Residents’ and farmers’ perspectives on risks and benefits of intensive livestock farming

Figures & data

Table 1. Socio-demographic characteristics of participants.

Demographics	Variable	Total (n = 44)
		Local residents (n = 13)	Active citizens (n = 5)	Farmers (n = 9)	Farmer representatives (n = 8)	Other stakeholders (n = 9)^2
Gender	Male	9	3	9	7	6
	Female	4	2	0	1	3
Age (years)^3	18–34	1	0	1	0	0
	35–44	0	1	4	1	2
	45–54	3	0	3	6	3
	55–64	3	0	0	1	5
	>65	6	4	1	0	0
Employment status	Retired	8
	Paid job	4
	Unemployed	1
Education	Low (no or primary education)	0	0	2	0	0
	Average (secondary education)	8	0	6	2	0
	High (tertiary education)	5	5	1	6	9
General health status	Excellent	2		7
	Very Good	5		1
	Good	5		1
	Fair	1		0
	Poor	0		0
Distance farm (metres)	0–199	3
	200–399	6
	400–599	2
	600–799	0
	800–999	0
	≥1000	2
Farm type (more than 1 answer possible) & for farmers number of livestock animals (thousands)	Pigs	12		4 (3000-
	Poultry	5		10,000)
	Cows	2		3 (10,000-300,000)
	Goats	0		0 2 (3000 – 10,000)
Duration of home residency (years)	0–19	4
	20–39	4
	40–59	4
	60–79	1

Notes: ²Government officials (n = 4), health professionals (n = 3) and representatives of an environment agency (n = 2)³ age in 2019

Table 2. Residents' (local residents and active citizens; n = 18) and farmers' (farmers and farmer representatives; n = 17) appraisals towards intensive livestock farming.

Topics	Themes (residents)	Themes (farmers)
General views of ILF	1 “Livestock factories”
	2 Farmers are having a hard time and are financially trapped
	3 Negative image of farmers	1 Unjust negative image in the society
		2 Society lacks knowledge about intensive livestock farming
		3 Farmers need to be more transparent
	4 Production for the world at the expense of the living environment	4 Efficient, innovative and essential for food provision
Risks for human health and well-being	5 Source of daily hinder	5 Odour hindrance is a point of attention
	6 Threat of a zoonotic disease outbreak	6 No threat to human health (antibiotic-resistant bacteria and Q fever are “under control”)
	7 Air pollution causes negative effects on the respiratory tract
Risk for animals and nature	8 Negative impact on nature, animal welfare, biodiversity and landscape	7 More beneficial for animal welfare than traditional farming
Risk mitigation	9 Intensive livestock farming (in residential areas) needs to be reduced	8 Reduction of intensive livestock farming is not an option
	10 Technology is not the solution	9 Technology is the solution
Risk regulation	11 Policies are ambiguous and unsubstantiated	10 National authorities do not honour existing commitments and change the rules
	12 Farmers are supported at the expense of residents
	13 Rules are not enforced