Developments in consumer concerns about animal production in the 1980s and their influence on meat marketing and its regulation

Concern about the way animals are treated in the context of food production varies considerably from society to society and over time. The 1980s have seen in Europe a growing awareness on the part of interest groups and media commentators that the pressure for greater productivity and efficiency has led animal production practice in directions increasingly unacceptable to many. The concerns embrace, inter alia, mutilation, confinement, effects on the environment, pollution, the unnaturalness of the housing and feeding Systems, the use of various methods for stimulating growth and carcass leanness and, most recently, embryo and genetic manipulation. The major effects of these increasing concerns are discussed.