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An Exploratory Study of the Influence of Attitudes toward Animal Welfare on Meat Consumption in Ghana

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Abstract

Meat is an important source of nutrients for human health and wellbeing. However, because meat intake is reportedly linked to diseases such as obesity, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and other health problems, more and more people are reducing meat consumption in the developed world. Yet in developing countries, maternal and childhood malnutrition continue to bedevil people due to a lack of or inadequate consumption of meat and other foods rich in protein. In this paper, we undertook an exploratory study of the influence of attitudes toward animal welfare on meat consumption among Ghanaians. After controlling for other covariates of meat consumption, we found that people who express concern about animal welfare are significantly less likely to consume meat in Ghana.

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Notes

  1. Because 65.3% of respondents were aged 30 or less, it could be that the majority of them were actually out of the labor force. In Ghana, most school going young adults especially those in the university, colleges of education and nursing training college usually go to school on full-time basis and do not concurrently hold a job. This could explain the high unemployment rate.

  2. Admittedly, the proportion of respondents in our sample who were Muslim was disproportionately high. This is because most of the surveys were administered in Tamale and other towns in Northern Region where the majority of the people are Muslim. For instance, according to the 2010 Housing and Population Census, while about only 17.6% of Ghanaians were Muslim, 60% of residents of Northern region were Muslim, making Islam the dominant religion in that region (Ghana Statistical Service, 2012).

  3. We are sincerely grateful to an anonymous reviewer for pointing this out to us.

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Acknowledgements

AF acknowledges the support of the Humane Slaughter Association (HSA) through an Animal Welfare Research Training (PhD) Scholarship and also the support of AHDB Beef and Lamb.

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  1. School of Veterinary Science, University of Bristol, Langford, Bristol, BS40 5DU, UK

    Awal Fuseini

  2. Department of Economics, University of Ghana, P.O. Box LG 57, Legon, Accra, Ghana

    Iddisah Sulemana

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Fuseini, A., Sulemana, I. An Exploratory Study of the Influence of Attitudes toward Animal Welfare on Meat Consumption in Ghana. Food ethics 2, 57–75 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41055-018-0028-6

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