Trade-Off between Animal Welfare and Environmental Impacts of Beef Production: An Analysis of Presentation Effects on Consumer Choice

Despite many consumers' intuitions to the contrary, improvements in farm animal welfare can conflict with environmental objectives, particularly regarding greater intensification of production systems. Using a discrete choice experiment, this study determines how consumers make trade-offs between increased animal welfare and lower levels of environmental impact. We assess the sensitivity of results by varying how attributes were presented and what information was available to respondents. Overall, results suggest consumers are willing to trade environment for animal welfare, but the extent of this trade-off strongly depends on how the information is conveyed to consumers.