Proceedings of the Second NAHWOA Workshop
Methodology in animal health and welfare research in organic livestockMette Vaarst
Department of Animal Health and Welfare, Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, P.O.Box 50, DK - 8830 Tjele, Denmark. Phone +45 89 99 13 44 (direct) or +45 86 69 03 91 (private), fax +45 89 99 15 00, email Mette.Vaarst@agrsci.dk
Background
Animal welfare can be defined and understood in various ways. A relevant question to ask is: can animal welfare be understood and evaluated in a specific way in and for organic herds? The discussion in this presentation is not dealing with the understanding of animal welfare, but rather with the research methodology to be used to answer, among others, the question raised above.
As researchers dealing with research in organic livestock, we are often asked to answer questions about animal welfare from a scientific point of view. Questions like 'How is animal welfare in organic herds?', 'Is animal welfare in organic herds good or bad?' and 'Is animal welfare in organic herds good enough?'. These questions can hardly be answered from the point of view of natural science. We have no scientific tools to decide 'good' or 'bad'; we have only our personal view, background and experiences. This and other aspects of research in animal welfare will be discussed in the following, more as question formulation than as an attempt to come up with definite answers.
Start asking questions
The choice of research methods should be directed by the questions we want answered. Instead of discussing which research methods are good or bad or 'more scientific' than others, the quality and relevance of research questions should be discussed. This discussion should include an assessment of the realistic expectation about our ability to answer the questions proposed. If somebody is expected to answer the question 'Is animal welfare in organic farming good enough?', the goals for animal welfare in organic farming should be pre-defined and included in the discussion, in order to make the results meaningful. Otherwise, another question should be asked.
The choice of research methods should be based on the research questions.
Complex questions
Some of the fields or areas of research in organic farming are complex and involve both concrete findings (e.g. on disease levels) and human actions affecting these findings (e.g. disease control measures). Following developments of an aspect of a farm system (e.g. disease patterns) by a survey, one should be aware that the results can be influenced by certain aspects of the development of the whole farms system (e.g. new building design, new grazing rotation). The changes in this very system may - on the other hand - also be results of what is seen and experienced with regard to disease pattern (e.g. new building design to respond to increased lameness problems).
Making a risk factor analysis could show certain risk factors, but describing the pattern of action behind these risk factors may call for other research methods. It must be regarded as a fruitful step to combine research methods in order to describe different aspects and angles of this complexity. In organic farming, a lot has been done in order to make things fit together in a well-balanced and complex system. Research should take this effort into consideration by accounting for this complexity. This would undoubtedly increase the relevance of the results.
Different research methods should be combined in order to describe a complex field in the complex organic farming system from different angles.
Research in organic farming: holistic research?
One of the strengths of the organic farming system is the view of the whole farm as an organism, seeing it in the context of environment and internal harmony. This should lead to a natural attempt to make all research efforts more holistic: when working with a whole system, it is inadequate to look at only a fraction. Whilst it is impossible for one researcher or one research team to look at 'everything', it should be possible to define the place, relations and relevance of each single research result in a context and in the entirety.
'Holistic' can be understood as 'the window through which you see your results'.
The basic question of objectivity
Objectivity is claimed to be a fundamental quality of all research work. The subjectivity of a researcher should not influence results, which give a bite of the truth, understood as a universal and context-free truth beyond the influence of human beings. Nevertheless, a pre-understanding of the subject will always exist in the mind of any researcher. Results are built on settings, which have to be under influence of the context, of the environments and conditions. Every subject has its place in a historical and horizontal context. Avoiding paying attention to all this is also a choice, either of one researcher or of a whole community of researchers. As a consequence of these statements, I would prefer to talk about inter-subjectivity rather than objectivity.
Research methods, process, analyses and interpretations of results are all based on human choices and do have a context.
How to ensure quality in animal health and welfare research in organic farming?
Research methods and quality of research will be discussed as a part of this network, and we may reach a consensus of what we accept as good quality research. While doing this, we should bear in mind that we may need to go beyond the existing research methods in natural scientific research. The following final points are made to initiate such a discussion about what we may possibly suggest to be quality criteria in research, which should answer the complex, holistically oriented and 'mixed' questions in organic farming.
- It should be possible to communicate research process and results across borders, including both geographical and tradition-oriented borders. In order to do that, each research step should contain a maximum amount of systemic approaches. Furthermore, the consciousness and critical sense of the researcher towards the research process and analysis and interpretation of the results should ensure a certain degree of quality of the products.
- The basic goals of organic farming should be accepted and worked into all research projects. This does not mean that you cannot question legislation or standards, but basically the goals of the entire farming system should form the ethical framework for the research.
- Research efforts should bring relevant knowledge into organic farming systems, taking point 2 into account.
[Presented at the 1st NAHWOA Workshop in Reading, 6-8 June 1999]