Responsibilities to the Natural World: From Anthropocentric to Nonanthropocentric Ethics DISCUSSION: Industrial Farming: Mass Producing Animals as Food Historians sometimes speak of three agri- cultural revolutions. The first occurred when humans first began establishing relatively permanent settlements in which domesticated animals and farming replaced hunting and gathering as the primary food production. The second was fueled by advances in crop rotation, mechanical technology, animal breeding, and land reform and resulted in great increases in productivity that provided food for growing the exploding urban centers of the industrial revolution. In each of the first two agricultural revolu- tions, the amount of land cultivated increased significantly to account for the growth in food production. The third revolution began in the latter half of the twentieth century when chemical fertili- zers increased fertility, pesticides decreased losses, industrial production methods and technology increased efficiency, and genetics created higher yielding varieties When thinking about these agricul- tural revolutions, we should recognize that they involved animals as well as plants. The shift from a hunter and gatherer culture included domesticating animals and plants. The second revolu. tion significantly expanded animal production by changing how humans bred, raised, refrigerated, transported, and processed beef, poultry, pork, fish, eggs, and dairy products. The third revolution continues to increase food production through industrialized pro- duction techniques, technology, and genetics. A wide range of philosophical and ethical questions are raised by the variety of ways in which humans relate to animals as food. A handy way to categorize these questions is to distinguish questions about which animals, if any, are used as food; what restrictions, if any, should be placed on how we treat animals generally; and what restrictions, if any, should be placed of crops. 95 96 PART II ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS AS APPLIED ETHICS on how food animals are bred, raised, slaughtered, and eaten. From the earliest days in which human domesticated animals, some were used as food and some as companions. Humans have developed deep emotional ties with some domesticated animals, not with others. Consider the taboos in many cultures against eating horses, dogs, and cats, yet not against eating cows, pigs and chickens. A person who will think nothing of spend- ing large sums of money for the medical treatment (and often burial) of a family pet, will think not at all about a dead squirrel most extensive exploitation of other species that has ever existed." Singer's book Animal Liberation did much to publicize the nature of modern factory farming, Singer's ethical analysis of these practices is examined in some detail in this chapter. Let us review just one well-known example, veal production Veal is the flesh of young cows. The dairy industry relies on female cows that are lactating, and this means that the cows must become pregnant. Typically. female calves are raised to become future milk producers, but other than a few on the side of a road. But even among select males that are raised for breeding purposes, most male calves are raised for non-domesticated wild animals, some are veal. Veal tends to be an expensive cut of regularly treated as food and others not. meat and, therefore, more likely to be Consider the difference between a salmon and a porpoise, or between a deer and a found in expensive restaurants and gour- chimpanzee, or between a pheasant and a met cooking than on the dinner tables of rat. Are these distinctions simply a matter of middle-class families. Veal is especially cultural practices that depend only on prized when it is tender and pink. where one was born and raised? Traditionally, calves are taken from A range of norms also establish their mothers when they are just a few appropriate ways to treat animals. Hunt- days old. To prevent exercise, which ing and shooting animals is allowed vir would develop muscles and therefore tually in every culture, but torturing make the flesh less tender, these young animals is not. Animals are allowed to be calves are confined in small wooden stalls, owned, bought, and sold. People regularly The stalls are so small that the calf typi- euthanize frail and sickly pets because cally is unable to turn around or even lie allowing them to die a natural death is down. The calf spends its entire life, per seen as cruel. Pet owners are strongly urged to sterilize pets so that they not haps sixteen weeks, confined to this stall. reproduce, yet pets are regularly bred Normal flesh is red because of the iron according to human tastes, even if con in the blood. A cow gets iron from the stant inbreeding has harmful effects on grass and hay that it eats. Critics have the animals themselves. charged that veal calves are systematically Perhaps no area has received as much deprived of a diet containing iron. They attention among both ethicists and the are, in other words, intentionally made general public than the ways in which anemic. Of course, if they become too anemic they die, so they receive a dietary balance-just enough iron to keep them alive but not enough that their flesh and blood are red. All this is done even though pinkness adds nothing to the taste of veal. To speed up the calves' growth and con trol their diet, they typically are fed a liquid diet of powdered milk, vitamins and growth-producing drugs. This may be all that they eat in their entire lives. To ensure that the calves take in as much of this formula as possible, calves are denied water and kept in warm buildings. Their only alternative is to turn to the formula to quench their thirst. Singer concludes his description of this process as follows. If the food animals are bred, raised, and pro- cessed. In particular, high-density animal agriculture, often called factory farming, has come under more critical attention than perhaps any other aspect of food production. In the view of many critics, human treatment of animals in food pro- duction has been scandalous. We need only look at how food animals such as calves, pigs, and chickens are raised to see examples of such claims. In the words of philosopher Peter Singer, "It is here, on our dinner table and in our neighborhood supermarket or butcher's shop, that we are brought into direct touch with the CHAPTER 5 RESPONSIBILITIES TO THE NATURAL WORLD 97 the very process of domesticating an ani- mal species, or "breed," has involved humans manipulating, unintentionally perhaps, animal genetics. Dogs, cats, horses, and cows have been bred by humans throughout history. But contem- porary genetic science allows breeders not only to choose desired traits from among those naturally occurring within a popu- lation, but also to create new traits that were not otherwise naturally occurring. Desired traits for genetically engineered animals include increasing growth and reproduction rates, resistance to disease, and increased nutritive value. reader will recall that this whole laborious, wasteful, and painful process of veal raising exists for the sole purpose of pandering to people who insist on pale, soft veal, no further comment should be needed.-2 Of course, veal is not the only animal food product that has been subject to intense public scrutiny. Campaigns have targeted MacDonald's, Burger King, and KFC (formerly, Kentucky Fried Chicken) for the ways in which their suppliers raised and processed the beef and chicken used by their restaurants. Beef and hog produ- cers have received significant criticism for the environmental damage caused by their feedlots, as well as for the cruel ways in which animals are treated. Egg and chicken producers have likewise been criticized for the inhumane ways in which chickens are treated The food industry, both the animal growers and food sellers, have responded by making significant changes in the ways in which they treat animals. A fair assessment is that many of the past practices of animal cruelty have been eliminated, especially in Europe, the United States, and Canada. But a certain irony has not escaped notice. Beef cattle, calves, hogs, and chickens are treated in more humane ways, subjected to less cruelty, better fed and housed, but nev- ertheless led into slaughterhouses where they are killed, less cruelly than previ- ously, but still killed and butchered for human consumption. More recently, public attention has turned not only to the ways in which animals are treated, but the ways they are, literally, created and bred. Much criticism has been directed at genetically modified food in general, but also at genetically modified animals. Animal breeding by humans has occurred since the first days of domestication. Indeed, DISCUSSION TOPICS: 1. Are prohibitions against eating such animals as dogs and cats based on anything other than cultural practices? Under what conditions would you eat dog? 2. If it is justified to kill an animal for food, why should it matter how the animal is treated prior to slaughter? 3. Is there an ethics to hunting animals? Are there ethically better or worse ways to hunt? 4. Is it reasonable to use words such as "humane," "inhumane," "suffering," and "thinking" when discussing animals? 5. Are there important distinctions between different animal species? Are some animals deserving of greater ethical concern than others? Why or why not? 6. Is there an ethical difference between treatment of domesticated and wild animals? 7. Does genetic modification of food animals raise any ethical concerns? Do you hold similar beliefs about geneti- cally modifying humans? MATION
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