Report Reveals – The Great Self-Deception for the Supermarket Shelf

The outrage in letters to the editor and online commentaries is always great when a new ‘meat scandal’ comes to light and shocking images of horrific animal farming are made public. No wonder, nobody wants to have meat on their plate that comes from a stressed and sick animal that has never seen the light of day. Interestingly enough, you always hear everywhere that many people think that they are not part of this problem.

We preach organic quality, but choose the cheapest
“If we buy meat from companies where we’ve looked at the barns,” “I don’t buy cheap deals at discount stores,” or “We only buy the highest quality organic goods”—that’s the sentiment in many places. In a survey by the AMA, 48 percent—nearly every second person—said animal welfare is important to them when shopping.

LagerBut the reality at the supermarket checkout tells a different story. The organic portion of our meat purchases amounts to a meager four percent. If we choose organic production, we do so primarily with milk and dairy products.

Dairy products top the list
About a quarter of a carton of milk can be organic, and for natural yoghurt more than a fifth. In addition, almost nine percent of butter is bought organically and almost eight percent of cheese. So we dream of the beautiful meadows and the farmer with the cute pig that the advertising promises us so colourfully, but then we still choose cheaper, conventionally kept goods.

“This is exactly the dilemma we are currently facing in the discussion about pig farming and fully slatted floors. We reject that, we have very high demands on livestock farming and production, but then we buy the cheapest one,” says Maria Fanninger, founder of “Land Creates Life”. This week, the association presented its current report on food consumption and shows the contradictory consumer behavior of Austrians.

Our hard-working farmers must therefore be supported by society and politics if, on the one hand, they want to introduce the highest animal welfare standards, but on the other hand, too few people buy these more expensive products from them. Minister of Agriculture Norbert Totschnig is aware of these circumstances and now wants to provide more incentives to strengthen organic farming.

Austria must remain the number one organic country
From 2025, an additional 30 million euros will be available annually for organic farms. “My goal is for Austria to remain the number one organic country,” says Totschnig.

But we all have to do our part, because every purchase on the shelf is also a production order. Many people don’t even realize how much power they have over their consumer behavior. Anyone who thinks about what they actually want while shopping and then looks at what is in the shopping cart can easily make a statement.

This is how organic becomes a success story
Our farmers do valuable work every day and produce products that other countries envy. Norbert Hackl was named one of the best three in Europe in 2022 with his organic farm “Labonca”! The “sun pigs” on the farm are allowed to run, root and wallow. The slaughter takes place in the pasture slaughterhouse without transport routes.

The organic farm Esterhazy, with the brand “Pannatura”, has also converted all its agricultural land to purely organic farming for more than 20 years. The organic Angus suckler cow herd, which currently numbers around 120, has been a supplement to the organic farming at Seehof since 2006. During the summer months, the cattle graze on the dry grassland along the reed belt of Lake Neusiedl and protect this habitat from encroachment by shrubs. Managing Director Matthias Grün has perfectly expanded the sales channels and relies on a mix of on-farm sales, online marketing and selected partners in the food retail trade.

Imagine you have to choose between pork from a humane livestock farm and pork from a non-humane livestock farm. What would you choose? The answer is probably theoretically clear to most people. In fact, we are confronted with exactly this choice in the supermarket every day – and then we do not choose animal welfare, but the cheapest meat.

According to research, animal welfare is important to one in two people when buying meat. Yet the organic share is only four percent. Why? We are masters of making loud demands but doing nothing about it. Instead, we shift the responsibility – to politicians, to retailers, to farmers. It is time to admit honestly to ourselves: no one forces us to buy food that we don’t actually want. Not even the cheapest price.