The End of Animal Farming: How Scientists, Entrepreneurs, and Activists Are Building an Animal-Free Food

Product Information

If you have a pet, such as a dog, think about your relationship. You work cooperatively in your day-to-day lives. Your pet provides love, companionship, entertainment, and loyalty. In turn, you offer those same things in addition to food, water, shelter, and access to things your pets can’t get on their own. Jacy Reese is a writer, social scientist, and co-founder of Sentience Institute. He previously worked as a Senior Fellow at Sentience Politics, and before that at Animal Charity Evaluators as chair of the board of directors and then as a full-time researcher.

I’m calling clean meat “logical” because it is a solution stemming from technological progress and situational pressure. We can now grow tissue cells without needing the whole animal, and we are in dire need of doing so at a massive scale to reduce and ultimately eliminate the effects of industrial animal agriculture. Engage with decision makers, lobbying for changes to laws, policies and practices that protect farm animal welfare.Jacy Reese discusses his new book The End of Animal Farming, the direction of the animal advocacy movement, positive changes in religious thinking towards animal issues and how people of faith can take constructive steps in support of animals. Köhler J, Whitmarsh L, Nykvist B et al. (2009) A transitions model for sustainable mobility. Ecol Econ 68:2985–2995. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2009.06.027 Mullen E, Monin B (2016) Consistency versus licensing effects of past moral behavior. Annu Rev Psychol 67:363–385. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115120 Banis, Davide (November 27, 2018) "New Book Draws Detailed Roadmap Of How We Can End Animal Farming" Forbes

Partially a consequence of the evidence-based approach, Reese doesn’t shy away from making concrete examples of what works and what doesn’t in animal welfare campaigns. By reducing the amount of food and water we need to give to farmed animals, we can feed and water humans who today don’t even have access to basic necessities. Is Clean Meat as Nutritional as Animal Meat? Animals are dying by the billions, none without a fight, for human motives. As soon as it is economically feasible, clean meat will dramatically cut down on animal slaughter, eliminate the need to continually breed animals for their meat, and enables previously suffering animals to live fuller, more enjoyable lives. Bartley T, Child C (2014) Shaming the corporation: the social production of targets and the anti-sweatshop movement. Am Sociol Rev 79:653–679. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122414540653 Nonetheless, there is a prima facie unclear and important trade-off in many contexts. Relatively few social movements have focused heavily on individual consumption. The main potential examples are public health campaigns, such as tobacco control, obesity reduction, and healthy eating. These campaigns have almost necessarily focused on changing individuals because the primary motivations behind the changes have been improving personal health. Someone who stops smoking primarily benefits their own life, such as by reducing the likelihood of developing lung cancer, though of course there are secondary impacts like second-hand smoke or the influence on children who are more likely to smoke if a parent does (Vuolo and Staff, 2013). Farmed animal activism is instead centred on the motivation of helping animals or the environment, and it can either take an individual approach (e.g., convincing people one by one to change diets) or an institutional approach (e.g., banning animal agriculture, an effort that may be opposed by consumers but could nonetheless be implemented via institutional changes).

Prior to conducting the poll on banning slaughterhouses, the researchers informally surveyed a variety of farmed animal activists and scholars on their expectations of the results. Most respondents reasoned based first on the number of vegetarians, ~6%, then accounting for the fact that some vegetarians do not want to impose their vegetarianism on society as a whole, and the fact that survey results tend to usually be a little close to 50–50 than expected because some respondents do not read the questions thoroughly. Few activists or scholars expected results above 20%. The remarkable survey finding of 47% surprised everyone involved in the research. It was also confirmed in a replication of the survey by a different group of researchers who did not believe the original results (Norwood and Murray, 2018).

We believe every farm animal deserves a life worth living, free from cages, confinement, and suffering: free to roam and express their natural behaviours. The welfare and wellbeing of these intelligent, sensitive creatures is at the heart of all we do. Clean meat is much safer than “real” meat when you look at the big picture of the health impact of the animal agriculture industry. The second case is the free produce movement (FPM), a submovement of 18th and 19th century abolitionists who advocated abstinence from slave-made products (Crothers, 2006). This approach is analogous to veganism, as FPM activists believed consumers of slave-made products were individually culpable for the atrocity of slavery. Abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison said in 1831, ‘[E]ntire abstinence from the products of slavery is the duty of every individual. In no other way can our example or influence be exerted so beneficially’. However, by the late 1840s, these same activists called for a switch to other approaches. Garrison himself wrote in 1847 that he had ‘erred in judgement’ by focusing on FPM, and that it was ‘wasting time’. He presciently suggested that a focus on abstinence might have a moral licensing effect, saying that abstinence ‘furnishes [abstainers] with a pretext to do nothing more for the slave, because they do so much’. In fact, he made the seemingly radical claim that abolitionists are in fact the only ones who can ‘innocently use’ slave-made goods (The Non-slaveholder, 1847). I grew up in rural Texas around cows romping on green pastures. When I was 12, I became very interested in ethics and decided I cared about the welfare of all sentient beings, and I started living my life in a way that attempted to maximize happiness and minimize suffering.

The best reason to choose clean meat is to support an industry that seeks to reduce factory farming and save animals’ lives. It’s true that we’re still viewing animals as meat, but people who might never consider vegetarianism or veganism might very well eat clean meat instead of the other variety – especially when it hits the three key elements of taste, price, and convenience. Recent studies by Faunalytics show that most Americans are happy to try clean meat. Norwood B, Murray S (2018) FooDS Food Demand Survey, vol. 5. Oklahoma State University. http://agecon.okstate.edu/files/january%202018.pdf The health benefits of a vegan diet are definitely nullified by the terribly unhealthy decision to take just one vacation in fifteen years (letting alone the ill-advised idea of volunteering at your dad’s electoral campaign) Kissel J (2017) Effective altruism and anti-capitalism: an attempt at reconciliation. Essays Philos 18. https://doi.org/10.7710/1526-0569.1573

Similar technologies will produce alternatives to dairy, eggs, honey, and other consumable products that depend on taking away from animals. In an interview with VegNews, Human Society spokesperson Paul Shapiro comes down in favor of clean meat. He says, “The problem of factory farming is just so severe that you need multiple solutions. Just as with fossil fuels, you don’t want just one alternative, like wind. You also want solar and more. Similarly, plant-based meats are a great solution to the factory farming problem, but you also want other alternatives, including clean meat.” Then, one day, the animals see Squealer up on his hind legs, walking on two legs like a human instead of on four like an animal. Rosales-Carreón J, García-Díaz C (2015) Exploring transitions towards sustainable construction: the case of near-zero energy buildings in the Netherlands. J Artif Soc Soc Simul 18: https://doi.org/10.18564/jasss.2625Norcross A (2004) Puppies, pigs, and people: eating meat and marginal cases. Philos Perspect 18:229–245. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1520-8583.2004.00027.x Institutional change can be undertaken from a variety of ideological perspectives. For example, if one is an anti-capitalist, then one may seek to not just end industrial animal agriculture, but to ensure it is not replaced with a comparable market system. This may even require metaformative steps prior to work on any specific manifestation of capitalism, whether the food system, transportation, energy, or other morally pertinent sectors. On the other hand, from a pro-capitalist perspective, one may be particularly eager to displace industrial animal agriculture via market forces, such as encouraging large food companies to embrace and develop high-quality, affordable animal-free food technology. An excerpt from the book on the topic of humane animal agriculture was featured in The Guardian. [8] See also [ edit ] The animals are sceptical about this, because they all saw Snowball bravely fighting alongside them. Napoleon declares he has discovered ‘secret documents’ which prove Snowball was in league with their enemy.