Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 1/22/18


While more than 90 percent of U.S. consumers eat meat at least occasionally, nearly half (47 percent) of respondents in a recent survey agreed with the statement, “I support a ban on slaughterhouses.”

In the monthly Food Demand Survey (FooDS), conducted by Oklahoma State University, the survey asked those who agreed if they were aware that slaughterhouses are necessary to the consumption of meat; of those, nearly three-quarters (73 percent) said they were.

This contradictory set of responses echoes a survey conducted late last year by the Sentience Institute, in which 42 percent of respondents agreed with the statement, “I support a ban on slaughterhouses”.

“The number frankly seemed outrageous, given that more than 90 percent of Americans eat meat regularly and it is rather difficult to do so without slaughtering houses,” said the FooDS authors, Prof. Bailey Norwood and Susan Murray. They set about to recreate the survey to see if they got the same results.

The startling outcome “provides a teachable moment on the use of survey responses,” the FooDS authors said. “However useful they are, people will state attitudes in surveys that run contrary to their behaviors in the real world. That said, surveys can sometimes tell us more about what consumers want in their social and political institutions than their individual behaviors.”

Demand steadies
Elsewhere, consumer demand for various meat products seems to have returned to a more expected trend, after dropping across the board in November and then increasing across the board in December. Compared with one month ago, consumers in January were willing to pay less for chicken breast and hamburger — and pasta — while willingness-to-pay for steak and pork chop remain essentially flat. Deli ham and chicken wings — and rice and beans — were the winners, with willingness-to-pay up nearly 14 percent for deli ham.

For more stories, go to www.meatingplace.com.