The scale of farm animal suffering is so huge that the journey to a cruelty-free system can appear daunting. But at the same time, many roads are being extended to help us make that journey. Those parallel roads go through various terrains, including territories that are primarily: Environmental; Biological; Economic; Legal; Technological; Ethical; or, Health and Diet-related. I'll just mention a few sites within each of these (overlapping) territories.
Environmental: greenhouse gas emission and livestock; fertilizer (for plants to serve as animal feed) and compromised ground water; other forms of water pollution, such as sewage from pig farms or aquaculture; ecosystem endangerment and wild animal extinctions
Biological: research into animal sentience, animal emotions, animal intelligence, and animal behaviors
Economic: agricultural subsidies; externalities and other market failures; animal welfare as a public and a private good; animal standing in cost-benefit analyses; information avoidance
Legal: personhood; standing; animal law as a legal sub-discipline; animal-based reforms of property law
Technological: non-animal-based replacements for meat, leather, dairy, eggs, fur; You Tube and social media as forums for information about animal welfare and substitute products; cell phone and other cameras for recording animal abuse
Ethical: animal ethics as a burgeoning research area within academic philosophy and related fields -- with accessible contributions that engage the popular consciousness
Health and Diet-related: Improved access and quality of vegan and vegetarian foods; health concerns with overconsumption of meat/dairy; zoonoses; antibiotic degradation
In some parts of the world, these developments have spurred animal welfare improvements in recent decades. We can hope that the confluence of these myriad inroads challenging the status quo can continue to effect change, both incremental and perhaps systemic. At the same time, seemingly every week, there's public exposure of current farm animal mistreatment -- mistreatment even by a standard that accepts "normal" farm operations as constituting satisfactory treatment.
Biological: research into animal sentience, animal emotions, animal intelligence, and animal behaviors
Economic: agricultural subsidies; externalities and other market failures; animal welfare as a public and a private good; animal standing in cost-benefit analyses; information avoidance
Legal: personhood; standing; animal law as a legal sub-discipline; animal-based reforms of property law
Technological: non-animal-based replacements for meat, leather, dairy, eggs, fur; You Tube and social media as forums for information about animal welfare and substitute products; cell phone and other cameras for recording animal abuse
Ethical: animal ethics as a burgeoning research area within academic philosophy and related fields -- with accessible contributions that engage the popular consciousness
Health and Diet-related: Improved access and quality of vegan and vegetarian foods; health concerns with overconsumption of meat/dairy; zoonoses; antibiotic degradation
In some parts of the world, these developments have spurred animal welfare improvements in recent decades. We can hope that the confluence of these myriad inroads challenging the status quo can continue to effect change, both incremental and perhaps systemic. At the same time, seemingly every week, there's public exposure of current farm animal mistreatment -- mistreatment even by a standard that accepts "normal" farm operations as constituting satisfactory treatment.
