7: Use of Animals - Lecture Flashcards
Lappé’s protein theory - Diet for a Small Planet Book
- 1971
- popularized health and ecologically-based vegetarianism in North America
- scarcity of food in the world
- animals are fed excessive protein in order to grow meat protein
- ex. chickens ea 8lbs of protein feed to produce
1lb of meat
- ex. chickens ea 8lbs of protein feed to produce
- humans don’t need to eat animal protein to be healthy
- would be healthier if we eat non-meat proteins
we feed chickens
CONCLUSION: eating animals is short-sighted and harmful to us/others
According to Agriculture Canada (2018), in a year the average Canadian (+18 years of age) will consume: (each animal)
- Chicken - 30.6 kgs
- Beef - 30.0 kgs
- Pork - 28.1 kgs
- Turkey - 4.3 kgs
- “Mature Chicken” (???) - 1.7 kgs
- Veal - 1.1 kgs
- Lamb - 1.0 kg
average Canadian (18+) will consume a GRAND TOTAL of ___ kg of meat/person/year (___lbs)
96.8kgs or 213lbs
since 1972, chicken consumption has increased __%, and everything else has stayed the same
(except ____ in the last 2 years which has declined ___%)
84%
(beef, 24%)
T or F: the demand for meat is decreasing with deluge of plant-based alternatives
Flexatarians at __%
__% Canadians
F: Demand is rising
Flexatarians at 12%
20% Canadians
ecological impacts of animal farming
- claims on overpopulation of cattle and methane
explusion’s effect on ozone - fecal run-off into water supplies
- grazing lands for cattle causing permanent
damage to land surfaces
(can’t grow anything else on land even after beef
farm disappears)
what is the answer to ecological damage
consume in a way that produces less damage
___% of Canadians buy organic every week
56-66%
USDA version of organics & difficulty
codified validity to products being organic
- difficult to ensure there is no contamination, regardless if practices are organic
T or F: organic foods are significantly more nutritious than conventional foods
T
T or F: consumption of organic foods may reduce exposure to pesticide residues and antibiotic-resistant bacteria
T
zoonotic infections
crossover from animals to humans
- SARs
- bird blue (eat feces of chickens)
- COVID (bats??? tf)
xenotransplantation & risk
growing human tissue on non-human hosts to make it easier for transplant
- can’t raise humans to be organ donors
risk: might create extremely dangerous zoonotic infection
commercial vs medical research uses
medical: cure for diseases that uses animals, high value **
- benefit is so good, saves lives, we can sacrifice more animal lives
many animals are used for consumer products
- medical beneifts humanity, more okay that commercial
beliefs of Peter Singer (Animal Liberation book)
- “personhood” could include higher-order mammals but also exclude some disabled or damaged humans
- equality is about the equal consideration of interests, but humans ignore the interests of higher order mammals in order to suit their own comforts/pleasures
T or F: Singer is a utilitarian
T: believes in greatest good for greatest #
- he is expanding the membership of “greatest #” to mammals, not just humans
speciesists
one who discriminates against another’s rights by virtue of their belonging to another (non-human) species
- compare with racists, sexists .etc
Singer’s concept of personhood
a person is any creature (human or non-human) who meets criteria:
1. feel pain
2. make own decisions
3. foresee a future
4. able to communicate
5. ability to reason
6. self-aware
7. autonomous
T of F: a severely brain damaged man wouldn’t be a person but a tuna could be
T: if a human didn’t fulfill this personhood category (PVS, Alzheimer’s .etc) they would not be entitled to “personhood
animal attributes documented at research symposium London, UK (2005)
- sheep develop deep friendships
- cows are problem solvers
- animals have both reason and emotions in a relationship similar to ours
- cows’ brains show signs of anticipation and excitement while waiting for food reward in classical conditioning experiment
what would singer’s conception of personhood do for the following topics
1. abortion
2. euthanasia/assisted suicide
3. xenotransplantation
4. animal research
- abortion = acceptable
- humans don’t reach personhood until at least 3 months after birth - euthanasia/assisted suicide = acceptable & encouraged
- humans who slip below personhood status should not occupy resources that can be used for other people - xenotransplantation = disallowed
- mammals who qualify for personhood can’t have their interests defiled for another ‘person’ (even of he/she is a human) - animal research = disallowed
- since monkeys could be persons, you could no more use them for research than you could any human
flaws with Singer’s theory + Richard Posner’s synthesis
‘synthesis’: compromise between 2 opposite POVs - ‘thesis’ & ‘anti-thesis’
= “ we should alleviate those pains [of animals] without substantially reducing our standard of living and that of the rest of the world and without sacrificing medical or scientific progress”
lab culture meat
the world’s first cruelty-free hamburger
- only 1 creature died to create unlimited protein
- real animal that produces same meat but origin and suffering is different
In the article Annals of Internal Medicine article that compared the nutritional benefits of organic food over conventionally-grown food, which of the following IS NOT one of the findings?
a. There’s no strong evidence that organic food is more nutritious
b. Organic food might reduce the consumption of pesticides
c. Organic food might reduce the consumption of anti-biotic resistant bacteria
d. Organic food is more nutritious than conventionally-grown foods
a. There’s no strong evidence that organic food is more nutritious
