Do People Value The Welfare Of Farm Animals?

Public concern over farm animal welfare has led to the banning of a number of intensive farming methods such as sow stalls, battery cages (by 2012) and veal crates, and the development of high welfare status products sold at a price premium. This indicates that consumers value farm animal welfare. In addition satisfaction can also be derived, by consumers and non‐consumers of animal products, from the knowledge that all animals are experiencing welfare‐enhancing husbandry practices. Consequently farm animal welfare can be considered a complex good, sought partly for private consumption and as a public good. However, improving the welfare of all farm animals through legislation incurs costs ‐ are these increased costs of food production justified? We use contingent valuation to determine the economic value of improving the welfare of farm animals and find that people are willing to pay extra on their weekly food bill to ensure that laying hens, broiler chickens dairy cows and pigs have improved welfare conditions. The benefits of improving animal welfare are shown to exceed the costs of implementing these schemes. We conclude that improving the standards of legislation for farm animal welfare so that all farm animals experience higher standards of welfare can be economically justified.     

THE VALUE OF FARM ANIMAL WELFARE

This paper explores further some of the ideas put forward by McInerney (1993) in his economic perspective of animal welfare. It uses a simple economic framework to consider citizens' concerns and perceptions about farm animal welfare and the production and consumption of livestock products in society. People's perceptions that certain aspects of livestock production give rise to poor farm animal welfare are a potential source of disutility for them. This disutility may be associated with people's own consumption of livestock products and/or with other people's consumption. The latter is a negative externality of consumption in society, resulting in very real indirect costs associated with livestock production. The paper discusses the need for valuing farm animal welfare, considers techniques for evaluation and highlights some of the policy issues involved.     

Activists and Animal Welfare: Quality Verifications in the Canadian Pork Sector

Animal welfare is an emotive topic. Although most governments legislate against outright animal cruelty, animal welfare organisations have actively lobbied for more stringent farm animal welfare regulations. Food retailers and restaurant chains have faced pressure from animal welfare organisations to implement more stringent animal welfare requirements for their suppliers. Is the demand for more stringent farm animal welfare protocols primarily determined by a subset of consumers with very strong preferences or does it signal a more fundamental underlying change in societal preferences? Given the credence nature of farm animal welfare, whom do consumers trust for credible quality assurances? This article analyses the role of quality verification in a market characterised by consumers with heterogeneous preferences for animal welfare. Of particular interest are the relative strength of preferences for humane animal treatment assurances and the credibility of these quality claims. Using data from a Canadian survey targeted at two distinct samples – a general population group and members of animal welfare organisations – a discrete choice experiment is used to assess consumer attitudes towards animal welfare assurances for pork products. The credibility of quality verification by public sector, private sector and third party agents is assessed. Evidence confirms that consumer preferences for farm animal welfare assurance and the source of verification are indeed heterogeneous. Although a portion of consumers remain largely indifferent to pork products with animal welfare assurances, a group of highly motivated consumers exist with an economic incentive to lobby for tougher animal welfare standards.     

Animal Welfare and Eggs – Cheap Talk or Money on the Counter?

Our estimate revealed willingness to pay for animal welfare using a panel mixed logit model. We utilise a unique household level panel, combining real purchases with survey data on perceived public and private good attributes of different types of eggs. We estimate willingness to pay for organic eggs controlling for trust in a positive connection between the public good animal welfare and the organic label and the private good food safety also connected to the label. Our results suggest that in the real world, animal welfare plays a minor role in the demand for agricultural products.     

Impacts of Animal Well‐Being and Welfare Media on Meat Demand

This article provides the first known examination of how animal welfare information provided by media sources impacts beef, pork and poultry demand. Results suggest that media attention to animal welfare has a small, but statistically significant impact on meat demand. Long‐run pork and poultry demand are hampered by increasing media attention whereas beef demand is not directly impacted. Loss in consumer demand is found to come from exiting the meat complex rather than spilling over and enhancing demand of competing meats. An outline of economic implications is provided for the broader discussion of animal welfare.     

Animal disease outbreaks and food market price dynamics: Evidence from regime‐dependent modelling and connected scatterplots

The economic impacts of animal disease outbreaks have been widely discussed in the literature. Most authors have centred their attention on estimating the direct costs. Recent studies have shown that the indirect economic effects might lead to equal or even higher welfare losses. This study aims to contribute to this field of research by assessing the effect of an animal disease outbreak on food market price dynamics in Mexico, accounting for the potential effect of an antitrust intervention. We employ a regime‐dependent vector error correction model and a connected scatterplot analysis. The results show that both the outbreak and the antitrust intervention caused structural breaks in food market price dynamics between producers and consumers, reflected in an increase in the absolute component of the marketing margin, with serious food security implications.     

Consumers' Preferences for Nanotechnology in Food Packaging: A Discrete Choice Experiment

We examine consumers' preferences for chickens under different levels of foodborne health risk, animal welfare and pric attributes. We analyse how their preferences vary according to the risk reduction method. Our comparison is between risk reductions achieved by conventional improvements in the meat supply chain system (e.g. more stringent regulations and inspection regimes), and risk reductions achieved by food packaging nanosensors. Our comparison uses a two‐treatment discrete choice experiment in which each treatment sample is only presented with one of the risk reductions: either nanotechnology or conventional methods. We also investigate heterogeneity in preferences for two consumer groups: (i) consumers who usually buy conventional raw, whole chickens, and (ii) consumers who usually buy niche, welfare‐improved chickens, such as free‐range and organic. Our results show evidence of heterogeneity in preferences and willingness‐ to‐pay values of the both consumer groups. We find that consumers, on average, prefer raw, whole chicken with a lower risk of food poisoning, better animal welfare, and lower costs, regardless of the presence of nanosensors. Although consumers in general showed no strong preferences towards or resistance to nanotechnology, those who buy chickens with better animal welfare, on average, showed higher WTP for food risk reduction and animal welfare relative to conventional chicken consumers.     

SOCIAL COSTS OF REGULATION OF PRIMARY INDUSTRY: AN APPLICATION TO ANIMAL WELFARE REGULATION OF THE VICTORIAN PIG INDUSTRY*

The effects of state government regulation of primary industry are modelled. An analytical framework is presented for estimating the costs of regulation in terms of changes in economic surplus. The model permits trade between regions of the total market. An illustrative application of the framework is applied to proposed animal welfare regulation of the Victorian pig industry. Some regulations that may provide large gains with regard to the welfare of farm animals involve only small social costs compared to the gross value of production of the industry. Conversely, other regulations that potentially confer only small gains in animal welfare impose large social costs. The distribution of these costs is important. In general, consumers lose, as do some producers. Other producers gain. In some cases, producers in aggregate gain from regulation. Major beneficiaries, such as advocates of animal welfare regulations, are likely to bear little of the cost of regulation.     

The impact of deforestation,urbanization, public investments,and agriculture on human welfare in the Brazilian Amazonia

The relationship between human welfare and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazonia has traditionally been thought to follow a boom-and-bust pattern. According to this pattern, forest clearing triggers rapid increases in human welfare levels (“the boom”) due to short-term economic gains; these levels then drop to below national or regional averages (“the bust”) after the forest stocks have declined, thus causing the local populations to become deprived of ecosystem services. However, recent studies have questioned the validity of this boom-and-bust pattern. In this paper, we use panel data and simultaneous autoregressive models to evaluate the effects of deforestation, urbanization, public investments, agriculture, and state policies on temporal changes in human welfare that occurred across multiple municipalities in the Brazilian Amazonia from 2005 to 2012, a period during which governments implemented a set of strategies aimed at controlling deforestation across the region. We found that: (a) signals of a boom-and-bust pattern are weak at the regional level, and therefore this pattern cannot be generalized across the entire region; (b) human welfare is increasing more rapidly in low-development municipalities than in high-development cities, and all municipalities are converging on at least one regional average rather than on a national average; (c) urbanization does not lead to positive changes in human welfare, which indicates that the infrastructure available in regional urban centers is limited; (d) public investments are negatively associated with human welfare growth, thus signifying that if public investments are not used to leverage the potential of other sectors of the local economy, human welfare will not improve; (e) agriculture is negatively associated with positive changes in human welfare at the local level, possibly due to the dominance of cattle-ranching as the predominant economic activity of this sector; and (f) state-level policies matter, and future analyses of regional trends in the realm of development and conservation across this region should take such policies into account. Finally, we suggest that although human welfare and deforestation retain a weak statistical relationship, we cannot contend that they have been fully decoupled. Forest loss across the region is still pervasive, and institutions are too weak to sustain the transition from a frontier development model to a conservation-centered model.     

Managing conflicting goals in pig farming: farmers' strategies and perspectives on sustainable pig farming in Sweden

Industrial meat production has several negative environmental effects. Governments’ agricultural policies aim for cost efficiency combined with high environmental and animal welfare, which puts farmers in a difficult situation trying to navigate between sometimes contradictory requirements. This paper studies how Swedish pig farmers resolve or cope with conflicting goals in pig farming. We have analysed the regulations governing EU and Swedish pig farming. We have also interviewed five Swedish pig farmers about their views of the different goals of pig farming and strategies for resolving conflicts between the goals of low environmental impact, high animal welfare and enough profitability to continue farming. The greatest divide was between the conventional farmers, who emphasized natural resource efficiency, and the organic farmers who stressed animal welfare, multifunctionality and ecosystem service delivery. We suggest four strategies to contribute to resolving some of the conflicting goals: improve communication about different types of pig farming; use public procurement as a driver towards more sustainable pork production; work towards improving the Common Agricultural Policy, perhaps by implementing payments for ecosystem services or multifunctionality; and finally, decrease the total production of pork to lower the emissions per land unit.     

天峻县草地经济可持续发展战略思考

针对天峻县草地资源经济性能和生态特点,认为其草地经济发展应以草地畜牧业为基础,积极开展草原旅游、建设野生动物园、开发冬虫夏草、红景天等高级滋补品和中药材等,发展特色产业,营造业一为主多业并进的产业格局;因地制宜,建立草地利用科学化,草地经营多元化,资源开发高效化的草地资源经营管理机制,规范农牧业经济发展秩序,提升草地资源经营水平,实现草地经济跨越式发展。完善草地生态系统组织机制,加强草地资源保护,积极协调人与自然关系,建设草地生态友好环境;以草地科技作支撑,高起点,立体化,建立和完善草地经济发展体系,实现草地资源可持续利用,草地增效,牧民增收,建设社会主义新牧区。     

转变生产消费方式诉求下的动物福利规制分析——基于防控新冠肺炎的思考

新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情给中国造成了重大生命健康和经济损失,也表明了合理利用与善待动物的重要性。中国已到了关注动物福利的发展阶段,改善动物福利水平不仅是保障食品安全、突破隐性贸易壁垒障碍的要求,更是促使人们改变生产与消费习惯,进而防范动物源性传染病疫情发生的要求。中国目前已有了对动物福利进行规制的民众基础,应进一步提升民众对动物福利的认知、加大对动物福利学理及国际规制趋向的研究。在此基础上制定有中国特色、长远引导、不断完善的与动物福利相关的法规、制度和政策,从而有效防范类似新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情的发生。     

Social Welfare and the Selection of the Optimum Hog Slaughter Weight in Quebec

What is the optimum slaughter weight? It depends from whose perspective. A dynamic systems model is built to analyze the welfare impact of alternative animal genetics, feeding program, feed quality and slaughter weight on producers, processors and the environment. The unique systems approach analyzes eight possible welfare rules and a corresponding harm function to assess animal performance within a multistakeholder context. The model results show there are significant tradeoff problems among producers, processors and the environment. The model highlights how the definition of animal performance needs to be revisited, as it has different meaning to different stakeholders in society. While performance historically was synonymous with production efficiency, with new social and political concerns, this interpretation is not universal. The model demonstrates greater complexities by broadening the set of affected parties.     

War Legacies,Welfare and Livelihoods in Rural Areas: The Case of Kosovo

This article examines the effects of war on livelihood choices and welfare outcomes of rural households in Kosovo using the 2000 Kosovo Living Standards Measurement Survey. We analyse the extent of the legacy of war on livelihood activities and welfare. We first identify livelihood portfolio clusters of households pursuing similar combinations of activities. These clusters are comparable to those described in more qualitative studies in the immediate post‐conflict period. We then examine the determinants of livelihood portfolio choice and the consequences of these for welfare outcomes. Our results provide evidence of a relationship between a household’s experience of war and livelihood choice. We also identify significant selection effects on welfare for three out of four livelihood clusters, highlighting the fact that selecting into a specific livelihood portfolio changes welfare relative to expected levels. Our results show that war not only affects livelihood choices but also changes the returns to these activities.     

Trade Policy,Equipment Investment and Growth in India

The relationship between trade policy and economic performance is one of the oldest controversies in economic development. In this paper, we examine an alternative mechanism through which trade reforms may impact on economic growth to those commonly discussed in the literature. This mechanism builds on the link between equipment investment and growth that has been observed in cross-country data. We argue that that in countries which have had highly restrictive trade policies with respect to capital goods, liberalization measures that specifically target capital goods imports may bring about a fall in the relative price of capital goods, leading to an increase in the rate of investment in equipment. Quantifying the link between trade policy, equipment investment and economic growth in the Indian case, we find strong support for this mechanism.     

基于DEA-Malmquist指数和Tobit模型的长江经济带水资源福利绩效及影响因素

在构建水资源福利绩效指标体系的基础上,采用投入导向型的超效率DEA-CCR模型,测算了2008—2017年长江经济带11个省市的水资源福利绩效;利用Malmquist指数对水资源福利绩效进行解构,测算各驱动因素的贡献率,并采用面板Tobit回归模型检验长江经济带水资源福利绩效的影响因素。研究结果表明:2008—2017年,长江经济带水资源福利绩效处于有效状态,技术进步与创新是推动水资源福利绩效提高的主要因素;地区间差异呈"东部最高、中部次之、西部最低"的态势;产业结构、经济外向性、城市绿化、技术进步、政府环境规制效果对长江经济带水资源福利绩效均有一定影响,但是各因素影响方向、影响力度与显著性存在差异。     

新疆畜牧养殖经济效益与碳排放脱钩关系的实证研究

党的十八大提出"把推动发展的立足点转到提高质量和效益上来"。新疆作为我国五大牧区之一,研究畜牧养殖业发展质量效益,对第一产业的健康可持续发展有重要的现实意义。畜牧养殖经济效益与碳排放动态关系的研究作为检验畜牧养殖业发展质量效益的前提和重点。因此,笔者根据1997年以来新疆畜牧业增加值作为衡量经济效益指标,根据9类反刍动物肠道发酵和粪便排放所产生的温室气体作为衡量碳排放指标,并利用Tapio脱钩模型,探讨新疆畜牧养殖经济效益与碳排放的脱钩情况,并对其脱钩状态进行分析。结果表明:(1)新疆畜牧养殖碳排放量由1997年的649.71万t增加到2014年的747.33万t,增幅15.03%,年均增长0.83%,呈现"持续上升-快速下降-缓慢上升"3阶段特征。碳排放量和碳排放结构空间差异明显;(2)新疆畜牧养殖经济效益与碳排放呈现"弱脱钩平稳-扩张负脱钩与强负脱钩交替-强脱钩转型"的演进关系,以弱脱钩、强脱钩为主。据此,提出相应建议。     

A cost-benefit analysis of a public labelling scheme of fish quality

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new method capable of evaluating the economic welfare for quality graded fish products using the hedonic price method for plaice in Denmark. Today, no labelling scheme exists for the final consumers of different qualities of fish. A scheme only exists at the first hand market. On this basis, a general applicable, theoretical and empirical method is developed to compare the costs and benefits of the hypothetical choice between the total absence of labelling and the presence of a public labelling scheme, which fully informs consumers on the quality and simultaneously allows the producers to differentiate prices between quality grades. It is shown that the economic welfare associated with a public labelling scheme is at minimum €263,000. Sensitivity analysis shows that this result is robust. The policy implication is that a public labelling scheme should not be implemented as the demand and cost functions have low elasticities, implying that the welfare gain is low.     

欧韩自贸协定实施对中国农产品贸易的影响

本文运用GTAP模型,就欧韩自由贸易协定实施对中国贸易规模、GDP、福利水平、农产品贸易结构以及国内农业产出结构等方面的影响进行了一般均衡模拟研究。结果表明,欧韩大部分产品实现零关税后,中国将会受到贸易转移效应的影响而出口减少、福利下降,中国的果蔬和畜产品受冲击较大,生产规模将有所萎缩。我国应调整农产品出口战略、加快区域经济合作、提高农产品竞争力,以适应面临的挑战。     

Welfare impacts of new demand-enhancing agricultural products: The case of Honeycrisp apples

Agricultural research and development programs on new demand-enhancing products have become increasingly important over the past decade. Large numbers of new agricultural products have been developed and commercialized in the United States to meet consumers’ increasingly diverse expectations for food quality. However, little is known about their economic benefits. Focusing on the apple market, we investigate the welfare impacts of the introduction of Honeycrisp apples in a market equilibrium framework. We use market data on apple sales from 61 cities across the United States between 2009 and 2015. We find the introduction of Honeycrisp increased consumer welfare, which is mainly explained by the increased number of total apple varieties. We also find that the introduction of Honeycrisp apples has increased overall market size and total apple sales. To extrapolate our results to the entire U.S. apple market, we perform a back-of-the-envelope analysis and find that the introduction of Honeycrisp apples has increased total consumer welfare by about 859 million dollars during the study period. This corresponds to approximately 19% of the annual average domestic expenditures on public food and agricultural R&D.