The ethical basis of using animals in agricultural production: Consumer understandings

Consumers' ability to gain information about current animal farming practices is weakening because of the concentration of animal farming and urbanisation. However, at the same time farm animal issues have received increasingly attention in the media and in the policy arena. The growing distance to animal farming among consumers and the politicisation of animal issues raise questions how consumers perceive the ethical basis of using animals in agricultural production. In this paper we approach this question by drawing from four group interviews with citizen-consumers (organic consumers, vegetarians, gastronomes and a random group of ordinary food shoppers) carried out in Finland in 2009. The examination of transcribed discussions shows that consumers feel much moral ambiguity on meat consumption since they have become increasingly disconnected from livestock production and since they encounter highly contradictory information on animal farming. Consumers have responded in diverse, often conflicting ways to these moral ambiguities. Ordinary shoppers maintained a vague, habitbased trust that 'things are fine' in animal production and they also aspired to sustain a certain kind of emotional distance to livestock production and animal slaughter. In contrast, for organic consumers and gastronomes, the re-gaining of connection with food production worked as a resolution for their moral ambiguities. Acknowledging the animal origin of food and knowing personally how animals are treated worked as a form of legitimation to consume animal products. This paper concludes that consumers can take various citizen-consumer positions and moral strategies to influence animal welfare in everyday contexts. Due to the growing gap between food production and consumption, novel social institutions to facilitate welfare-friendly choices may be required.