Recent research shows that MFA’s groundbreaking investigations and hard-hitting advocacy campaigns may be having a dramatic impact on American meat consumption through increased media exposure of animal welfare issues. According to a September 16 report by livestock economists Glynn Tonsor of Kansas State University and Nicole Olynk of Purdue University, consumer demand for all types of meat is reduced significantly when media attention is given to animal welfare issues – regardless of the production practices involved. Not only does media exposure of modern animal agriculture make consumers lose their appetite for all types of meat, consumer demand for meat remains lower than expected for as long as six months after the media report.
To understand the impact of the publicity generated by undercover cruelty investigations at factory farms and slaughterhouses, ballot initiatives designed to prohibit particular practices (i.e. gestation crates, battery cages and veal crates), and other animal welfare issues, the economists looked at how consumer demand for beef, pork and poultry has correlated with the media attention given to farmed animal welfare issues in the last 10 years. According to their findings, pork demand would have been 2.65% higher and poultry demand would have been 5.01% greater without the media attention – translating into millions of lives spared.
While beef consumption does not seem to correlate with animal welfare publicity in the long term, the researchers noted that overall meat consumption was negatively impacted early in 2008 after the release of a cruelty investigation at Hallmark slaughterhouse in Chino, California. The report also indicates that consumer purchases are reallocated to non-meat items after media exposure of animal welfare issues.
Sir Paul McCartney famously said, “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian.” Tonsor and Olynk seem to echo this sentiment in their report by concluding, “As a whole, media attention to animal welfare has significant, negative effects on U.S. meat demand.”
Interested in cutting back on meat after watching MFA’s undercover investigations? Here are some helpful tips to get you started on a path toward a healthy and compassionate vegan lifestyle.
