![conference_audience[1]](https://ruralsociologywageningen.nl/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/conference_audience1.jpg?w=300&h=200 "conference_audience[1]")
Last week (8 and 9 October) in Uppsala (Sweden) a conference about animal welfare was held. This event was the final stakeholder meeting of the EU-funded research project entitled ‘Welfare Quality’. Taking part in the project are researchers from many EU countries as well as Australia, Chile, Uruguay and other countries. Since 2004, they have been working on developing a system that will enable measurements of animal welfare levels. The conference focused on how the results of the project could be translated into practical action and how animal welfare can be improved at global level. In this project the Rural Sociology Group was responsible for the subproject on producers’ attitudes and practices with regard to animal welfare. The results were presented by Bettina Bock.
Tag Archives: Agriculture
Mariann Fischer Boel’s blog – How the EU supports the dairy sector
In her blog Mariann Fischers Boel list what the EU is already doing to support the dairy sector and what next, steady but firm steps as she argues, will be taken.
Good welfare of farmers as a precondition to provide welfare to pigs on farms
Last week, I was invited to the Animal Science Days in Padua to present my Master thesis results concerning the effect of farm modernization on the welfare of pigs in Croatia. I was given the opportunity to present my results twice; first, I presented my main results as an invited speaker and later I presented some aspects of my thesis in the form of a poster.
The main point of my study was that the modernization of Croatian housing systems, particularly small ones, does not necessarily ensure a better standard of pig welfare. This is because it often entails the removal of bedding and intensification of production, amongst others to reduce labour time and costs. Bedding such as straw is, however, important because it reduces injuries resulting from behavioural abnormalities directed towards pen mates (i.e. belly nosing, ear and tail chewing) and floor qualities. Also, across Europe intensification has risen much concern regarding the welfare of intensively housed animals. One can therefore suggest that Croatia needs to find a way to modernise its production units while retaining its beneficial aspects such as small scale and straw bedding.
In the course of my study, however, I found out that small pig farmers-which make up the majority of Croatian pig farmers- often lacked knowledge about the concept of pig welfare and the EU pig welfare directives. In fact, they seemed to be uninformed about the exact changes which will occur in the course of implementing the EU rules and regulations. This resulted on the one hand in frustration regarding their own lack of future perspective and on the other hand in a lack of interest regarding their motivation to ensure or improve the welfare of their pigs. The results thus suggest that motivations to ensure pig welfare are also dependent on the welfare of the pig farmers.
My main conclusion was therefore that in order to ensure animal welfare, it is necessary to ensure welfare of farmers as well. In order to ensure and improve pig welfare in the future, this topic needs to be approached from both social sciences and animal sciences in order to understand the close link between human and animal welfare. My presentation received great interest from the audience and I hope that this topic will be further elaborated in order to support small Croatian farmers and their pigs in the future.
Know your farmer, know your food
Recently I joined a Dutch internet Sustainable Food group. Today the convenor of this group informed the members about a new initiative of the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture): “Know your farmer, know your food”. The aim of this USDA initiative is to help more Americans understand where their food comes from and how they can support local food economies in their communities. The initiative was announced by USDA secretary Tom Vilsack in a YouTube video:
“An American people that is more engaged with their food supply will create new income opportunities for American agriculture. Reconnecting consumers and institutions with local producers will stimulate economies in rural communities, improve access to healthy, nutritious food for our families, and decrease the amount of resources to transport our food.”
While the White House kitchen garden and Obama’s idea to have a weekly farmers’ market at the White House (see my blog posted on 4 September) could have been perceived as ‘window dressing’, this USDA initiative surely gives the impression that the Obama administration is seriously attempting to fundamentally change US agrofood and rural development policy. Will, in this case, Obama’s campaign slogan – “Yes, we can” – become true?
Herinnering Discussiebijeenkomst Buitenlandse Ervaringen Multifunctionele Landbouw
Op donderdag 8 oktober 2009 organiseert de vakgroep Rurale Sociologie van Wageningen Universiteit een interessante discussiebijeenkomst over buitenlandse ervaringen van multifunctionele landbouw. Wat gebeurt er in het buitenland en wat kunnen we ervan leren?
Op de bijeenkomst geven een aantal toonaangevende internationale onderzoekers u een indruk van de ontwikkeling rond multifunctionele landbouw in Italië, het Verenigd Koninkrijk en Noorwegen. In de aansluitende forumdiscussie gaan we hierover met elkaar in debat. We verwachten ongeveer 80 tot 100 mensen uit o.a. praktijk, wetenschap, overheid en belangenbehartiging.
De bijeenkomst is interessant voor iedereen actief op het gebied van multifunctionele landbouw en meer wil weten over de betekenis van buitenlandse ervaringen voor Nederland. Als u graag over (uw) grenzen heen kijkt, dan mag u deze bijeenkomst niet missen!
Datum: Donderdag 8 oktober 2009
Tijd: 13.00 – 17.00 uur
Locatie: Landgoed Heerlijkheid Mariënwaerdt, De Hooge Schuur, ‘t Klooster 5 in Beesd
Aan deelname van deze bijeenkomst zijn geen kosten verbonden, de voertaal is Engels.
Programma
12.30 Ontvangst (koffie/thee)
13.00 Opening door dagvoorzitter
Krijn Poppe – Chief Science Officer Agroketens en Visserij, ministerie van LNV
13.05 Welkomstwoord
Frans van Verschuer – eigenaar Landgoed Heerlijkheid Mariënwaerdt, Beesd
13.15 Dynamiek en robuustheid multifunctionele landbouw – introductie onderzoeksproject en presentatie eerste resultaten
Han Wiskerke – projectcoördinator en hoogleraar Rurale Sociologie, Wageningen Universiteit
13.30 Multifunctionele landbouw in Italië – de ‘rural disctrict approach’ in Toscane
Gianluca Brunori – hoogleraar Agrarische Economie, Universiteit van Pisa, Italië
14.00 Multifunctionele landbouw in het Verenigd Koninkrijk – de rol van de staat en de publieke sector
Roberta Sonnino – universitair docent Milieubeleid, Universiteit van Cardiff, Verenigd Koninkrijk
14.30 Multifunctionele landbouw in Noorwegen – een presentatie door:
Katrina Rønningen – senior onderzoeker, Centrum voor Plattelandsonderzoek, Universiteit van Trondheim, Noorwegen (uitgenodigd)
15.00 Pauze
15.30 Dynamiek van plattelandsontwikkeling en landbouw wereldwijd – een vergelijking tussen Europa, China en Brazilië
Jan Douwe van der Ploeg – hoogleraar Transitiestudies, Wageningen Universiteit
16.00 Forumdiscussie – inspirerende lessen voor multifunctionele landbouw in Nederland
16.55 Afsluiting door dagvoorzitter
17.00 Borrel
Aanmelden
Meld u aan met het aanmeldformulier. Wij willen u er op wijzen dat er een beperkt aantal deelnameplaatsen beschikbaar zijn. Voor aanvullende informatie neem contact op met Corine Diepeveen via corine.diepeveen@wur.nl of 0317 – 484507.
De discussiemiddag wordt georganiseerd in het kader van het onlangs gestarte onderzoeksproject ‘Dynamiek en Robuustheid van Multifunctionele Landbouw’. Het onderzoek is ondersteunend aan de Taskforce Multifunctionele Landbouw en wordt gefinancierd door het ministerie van LNV.
Rural Sociology Wageningen University 