How people like you are making a difference to market pressures and demanding a better world.
Case study 6 of 6:
Pig floor
1 Jeff thinks some methods are better than others
Jeff has some understanding of the range of conditions in pig farms. In particular he has can pick out one variable that he thinks really makes a difference and indicates a better product, which is providing a deep floor to dig and root in.
He, from everything he has seen from his work with pigs, would like to share his views on this kind of floor.
Sure, just fixing the floor is not everything. He could also write about many things: Such as keeping them as family units, breeding them so they are healthy, providing good food, not abusing antibiotics, keeping them entertained, and not having to mutilate their bodies to keep them together. But he has got time to really discuss the floor.
Jeff may know this. He may swear to never buy from barren floor systems but him knowing this doesn’t seem to affect the attitudes of the majority of consumers. (also its quite hard for jeff to know if it is barren floored or not). Most people seem to not really take the news about it to heart in the same way. They don’t seem to be affected by occasional news stories buzzing around in amongst the rest of the noise. The mob may just believe that it can’t really be that bad or else the government would do something about it. Or at least will not believe enough to take a personal hit for it in terms of giving away more money for a similar (seeming) item.
2 He uses Follow This Food to create a community answer on the topic of pig flooring
Jeff comes come on to Follow This Food and joins in with creating, and peer reviewing, an answer that explains all he knows about the different floor pigs get and how. He works on it and if he is satisfied it worded right, and sounds right, then he can put his name (or pseudonym) under it to give it his stamp of approval. So too may many other people as well as organisations.
View the answer here:
Can you give an overview and assess different flooring pigs will be provided with?
This peer reviewed answer, involving key people in the field, gets linked to the physical products.
4 The things they describe can be claimed on products that do it
So when Maria comes along and buys a block of butter that claims to be particularly ethical to the cattle. She can find out more. Just at what end of the scale, which Jeff and other have laid out, does the product score for how the cattles habitat has been.
[labels could say:
Kept on deep bed floor, rich and varied diet including acorns, safe antibiotic policy, mutilation unnecessary, excellent pig environment, scan for more and explanations..
5 Scanning the label shows Maria about the producer and all the information collected using tracking technology
6 She can compare different communities answers so can be critical of the claims made
Maria might not trust how the article has been written so can come and see who is involved and who endorses this view. She can find out if they are real people who just want to let people know what is good or if they are marketers simply intent on making money who will spin a myth about farming to sell their low grade spaff (what’s the word).
In answer to the same commonly asked question, which this community answer is from, there may be other answers representing different viewpoints. This may require, and encourage, the reader to be critical and look between the views and decide for themselves which one feels right. (As well other common questions can be found attached to a topic that holds them all together too)
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