Consumers’ Willingness to Purchase High Animal-welfare Beef
Products in Japan: Exploratory Research based on the Theory of
Planned Behavior
Takuya Washio
a
, Takumi Ohashi
b
and Miki Saijo
c
School of Environment and Society, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Ookayama, Meguro, Tokyo, Japan
Keywords: High Animal-welfare Products, Theory of Planned Behavior, Consumer Research, Online Questionnaire.
Abstract: Agricultural industry needs to face both increasing demand from a growing population and transform in order
to enhance its sustainability. Animal welfare, an aspect of this transformation, is still an unfamiliar concept
for consumers in Japan, although this is expected to catch up with the global trend. Researchers have been
working around the world to explore consumer behavior in markets, but few such studies have been performed
in Japan. This study aimed to explore consumer behavior concerning high animal-welfare products in Japan,
using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). An online questionnaire was used to identify consumer
characteristics and perceived attributes of high animal-welfare products among 620 consumers. We found
that awareness of animal welfare was still low among Japanese consumers, and was not related to
demographic characteristics. Two components out of three which are considered in TPB, attitude and social
norm, were likely related to consumers’ willingness to purchase high animal-welfare products. Consumers’
empathy with, and psychological responses to, farmers and animals are suggested to be related to their
willingness to purchase.
1 INTRODUCTION
Throughout the 20
th
century, an effective animal
production system has been built to match up with the
increasing demand for farm animal products.
However, the animal production system today needs
to transform in order to enhance its sustainability
related to issues such as environmental pollution,
workers’ rights, increasing public ethical concerns
about farming methods, and animal welfare. A
balance between efficient production and welfare of
farmers and livestock is required. Good Agriculture
Practices (GAP) is one guide for farmers to achieve
this balance.
The definition of GAP is “practices that address
environmental, economic and social sustainability for
on-farm production and post-production processes
resulting in safe and healthy food and non-food
agricultural products” (Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, 2003). The GAP
is expected to benefit stakeholders in the farming
a
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8217-5397
b
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5977-5861
c
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2813-5658
industry: farmers and their families who will obtain
healthy and good quality food to ensure their nutrition
and nourishment, generating a value added in their
products to access market in better way; consumers
who will enjoy better and safe quality food with
sustainable production; and the general population
who will benefit from a better environment (Izquierdo
et al., 2007). These concepts originated in the western
world, but are becoming common global values and
the basis of policies for international events.
The coming 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic
Games are increasing public awareness of the food
production reputation in Japan. Taking a hard look at
this international event, the organizers set rules that
require the farmers who aim to supply agricultural
food for the Games to satisfy the standard of the
Global Good Agriculture Practice (GLOBALG.A.P.)
certification or the Japan GAP (JGAP) certification.
The GLOBALG.A.P. is recognized internationally as
a private sector standard for agricultural products, and
JGAP is its local modification. Criteria in both
130
Washio, T., Ohashi, T. and Saijo, M.
Consumers’ Willingness to Purchase High Animal-welfare Beef Products in Japan: Exploratory Research based on the Theory of Planned Behavior.
DOI: 10.5220/0008355901300138
In Proceedings of the 11th International Joint Conference on Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management (IC3K 2019), pages 130-138
ISBN: 978-989-758-382-7
Copyright
c
2019 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
standards mention animal welfare enhancements in
the animal food production process by improving
feeding and management processes (The Tokyo
Organising Committee of the Olympic and
Paralympic Games, n.d.). This is expected to be an
opportunity for the issue to receive public attention
and raise public awareness.
With shifting global trends, consumers in Japan
are also expected to be increasingly concerned about
the animal production process with regard to animal
welfare (Japan Livestock Technology Association,
2011). Consumers’ behavior plays essential roles,
such as economic support through paying higher
prices, in establishing GAP in Japanese society.
However, consumer awareness and social standards
for animal welfare which are important components
of GAP are reportedly lower than those in Europe
(Takeda et al., 2010). Thus, it is necessary to examine
the present circumstances of awareness and
purchasing behavior of Japanese consumers.
This study aimed to investigate the factors
influencing consumers’ willingness to purchase high
animal-welfare products in Japan using the Theory of
Planned Behavior (TPB). High animal welfare
products are products with the characteristics which
can be enhanced their value with story and
information behind them. Understanding the
mechanism of consumer decision making and
influence of knowledge and information management
on it will contribute to creating market strategy
aiming to their wide diffusion in the Japanese market.
Because high animal-welfare products are not widely
on sale in the Japanese market, we provide a brief
description of these products. With this information,
we set the context to stimulate awareness and
measure the perception related to consumer behavior
concerning these unfamiliar products.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
According to the definition and characteristics of high
animal-welfare products, we considered the related
purchasing behavior as a part of broad ethical
consumption. Thus, we designed a questionnaire
based on the TPB, which is a theory well-applied in
ethical consumer behavior studies. Also, we took
empathy into account among the components forming
consumers’ willingness to purchase high animal-
welfare products, according to findings from our
previous study.
2.1 High Animal-welfare Products
The definition and concept of animal welfare
published by the World Organisation for Animal
Health (OIE) are the most generally accepted
worldwide. In the OIE’s Terrestrial Code, animal
welfare means “the physical and mental state of an
animal in relation to the conditions in which it lives
and dies.” The guiding principles that inform the
OIE’s work on the welfare of terrestrial animals
include the Five Freedoms. These widely recognized
freedoms were developed in 1965, and describe
society’s expectations for the conditions animals
should experience when under human control: (1)
freedom from hunger, (2) freedom from fear and
distress, (3) freedom from heat distress or physical
discomfort, (4) freedom from pain, injury, and
disease, and (5) freedom to express normal patterns
of behavior (World Organisation for Animal Health,
n.d.). Animal welfare-friendly regulations and actual
farming methods are based on expectations.
High animal-welfare products, which are products
produced in animal-welfare friendly processes, have
different characteristics from those of conventional
products. Lundmark et al. (2014) concluded that
existing regulations for animal welfare were not
based on animal welfare and moral considerations
only, but also on other aspects of the farming process
and products, such as food safety, meat quality, and
environmental factors. Production processes in regard
to animal welfare are sometimes considered to
improve the environment around animal production,
and to contribute to maintaining uncultivated
farmland in the countryside (Matsuki, 2016). Beef
products are positioned as one of the most crucial
export items in the Japanese Government’s
agricultural products export promotion (Ministry of
Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries. 2019), and
developing animal-welfare-friendly beef is expected
to contribute to its aim. High animal-welfare products
are claimed to have added values but also
disadvantages.
High animal-welfare products are often
mentioned with their disadvantages when compared
to conventional livestock products. This can be seen
in the Japanese livestock production context – high
animal-welfare products tend to be more expensive
and more inconvenient to purchase for consumers
than conventional alternatives (Japan Livestock
Technology Association, 2011). Both positive and
negative characteristics of high animal-welfare
products need to be mentioned when they are
introduced to consumers.
Consumers’ Willingness to Purchase High Animal-welfare Beef Products in Japan: Exploratory Research based on the Theory of Planned
Behavior
131
2.2 Ethical Consumption
Because awareness of high animal-welfare products
is still low among Japanese consumers, we tried to
position them as a part of the broader range of
products with similar characteristics. In relation to
food products, Ethical Consumer – a Manchester-
based not-for-profit and multi-stakeholder co-
operative founded in 1989 – considers environmental
issues such as pollution and toxins, wildlife habitats,
climate change, and environmental reporting; social
issues such as workers’ rights, human rights, tax
avoidance, corporate lobbying; and animal welfare
issues such as animal testing or factory farming
(Ethical Consumer, 2018). According to Carrigan et
al. (2004), it is difficult to sum up the full range of
activities that can possibly be included under the term
“ethical consumption”, but it is the conscious and
deliberate choice to make confident consumption
choices due to personal and moral beliefs. In the same
way, high animal-welfare products are sometimes
positioned as a part of organic food (Hughner et al.,
2007; Makatouni, 2002). Thus, we decided to discuss
consumer behavior regarding high animal-welfare
products using a model often applied to ethical
consumption including purchasing of organic food.
2.3 Theory of Planned Behavior
The TPB is a significant theory applied in consumer
behavior studies. The theory argues that attitudes
toward the behavior, can subjectively shape
individual’s intentions to perform behaviors of
different kinds, together with perceptions of
behavioral control, account for considerable variance
in actual behavior (Ajzen, 1991). Attitude is the first
factor that influences the individual’s intentions
concerning a behavior. An individual’s beliefs or
evaluation of the result caused by a behavior are
considered to form attitude. The subjective norm is an
individual’s perception about the particular behavior,
which is influenced by the judgment of important
others. The social phenomenon, reputations, and
expectations regarding the individual from others
around are considered to form this component.
Behavioral control is an individual’s perceived ease
or difficulty of performing a particular behavior. It is
supposed that perceived behavioral control is
determined by the total set of accessible control
beliefs. Affordability, such as cost or convenience
perceptions, is considered to represent this
component in terms of food consumption.
2.3.1 Consumer Behavior and the Theory of
Planned Behavior
The TPB is often applied to explain consumer
behavior in choosing products related to
sustainability in production, such as organic food or
ethical products. Ma et al. (2012) applied this theory
to explain young female consumers’ purchase
behavior in the USA. They concluded that belief
about the fair-trade concept and product attributes,
attitudes toward fair-trade purchases, and perceived
behavioral control in regard to fair-trade purchases
were all important factors in determining consumers’
intentions to purchase fair-trade products. Voon et al.
(2011) tried to explain consumers’ purchasing
behavior in Malaysia using the TPB. They analyzed
answers from 406 respondents in Kuching, the capital
city of the largest state in the country. They concluded
that subjective norms exerted significant positive
effects on willingness to pay, while the effect of
affordability was not significant. They found a set of
factors driving consumers’ purchase behavior for
organic food. We decided to follow this study’s
procedure because it is one of the few examples of
such research conducted in Asia. At the same time,
we considered the possibility of modifying the model
using new components.
The TPB is a theoretical model which is “open to
the inclusion of additional predictors” (Ajzen, 1991),
and so research has been conducted to improve
explanation of consumer behavior by including new
components. Shaw and Shiu (2002, 2003) applied this
theory as an initial framework to explain decision-
making of ethical consumers in the UK by placing
“ethical obligation” and “self-identity” into the model.
McEachern et al. (2007) applied this theory to explain
ethical purchasing behavior and attitudes relating to
particular brands of high animal-welfare products.
They concluded that consumers’ moral obligations
toward food-animals as well as consumer location
influenced ethical brand choice. Thus, we established
the eligibility of model modification with newly
introduced components.
2.4 Empathy
Hoffman (1990) defined empathy as an individual’s
affective response more appropriate to someone
else’s situation than to one’s own. Empathy is
considered to influence consumers’ ethical decision-
making or prosocial behavior. Mencl and May (2009)
concluded that the experience of having empathy for
the objective positively affected ethical decision-
making. Davis et al. (1999) demonstrated that traits
KMIS 2019 - 11th International Conference on Knowledge Management and Information Systems
132
and emotional reactions typically associated with the
empathy construct can play an essential role in the
strategic thinking that precedes a decision to
deliberately encounter a needy target. Verhofstadt et
al. (2016) concluded that empathy of the support
provider appeared to play a meaningful role in social
support interactions. Some types of support provision
were related to both the affective and the cognitive
components of empathy. The structure of empathy
has also been argued.
Empathy can be separated into two different
cognitive responses. Stern (1994) argued that the
effects of advertising dramas are caused by empathy
and sympathy. Here, empathy and sympathy were
described as below:
To summarize, empathic participation is a fusion with
another in pleasure or pain (“I am this person”),
whereas sympathetic/ antipathetic spectatorship is a
positive/ negative identification with another (“I am
like/unlike this person”). Empathy thus involves less
differentiation between the self and the other, while
sympathy allows for more differentiation and more
detachment.
Stern and Escalas (2003) found that sympathetic
responses mediate the effect of an advertising drama
form on empathy responses, with both sympathy and
empathy directly enhancing positive attitudes to an
advertisement. Following their findings, Tamaoki
(2015) examined the effects of empathy and
sympathy on consumers’ willingness to pay for
ethical products in Japan. They analyzed answers
from 736 respondents in Nara Prefecture, Japan, and
found a set of empathetical factors affecting
consumers’ purchase behavior concerning ethical
products. Also, in our previous study, empathy and
sympathy were important factors that influenced
consumers’ willingness to purchase high animal-
welfare products. We conducted a questionnaire for
senior high school students in Tokyo. According to
keywords extracted from the descriptive answers,
factors with the strongest influence on respondents’
willingness to purchase high animal-welfare products
were empathy for livestock, empathy for farmers, and
expectations of added value such as taste or nutrition.
Although there is a limitation that high school
students are not primary household purchasers, this
suggested that there was a need for our analysis to
consider the psychological factors affecting empathy
(Washio et al., 2019). We, therefore, tried to extend
the TPB model by including empathy as an interim
factor influencing consumers’ ethical consumption
between the two factors of subjective norms and
behavioral intentions.
3 OBJECTIVES
From the literature review, TPB was considered to be
appropriate to the examination of consumer behavior
on high animal-welfare products, and there was scope
to include empathy in the discussion. The present
study investigated determinants of willingness to
purchase high animal-welfare beef products in the
three greater urban areas in Japan. We set the
objectives as below:
To measure awareness of the concept of animal
welfare.
Using TPB to explore the factors influencing
willingness to purchase high animal-welfare
products.
Using TPB to explain how empathy influences the
consumer behavior.
3.1 Data
Data used for the present study were as follows:
Period: 25–26 March 2019
Type of data collected: online questionnaire
through a market research company
Target: Consumers aged 20–69 residing in
Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya Prefectures
(evenly allocated to gender and age layers)
Screening: eligibility to eat beef products
(e.g. allergy and religion)
Total sample size: N = 620
In this paper, high animal-welfare beef products are
defined as beef products produced throughout an
animal-welfare conscious process from feeding
through to food processing.
All 620 samples were used in our analysis because,
firstly, the online survey did not allow responses with
missing answers to be submitted; and, secondly,
because no strange answer patterns or outliers were
found when checking complete individual data.
3.2 Methodology
The questionnaire consisted of two parts: the first
measured standard sociodemographic measures; and
the second was a brief description of animal welfare.
The description included the definition of animal
welfare, examples of animal-welfare-friendly
farming methods, regulations related to animal
welfare used in the EU and USA, animal welfare
corporate trends in Japan, claims for the need to build
a market environment encouraging consumers’ active
choices, expected increases in cost, expected
improvements in farmers’ differentiation and
financial advantage, and expected advantages in
Consumers’ Willingness to Purchase High Animal-welfare Beef Products in Japan: Exploratory Research based on the Theory of Planned
Behavior
133
conserving the natural environment. After presenting
the description, we measured perceptions of attitudes,
subjective norms, and affordability of high animal-
welfare products and empathy for livestock and
farmers.
The questionnaire was primarily based on the
original questionnaires of Voon et al. (2011) and
Tamaoki (2015), and our literature review. We
translated their questionnaire into Japanese and also
modified some of the questions to adjust for the animal
welfare products and the cultural background of Japan.
We made repeated translations and had them reviewed
by other Japanese native speakers until we had
confirmation that Japanese people would easily
understand the translated version.
The details of measurements follow. First,
sociodemographic data were measured. We measured
gender, age, habitat place (prefecture), marital status,
child status, number of people in the household, net
household income, occupation, and education
background. The demographics of the samples are
presented in Table 1.
Second, we presented a description of animal
welfare. The description was created by the author,
mainly based on information presented on the web site
of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries
of Japan. Later, we asked about initial awareness of
animal welfare, and then perceptions of attitudes,
subjective norms, affordability of high animal-welfare
products, and empathy for livestock and farmers,
which were measured using 40 items. Each variable
was measured using a five-point Likert scale.
All analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS
Statistics 25 and Microsoft Excel 365.
4 RESULTS
The chi-square test was used to determine the
sociodemographic effects on consumer awareness of
the animal welfare concept. However, there were only
three sociodemographic variables that showed
statistically significant differences between the two
consumer groups (Table 1).
Table 1: Sociodemographic variables (selected) (N = 620).
Variable
Description
Awareness of animal welfare
Total
p-value
Yes
No
Gender
Female
Frequency
35
275
310
n.s.
%
11.3
88.7
100.0
Male
Frequency
24
286
310
%
7.7
92.3
100.0
Age
20–29
Frequency
17
107
124
n.s.
%
13.7
86.3
100.0
30–39
Frequency
11
113
124
%
8.87
91.1
100.0
40–49
Frequency
9
115
124
%
7.26
92.7
100.0
50–59
Frequency
10
114
124
%
8.06
91.9
100.0
60–69
Frequency
12
112
124
%
9.68
90.3
100.0
Prefecture
Tokyo
Frequency
45
333
124
n.s.
%
11.9
88.1
100.0
Osaka
Frequency
11
135
124
%
7.5
92.5
100.0
Aichi
Frequency
3
93
124
%
3.1
96.9
100.0
Perception of farmers in close relationship
Yes
Frequency
11
12
23
0.000
%
0.48
0.52
100.0
No
Frequency
48
549
597
%
8.4
91.6
100.0
Farm experience
Within 5 years
Frequency
15
24
39
0.000
%
38.5
61.5
100.0
When I was in elementary/high school
Frequency
14
86
100
%
14.0
86.0
100.0
Another opportunity than above
Frequency
5
39
4.4
%
11.4
88.6
100.0
Never
Frequency
25
412
437
%
5.7
94.3
100.0
Perception of farming-related topic on media
(i.e. TV show or newspaper)
Strongly agree
Frequency
10
16
26
0.000
%
38.5
61.5
100.0
Agree
Frequency
13
72
85
%
15.3
84.7
100.0
Neutral
Frequency
21
164
185
%
11.4
88.6
100.0
Disagree
Frequency
12
216
228
%
5.3
94.7
100.0
Strongly disagree
Frequency
3
93
96
%
3.1
96.9
100.0
Total
Frequency
59
561
620
,
%
9.5
90.5
100.0
n.s. = not significant (p > 0.05)
KMIS 2019 - 11th International Conference on Knowledge Management and Information Systems
134
Table 2: Components and scale reliability for consumers’ perception (N = 620).
Component
Cronbach’s
Alpha
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
.903
.953
.915
.640
.484
.397
.434
.857
.812
.712
.695
.675
.649
.820
.890
.759
.710
.513
.818
.762
.713
.687
.686
.782
.799
.788
.778
.554
.726
-.718
.648
.622
.570
.437
.849
.975
.626
.710
.815
.365
a
Scale used: 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree)
b
Scale used: 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree)
Principal component analysis; Promax rotation with Kaiser normalization; loadings less than 0.35 are not shown.
KMO = 0.933
Table 3: Correlations between factors.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Empathy for farmers
1
Attribute perception
.441**
1
Health and environment concerns
.342**
.425**
1
Trust
.269**
.607**
.368**
1
Willingness to purchase
.600**
.575**
.469**
.403**
1
Affordability
.076
.243**
.106**
.308**
-.042
1
Sympathy for farmers
.620**
.558**
.361**
.450**
.511**
.126**
1
Subjective norms
.474**
.579**
.426**
.412**
.609**
.075
.471**
1
Note: **correlation significant at p < 0.01
Consumers’ Willingness to Purchase High Animal-welfare Beef Products in Japan: Exploratory Research based on the Theory of Planned
Behavior
135
Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was applied to
identify and confirm the factors within each
component (Table 2). Factors were extracted with the
method of Maximum Likelihood, and Promax
rotation was used due to a high correlation between
factors. Items with loading smaller than 0.35 were
eliminated from further analysis. Likewise, items
loaded with more than one factor were assigned to the
factors where they achieved the highest factor
loadings. The Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) measures
of sampling adequacy had a value of 0.933 and
Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant (p < 0.01),
indicating that the data were suitable for factor
analysis. Eight factors with eigenvalues greater than
one were extracted. Although several items were
dropped due to low factor loadings, most of the
remaining items that were expected to measure a
similar construct did indeed load the same factor.
In order to assess the reliability of the items in
measuring the factor, Cronbach’s alpha value for each
factor was calculated (Table 2). Reliability was
assured because the Cronbach’s alpha values, in the
range of 0.71–0.90, exceeded the minimum threshold
of 0.70. Also, correlations among the factors ranged
from -0.04 to 0.76 (Table 3).
5 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE
RESEARCH
5.1 Conclusion
The results suggested that, in the three greater urban
areas, consumer awareness of animal welfare
concepts was still low, as argued almost 10 years ago
(Takeda et al., 2010).
The EFA resulted in seven factors other than
willingness to purchase being extracted, and we
named each factor as follows: trust in high animal-
welfare product claims, concerns about food
production processes which form the consumers’
attitude to animal welfare products, subjective norms,
affordability of high animal-welfare products,
empathy with farmers, and sympathy bfor farmers.
Trust in high animal-welfare product claims is the
perception of trust in the products’ attributes and
reliability of the information with the products.
Concerns about food production processes is the
perception of concerns in food nutrition, ingredients
or how the food is processed. These two components
are considered to form the consumers’ attitude
towards high animal-welfare products.
Subjective norms are the perception of
expectations from loved ones and social phenomena
towards the purchasing of the products.
Affordability of high animal-welfare products is
the perception of behavioral control such as price or
accessibility to the products.
Empathy with farmers and sympathy for farmers
are emotional reaction of the consumers’ toward the
farmers and cattle. Consumers’ sympathy for farmers’
situation, efforts, and motivation may influence the
consumers' willingness to purchase. At the same time,
some consumers might have similar reaction to
farmers like
As the correlation among the other factors
extracted and willingness to purchase, all the factors
showed some correlation except affordability. This
suggests that attitude and subjective norms
concerning high animal-welfare products may
positively affect consumers’ willingness to purchase
them. However, consumers’ perceptions of
affordability of high animal-welfare products did not
influence Japanese urban consumers’ willingness to
purchase them. It suggests that this perception was
not in measurable stage because of the limited actual
products in Japanese market today. Also, the positive
effects of consumers’ empathy with and sympathy for
farmers were suggested in their willingness to pay.
5.2 Implications
In order to explore how to improve consumers’
willingness to purchase high animal-welfare products,
we conducted a questionnaire survey on
sociodemographic, awareness of animal welfare,
perceptions of attitudes, subjective norms,
affordability of high animal-welfare products, and
empathy with livestock and farmers. Consumers’
awareness was not related to their sociodemographics.
However, perceptions about farmers’ existence due to
close farming experience in the near past, and
perceptions from media exposure concerning
farming-related issues on TV or newspapers may
relate to consumers’ awareness of animal welfare.
The results also suggested that affordability in
relation to purchase behavior of high animal-welfare
products of consumers who reside in these three
urban areas could not be measured at this stage
because of a lack of actual purchase experiences. Also,
sympathy for farmers or beef cows, or understanding
of or empathy with the social backgrounds of farmers
and cattle can be a trigger for consumers in
purchasing high animal-welfare beef products.
This study has the limitation that we did not
explain the consumers’ decision-making structure in
KMIS 2019 - 11th International Conference on Knowledge Management and Information Systems
136
order. Contents and characteristics of information to
be presented to the consumers in order to introduce
the products need to be investigated. In the future, we
plan to extend TPB to explain Japanese consumers’
behavior by including empathy in the model.
Influences of the empathic response to product-
related information are suggested from this study.
Clarifying the structure in consumers’ decision-
making using empathy may give useful insights in
designing effective diffusion and promotion in Japan.
At the same time, it will also be necessary to
investigate the relationship between consumer
characteristics, content of information presented, and
consumers’ willingness to purchase high animal-
welfare products. By considering the contents of the
information and its propagating channel, the findings
can help in designing promotional tactics and
measures.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research is supported by the Center of
Innovation under the Japan Science and Technology
Agency.
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APPENDIX
The description provided in the questionnaire (translated)
A. There is a concept called “animal welfare.”
B. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and
Fisheries, this is considered to be “farming methods
suitable to livestock comfort.”
C. In animal-welfare-friendly farming, farmers let
livestock express normal patterns of behavior by
widening their cages, or
D. let livestock be free from fear and distress by not
removing horns/tails.
E. At the same time, animal-welfare-friendly farming is
a practice to improve food safety,
F. it is prohibited to treat with too many antibiotics.
G. In the EU or the USA, farming regulations and laws
have been revised to be animal-welfare-friendly.
H. Among EU countries, certifications and standards for
high animal-welfare products have been developed,
and are widely recognized in markets.
I. Certification of standards including animal welfare has
been set as a requirement for the food supplied in the
2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
J. There are also retail and food-maker companies that
have animal welfare requirements in their procurement
codes,
K. moreover, there are co-ops selling high animal-welfare
products.
L. There are needs for maintenance of a consumer-
centered market environment which encourages active
choices, from the viewpoint of consumer protection,
M. moreover, there are efforts to introduce a certification
system for animal-welfare-friendly farms or products.
N. High animal-welfare products may be priced higher
than conventional products,
O. moreover, this expected to increase farmers’ profits.
P. Increasing the sustainability of farming with animal
welfare is expected to contribute to maintaining
terrestrial environments such as mountainous regions.
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