Agricultural and Resource Economics Commons^™

Animal Agriculture Is The Missing Piece In Climate Change Media Coverage, Coni Arévalo, Jo Anderson

Agriculture

For many years now, climate researchers have been warning that the world can’t meet its Paris Agreement climate goals of limiting global warming to 1.5°C without reducing meat consumption. Multiple studies have affirmed that between 11.1 and 19.6% of global emissions come from meat and dairy production, and leading global food and climate agencies are also in agreement, recommending that people, particularly those in the Global North, reduce meat consumption in favor of a plant-rich diet.

The effects of animal agriculture on the environment and climate are vast: It is a leading cause of deforestation, it’s responsible …

Zoonotic Realism, Computational Cognitive Science And Pandemic Prevention, Tyler Davis, Molly E. Ireland, Jason Van Allen, Darrell A. Worthy

Animal Sentience

Using animals in food and food production systems is one of many drivers of novel zoonoses. Moving toward less dependence on animal proteins is a possible avenue for reducing pandemic risk, but we think that Wiebers & Feigin’s proposed change to food policy (phasing out animal meat production) is unrealistic in its political achievability and its current capacity to feed the world in a cost-effective and sustainable manner. We suggest that improvements in communication strategies, precipitated by developments in computational cognitive neuroscience, can lead the way to a safer future and are feasible now.

Just Preservation, Adrian Treves, Francisco J. Santiago-Ávila, William S. Lynn

Animal Sentience

We are failing to protect the biosphere. Novel views of conservation, preservation, and sustainability are surfacing in the wake of consensus about our failures to prevent extinction or slow climate change. We argue that the interests and well-being of non-humans, youth, and future generations of both human and non-human beings (futurity) have too long been ignored in consensus-based, anthropocentric conservation. Consensus-based stakeholder-driven processes disadvantage those absent or without a voice and allow current adult humans and narrow, exploitative interests to dominate decisions about the use of nature over its preservation for futurity of all life. We propose that authentically non-anthropocentric …

An Hsi Report: The Impact Of Industrial Farm Animal Production On Food Security In The Developing World, Humane Society International

HSI REPORTS

Food security is often incorrectly used as a justification for the inhumane confinement of animals on industrial farm animal production facilities, while in reality, the industrialization of animal agriculture jeopardizes food security by degrading the environment, threatening human health, and diminishing income-earning opportunities in rural areas. Support from governments and international agencies for more humane and sustainable agricultural systems can ensure adequate food consumption and nutrition throughout the developing world.

An Hsus Report: The Impact Of Industrialized Animal Agriculture On World Hunger, The Humane Society Of The United States

Impact of Animal Agriculture

Of the world’s nearly 6.8 billion humans, almost 1 billion people are malnourished. Feeding half the world’s grain crop to animals raised for meat, eggs, and milk instead of directly to humans is a significant waste of natural resources, including fossil fuels, water, and land. Raising animals for food is also a major contributor to global warming, which is expected to further worsen food security globally. To meet the daily nutritional needs of a rapidly expanding population, the world’s human community, particularly in Western countries, must reduce its reliance on animal products and shift to a more plant-based diet.

Farm Animal Welfare: Some Economic Considerations, Frances Turner, John Strak

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

There has been increasing public concern in the U.K. and other European countries about some of the intensive methods of livestock production used in modern agriculture. The battery system of egg production, which produces almost all of the eggs consumed in Britain, has aroused particular opposition, but there is also strong feeling about housing systems that effectively immobilize their inhabitants, such as certain types of veal calf and pig rearing units. In a recent test case in West Germany, an egg producer was charged with "continuous cruelty" to his 60,000-strong battery flock. A high court decided it was cruel to …

Farm Animal Welfare: Some Opinions, Michael W. Fox

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

The subject of farm animal welfare has evoked a wide range of responses from those involved in the livestock industry and those concerned about the humaneness of intensive husbandry farming practices. Books have been published

on the subject (Harrison, 1964; Mason & Singer, 1980; Dawkins, 1980, and Fox, 1980 and 1981), as well as many articles in professional and popular magazines. Three international symposia dealing with animal rights have

been held in the last two years (Lehman, 1980; Miller, 1981; Paterson and Ryder, 1980), and a major European conference dealing with farm animal welfare and involving veterinarians, farmers, animal scientists, …