Communication of livestock husbandry
Final report
Duration of project
February 2016 to December 2016
Contact person at the university of Kassel
- Andreas Möstl
Head of project
„Communication of agricultural pig farming via the Internet: Does more transparency induce more consumer acceptance?“
Project on behalf of QS-Wissenschaftsfonds
Over the last two decades, social requirements on animal welfare increased and modern forms of livestock husbandry have been frequently criticized. Reacting to this, some farmers used social media, e.g. live-webcams in stables and blogs, with the aim to increase the acceptance of the livestock husbandry by establishing transparency. However, there are indications, that higher transparency about methods of livestock husbandry will not necessarily lead to a higher acceptance of these methods. Therefore it is important to investigate, how communication of farmers on pig farming in social media in terms of blogs and a live broadcast of a pigsty using a webcam do affect consumers. The perception and the evaluation of the communication about pig farming will be measured using the “think-aloud” method. Based on the results, conclusions will be drawn concerning the effectivity of transparency accentuated communication inputs in the Internet. Finally, suggestions for the communication of modern pig farming will be developed.