Work

Evaluating on-line media and survey data to understand beliefs and sentiment associated with pastured and integrated poultry production among farmers and stakeholders

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Commercial pastured and integrated poultry production (PIPP) represents an emerging area of poultry and crop production. As a “niche” area of commercial production, there is little overall knowledge about public opinion associated with PIPP. Here we utilized two complementary approaches to better understand current sentiment and associated challenges with PIPP-based production. Specifically, to understand farmer PIPP sentiment and challenges we surveyed commercial PIPP farmers. In parallel we captured stakeholder sentiment toward integrative farming (a slightly broader classification that includes PIPP) via the extraction of selected data (i.e., web-scraping) on the internet. The methodology combines web-scraping of various media and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand sentiment in a longitudinal fashion. Here we compared a farmer survey of 53 producers and 2,399 English language web-scraped online posts (e.g., from online forums, news sites, and blogs) from 1,089 unique authors between 2019 and 2021 to understand opinions of and experiences with PIPP. The survey data and online posts both highlighted soil health, animal welfare, and weed control as perceived benefits of PIPP. In addition, survey respondents identified food safety regulations or incidents, processing, and certifications as barriers to PIPP whereas these topics rarely appeared in online conversations (i.e., on-line discourse capturing news and social media). Furthermore, topics mentioned in online conversations but not included in the survey include challenges related to soil, yield, land efficiency, autonomy, and mental health benefits. Comparing online posts with surveys has the potential to offer a more robust approach toward understanding opportunities and challenges among PIPP and other niche agricultural spaces. The parallel approach of analyzing both farmer survey and on-line stakeholder sentiment provides broader context for PIPP farmers and stakeholders with respect to farmer and stakeholder perspective. This approach provides insights that can be useful for PIPP farmers and other agricultural entities with respect to linking surveys and web-based analysis.

Source: Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

DOI: 10.3389/fsufs.2026.1860985