Policy decisions aimed at improving farm animal welfare involve balancing several competing objectives. Not only do such decisions involve tradeoffs between social, ethical, economic and welfare considerations, animal welfare itself is a multi-dimensional concept and some husbandry practices may...

Pasture-raised livestock production offers opportunity for product differentiation and enhanced sustainability. Shopper surveys at three Michigan retail locations measured consumers’ attitudes and beliefs regarding pasture-raised livestock products, and willingness to pay for...

This discussion highlights some of the strengths and weaknesses of the literature on animal welfare. Most pointedly, the literature on the economics of animal welfare is quite scant. As exemplified by these papers, however, there is a growing body of literature, especially those related to added...

Animal welfare concerns are having dramatic impacts on food and livestock markets. Here we examine consumer preferences for pork products with a focus on use of gestation crates. We examine underlying consumer valuations of pork attributes while considering preference heterogeneity as well as...

Spending on political advertising increases with every election cycle, not only for congressional or presidential candidates, but also for state-level ballot initiatives. There is little research in marketing, however, on the effectiveness of political advertising at this level. In this study,...

To create and sustain a competitive advantage in markets that increasingly value animal welfare attributes, meat companies need to meet public and private production standards while communicating to final consumers through their brands. Data are collected from a representative sample of 460 U.S....

The awareness of animal welfare and animal well-being is growing all over Europe and the world. The concerns are related to the applied policy regimes, economic sustainability of the production methods, food quality and safety, consumers’ health and behaviour and their willingness to pay for...

The paper presents results of the FP7 Econ-Welfare Project “Assessing the socio-economic consequences of measures promoting good animal welfare”. The paper illustrates the economic consequences at the farm level of indicative improvements in animal welfare conditions for pigs and cattle and...

After California voters decided in a state initiative to ban gestation crates and battery cages, some are asking whether other states will host similar initiatives and if they will pass. This study addresses this question by using voting data in California to predict how voters in other states...