Community Testing and Sentiments on pork production

Environment
14 July 2021
Completed Project
Sustainability
Project goal

The aim of this project was to understand current community feelings about the pork industry and meat in general. The research was critical to informing the development of the Pork Sustainability Framework, particularly the Community Goals as well as providing data for APL’s initial Sustainability report.

On this page

Project summary

This project was a combination of a qualitative and quantitative exploration of community sentiment and pork. 54 participants from metro Sydney and regional NSW were interviewed and involved in guided focus groups to understand the initial key themes that arise when discussing pork. This was followed by a 2000 participant nationally representative (based off the 2016 census) online survey, as well as a boosted sample of 200 vegetarians and vegans to understand the key feelings of the community.

The results found that the average Australian doesn’t know much about the Australian pork industry, with only 1 in 5 feeling they were knowledgeable about industry practices, however only 37% were interested in learning more. 69% of people had a neutral or ‘I don’t know’ opinion of the industry. Pork rejection was mainly due to religious reasons followed by treatment of animals and taste. This contrasted to general meat rejectors whose choices were based on treatment of animals, environmental concerns, sustainability and health.

Value for producers

  • Understanding of how the average Australian feels about pork and the pork industry, the results showing that Australians have mostly neutral feelings toward pork
  • The project enabled the development of the Pork Sustainability Framework which strongly demonstrates the industry’s credentials Recommendations
  • That the pork industry share more stories and information on how they farm to increase community knowledge
Research enquiries