scholarly journals Animal Harms and Food Production: Informing Ethical Choices

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1225
Author(s):  
Jordan O. Hampton ◽  
Timothy H. Hyndman ◽  
Benjamin L. Allen ◽  
Bob Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Food Choices ◽  
Wild Plants ◽  
Industrial Countries ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Ethical Choices ◽  
Negative Impacts

Ethical food choices have become an important societal theme in post-industrial countries. Many consumers are particularly interested in the animal welfare implications of the various foods they may choose to consume. However, concepts in animal welfare are rapidly evolving towards consideration of all animals (including wildlife) in contemporary approaches such as “One Welfare”. This approach requires recognition that negative impacts (harms) may be intentional and obvious (e.g., slaughter of livestock) but also include the under-appreciated indirect or unintentional harms that often impact wildlife (e.g., land clearing). This is especially true in the Anthropocene, where impacts on non-human life are almost ubiquitous across all human activities. We applied the “harms” model of animal welfare assessment to several common food production systems and provide a framework for assessing the breadth (not intensity) of harms imposed. We considered all harms caused to wild as well as domestic animals, both direct effects and indirect effects. We described 21 forms of harm and considered how they applied to 16 forms of food production. Our analysis suggests that all food production systems harm animals to some degree and that the majority of these harms affect wildlife, not livestock. We conclude that the food production systems likely to impose the greatest overall breadth of harms to animals are intensive animal agriculture industries (e.g., dairy) that rely on a secondary food production system (e.g., cropping), while harvesting of locally available wild plants, mushrooms or seaweed is likely to impose the least harms. We present this conceptual analysis as a resource for those who want to begin considering the complex animal welfare trade-offs involved in their food choices.

scholarly journals Three Decades of Changes in Brazilian Municipalities and Their Food Production Systems

Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 422
Author(s):  
Ramon Felipe Bicudo da Silva ◽  
Mateus Batistella ◽  
James D. A. Millington ◽  
Emilio Moran ◽  
Luiz A. Martinelli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Production ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Farm Size ◽  
Socioeconomic Outcomes ◽  
Economic Output ◽  
Trade Offs

Agricultural systems are heterogeneous across temporal and spatial scales. Although much research has investigated farm size and economic output, the synergies and trade-offs across various agricultural and socioeconomic variables are unclear. This study applies a GIS-based approach to official Brazilian census data (Agricultural Censuses of 1995, 2006, and 2017) and surveys at the municipality level to (i) evaluate changes in the average soybean farm size across the country and (ii) compare agricultural and socioeconomic outcomes (i.e., soybean yield, agricultural production value, crop production diversity, and rural labor employment) relative to the average soybean farm size. Statistical tests (e.g., Kruskal–Wallis tests and Spearman’s correlation) were used to analyze variable outcomes in different classes of farm sizes and respective Agricultural Censuses. We found that agricultural and socioeconomic outcomes are spatially correlated with soybean farm size class. Therefore, based on the concepts of trade-offs and synergies, we show that municipalities with large soybean farm sizes had larger trade-offs (e.g., larger farm size was associated with lower crop diversity), while small and medium ones manifest greater synergies. These patterns are particularly strong for analysis using the Agricultural Census of 2017. Trade-off/synergy analysis across space and time is key for supporting long-term strategies aiming at alleviating unemployment and providing sustainable food production, essential to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

scholarly journals The Vanishing Ethics of Husbandry

2021 ◽  
pp. 203-221
Author(s):  
Paul B. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Animal Ethics ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
High Volume ◽  
Considerable Degree ◽  
Philosophical Work ◽  
Philosophical Discussion ◽  
Economic Rationale ◽  
Factory Farms

AbstractThe ethics of food production should include philosophical discussion of the condition or welfare of livestock, including for animals being raised in high volume, concentrated production systems (e.g. factory farms). Philosophers should aid producers and scientists in specifying conditions for improved welfare in these systems. An adequately non-ideal approach to this problem should recognize both the economic rationale for these systems as well as the way that they constrain opportunities for improving animal welfare. Recent philosophical work on animal ethics has been dominated by authors who not only neglect this imperative, but also defeat it by drawing on oversimplified and rhetorically overstated descriptions of the conditions in which factory farmed animals actually live. This feature of philosophical animal ethics reflects a form of structural narcissism in which adopting a morally correct attitude defeats actions that could actually improve the welfare of livestock in factory farms to a considerable degree.

scholarly journals Unintended consequences of selection for increased production on the health and welfare of livestock

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-185
Author(s):  
Este van Marle-Köster ◽  
Carina Visser
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Diagnostic Testing ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Limiting Factor ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Level Of Economic Development ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Longevity Selection

Abstract. Modern farming technologies, including quantitative selection and breeding methods in farm animal species, resulted in increased production and efficiency. Selection for increased output in both intensive and extensive production systems has trade-offs and negative outcomes, often more pronounced in intensive systems. Animal welfare and health are often adversely affected and this influences sustainable production. The relative importance of animal welfare differs among developed and developing countries due to the level of economic development, food security and education, as well as religious and cultural practices which presents challenges for sound scientific research. Due to breeding goals in the past set on growth performance, traits such as fertility, welfare and health have been neglected. Fertility is the single most important trait in all livestock species. Reduced fertility and lameness, claw health and mastitis results in unnecessary culling and reduced longevity. Selection pressure for growth accompanied with inbreeding has resulted in a number of genetic defects in beef, sheep and pigs. This review demonstrated the importance of inclusion of animal welfare concepts into breeding objectives and selection strategies. Accurate phenotyping of welfare traits is a limiting factor in the implementation of mitigating strategies, which include diagnostic testing, control of inbreeding and genomic selection.

Consumer demand for animal welfare products.

2020 ◽  
pp. 53-74
Author(s):  
Faical Akaichi ◽  
Cesar Revoredo-Giha
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Willingness To Pay ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Consumer Demand ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Demand Side

Abstract Modern agricultural practices have increased the efficiency of food production with a decrease in their cost and prices for consumers. However, to some extent this has been detrimental to the ethical way in which livestock are treated, particularly in more intensive production systems. On the demand side, an increasing number of consumers are interested in the way that food is produced and the attributes behind it. Animal welfare is one of those ethical attributes that are particularly important for consumers, and at the retail level, it is reflected in a number of labels aiming at passing cues (due to its nature as a credence attribute) to consumers. For meat supply chains, these labels have the possibility to positively affect sales if consumers are willing to pay more for products with those attributes. Moreover, if increasing animal welfare implies higher costs of production, it is important for the supply chain to know whether these costs can be passed on to consumers. These issues have motivated a substantive literature on the measurement of consumers' interest in animal welfare and their willingness to pay for its attributes. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the economic theory behind the measurement of animal welfare and some empirical applications.

scholarly journals A Nexus Approach to Food, Water, and Energy: Sustainably Meeting Asia’s Future Food and Nutrition Requirements (Sarfraz K. Qureshi Memorial Lecture)

2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (4I-II) ◽  
pp. 297-311
Author(s):  
Shenggen Fan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Memorial Lecture ◽  
Nutrition Security ◽  
Energy Demands ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Food And Nutrition ◽  
Sectoral Linkages

Agricultural and food production systems in Asia must undergo a significant transformation in order to meet the concurrent challenges of increasing food, water, and energy demands amid on-going climate change. This is particularly true in countries in South Asia, including Pakistan, where hunger and undernutrition persist and natural resource are increasingly strained. Sustainable intensification with a focus on nutrition is particularly crucial to provide adequate and nutritious food for all without further damages to the planet. However, a silo approach to meeting the demands of a growing, increasingly urbanised, and wealthier population is no longer acceptable. Instead, capitalising on the inter sectoral linkages between food, water, and energy can more effectively minimise trade-offs and maximise synergies across concurrent efforts to improve water, energy, food, and nutrition security sustainably.

scholarly journals Edible urbanism 5.0

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessio Russo ◽  
Giuseppe T. Cirella
Keyword(s):  
Urban Agriculture ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Intensive Farming ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Ecosystem Disservices

AbstractUrban and peri-urban agriculture can have negative effects (i.e., ecosystem disservices) to the city ecosystem. In the last two decades, urbanists and landscape planners have promoted urban agriculture and food systems with little attention to ecosystem disservices. At present, increased urbanisation, environmental degradation, population growth and changes in food systems require a novel concept that considers trade-offs between ecosystem services and disservices. Considering the Sustainable Development Goal 2 of ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030, as well as the food revolution 5.0 of feeding up to ten billion people, edible urbanism 5.0 is a supportive component in reaching these goals. In this comment, edible urbanism via an edible green infrastructure (EGI) approach is examined against current urbanistic concepts that have common food production systems in cities. Moreover, a discussion on issues and challenges of public policy and governance for the implementation of sustainable food systems is shown with findings that consider current industrial intensive farming as somewhat unsustainable. Edible urbanism integrates three main principles of sustainability by fulfilling food security, resilience and social inclusion. It links site-specific, best-practices by integrating EGI-based governance with modernised food production techniques. Example cities showing EGI- and sustainability-oriented food concepts are presented. Recommendations for future edible urbanism (as a part of the next food revolution) are established.

scholarly journals Synergies and Trade-Offs for Sustainable Food Production in Sweden: An Integrated Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malin Tälle ◽  
Lotten Wiréhn ◽  
Daniel Ellström ◽  
Mattias Hjerpe ◽  
Maria Huge-Brodin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Resource Distribution ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Production Chain ◽  
Sustainable Food Production ◽  
Trade Offs

The production of food can have large impacts on sustainable development in relation to various socio-ecological dimensions, like climate change, the environment, animal welfare, livestock epidemiology, and the economy. To achieve a sustainable food production system in Sweden, an integrated approach that considers all five of these dimensions, and all parts of the food production chain, is necessary. This paper systematically reviewed the literature related to food production in Sweden, especially in association with resource distribution and recycling logistics, and identified potential sustainability interventions and assessed their effects according to the five dimensions. Participation of stakeholders across the food production chain contributed with the focus of the literature search and subsequent synthesis. In general, there were synergies between the sustainability interventions and their effect on climate change and the environment, while there often were trade-offs between effects on the economy and the other dimensions. Few interventions considered effects on animal welfare or livestock epidemiology and few studies dealt with resource distribution and recycling logistics. This indicates that there is a need for future research that considers this in particular, as well as research that considers the whole food production chain and all dimensions at once, and investigates effects across multiple scales.

scholarly journals In-silico characterisation of the complete Ly6 protein family in Fasciola gigantica supported through transcriptomics of the newly-excysted juveniles.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Dawn Davey ◽  
Iain W Chalmers ◽  
Narcis Fuentes ◽  
Martin T Swain ◽  
Dan Smith ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
In Silico ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Fasciola Gigantica ◽  
Protein Family

Fasciola gigantica is one of the aetiological trematodes associated with fascioliasis, which heavily impacts food-production systems and human and animal welfare on a global scale. In the absence of a...

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