Progress 07/01/23 to 06/30/24
Outputs
Target Audience:• Beef, pork, and broiler producers, processors, and retailers • Students • Extension specialists • Other researchers working with consumer perceptions of sustainability etc. Changes/Problems:We requested and received a one-year no-cost extension, to allow for completion of project activities (delays to which were described in our Year 1 progress report). What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training activities: One undergraduate student received training in research methods related to the systematic review process and qualitative system mapping. Three masters students received training in research methods: one in the systematic review process, one related to performing qualitative research, and one related to quantitative analysis of survey data. All three also received training in general research best practices and data curation. One PhD student received training in research methods related to quantitative data analysis. One postdoctoral scholar received training in qualitative system mapping and outreach/extension. Professional development: One postdoctoral scholar and two project investigators attended, networked, and gained project-relevant knowledge and connections at professional conferences (the Sustainable Agriculture Summit, Tilth Conference, Leman Swine Conference). All project research trainees (one undergraduate student, four graduate students, one postdoc) gained practice in evaluating the scholarly work of others and presenting their own work via regular group meetings that included professional development activities. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Results of research under Objectives 1 and 2 have been presented to the broader university research community as part of thesis defenses. The Farm Walk and beef producers panel were held in-person events open to the public. The extension of their availability is underway through posting of the Farm Walk podcast and publication of a summary of the producers panel. Improvements to the Washington Food and Farm Finder are immediately available to the numerous farms and ranches as well as members of the public and food industry who use the resource. The majority of project outreach will take place in the project's third and final year, as research findings are published and presented at trade and academic meetings, and outreach activities conducted. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Publish findings from the producer Q sort (manuscript in preparation), scoping review (manuscript in preparation), student Q sort (data analysis in progress), and deliberative polling (data analysis in progress). Complete qualitative system mapping of the producer decision-making space related to environmental impacts and animal welfare. Complete comparison of producer and consumer perceptions based on project research. Conduct additional outreach to the value chain via meeting presentations, development and dissemination of outreach materials, and hosting producer-to-producer educational Farm Walks. Complete consumer-facing outreach via Farm Walk podcasts. Organize and hold a policymakers' workshop.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During the second project year, accomplishments were achieved under all four project objectives. Objective 1: Identify how producers and downstream value chain actors make and balance sustainability decisions, especially in response to consumer preferences and market trends and pressures related to these decisions. We analyzed data from the 'Q sort' interviews with beef, pork, and poultry producers representing different scales and geographies. The Q sort approach allowed us to examine "how do you prioritize when everything is a priority," focusing on a variety of environmental impact- and animal welfare-related priority statements, and identifying different 'worldviews' among producers. This informs about the different ways in which groups of producers value and prioritize different aspects of sustainability. Data analysis is complete and a manuscript is being prepared for publication. We began work on qualitative system mapping related to the complexity of decision-making in animal agriculture sustainability. We have explored information sources and methodologies. Work is ongoing on this activity. Objective 2: Assess how existing research on consumer animal protein preferences frames the breadth and complexity of sustainability issues related to animal welfare and environmental impact and the extent to which this is aligned or misaligned with the breadth and complexity of producers' perceptions. We completed full-text screening of the scoping review search results, examining consumer perceptions of meat sustainability. Of the 1,056 full-text articles screened, 512 were ultimately retained for inclusion in the scoping review. We extracted data from the 512 scoping review articles, including elements such as study methodology, geographic setting, population studied, type(s) of meat studied, type(s) of perceptions studied, and elements of sustainability studied. We analyzed data extracted from the scoping review articles, examining factors such as temporal trends, geographic distribution, prevalences of focus on various meats and sustainability elements, prevalence of different methodologies and perceptions studied, coincidence of various factors within individual studies, and gaps in coverage. This informs on the current state of research on consumer perceptions of meat sustainability, and identifies area where further research is needed. Data analysis is complete and a manuscript is in preparation. Objective 3: Apply an innovative educational approach to explore how the priorities and opinions of consumers about products and practices aimed at improving animal welfare and environmental impacts would change if they were informed about and weighed competing arguments. We developed and delivered an undergraduate course in animal agriculture sustainability, titled Sustainable Animal Agriculture: Complexities and Tradeoffs. The course enrolled a total of 42 students, was team taught by three project co-investigators, and involved one other project co-investigator and four members of the project advisory committee as guest panelists. Across the course's five expert panels and three instructors, it involved faculty and extension experts from three universities and numerous farms, private organizations, and state and county employees. The course introduced students to complexities and tradeoffs that influence the sustainability of meat production and consumption in the U.S., with an emphasis on environmental impacts and animal welfare and, ultimately, how this affects population health. The course was structured around a deliberative polling approach, and encouraged students to explore the continuum of approaches across an issue. The course also involved students in the research process through participation in deliberative polling and Q methodology. We evaluated the quality and effectiveness of the course described above. From a standardized student course evaluation instrument, both the course overall and the course content received a score of 4.9/5 ("excellent"), and similar scores for more granular facets such as amount learned, use of examples and illustrations, etc. When asked whether the class was intellectually stimulating or stretched your thinking, student responses included: "Yes! When looking at environmental impact and animal welfare, it made me shift my perspectives and values in order to really understand the stakeholders perspectives in these industries," "It definitely stretched my thinking because we had very nuanced discussions where we looked at different perspectives that pertain to certain solutions and barriers," "It created better well-rounded opinions and complex discussions in class," and "By thinking through various issues and potential solutions in the animal agriculture space, I came away with a deeper understanding and more informed opinion. I was also challenged to balance trade-offs and rethink my own opinions." We also gathered student feedback about improvements they would suggest, which can be included in any future offerings of the course beyond the project timeframe. We developed a deliberative polling survey, deployed it within the context of the course described above (as a pre- and post-course survey), and have begun to analyze the data. This work is ongoing. We developed a consumer-facing version of the Q sort previously developed for a producer audience, deployed it at the beginning and end of the course described above, and have begun to analyze the data. This work is ongoing. Objective 4: Translate this knowledge into action by working closely with stakeholder communities to inform and guide messaging, outreach, and strategies through extension programs and to key partners and policymakers. We organized a Farm Walk (a farmer-to-farmer learning opportunity), held on September 11, 2023, at the Lazy R Ranch in Cheney, WA. Held on a leading grazing operation for the state, the facilitated dialogue addressed diverse questions about holistic management, consumer relationships, and meat processing for direct markets. An informational handout was developed to accompany the Farm Walk. We created a podcast based on the Lazy R Ranch Farm Walk. It will be made publicly available and will be accessible to a broader audience of producers as well as consumers. We added "meat" to the product search categories of the Washington Food and Farm Finder (WFFF), and have worked to build and promote the meat listings in the past year (now at 447 listings). The WFFF is a product of the Eat Local First collaborative (which includes project partner WSU Extension), and serves as a resource to enable consumers, institutional food buyers, restaurants, retailers, and wholesale buyers to locate and purchase products directly from local food producers. Any producer in Washington State can be listed in the WFFF without charge. Work to continue building the visibility of Washington meats within the WFFF, thus strengthening the producer-consumer interface, is ongoing. We organized and held a public-facing beef producer panel discussion, held on April 19, 2024 at the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment. The objectives were to create a space to discuss challenges and opportunities for a more sustainable future in animal agriculture and ultimately build trust between producers and consumers. The panel consisted of three cattle ranchers (pasture-raised, grass-fed) and one feedlot operator. Topics discussed include current sustainability priorities, challenges on the horizon, and promising ways forward, including discussion around the public perception of cattle and policies that might aid in promoting sustainability. We shared project insights with stakeholders through presenting and engaging as panelists at meetings (Sustainable Agriculture Summit and Leman Swine Conference).
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Abraham, E. Unraveling Complexity, Trade-offs, and Synergies in Sustainable Animal Agriculture (Pork) Production. Allen D. Leman Swine Conference, September 16-19, 2023. St Paul, MN.
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Progress 07/01/22 to 06/30/23
Outputs
Target Audience: Beef, pork, and broiler producers, processors, and retailers Students Extension specialists Other researchers working with consumer perceptions of sustainability etc. Changes/Problems:Staffing and recruitment: We had a co-investigator move on from one of our project partner institutions (WSU) between the time of proposal preparation and the time of award. This required us to identify an alternate co-investigator at the institution, which created a lag in project activity from WSU and required some adjustments to the project workflow. We encountered difficulty in recruiting a postdoc at the project outset, both regarding the depth of the applicant pool and the post-pandemic willingness of candidates to relocate. Ultimately, we arrived at a solution where we were able to hire a postdoc half-time at project partner UMN (instead of full-time at UW as intended), and reallocate the remainder of the budget line to support graduate student research (and undergraduate research assistance) at UW. This turned out to be a largely beneficial solution, but has caused some delays in the project timeline due both to the initial delay in hiring and recruiting and the smaller portions of project-dedicated time distributed across more individuals with a various learning curves. Project timeline: Work is slightly behind schedule due to the initial staffing challenges and because the literature search for the scoping review returned significantly more hits than anticipated. The project is well-staffed now and work is proceeding smoothly. The delay in completion of research objectives will necessitate pushing back some of the project's outreach objectives so that they can fully leverage the research results. We will request a one-year NCE to ensure there is ample time for conclusion of research objectives and full dissemination of results. We do not foresee any significant obstacles to doing this, and are managing the project budget in accordance with the intention for an NCE. The most notable anticipated timing changes are: Producer and consumer outreach will begin in project year 2 but is anticipated to continue into a third project year. The majority of conference / professional meeting presentations will be delivered in 2024 rather than 2023. The policymakers workshop will be delivered in the third rather than second project year. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training Activities: Two undergraduate students received training in research methods: one related to qualitative data curation and one related to the systematic review process. Three masters students received training in research methods: one related to developing and conducting interviews and performing quantitative analysis, one related to performing qualitative analysis, and one in the systematic review process. All three also received training in general research best practices and data curation. One PhD student received training in research methods related to quantitative data analysis. One postdoctoral scholar received training in developing and conducting interviews and performing qualitative data analysis, as well as general research best practices and data curation. Professional Development: One graduate student, one postdoctoral scholar, one professional staff member and three project investigators attended, networked, and gained project-relevant knowledge and connections at professional conferences (the Sustainable Agriculture Summit and the Tilth Conference). One graduate student presented at a conference (the Cascadia Environmental, Occupational, and Population Health Conference). The graduate scholars cohort participated in regular study / professional development group activities. All project research trainees (two undergraduate students, four graduate students, one postdoc) gained practice in evaluating the scholarly work of others and presenting their own work via regular group meetings that included professional development activities. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The graduate scholars cohort - as students in interdisciplinary fields examining agricultural sustainability - are part of this project's target audience. Project framing, workplan, research updates, and background information were shared with them as part of their learning and professional development process. The Q sort research plan - an innovative approach to conducting research in the space of competing priorities - was presented to other researchers and students at the Cascadia Conference mentioned above. The majority of project outreach will take place in subsequent reporting periods, as research activities near completion. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period we will: Complete Q sort analysis and publish results. Conduct qualitative system mapping of the producer decision-making space related to environmental impacts and animal welfare. Complete and publish the scoping review of consumer research on this topic. Begin comparison of producer and consumer perceptions based on project research. Deliver the undergraduate course in animal agriculture sustainability, including collection data on student perceptions and evolution of thought, and preliminary analysis of the data. Conduct outreach to the value chain via meeting presentations, development and dissemination of outreach materials, and hosting producer-to-producer educational Farm Walks. Begin consumer-facing outreach via Farm Walk podcast creation. Request a one-year no-cost extension, which we anticipate will be necessary to fully complete and achieve all project objectives and goals.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Accomplishments during the first project year have been under objectives 1-3 listed above. Objective 1: Identify how producers and downstream value chain actors make and balance sustainability decisions, especially in response to consumer preferences and market trends and pressures related to these decisions. We convened an eight-member advisory committee composed of leaders from across project-relevant industries and organizations, representing both producer- and consumer-facing perspectives. The project team has met with the advisory committee at regular intervals to share progress and solicit feedback. The advisory committee has also advised on recruitment of participants for project research activities. This accomplishment ensures that project work is and remains well-informed by project stakeholder groups and well-tailored to the intended audiences. We conducted 12 'key informant interviews' with experts from beef, pork, and poultry industries. These were semi-structured interviews that focused on participants' perspectives on environmental impacts, animal welfare, producer/consumer mis/alignments, and tradeoffs. These interviews were of great value in informing and calibrating our lexicon for other subsequent research. We designed and conducted 41 'Q sort' interviews with beef, pork, and poultry producers representing different scales and geographies. The Q sort approach allowed us to examine "how do you prioritize when everything is a priority," focusing on a variety of environmental impact- and animal welfare-related priority statements. Data is currently being analyzed, and will ulitmately lead to an improved understanding of the different ways in which groups of producers value and prioritize different aspects of sustainability. Objective 2: Assess how existing research on consumer animal protein preferences frames the breadth and complexity of sustainability issues related to animal welfare and environmental impact and the extent to which this is aligned or misaligned with the breadth and complexity of producers' perceptions. We conducted a scoping review literature search for research articles examining consumer perceptions of meat sustainability. Our intial search yielded nearly 8,000 unique records, approximately 1,000 of which were retained after an initial screening of titles and abstracts for relevance to the study. We are in the process of screening the full text of those remaining articles to confirm their relevance. This will form the basis for a scoping review examining the state of consumer research on this topic, ultimately allowing comparisons to be made between consumer and producer perspectives. Objective 3: Apply an innovative educational approach to explore how the priorities and opinions of consumers about products and practices aimed at improving animal welfare and environmental impacts would change if they were informed about and weighed competing arguments. We provided mentorship and a focal topic for a seven-month interdisciplinary graduate scholars cohort program, in which students develop leadership skills while delving into complex topics of pressing concern to environmental sustainability. The cohort of 11 explored the topic of this project: complexity and tradeoffs in animal agriculture sustainability, and developed an iterative conceptual model of inputs, outputs, and feedback from an interdisciplinary perspective. The cohort considered decision-making, existing research, educational approaches, and consumer perspectives. This project activity contributed to the professional development of an interdisciplinary cohort of graduate students. The process and outputs will also inform future educational objectives of the project. We developed, submitted, and received approval of a proposal for an undergraduate course in animal agriculture sustainability. This course is now under development and will be offered in 2024. It will provide both education in the project topic as well as an important data source addressing the aims of Objective 3.
Publications
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