EU consumers support new laws for better farm animal welfare

BEUC and its members call on the EU Commission to heed consumers’ concerns and fulfil its commitment on animal welfare, by proposing new laws and updating existing ones.

Main takeaways from the survey are:

• Almost 9 in 10 consumers support new laws to improve the welfare of farmed animals in the EU such as providing more living space, banning cage systems and mutilations.
• Consumers want to know more about how farmed animals are reared and need trustworthy labelling.
• The transition to higher farm animal welfare systems must be fair to farmers and consumers.

To what extend would you say that the welafre of farm animals matters to you?

More findings:

• Better labelling: 3 in 4 (72%) consumers want method of production labelling to be extended to other products beyond eggs.
• Lack of knowledge: Over 6 in 10 consumers feel they have a low level of knowledge on animal welfare practices. The tests we ran confirm this and showed that they tend to both overestimate and underestimate welfare conditions.
• Support to farmers: Consumers agree (78%) that imports of animal products should be subject to the same welfare rules as those produced in the EU. A strong majority (74%) would like the EU to provide funds to farmers to implement higher animal welfare standards.
• No to 'welfare-washing': Consumers have low trust in animal welfare claims by companies and 84% would react negatively to welfare-washing.
• Financial support needed: 7 in 10 consumers are willing to pay more for higher animal welfare standards, yet to varying degrees (up to 5% only for half of those willing to pay more). While a very large majority of consumers considers it important to improve animal welfare standards, EU and national governments must ensure that the costs of this transition are equitably shared and not borne by consumers only.
• In general, consumers perceive chickens and pigs to be the farmed animals with the worst welfare conditions. The number of respondents who think that the welfare conditions for pigs are ‘bad’ is 35% and the number who believe such conditions to be ‘good’ is 24%.
• Slightly more than a third (35%) of respondents would be willing to pay up to 5% more for food which is produced with higher animal welfare standards. One in five (21%) would be willing to pay up to 10% more, 8% would be willing to pay up to 20% more. One in twenty (5%) would even pay more than 20% for such food. On the other hand, one out of three (31%) also indicated they would not be
  willing to pay anything more.

Are you willing to pay more for food that is produced with higher animal welfare standards than those commonly used?