Connecting with consumers: Animal welfare in the sustainability story - Dr. Lesley Mitchell, Chief Policy Advisor and Head of Policy, World Animal Protection, from the 2016 Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB), October 5 - 6, 2016, Banff, Alberta, Canada. More presentations at http://trufflemedia.com/agmedia/conference/2016-global-roundtable-sustainable-beef

1. Connecting with consumers:
Animal welfare in the sustainability story
Dr Lesley Mitchell

2. • Beef is bad
– For climate
change
– For
environment
– For diet
Are consumers in crisis? What do
they hear?

3. • Industrial farming causes
animals to suffer
• Replace beef with pork,
chicken, to save the
planet
• But… these systems
bring massive welfare
challenges
• So… Replace meat? Eat
less meat?

4. What do I buy?!?
Feed my
family
Stay
healthy
Protect the
environmen
t
I want safe
food
Good
animal
welfare
Balance the
family
budget

5. Where does animal welfare fit in?
What consumers tell us:
• Eurobarometer – by 2016 animal welfare is a well
established concern
– 4/5 of people want better welfare for farm animals
and nearly 60% say they will pay more for it
• China
– 71% of respondents consider the welfare of animals
of importance
– 83% want to see production systems that give pigs
the freedom to move, not confining pigs to stalls
– 75% would be willing to pay more for higher welfare
pork
– 76% of consumers would choose retailers who
provide higher welfare pork
• Previous Chinese study - 50% concerned about the
overuse of antibiotics and 48% commenting upon
the “bad taste” of industrially farmed products.

6. What consumers tell us:
• N American research
– Norwood and Lusk – 69% US
surveyed believed farm animals
should not suffer
– (2016) Young US consumers -
concept of ‘factory farmed’ meat
reduces willingness to buy and
people think it is worth less
– Deloitte study – disruptive drivers….

7. What consumers tell us:
value drivers are changing

8. LOW WELFARE
HIGH WELFARE
>60% reared in industrial
systems
ACCEPTABLE
WELFARE
‘Lives worth
living’
What animal welfare do
consumers want?

9. How can consumers decide what
to buy?
• Assurance schemes they trust
• Labels – if they know what they
mean
• Social media / deeper information –
and chatter – informed or otherwise
• Brand values – brand trust
• Brand commitments – raising the
bar

11. Why is cattle ranching perceived
as bad, when it can look like
this?

12. How can consumers decide?
But… who to trust?
• Social media?
• Press?
• Brand communications?
• Third parties?
• No-one??

13. How can consumers decide?
What can we do?
• Assurance, transparency, labels,
information
• Attend to consumer concerns
• Raise the bar - clarity of commitments
– and celebrate what’s good
• Tell our stories – provenance
• Reframe the debate

14. Meet your ambassadors…