Meat Demand Reduced By “Welfarist” Media Coverage
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I’m pretty sure we covered this news already, but since it’s just now finally getting to the beef industry, it’s prudent to cover it again:
a recent study shows that media coverage of animal welfare issues does have an impact on demand for meat. [...]
The research found that increased media attention caused a reallocation of consumers’ expenditures to nonmeat food rather than a reallocation of expenditures across competing meat products
Said another way: when animal welfare is in the news, people choose vegetarian and vegan options more often.
This quote above comes directly from the beef industry at CattleNetwork. You can read the whole report here >>
What’s the take-away for animal advocates who want to encourage people to choose vegan options? Here are my conclusions:
- Donating money to undercover investigations is a great way to help animals.
- Spreading videos like Meet Your Meat, Earthlings, and undercover exposes on your blogs, facebook accounts, in your email signature, and on other websites does help animals. Why? Because you are “the media,” too!
- Other beneficial forms of individual activism: vegan-themed letters to the editor, asking news shows to do their own animal industry investigations, calling in to radio programs with pro-vegan messages.
- Serious animal advocates should pay attention to marketing, sociology, and psychology studies. You can learn more about animal advocacy related scientific evidence at Humane Spot.
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I like seeing this black-and-white evidence that “welfarist” approaches encourage people to make meat-free choices. Non-violent vegan education is a good thing, but it is not the only thing.