This dissertation focuses broadly on the U.S. domestic meat and poultry industries, more specifically on issues related to developing and adopting policies and programs for two niche markets – halal and farm animal welfare friendly. Halal meat and poultry products meet the religious dietary restrictions for Muslim consumers, specifically those related to the slaughter process for animals. The first two essays focus on the halal market, while the third focuses on farm animal welfare policy adoption. The first chapter is concerned with meat and poultry processors’ and retailers’ decision-making patterns related to supplying halal meat and poultry in the U.S. domestic market. There has been strong ongoing demand growth for halal meat and poultry products in the U.S., but a relative dearth of processors and retailers entering the market to supply these goods. This essay seeks to understand if there are differences in preferences and business decision-making behavior between agents in the halal market and agents outside to suggest methods in which to increase market participation. To do this, I utilize a mixed methods design consisting of interviews with halal processors and retailers and survey data from halal and non-halal processors and retailers. My methodology consists of analyzing Likert scale data using descriptive statistics, principal components analysis, and k-means clustering to reveal patterns and group respondents for comparison. My results show that businesses that may expand into the halal market have been established longer and more likely to be retailers or further processors. The second chapter focuses on market participants’ preferences for designing a U.S. national halal meat and poultry certification program. The development of such a program serves as a potential solution to food fraud stemming from an overabundance of confusing and commonly contradictory certifications already in the market, similar to the issues that lead to the creation of the USDA Organic standard. I again use a mixed methods approach of halal consumer, retailer, and processor interviews paired with national stacked surveys containing best-worst scaling questions to investigate preferences for the design of a U.S. national halal meat and poultry certification program. Results show that the market overall prefers that program designers consider most carefully Who/What is Certified, Halal Standards, and Costs. Additional results show preferences for which organizations should be involved in setting and/or enforcing this program, namely government (enforcement only), non-government, religious, and certifier organizations. Finally, the data indicated that multiple transparency and traceability measures should be included to ensure a robust and trustworthy program. In all, this chapter aids in bolstering halal meat consumer confidence in product authenticity and improves the equity of the U.S. food system. The final chapter explores modeling of farm animal welfare regulation adoption across the U.S. In the U.S., 19 state-level bills and ballot initiatives concerning farm animal welfare (FAW) have been adopted across 12 states. In this chapter, myself and my co-authors seek to model the evolution of the state-level FAW regulatory landscape as a function of legislature characteristics and constituent demographics. More specifically, we utilize a two-stage model known as a multinomial endogenous switching regression to assess whether and when a given state considers FAW measures, and if so, the likelihood the measures are passed. Using this model, we estimate the likelihood of FAW adoption for all 50 states. Additionally, we find that the cost to the egg and pork industries to upgrade to cage- and crate-free production methods in the states most likely to pass a FAW regulation in the future is small relative to the size of the industry. Our findings will assist producers and industry stakeholders in gauging the future of the regulatory landscape and provide guidance on whether to upgrade existing enclosures to comply with mandates on the horizon or to continue operating with “conventional” enclosures.
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