Food Labelling & Animal Welfare
This research theme addresses the politics and governance of food labels, with a focus on animal welfare and nutrition labelling.
Grants
ARC Discovery Grant (2015-2019)
Governing Food Labelling: The Case of ‘Free Range’ Animal Products in Australia
- Chief Investigators: Christine Parker, Gyorgy Scrinis
- Research Fellow: Rachel Carey
- Project Description: The food label has become an important site of contestation and controversy with respect to a range of health, safety, environmental and ethical issues across the food system. This project will examine the regulation of food labelling in Australia through a focus on free range labelled eggs and animal products. It will shed light on the dynamics of how a network of food producers, retailers, private certification organisations, and regulatory agencies are responding to changing demands for ethical and quality foods. The project will develop new strategies for a more effective, legitimate and stakeholder-inclusive approach to regulating food labels.
- Project Website: Governing Food Labelling
Publications
- Scrinis, G., Parker, C., & Carey, R. (2017). ‘The Caged Chicken or the Free Range Egg? The Regulatory and Market Dynamics of Layer-Hen Welfare in the UK, Australia and the USA’. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 30 (5), 783-808.
- Scrinis, G and Parker, C (2016) Front-of-pack labelling and the politics of nutritional nudges Law & Policy 38(3): 234-249.
- Parker, C, and Scrinis, G (2014). ‘Out of the cage and into the barn: supermarket power, food system governance and the regulation of free range eggs’, Griffith Law Review, 23(2), 318-347.
- Carey, R, Parker, C & Scrinis, G. (2020) How free is sow stall free? Incremental regulatory reform and industry co-optation of animal activism, Law and Policy, 42(3).
- Parker, C., Carey, R., & Scrinis, G. (2019). ‘The Consumer Labelling Turn in Farmed Animal Welfare Politics: From the Margins of Animal Advocacy to Mainstream Supermarket Shelves’. In M. Phillipov & K. Kirkwood (Eds.), Alternative Food Politics: From the Margins to the Mainstream. London: Routledge, p.193-215.
- Parker, C., Scrinis, G., Carey, R., & Boehm, L. (2018). A public appetite for poultry welfare regulation reform: Why higher welfare labelling is not enough. Alternative Law Journal, 43(4), 238-243.
- Parker, C., Carey, R. and Scrinis, G. (2018) The meat in the sandwich: Welfare labelling and the governance of meat-chicken production in Australia. Journal of Law and Society 45(3): 341-69.
- Carey, R, Parker, C, and Scrinis, G (2017) Capturing the meaning of “free range”: The contest between producers, supermarkets and consumers for the higher welfare egg label in Australia. Journal of Rural Studies 54: 266-275.
- Parker, C, Carey, R, De Costa, R and Scrinis, G. (2017) Can the hidden hand of the market be an effective and legitimate regulator? The case of animal welfare under a labeling for consumer choice policy approach Regulation and Governance..DOI: 10.1111/rego.12147