How – and How Much? An Analysis of Major Conflict Lines Regarding the Transformation of German Animal Farming
Philipp von Gall ,
Jörg Luy ,
Moritz Köder and
Marie von Meyer-Höfer
German Journal of Agricultural Economics, 2024, vol. 73 (2024), issue 1
Abstract:
Based on the concept of a 'future workshop', this paper contributes to the understanding of major conflict lines and future pathways for animal farming in Germany. Participants in the future workshop were tasked with outlining their ideal vision of the future of animal farming, focusing on both its mode and quantity. We found three different types of visions differing in their motivation, farming methods, and the scale of envisioned animal farming: ‘Higher Standards’ (V1), ‘System Change and Reduction’ (V2), ‘Alternatives to Animal Farming’ (V3). V1 seeks to secure the quantities of supply and demand of animal products in Germany with minor adjustments towards improved animal welfare and investments in resource-efficiency and climate friendliness. V2 advocates for comprehensive social and environmental systemic changes throughout the agri-food sector, with substantially fewer animals involved. V3 aims to replace animal farming, with plant-based and other alternatives, whenever and wherever possible. Our findings suggest that there is little ground for a societal consensus on a single future mode and scale of animal farming. Stakeholder dialogues and policy initiatives should therefore allow for different pathways while focusing on compromises in the near future. Short-term solutions may be acceptable to supporters of all three visions, however, achieving this requires reframing the debate from ‘securing the future of animal farming’ to ‘guiding the future of animal farming’, acknowledging the potential – albeit partly – replacement of animal farming by suitable alternatives.
Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Livestock Production/Industries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/355799/files/1318_von_Gall_et_al..pdf (application/pdf)
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:gjagec:355799
DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.355799
Access Statistics for this article
More articles in German Journal of Agricultural Economics from Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, Department for Agricultural Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().