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How do consumers feel about precision farming?
19 Plays1 year ago
Michigan State University surveyed more than 1,000 Americans to learn whether they know about farm animal production, their opinions on animal welfare, and their views on precision livestock farming (PLF) technologies. Professor Janice Siegford discusses the survey results.
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast and Survey
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Feed Strategy Podcast.
00:00:02
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I'm your host, Feed Strategy Senior Reporter Anne Roos.
00:00:06
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In 2023, Michigan State University surveyed more than 1,000 Americans to learn whether they know about farm animal production, their opinions on animal welfare, and their views on precision livestock farming technologies.
Motivation Behind the Survey
00:00:17
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Janice Siegford, Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Animal Science at Michigan State University, is one of the researchers who worked on the project.
00:00:26
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We spoke recently about what she learned from the survey and what comes next.
00:00:30
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Hi Janice, thanks for joining me.
00:00:32
Speaker
Hello, Anne, it's lovely to be here.
00:00:34
Speaker
Can you give a little bit of background on your recent survey on the public perception of precision farming?
Survey Demographics and Focus
00:00:40
Speaker
I'd be happy to.
00:00:42
Speaker
So part of the reason that we did this is because we see this growing kind of surge in technology just in general, of course, right across our world, but it's also pervasive on farms now.
00:00:56
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And it's coming down to the level of animals where we're thinking about how to actually monitor and manage animals in an automated way.
00:01:04
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partly to deal with things like labor shortages and partly to ensure better welfare for the animals because we can look at them as individuals, but also maybe more transparency and traceability.
00:01:16
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But we're kind of doing all of this without really knowing whether it's going to be acceptable to the people who are going to buy the products that result.
Survey Methodology
00:01:24
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So the main reason behind the survey that we did was to find out what they thought about this idea that there could be these precision livestock farming technologies that are being used to raise animals such as pigs to produce pork.
Survey Findings on Public Knowledge
00:01:40
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How many survey participants did you have and what kinds of things did you ask them?
00:01:45
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So we had about a little over 1200, almost 1300 individuals, and we focused on three key states.
00:01:51
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So these participants all come from Michigan, Iowa, and North Carolina.
00:01:54
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And of course, Iowa and North Carolina represent two of largest pork producing states in the nation.
00:02:02
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And we asked them everything ranging from some basic demographic questions, you know, age, gender, education level, as well as some key questions related to their knowledge of
00:02:15
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animal farming, right?
00:02:17
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So are they familiar with how livestock are raised in order to produce products that we eat?
00:02:22
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And if so, does that affect how they feel about technology or animal welfare, or the potential of technology to solve some of these problems?
00:02:33
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So those were some of the key things we asked.
00:02:36
Speaker
What kinds of precision technologies did you ask about?
00:02:39
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So we actually were fairly generic at this stage because some of the key ones that are in use right now do things that maybe people wouldn't necessarily understand a lot, right?
00:02:52
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So if we have technologies, for example,
00:02:55
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that we can use on farm for estrus detection in pigs in order to help us breed more effectively.
00:03:01
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We might get so caught up in the explanations that we might just kind of lose the general sense of how people feel about the idea that this technology might be there instead of a human monitoring it.
00:03:12
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We also didn't really want to necessarily cherry pick among the different providers of technology
00:03:20
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showcasing some and maybe ignoring others or anything like that.
00:03:25
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And it's also a space that's changing really rapidly.
00:03:28
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So we didn't really want to have a survey that would become outdated really quickly in terms of what we were mentioning.
00:03:35
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So it's fairly generic in terms of just describing this idea of using technology to monitor animals continuously and in real time that provides information that can be used to manage those animals.
00:03:50
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So what were some of the results you found?
00:03:53
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So some of the big things that we found were that there were not surprisingly, probably to any producer that listens to the show, that there's not a lot of intrinsic knowledge about how we raise animals anymore, right?
00:04:07
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We know that there's fairly few people that are involved in a daily basis with animals on farms.
00:04:14
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And so that comes through in terms of what we see.
00:04:18
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We also found that there was a lot of uncertainty.
Public Perception of PLF
00:04:22
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So probably one of our single biggest takeaways was that a lot of people just weren't sure in terms of how they felt about technology and whether they thought it could be used to address problems like animal welfare or to improve sustainability or farmers' quality of life.
00:04:42
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And so there's a lot of wiggle room, I think, in terms of what we could do to talk openly and have a conversation about this idea of technology so that we can maybe start from the beginning in terms of explaining it before people really have an emotional connection one way or the other to the use of this on farm.
00:05:07
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Did any of the results surprise you?
00:05:09
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I guess I was a bit surprised in terms of how willing people were to maybe admit that they didn't have a strong perception one way or another.
00:05:20
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One of the dangers often with surveys is people feel like they have to give you a certain kind of answer.
00:05:26
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So to me, that suggests that we framed things well and allowed people to really think about what they felt and be comfortable if they didn't know to say that.
00:05:35
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So I was pleased to see that.
00:05:37
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I was also pleased that when we get past kind of the bulk of them not expressing a real opinion, that most of them were fairly positive.
00:05:48
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They thought that there was potential for the PLF to make it easier for us to balance maybe issues related to environment.
00:06:00
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They also thought that it might be a way to actually let producers have a better quality of life because perhaps they can offload some of the more
00:06:10
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onerous or repetitive kinds of things that they might have to do.
00:06:14
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So the potential was positive for what we did see.
00:06:18
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There weren't a lot of people that reported really negative concerns, although there were maybe two that stood out.
00:06:26
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One was related to the
Future Survey Plans and Industry Engagement
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idea that PLF could allow us to have more pigs on a farm.
00:06:33
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And so that's something I think that we should pay attention to because people typically express concerns over large farms, right?
00:06:42
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And large number of animals in smallish spaces.
00:06:46
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So thinking about the fact that if 20% of our respondents thought that technology could lead to more pigs,
00:06:53
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That might be something that we keep an explicit eye on, right?
00:06:57
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Paying attention to how we're using technology and not crossing lines that usually cause people concern.
00:07:07
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Do you have plans to do follow-up research in this area?
00:07:10
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So we're actually just wrapping up a second wave of this survey because part of what we also wanted to see was did people's opinions change over time?
00:07:20
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One thing that we found in another project that we're working on is that the more we have conversations with people and introduce them to this idea of technology on the farm,
00:07:30
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the more they afterwards then come across all kinds of examples and are more aware and start to like become more interested in the topic.
00:07:39
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So we've done a follow-up survey and we've actually resurveyed a substantial number of people that took the first survey.
00:07:47
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So out of that 1200-ish people that we surveyed, we have 400 who did the survey both the first and second years.
00:07:56
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And then we have another set of brand new people in the second year, just in case there were changes related to maybe changes overall in social media or news information or things like that that could increase awareness.
Consumer Concerns on Farming Practices
00:08:12
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So we're interested to see what will happen in terms of changes in attitude and knowledge over time with this second wave.
00:08:19
Speaker
And then we do have another ongoing project as well, where we're interfacing a lot more with industry stakeholders and producers and veterinarians directly to also ask them about their opinions related to this technology, what they see as barriers to adoption, what they see as maybe the most useful kinds of products that could be out there.
00:08:40
Speaker
Okay, interesting.
00:08:42
Speaker
So after seeing the results, do you think consumers care much about the specifics of how their food animals are raised?
00:08:48
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Or do they just generally want to feel that they're healthy and raised humanely?
00:08:52
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I think that that latter part is really what's most important, that they really care about the idea of farming being good for the animals that are involved in it, right?
00:09:04
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And I think that there is some concern for the humans that are involved in it too.
00:09:09
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So yeah, the specifics maybe don't matter so much.
00:09:13
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It's maybe the goals that the farmers are meeting as they're raising the pigs in terms of
00:09:18
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being conscious about the animal welfare, being conscious about the environmental sustainability.
00:09:25
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And yeah, they don't seem to be worried necessarily about the presence of technology on farms.
Engaging with Consumers and Future of PLF
00:09:34
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And maybe that's also because we've become so comfortable with it in our own lives in terms of, you know, our daily use of something like a cell phone.
00:09:44
Speaker
Is there anything you think pork producers can do to better connect with consumers?
00:09:49
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I think that looking at maybe our results and kind of understanding that there's this open space for this conversation before firm opinions or emotions are generated related to the technology gives people a space to talk.
00:10:06
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And I think also at the same time, acknowledging some of the things that we find that suggests that
00:10:12
Speaker
If it's not used right, it could cause concern and being maybe honest and acknowledging and addressing those worries can be important.
00:10:22
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How they get messages out right is always a bit of a tricky one because we have, I would say, you know, a lot of younger people that are maybe becoming more
00:10:33
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port consumers that are using technologies that are platforms that I don't even know about or am comfortable with.
00:10:41
Speaker
And so where and how to deliver the message, I would say, is maybe beyond my purview, because I'm definitely not like the most connected and socially media savvy person.
00:10:52
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But I do think there's opportunities for positive kind of proactive messaging that certainly could be taken advantage of.
00:11:02
Speaker
Yeah, I hear that a lot in the industry, that it's all about telling their own stories as producers.
00:11:08
Speaker
Yeah, kind of getting ahead of it in this case too, right?
00:11:11
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Because when we started having conversations about animal welfare and addressing concerns, in some ways it was a bit too late, right?
00:11:18
Speaker
Because people already had like these emotional responses, sometimes because of course other media was making it out first before we were telling those stories, right?
00:11:28
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So here I think there's more of an open field to do that messaging in a positive way.
00:11:34
Speaker
I remember when I first saw a cow milked with a robotic milker, I was awestruck in, you know, just amazed at how cool this was and how the cow was like, yeah, this is great.
00:11:46
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I get to have a snack while I'm getting milked.
00:11:49
Speaker
You know, so there's, there's, you know, sometimes even seeing those those kinds of examples of the animal choosing to engage with something to, to kind of be part of the farming process as it were with this technology could be some interesting opportunities.
00:12:04
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that's a good point.
00:12:06
Speaker
What do you think is the future for precision livestock farming?
00:12:10
Speaker
Well, I think we're in the stage now where there's a lot of starry-eyed developers, I wanna say, who have really ideas based on solving cool technological or theoretical problems.
00:12:24
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And we're kind of trying to make that connection now between what's really needed on the farm
00:12:29
Speaker
with these engineers and computer scientists and also what's feasible given the size of farms and the tough environments we have on farms, right?
00:12:38
Speaker
Dirt and water and the need to be able to clean and sanitize in between batches of pigs, sometimes iffy wifi connections, the costs of installation and maintenance and how
00:12:51
Speaker
having confidence and investing in something that's going to be around for a while, right?
00:12:55
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Or that you can integrate with other platforms.
00:12:58
Speaker
So I think we're kind of at this maybe mushrooming of all these different ideas, and then things might start to winnow down into some really useful products that are maybe integrated better with other platforms, because nobody wants 30 apps to do, you know,
00:13:14
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tasks on the farm, that's a lot to keep up with.
00:13:17
Speaker
So I think we're going to get to points where we get to things that are practical and usable, you know, partly through trial and error.
00:13:25
Speaker
You know, I know that there's quite a few companies that have in-house developers that are helping them, you know, kind of on the ground as it were, and are developing the tech in spaces that it has to actually work and with people that actually have to use it.
00:13:39
Speaker
So I think, you know, there's there's useful things that are starting to hit, like something as simple as being able to reliably count pigs.
00:13:47
Speaker
Right.
00:13:47
Speaker
That was that's a massive thing.
00:13:50
Speaker
Got a number of times I've recounted animals we don't even want to talk about.
00:13:55
Speaker
So I think there are some things that are starting to come out now that are happening and others that are maybe less related to the management of pigs directly, but more related to getting rid of some of the repetitive onerous labor like associated with cleaning, for example.
00:14:12
Speaker
that then might free up people to do more of the smarter, higher level tasks, right?
00:14:18
Speaker
Like diagnosing or treating pigs or separating them out for additional care, for example.
00:14:26
Speaker
Well, thank you so much for your insights, Janice.
00:14:28
Speaker
And I look forward to seeing your upcoming survey results come out.
00:14:32
Speaker
Thank you, Anne.
00:14:33
Speaker
It's been a pleasure to talk to you about this.
00:14:34
Speaker
We're really excited.
00:14:36
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And thank you to the audience for listening.
00:14:38
Speaker
I'm Anne Roos for Feed Strategy.