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Agriculture and associated services are central to the rural economy of the United Kingdom. Rural veterinary enterprises are important providers of services to livestock producers, but are now facing concerns over their future economic viability. The objectives of this chapter are to outline the changes occurring in the veterinary and agricultural sectors, and to explore the main issues affecting veterinary enterprises in a changing business environment.

This is a conceptual chapter contextualised mainly within the United Kingdom. As such, the methodological approach comprises a critical review of current academic literatures, as well as government reports and relevant media articles.

The findings demonstrate that the commercial success of rural veterinary enterprises is critical to ensuring the future provision of high-quality animal health services to both farmers and government. The current issues facing farmers are likely to affect their willingness and resources to invest in veterinary services. Furthermore, farmers may have doubts as to vets’ ability to provide business-focussed services that add value. In addition, many public services are outsourced to private veterinary enterprises, and forthcoming policy changes are expected to lead to reduced income from public sources for both vets and their livestock farming clients. While wider issues affecting agriculture are beyond the control of private veterinary practitioners, veterinary enterprises will need to ensure that they can deal with such challenges and, where required, adapt their services accordingly.

The chapter is based on a review of extant literatures, and the scope of the research is therefore limited to existing knowledge about the farm animal veterinary business landscape.

The chapter summarises current knowledge of the challenges facing rural veterinary enterprises. While some of the issues described are specific to the veterinary sector, many are also relevant to other rural SMEs providing knowledge-intensive services to farmers. The chapter also describes areas requiring further empirical research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the attitude of UK pig farmers to the delivery of improved farm animal welfare standards and to investigate how they contribute to this objective through their membership of a range of different farm assurance schemes.

The analysis focuses on three main groups of pig farmers: farmers engaged in conventional farm assurance schemes; farmers participating in specific animal welfare schemes; and certified organic farmers. In total 54 farmers were interviewed about their participation in farm assurance schemes and their attitudes to animal welfare and towards the retailers and consumers they supply. Each answer was analysed individually and a list of themes identified for each type of scheme. These were compared and synthesised in an overall analysis.

The analysis identified how differently or similarly the different groups of farmers viewed the issues related to animal welfare. The findings revealed that, while farmers shared some attitudes regardless of the schemes in which they participated, there were differences between schemes in certain key areas such as farmers' motives for participation.

Although the sample was limited to England (the main focus of pig production in the UK) and was not random, farmers were selected to reflect the geographical distribution of production and the range of relevant schemes.

This study adds to the limited literature that focuses on farmers' views, attitudes and perceptions with regard to animal welfare. The paper is of value to stakeholders involved in the food chain who have an interest in animal welfare such as farmers, retailers, consumers and policy makers.

The primary purpose of this study is to investigate whether welfare issues are important to consumers also relating to fish. Second, it aims to identify segments based on animal and fish welfare issues, environmental concerns and ambivalence about farmed fish.

A questionnaire was designed to investigate consumers' concern for environmental and animal and fish welfare issues together with variables used in profiling segments in the study. The measurement scales used here are adapted from validated scales in previous studies. The survey was conducted in Valencia, Spain, among 450 randomly‐chosen respondents.

Animal welfare issues related to farmed fish do not seem to be important for the consumers in Valencia. There are, however, differences among the consumers relating to general environmental and animal welfare concern, and ambivalence. Three segments were identified: the unconcerned (27 per cent), the wild fish concerned (34.5 per cent) and the ambivalent (38.5 per cent). Attitudes toward farmed fish, the importance of natural food and social class were most important in profiling differences between clusters.

The findings indicate that the animal welfare issue has not yet become a barrier for farmed fish in Valencia. The results may help fish‐farming companies to find their target group among the consumers, based on environmental and animal welfare issues. The results also indicate that there are consumers who are somewhat ambivalent about farmed fish. For this group, more information and knowledge can change their attitudes so they become more positive toward farmed fish in the future.

The paper provides useful information for fish‐farming companies or the authorities planning healthy‐eating campaigns targeting fish.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on economics literature on antimicrobial and alternative uses in food animal production on its current state, its drivers, impacts and policy, and provides a general picture of the research for this special agricultural input and future directions for the research and policy.

Reduction of antimicrobial uses in food animal production is relevant to both preventing antimicrobial resistance and ensuring global food security. This study focuses on reviewing antimicrobial impact on global food security, particularly in farm production by documenting the main drivers, functions and alternatives of antimicrobial animal uses, comparing different approaches used in evaluating its production effects and providing recommendations for future research and policy development.

Three main approaches, controlled animal experiments, comparisons between with and without using antimicrobials at the farm level and comparisons before and after antimicrobial ban as growth promoter, have been used in measuring food security effects of antimicrobial uses in food animal production. They are, however, answering different questions with different measuring conditions. The positive production impact of antimicrobial use is often associated to its functions as a growth promoter and in preventing and treating diseases. In this review the author question the technical legitimacy for antimicrobials as a growth promoter and argue that antimicrobials should be treated as a special class of conditional and supportive input in farm production instead of using it as a normal input in its impact evaluation.

An approach of combining damage control function and disease epidemiological model instead of a simplified production function should be used in its impact evaluation including in evaluating those used as antimicrobial growth promoters.

In reducing antimicrobial uses in animal production, apart from more active adoption of the alternatives, we call for a better understanding for the decision makings of antimicrobial use in the production process including government-veterinarian-farm links.

This study examines the main issues in current economic research in antimicrobial food animal production, clarifies ambiguities in antimicrobial production functions and in different approaches used in impact evaluation, provides a roadmap for reduction of antimicrobial uses and a new approach for the policy evaluation.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the sustainability of small rural veterinary enterprise in light of recent changes in both the farming and veterinary sectors. The overarching research question relates to how small rural veterinary enterprises, especially those at the start-up stage, can meet the needs of their farming clients while ensuring their service offering is both viable and sustainable.

The paper draws on relevant rural enterprise and veterinary literatures as well as case data, and applies selected elements of Scott’s (2008) 7-P sustainability framework.

The authors find that the future sustainability of rural veterinary SMEs is dependent on the veterinary business owners being prepared to change with their clients, develop supportive partnerships and create effective marketing strategies. The authors use the findings to construct an innovative business model to help improve future sustainability of farm animal veterinary business.

The paper adopts a single case approach.

Some policy implications are discussed alongside avenues for future research. The paper contributes to the rural enterprise, agriculture and veterinary business literatures.

This is one of the few rural enterprise studies contextualized in the veterinary sector. The findings should be of value to both practitioners and policy makers concerned with ensuring future sustainability in this important sector.

Greater attention to and anxiety about farm animal welfare emerged at the end of the 20th century, as worries over food safety and food quality (connected to the BSE, FMD, avian influenza and other epidemics) pushed farm animal welfare into public discourse and political debate. This chapter looks at one of the ways in which consumers’ concerns and anxieties about animal welfare are addressed by the Soil Association (the United Kingdom), whose standard is based on a scheme of production that endorses animals’ natural life in the case of certification of organic eggs in the United Kingdom. Drawing on STS approaches it addresses the processes of producing ‘naturalness’ as food ‘attribute’ (to borrow from economics) and how ‘the natural life of hens’ is achieved in the context of eggs’ production.

The present article seeks to further the analysis by examining the epitext employed by the press seeing as the epitext in the digital spaces might have given Animal Farm and its Thai re-translations a new lease on life.

The interest in the study of translation and paratext has primarily been in analysing peritextual material of translated texts, not on the epitext, the distanced elements located outside the book. To add to a limited amount of research into epitext, this study focusses on the element that is external to the published re-translations: the news items published by the media in the Thai and English languages from May–June 2019, immediately after the Thai PM’s book recommendation.

These news items, as an epitextual element, primed, explained, contextualised, justified and tempted readers. The “Afterlife” of Animal Farm in Thailand is sustained by political upheavals and re-translations. Rather than through their textual qualities, the re-translations of Animal Farm compete with each other through epitext.

In discussing literary re-translation of Animal Farm in the digital age, Genette’s categories of paratextual field are not without their merits. The materials examined in this article are posted by web administrators with collective identity or institutional affiliation. In some of these news items or articles, materials created by different paratextual creators are selectively coalesced within a singular textual space. The site users or news readers encounter various elements in the texts that had been curated by journalists. In other words, these elements had been consciously crafted.

The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to assess how concerned Norwegians are about fish welfare; second, to investigate Norwegians’ willingness to pay for salmon filet made from welfare-assured farmed fish with high levels of welfare; and third, to examine Norwegian opinions about the appropriate way to pay for better welfare standards in fish production.

On the basis of two focus group sessions, a survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to a representative sample of 2,147 Norwegian households via e-mail.

Results showed that the Norwegian public is concerned about fish welfare and is willing to pay a price premium for products made from welfare-assured fish. Norwegian consumers do not, however, want to be the only ones paying for fish welfare, as the main responsibility for fish welfare lies with producers and the Government.

In this study willingness to pay is measured using a hypothetical choice experiment. Values people express as citizens, however, may not accurately predict true consumer behaviour. This is generally referred to as “citizen-consumer duality” and may have affected the results.

The study shows that there is a national market for welfare-assured fish products, but education initiatives focusing on fish farming and fish welfare issues would further influence the attitudes and purchasing habits of Norwegian consumers.

Although concern about animal welfare is growing in the western world, very little attention has been given to the welfare of fish. This paper aims to make up for this by presenting a study of how Norwegians view the welfare of farmed salmon.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it intends to assess the level of comparability of the fair value-based valuation criteria for biological assets of Portuguese dairy farms after the adoption of the Portuguese Accounting Standardization System. Second, it presents an innovative valuation model to assess the fair value of dairy herds.

The paper conducts a multiple case study at dairy farms in the central region of Portugal which had adopted the new Accounting Standardization System. Data were captured through interviews to assess how dairy farms were using the new valuation criteria required by this recent accounting frame of reference. A proposal for a model to measure fair value is presented.

Main findings indicate that market values for dairy production animals are inconsistent, reducing financial information comparability levels. To solve these problems, the authors propose a new model to assess fair value based on the net present value (NPV) of future cash-flows. This is a possible method to measure bovines that are in a breeding stage and it will assure the comparability of financial statements among dairy farms.

The study is confined to one case study and one country, not allowing generalization.

Results indicate the need to harmonize one possible method for measuring cattle that are in a breeding stage. In order to overcome these shortcomings, a model was designed to calculate the fair value of dairy production based on the NPV of future economic benefits.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the dynamics and transformative potential associated with counter accounts. It explores how counter-accountants’ attempts to rearticulate animal production result in their own identity becoming constructed during the conflict setting and how this identity subsequently relates to the transformative potential of the counter accounts.

The paper investigates counter accounts released during an animal rights activists’ campaign against industrial meat and dairy production in Finland. The counter accounts, consisting of secretly filmed videos from pig farms, contrasted the official depiction of animal farming and received wide publicity over several years. The main empirical data set consists of 21 interviews with a variety of parties that have a stake in the conflict. This data set is supplemented with a broad set of published documentary material.

The authors find that the counter accounts managed, to some extent, to rearticulate the meaning of animal production, potentially resulting in the emergence of small-scale societal effects. When trying to undermine the counter-accountants’ radical political demand, the dominant social groups not only dismissed the counter accounts but also attempted to constitute the counter-accountants’ identity as irresponsible, militant and negligent, drawing a firm political boundary between “them” and “us.” Likewise, the counter-accountants seemed reluctant to communicate with representatives of the dominant regime, resulting in an antagonistic as opposed to an agonistic relationship between the two political groups. The paper also discusses ethical questions concerning the production of counter accounts, the importance of having a clearly articulated political vision, and the challenges related to evaluating whether the counter accounts have been successful.

The paper provides insights into the design, use and reception of counter accounts in a real-life social setting, thus providing a direct response to a recent call by Thomson et al. (2015). The paper illustrates the usefulness of the conceptual dynamic conflict arena framework presented by Thomson et al. (2015), and makes use of discourse theory (Laclau and Mouffe, 1985; Laclau, 2005, 2001, 1996) to highlight how in exploring the transformative potential of counter accounts it is necessary to also consider how the identity of the counter-accountants becomes constructed and understood. Furthermore, the paper also seeks to advance the connections between accounting research and significant global problems by investigating an ethically and environmentally disputed industry, and by engaging with the interrelationships between accounts and accountability in the context of socio-ecological change.