Putting farm animal welfare on the table: insights from Switzerland

Abstract

This study analyses the Swiss approach to farm animal welfare policy with focus on two incentive-based voluntary programmes, one for controlled-pasturage (RAUS scheme) and one for animal-friendly stabling (BTS scheme), both associated with government labels. The paper investigates the effect of such programmes on pigmeat production and estimated consumption by providing a comparison analysis between Switzerland and a synthetic control group. Findings show that pigmeat production and estimated consumption decrease, suggesting that the programmes contribute to this trend. Data show that the reduction in pigmeat produced domestically is not compensated by imports, supporting the hypotesis that consumers prefer Swiss pigmeat produced in compliance with higher animal welfare standards. This suggests that animal welfare policy does not only partially address the ethically controversial issue of intensive farming, but can potentially offer policy options to decrease animal food consumption and achieve broader goals in terms of
environmental and health implications.

Keywords: farm animal welfare policy; Switzerland; pigmeat; supply; production; synthetic control method

JEL Classification: Q18; C54; C83