It looks like the New Year is going to bring even more focus on animal welfare.
In a year-end interview, University of Guelph researcher Michael von Massow said he was “stunned” when his research this fall revealed there’s been a 300 per cent increase in just two years in the group of Canadians he describes as actively concerned about animal welfare.
“Two years ago, animal welfare registered with only a small number of people, and most people said they didn’t consider it an issue,” said von Massow, an associate professor in the College of Business and Economics. “Now, more people care…and they care more than they used to.”
Von Massow’s research involves about 2,000 people, and is carried out with support from the Tim Horton’s Sustainable Food Management Fund at the university. He says food companies’ independent research has been showing similar trends about public concerns. That’s resulted in welfare-based consumer campaigns dealing with hot topics such as hormones and steroids, and animal housing.
Some of these campaigns frustrate farmers – especially those by companies boasting their meat comes from livestock that is free or this and that. A classic example is the hormone-free chicken claim. In Canada, no chicken is raised with hormones. But ad campaigns by one company making that claim infer other companies’ chicken products are compromised with hormones. They’re not.
Consumers, however, don’t know that. So von Massow thinks the agriculture sector should get more active in telling its story, before someone else does or myths gain more traction.
“Consumers inherently trust farmers, but they have no idea what farmers do on the farm,” he says. “So, if consumers see a picture or a video of a certain farming practice that they don’t like, or something like animal abuse, that becomes their reality.”
People are telling researchers such as von Massow and the rest of the farming industry that they want more information about agriculture and production practices, but they don’t know where to get it. That means a huge opportunity exists for someone or some group to step forward and fill that void.
The good news is that great stories already exist, showing how farmers have long taken an interest in food safety and animal welfare. Von Massow’s colleagues at the University of Guelph have been leaders in research in both areas, going back more than 30 years. For example, research at the Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare has supported or driven changes to agricultural practices in Canada that have made livestock better cared for, and food safer and more nutritious