Sustainable consumption, citizen-consumer positions and farm animal issues

Saara Kupsala, Pekka Jokinen and Markus VinnariTrends and Future of Sustainable Development, 9-10 June 2011, Tampere, Finland

Background

Sustainable consumption and animal ethics

•Livestock production has become an important topic in sustainable consumption discussion because of the negative environmental and social impacts of intensive livestock production becoming more acknowledged.

•For instance the sustainable diet has been associated with the low level of consumption of animal-derived products as well as with switching to consume products from more extensive types of animal farming (e.g. organic farming).

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Sustainable consumption and animal ethics•Yet, animal ethics has appeared a minor issue in the discussion

on sustainable food consumption. Sustainable development has been a human-centred concept and arguably for this reason, animal issue has not been a central question in this literature.

•Nevertheless, animal issues have been given a growing importance in popular and policy discussion concerning sustainable food.

•Likewise, as the public concern for farm animals has increased, animal issue has become a more important topic also in the related phenomena of ethical consumption and political consumption.

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Identifying different consumer orientations toward sustainable consumption•Studies on sustainable and political consumption have aimed to

identify and characterise the “green consumer”, ”political consumer” or ”ecological citizen”.

•Less attention has been given what kinds of consumer orientations toward sustainable consumption can be identified in population at large.

•This kind of analysis is particularly lacking in consumer studies concerning animal issues.

- Previous studies have explained animal welfare attitudes with different background variables, but little attention has been given to consumer orientations and agency.

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Objectives

Research objectives

•In this research we are interested in identifying different kinds of consumer positions as regards to farm animal issue in Finland.

•We pose two empirical questions:

1.To what extent do Finnish consumers believe that they can affect the farm animals conditions through their consumption choices?

2.Which kinds of consumer positions regarding farm animal issue can be identified in the Finnish population?

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Data and methods

Data

•Nationwide postal questionnaire during the spring 2010•A random sample of 18–75-year-old Finnish speakers in

Finland; the postal addresses were obtained from the Population Register Centre.

•N = 1,893, response rate 47.5 percent •When the sample was compared to the Finnish population

statistics, it could be noticed that women, high-educated people, elder people, and people living in the Eastern and Northern parts of Finland are slightly overrepresented in the sample, but the differences are so small that they do not affect the representativeness of the data.

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Analysis

•The 10-page questionnaire consisted of 24 sections. This paper is based on one section which addressed questions on consumer trust and agency in the case of production animal issue. The responses on animal issue were made on a five-point Likert scale.

•When identifying different consumption orientations, an exploratory factor analysis with PASW 18.0 was conducted on the survey data.

•Exploratory factor analysis is a variable reduction technique identifying the number of latent constructs and the underlying factor structure of a set of variables.

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Results

Finns’ general attitudes: non-active consumer orientation as predominant•Our results confirm that the majority of Finns do not view

consumption as an active political arena through which to influence farm animal welfare.

- For instance almost half of Finns indicate that they do not think about the welfare of farm animals while doing groceries.

- Likewise, almost half of the Finns perceive that an individual consumer cannot affect the selection of products in a shop and that an ordinary consumer cannot do much to improve the welfare of farm animals.

•Yet, although the majority of Finns express a rather passive consumer orientation, we can identify a noticeable proportion (15 – 25 percent) of critical consumers active in farm animal welfare issues.

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Different citizen-consumer positions

•In order to identify and describe the latent constructs possibly influencing survey responses on farm animal welfare, we carried out factor analysis using principal components and varimax rotation.

•Factor loadings greater than 0.3 are considered relevant and the eigenvalue greater than 1.0 is used as the cut-off criterion.

•According to these conditions, five factors emerge. This solution explains 56.5 % of the total variance in the survey responses.

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Factor 1: The trust in domestic production•The first factor seems to be associated with trust, more

specifically policy-generated trust. It also includes a solid emphasis on domestic agricultural production.

•The factor is most strongly related to the statements: - “I trust in the Finnish food chain.”- ‘‘Farmers are the best experts as regards the conditions of farm animals.” - “Farm animal welfare is assured by the Finnish legislation and

directions.”- “Farm animals are treated better in Finland than in most European

countries.” - “The quality and cleanness of Finnish food is exaggerated.”

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Factor 2: The active knowledge interest in farm animal welfare•The substantial meaning of the second factor is related to

the information and knowledge on farm animal welfare. It also includes the interest in the origin of food.

•The factor is most strongly related to the statements: - “I often discuss farm animal welfare with my friends.” - “I have tried to find information about the conditions of farm

animals.”- “I know which farm the meat sold in my grocery is coming from.”- “I think about farm animal welfare when doing groceries.”

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Factor 3: Reflexivity concerning farm animal welfare •The third factor is clearly associated with the uncertainty

of knowledge. It appears to measure a critical attitude toward knowledge claims made about farm animal welfare and animal-friendly consumption.

•The main loadings are for the statements: - “There is contradictory information about farm animal welfare in

public discussion.”- “The information on consumption choices that can have a positive

impact on farm animal welfare is not always reliable.”- “It is difficult for an average citizen to know what s/he can do to

improve farm animal welfare.”

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Factor 4: The support for animal welfare policy measures•The fourth factor emphasises policy measures for improving

the conditions of farm animals. It reflects the degree in which the responsibility for animal welfare is given to policy institutions.

•Highest positive loadings are for the statements:- “Farm animals should be allocated more space even if it resulted in higher

prices of animal-derived products.” - “Farm animals should be allocated more space even if it resulted in

increasing negative environmental impacts of meat production.” •Highest negative loadings are for the statements:- “The affairs of farmers should not be interfered with in Finland.”- “There is no need to worry about the conditions of farm animals as science

and technology will solve animal welfare problems.”

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Factor 5: The consumer disempowerment•The fifth factor measures the views concerning how an

individual consumer can influence farm animal welfare.

•The main loadings are for the statements:- “An individual consumer cannot affect the selection of goods in a

shop.” - “An ordinary consumer cannot do much to improve the welfare of

farm animals.”- “It is difficult for an average citizen to know what s/he can do to

improve farm animal welfare.”

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Conclusion

Conclusion

•In general Finns do not consider the domain of consumption as major political arena through which to influence farm animal welfare.

•However, a noticeable part of Finns (15-25 percent) express a more active form of consumer-citizenship, arguing for the power of individual consumers in influencing farm animal welfare.

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Conclusion

•The exploratory factor analysis revealed five consumer orientations toward animal issue among Finns: Trust in Finnish food chain, knowledge interest in farm animal welfare, reflexivity concerning farm animal welfare, support for farm animal welfare policy measures, and consumer disempowerment.

•The next step in this research is to relate these factors to various background variables in order to create a more thorough construct of different citizen-consumer positions concerning farm animal issue in Finland.

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Thank you!

More information:

www.uef.fi/polle

saara.kupsala@ymparisto.fipekka.jokinen@uef.fimarkus.vinnari@uef.fi