.
Te Velde, Hein, Noelle Aarts, and Cees Van Woerkum. 2002. “Dealing with ambivalence: Farmers’ and Consumers’ Perceptions of Animal Welfare in Livestock Breeding.” Journal of Agriculture and Environmental Ethics 15:203-219.
Torjusen, Hanne. 2004. Tillit til mat i det norske markedet (Trust in food in the Norwegian market). Oslo: National Institute for Consumer Report. SIFO Report no. 11-2004.
Tovey, Hilary. 2003. ”Theorising Nature and Society in Sociology: The Invisibility of Animals. Sociologia Ruralis 43:196-215.
Veggeland, Frode. 2002. “Matpolitikkens internasjonale rammebetingelser” (Food policy: The international framework conditions). Pp. 39-63 in Matmakt. Politikk, forhandling, marked (Food Power. Policy, negotiations, the market), edited by
Hilmar Rommetvedt. Oslo: Fagbokforlaget.
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