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The Meat in the Sandwich: Welfare Labelling and the Governance of Meat‐chicken Production in Australia
Author(s) -
Parker Christine,
Carey Rachel,
Scrinis Gyorgy
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of law and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.263
H-Index - 48
eISSN - 1467-6478
pISSN - 0263-323X
DOI - 10.1111/jols.12119
Subject(s) - labelling , animal welfare , corporate governance , production (economics) , business , government (linguistics) , welfare , space (punctuation) , public economics , economics , market economy , sociology , finance , biology , ecology , linguistics , philosophy , criminology , macroeconomics
This article critically examines the degree to which higher‐animal welfare label claims change animal welfare regulation and governance within intense meat‐chicken ('broiler') production in Australia. It argues that ethical labelling claims on food and other products can be seen as a ‘governance space’ in which various government, industry and civil society actors compete and collaborate for regulatory impact. It concludes that ethical labelling can act as a pathway for re‐embedding social concerns in the market, but only when it prompts changes that become enshrined in standard practice and possibly the law itself. Moreover, the changes wrought by ethical labelling are small and incremental. Nevertheless, labelling may create ongoing productive tension and ‘overflow’ that challenges the market to listen to and accommodate actors (including animals) on the margins to create ongoing incremental changes.