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Comparing diet-based farming system Market demand and supply Protection Farms Animal Welfare Standard Meeting Expected Market Demand |
Market Demand and Supply Protection Farms are set to occupy a niche market with enormous potential, ideally suited to meet the needs of the target consumer - the vegetarian and ethical ‘green’ consumer. Protection Farms present to the target consumer a new choice between food produced with cruelty or food produced without cruelty. To choose Protection Farms’ produce will end an uncomfortable situation faced by many people who want a cruelty-free diet. Presently, animal-derived products such as milk, eggs, wool and leather come from a farming system that slaughters all of its animals. With Protection Farms, at the beginning of the 21st century, it will soon be possible to buy produce derived from protected farm animals. As Protection Farms are unique compared to conventional and organic farms, so are the values and the necessary premium prices that support the farm. The true market prices for Protection Farms’ products are still unclear as there is as yet no working commercial model in the West. Protection Farms target market is the vegetarian and ‘green’ ethical consumer. For the success of Protection Farms the target consumer must be willing to substitute conventional or organic produce for Protection Farms produce; as long as price, quality, distribution and availability are within acceptable margins to enable each farm unit to be a profitable venture. VEDA believes that there is a desire for a healthier, more environmentally sound, sustainable, human and animal-friendly form of farming and that Protection Farms is the solution to fulfil all the latter criteria. VEDA
believes that the societal values to enable Protection Farms to
work are there, and with further information these values could
produce the necessary demand from the target consumer. It will then
be up to the producers to make the goods and services available
for consumption and to set the new market prices. Consumer demand
is based on many factors - time, place, the values and choices of
the consumer; plus the quality, availability and price of the products
and services. 50 years ago the values of the Western population
did not appreciate farms with protected animals; the time, place
and values relating to the quality of Protection Farms’ produce
did not form the demand to produce an available supply at any price
other than the same as the conventional competition. As it costs
more to maintain animals than to kill them then Protection Farms
was a non-starter. The vegetarian diet and animal-welfare movement
in the West has been moving forward for the last few decades, and
it is now challenging the accepted paradigm of meat by slaughter.
But a part of the jigsaw piece for the vegetarian diet and animal
welfare standards is missing. This missing piece is Protection Farms. |