Research in Farm Animal Welfare
Department of Agricultural Economics
College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources

Contact Information

Bailey Norwood
Associate Professor
405-744-9820
bailey.norwood@okstate.edu

Consumer Research

In the summer of 2007 a nationwide telephone survey was conducted regarding consumers' views towards farm animal welfare topics. For a copy of the survey results, click here. We wrote a summary of the survey results for the agribusiness newspaper Feedstuffs, which can be read by downloading this page and this page.

One of my Masters students is writing his thesis on the survey results. In his Appendices of the thesis he provides the exact survey script and a break-down of the survey responses across states, geographic regions, blue-states and red-states, political affiliation, and demographics such as gender, income, religion, and whether the respondents is a vegetarian or owns a pet. These Appendices can be downloaded here.

In another survey, my colleagues and I conducted a mail survey to determine consumers' willingness to pay higher prices for ground beef that was certified humane. Thus survey looked at the value of other attributes, such as traceability, fat content, and a natural label. Two papers by undergraduates were written on the survey. The paper that talks about the humane label was published in Feedstuffs Companion and can be downloaded here.

On a slightly related topic, Jayson Lusk and I analyzed some economics of vegetarianism. It hasn't been published yet, but the working paper can be downloaded here.

Research in Progress

I currently have a grant to study consumer preferences for animal welfare, and have a graduate student calculating the costs of providing greater animal care. Stay tuned!