Growth from Cow to Consumer - A Case Study on Arla Foods

Abstract

Various industries and corporations have been under scrutiny for their environmental impacts, which has, to some extent, resulted in increasing demand for company accountability and responsibility. Within this call for corporate accountability, the “animal industrial complex” has additionally faced critique regarding its treatment of non-human animals. However, it has been a corporate challenge to adequately promote both environmental sustainability and animal welfare while achieving economic objectives in the animal industrial complex. This thesis employs a single case study design to explore Arla Foods’ promotion and framing of economic goals, animal welfare, and environmental sustainability. I will further examine how and why the company’s economic objectives and promotions, and the associated frames, might create tensions or not within its corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting. To approach this topic, I utilize the tragedy of the commodity framework. The theoretical framework serves to understand the driving forces within the political-economy system and what its implications might entail. Additionally, frame analysis is utilized to analyze how Arla Foods communicates about its operations. The results show that Arla Foods emphasizes its commitment to developing a business that can provide high milk prices to its owners, i.e., the farmers, being a leader in environmental sustainability, enhancing cows’ welfare, and striving to improve the company’s relationships with its stakeholders. Arla Foods recognizes that promoting animal welfare and environmental sustainability is somewhat challenged by organizational growth, yet not contradictory. Efficiency measures are essential in the company’s actions to reduce environmental impact, even though some actions and results are noted to be insufficient. Arla Foods is interpreted as attempting to align actions, the results, and how it is framed through relativisation. By comparing the company and its actions to those of other companies, the framing can shift focus from the company’s isolated result to the relative accomplishments of other companies.