Australians are invited to participate in an extensive nation-wide research program aimed at understanding attitudes towards the Australian egg industry.

The community research is being run by the CSIRO and will canvass the views of over 5,000 randomly selected Australians, as well as anyone from the general public who wants to have their say.

The research program is now in its second year and leader of the CSIRO research, Dr Kieren Moffat, said his team wants to build on the 2018 findings to allow year-to-year comparison and gain a deeper understanding of community attitudes.

“Changing consumer attitudes are influencing how food is produced and one of the main aims of our research is to help egg farmers better understand the drivers of this change,” said Dr Moffat.

“The social science model we’ve developed allows survey participants to consider the impacts and contributions of an industry from multiple angles and that data helps us understand not only what people think, but why they think that way.”

“We expect the results will provide real and compelling data that will help egg farmers understand the diversity of community attitudes and, ultimately, future proof their businesses.”

The CSIRO handed the egg industry a mixed report card last year with the community identifying food security and hen welfare as the big ticket items but also saying the industry’s environmental impacts were not clear.

Australian Eggs’ Managing Director, Rowan McMonnies, said last year’s insights were invaluable for the industry and a large amount of work is already underway as a result.

“We found a number of opportunities to progress the issues identified in the CSIRO’s research,” Mr McMonnies said.

“We have refined these opportunities into projects under our new annual operating plan so we will be actively working on these issues as we are also confirming their relevance to the community.”

“New projects include identifying MicroRNA biomarkers to better understand hen experiences, research into the role eggs can play in addressing obesity and developing pathways for carbon-neutral egg products to be produced.”

To participate in the research, go to https://research.csiro.au/eggs/

The survey closes on 31 August.