Is Animal Welfare Promoting Hornless Cattle? Assessing Consumer's Valuation for Milk from Gene-edited Cows under Different Information Regimes

Due to its ability to achieve genetic engineering goals without transgene modifications, gene-editing is fast becoming a predominant genetic-engineering breeding technique and a range of food-related applications have already been developed. Yet, it remains unclear whether consumers would perceive gene-edited food products differently from so-called first-generation genetic engineering or from genetic modification, and how information about its benefits might alter consumer choice. Focusing on a recent gene-editing application in animal production, the genetic dehorning of dairy cows, this study uses data from a survey of 1,000 US consumers to determine: (i) consumer willingness-to-pay for milk from cows that have been gene-edited to be hornless; and (ii) consumers' response to information about how the gene-editing technology works, how it differs from genetic modification, and its benefits for animal welfare. Information treatments utilise videos to maximise respondents' understanding. Results from parametric and semi-parametric choice models suggest that: (i) information on animal welfare has the strongest effect on consumer willingness-to-pay for milk produced from conventionally and genetically dehorned cows; and (ii) that providing respondents with more information leads to an increasingly wider spread of the preference distributions in the positive and negative domain uncovering a further polarisation of preferences and confirming the heterogeneous impact of information on preferences.

Automated summary

Gene-editing technology is rapidly becoming a predominant genetic-engineering breeding technique due to its ability to achieve genetic engineering goals without transgene modifications. Consumers' perception of gene-edited food products and their response to information about its benefits remain unclear, with information strongly influencing consumer preferences.