Socially sustainable dairy farming: an exploratory analysis of farmer and public perspectives in the US

Enhancing social sustainability in agriculture has gained attention as societal expectations around food production evolve. For many in the public, dairy cows on pasture are an idealized representation of socially acceptable livestock production. Expectations regarding food safety, worker welfare, and animal well-being influence purchasing decisions and shape the dairy industry’s social license to operate. This paper examines socially sustainable dairy farming in the United States from a multi-attribute, multi-stakeholder perspective by comparing public and farmer views on six attributes: food safety, animal welfare, animal health, cattle access to grazing, rural landscape contributions, and worker livelihood. Using data from a national public survey (N = 1020) and a mail survey of Wisconsin dairy farmers (N = 279), relative importance weights were estimated and compared across groups. Seemingly Unrelated Regression models assessed how public, farm, and farmer characteristics relate to these attributes. Results show convergence between the public and farmers on the importance of food safety and animal health. However, clear divergence emerges regarding cattle access to grazing and animal welfare, which the public prioritizes more strongly than farmers. The analysis highlights that social sustainability expectations are heterogeneous and vary by farm, farmer, and individual characteristics. Reconciling these differing priorities will require multi-stakeholder engagement to improve the social sustainability of dairy farming.