Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-c52kr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-09T00:00:10.357Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Commodifying animal welfare

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

H Buller  and
E Roe
H Buller*
Affiliation:
College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Geography, University of Exeter, Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter EX4 4RJ, UK
E Roe
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Environment, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of Southampton, Shackleton Building 44, University Road, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
*
* Contact for correspondence and requests for reprints: H.Buller@exeter.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

As the profile of farm animal welfare rises within food production chains, in response both to consumer demand and greater ethical engagement with the lives of animals, animal welfare is increasingly being commodified by various foodchain actors. That is to say that, over and above regulatory or assurance scheme compliance, welfare conditions and criteria are being used as a ‘value-added’ component or distinctive selling point for food products, brands or even particular manufacturers and retailers. We argue in this paper that such a commodification process has major implications both for the way in which farm animal welfare is defined and assessed (with greater emphasis being placed either on those welfare elements that lend themselves to commodification processes or on those that respond to consumer interpretations of what ‘good’ welfare might be at a particular time) and for the ways in which farm animal welfare is articulated and presented to food consumers as a component of product value or quality.

Keywords

animal welfarecommodificationconsumptionfree-range eggsmarketwelfare assessment

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

British Egg Industry Council 2011 UK Government urged to ban illegal eggs. Press Release, 10th October 2011. BEIC: UKGoogle Scholar
Broom, D 1991 Animal welfare: concepts and measurements Journal of Animal Science 69: 4167–4175CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buller, H 2010 The marketing and communication of animal welfare: a review of existing tools. strategies and practice. EAWP: Brussels, BelgiumGoogle Scholar
Burch, D and Lawrence, G 2007 Supermarkets and Agri-food Supply Chains: Transformations in the Production and Consumption of Foods. Edward Elgar: Cheltenham, UKGoogle Scholar
Busch, L 2010 Can fairytales come true? The surprising story of neoliberalism and world agriculture. Sociologia Ruralis 50(4): 331–351. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9523.2010.00511.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caliskan, K and Callon, M 2010 Economization, part 1: shifting attention from the economy towards processes of economization. Economy and Society 38(3): 369–398. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03085140903020580CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Callon, M, Meadel, C and Rabeharisoa, V 2002 The economy of qualities. Economy and Society 31(2): 194–217. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03085140220123126CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CIWF 2003 Supermarkets and Farm Animal Welfare - ‘Raising the Standard’. CIWF: London, UKGoogle Scholar
CIWF 2007 Supermarkets and Farm Animal Welfare - ‘Raising the Standard’. CIWF: London, UKGoogle Scholar
Dawkins, M 1980 Animal Suffering: The Science of Animal Welfare. Chapman and Hall: London, UK. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5905-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
European Council 2001 Council Regulation (EC) No 5/2001 of 19 December 2000 amending Regulation (EEC) No 1907/90 on certain marketing standards for eggs. Official Journal of the European Communities: LuxembourgGoogle Scholar
European Commission 2007 Special Eurobarometer: Attitudes of EU citizens towards Animal Welfare. EC: Brussels, BelgiumGoogle Scholar
Farm Animal Welfare Council 2006 Report on Welfare Labelling. FAWC: London, UKGoogle Scholar
Farm Animal Welfare Council 2009 Farm Animal Welfare in Great Britain: Past, Present and Future. FAWC: London, UKGoogle Scholar
Farm Animal Welfare Forum 2010 Labelling food from farm animals. FAWF: Godalming, UKGoogle Scholar
Freidberg, S 2003a Not all sweetness and light: new cultural geographies of food. Social and Cultural Geography 4: 3-6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1464936032000049270CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedberg, S 2003b Cleaning up and down South: ethical trade and African horticulture. Social and Cultural Geography 4(1): 27-43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1464936032000049298CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grandin, T 2010 Improving Animal Welfare: A Practical Approach. CABI: Wallingford, UKCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, F 2011 ‘Battery hen rules may undercut UK egg producers’. The Guardian, 2 September, 2011. Guardian: London, UKGoogle Scholar
Hughes, A and Reimer, S 2004 Geographies of Commodity Chains. Routledge: London, UKCrossRefGoogle Scholar
IGD 2007 Consumer attitudes to animal welfare. Report for Freedom Food. IGD: Watford, UKGoogle Scholar
Jackson, P 2010 Food stories: consumption in an age of anxiety. Cultural Geographies 17(2): 147–165CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, P, Ward, N and Russell, P 2009 Moral economies of food and geographies of responsibility. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 34: 12–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-5661.2008.00330.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kjaernes, U, Lavik, R, Barkmann, H and Micheletti, M 2007 Buying welfare friendly food, a case of political consumerism? Proceedings of the Nordic Consumer Policy Research Conference. 3-5 October 2007, National Consumer Research Centre, Helsinki, FinlandGoogle Scholar
McInerney, J 2004 Animal Welfare Economics and Policy. Report to Defra, University of Exeter, UKGoogle Scholar
Mullan, S, Edwards, SA, Butterworth, A, Whay, HR and Main, DCJ 2011 A pilot investigation of possible positive system descriptors in finishing pigs. Animal Welfare 20: 439–449Google Scholar
Muneisa, F, Millo, Y and Callon, M 2007 An introduction to market devices. In: Callon, M (ed) Market Devices pp 1–12. Blackwell: Oxford, UKGoogle Scholar
Roe, E 2010 Ethics and the non-human: the matterings of sentience in the meat industry. In: Anderson, B and Harrison, P (eds) Taking-place: Non-Representational Theories and Geographies pp 261–280. Ashgate: Farnham, UKGoogle Scholar
Scottish Agricultural College 2006 The welfare effects of different methods of depopulation on laying hens. Final report to Defra, research project AW0231, SAC Edinburgh, UKGoogle Scholar
Soil Association undated undated Soil Association: Bristol, UKGoogle Scholar
Swedberg, R 2008 The centrality of materiality: economic theorizing from xenophon to home economics and beyond. In: Bijker, WE, Carlson, WB and Pinch, T (eds) Living in a Material World: Economic Sociology Meets Science and Technology studies pp 57–88. MIT Press: Cambridge, Mass, USACrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webster, J 2005 The assessment and implementation of animal welfare: theory into practice. Review of Science and Technology of the Office International des Epizooties 24: 723–734CrossRefGoogle Scholar