TY - JOUR
T1 - Contrasting perspectives on the risks of intensive livestock farming in The Netherlands
T2 - a survey study
AU - Eijrond, V.
AU - Claassen, L.
AU - Timmermans, D.
N1 - Funding Information: This research was funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw), project name: Talk in Action; grant number 50-52200-98-325. The authors would like to acknowledge Lotte van Burgsteden, Joke van der Giessen, Renske Nijdam, Hedwig te Molder, Danielle van Oudheusden, Joost van der Ree and Joyce Zwartkruis for their advisory role. Moreover, the authors would like to thank everyone who participated in the survey. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2023/5/30
Y1 - 2023/5/30
N2 - In the Netherlands, intensive livestock farming is a recurrent topic of societal debate with stakeholders having quite different perspectives on the benefits and harms. In particular, stakeholders appear to have different perceptions on the risks to human and animal health. This paper reports a quantitative analysis of a survey on the perceptions of risks and benefits of intensive livestock farming conducted among the general public, including people living in livestock dense municipalities (n = 808), farmers (n = 237) and other stakeholders (n = 367). Results show that farmers and citizens have contrasting views about the benefits and concerns and in particular about the risks of intensive livestock farming for human health as well as animal well-being. People living in livestock dense communities held a somewhat more positive view than the general public, yet odour hinder and air quality was perceived as a serious health problem, but not by farmers. These differences in risk perceptions may well be explained from differences in interest, experience and options for control of potential hazards. Our study reflects more than just the perceived risks related to intensive livestock farming, but also reveal the global and multidimensional legitimate concerns and views on what matter to different groups of people. We argue that these differences in risk perspectives should be taken into account when communicating about human health risks, and should also be more explicitly addressed in discussions about the risks of intensive livestock farming in order to develop more inclusive policies that are supported by stakeholders.
AB - In the Netherlands, intensive livestock farming is a recurrent topic of societal debate with stakeholders having quite different perspectives on the benefits and harms. In particular, stakeholders appear to have different perceptions on the risks to human and animal health. This paper reports a quantitative analysis of a survey on the perceptions of risks and benefits of intensive livestock farming conducted among the general public, including people living in livestock dense municipalities (n = 808), farmers (n = 237) and other stakeholders (n = 367). Results show that farmers and citizens have contrasting views about the benefits and concerns and in particular about the risks of intensive livestock farming for human health as well as animal well-being. People living in livestock dense communities held a somewhat more positive view than the general public, yet odour hinder and air quality was perceived as a serious health problem, but not by farmers. These differences in risk perceptions may well be explained from differences in interest, experience and options for control of potential hazards. Our study reflects more than just the perceived risks related to intensive livestock farming, but also reveal the global and multidimensional legitimate concerns and views on what matter to different groups of people. We argue that these differences in risk perspectives should be taken into account when communicating about human health risks, and should also be more explicitly addressed in discussions about the risks of intensive livestock farming in order to develop more inclusive policies that are supported by stakeholders.
KW - Risk perception
KW - intensive livestock farming
KW - mental models
KW - risk communication
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85165137024&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2023.2231003
DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2023.2231003
M3 - Article
C2 - 38013909
SN - 1366-9877
VL - 26
SP - 911
EP - 930
JO - Journal of Risk Research
JF - Journal of Risk Research
IS - 9
ER -