While price is the key concern for grocery shoppers at the meat case, a Purdue survey indicates that consumers are more willing to accept higher pork prices if they are the result of meeting animal welfare standards such as California’s Proposition 12, which requires farmers to give breeding sows more room to stand up, lie down, and turn around.
In the nationwide survey, consumers said they would scale back their purchases if pork prices went up. But fewer of them would pare their purchases if Prop 12 was the reason for the increase. And a small segment said they would buy more pork in that case.
“We saw responses that suggest animal welfare is more important to consumers than previously thought,” said Elijah Bryant, a survey research analyst at Purdue’s Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability, which conducts a survey of 1,200 consumers each month. “Even though the [hypothetical] price increase is the same size, fewer consumers would decrease their spending on pork knowing that the price increase was caused by animal welfare regulations.”
The Purdue results will be put to the test on Jan. 1, when Prop 12 is implemented fully. The California law, passed by a landslide margin in a 2018 statewide referendum, mandates that farmers provide 24 square feet of floor space for each breeding sow, and it bars the sale of bacon, ham, and other uncooked cuts of pork produced in other states if they do not meet the California standard. California, a small pork producer, consumes 15 percent of U.S. pork.
A majority of consumers said rising prices would not affect their pork purchases. Some 32 percent said they would reduce purchases in the face of a general price increase, while 30 percent said they would do so if Prop 12 was the cause. At the other end of the spectrum, 10 percent of consumers said they would buy more pork during a general price increase, but 13 percent said they would buy more pork if Prop 12 was involved.
Animal welfare is typically one of the least important considerations for pork purchasers, and price is the most important. In the Purdue survey, price was twice or even four times more important than animal welfare, depending on political leaning. Conservatives were more likely than moderates or liberals to reduce pork consumption because of higher prices, and liberals were more likely to increase spending on pork raised under Prop 12 standards.
“Again, these results suggest animal welfare is more important to those who identify as liberal when deciding to purchase pork products,” said the Consumer Food Insights report issued by the Center for Food Demand.