Citizens and animal farming… an ongoing debate…

Over the last years I’ve been studying the socio-cultural sustainability of animal farming by looking at citizen perceptions in the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark of  two farming systems; dairy and pig production (see former blogs). The debate is ongoing and I am happy to see that an increasing number of researchers are actively involved in [...]

“What is a good life for animals?”

Last week 65 students Animal Science have been dealing with this question during the course ‘Animal Science in Society’ (RSO 11303). We used David Fraser’s book ‘Understanding Animal Welfare. The Science in its Cultural Context’ (2008) as guidance. David Fraser describes three concepts for animal welfare, i.e. what entails  ‘a good life for animals’ : a) a [...]

Eetvervreemding

‘We weten niet meer wat er in al die pakjes en zakjes zit maar voeden graag onze verbeelding met een geidealiseerd beeld van hoe ons voedsel groeit en geproduceerd wordt’, lees ik in één van de essays in Kost, nieuwe gezichten op eten. Daarvan vond ik recent een mooi voorbeeld. Want als een stier het lef heeft dwars door dat beeld te lopen ontstaat grote consternatie. De wildebras wist half november te ontspannen uit een slachthuis in Arnhem en stoof woest door de stad [...]

Citizens and Animal Welfare: Methods, Findings and Policy Implications

Last Thursday (20th of May) I participated in an interesting workshop about citizens and animal welfare.  The workshop was organized at Aarhus University in Denmark and dealt with questions like: Whose opinion on animal welfare counts? How can one integrate the different perspectives of,  for example farmers, citizens, (animal) scientists and the government? We already know that [...]

Danish Citizens Visited Pig Farms

The last two weeks Lieke Boekhorst (Msc student) conducted fieldwork in Denmark, as follow-up of her fieldwork in the Netherlands (see former blog). She visited pig farms with Danish citizen panels to gain insight in social perceptions of pig farming. Doing fieldwork abroad is always challenging, as most Msc and PhD students can confirm. Likewise, [...]

Dutch citizens visited pig farms

Animal farming and public attitudes towards animal farming have changed over the past fifty years and the contemporary Western world looks differently towards animal farming than it did before. Moreover, many citizens today have little knowledge or direct experience of what farming entails. Lieke Boekhorst (Msc student in Animal Production Systems & Rural Sociology) studies [...]