Animal welfare | TableDebates

Coller FAIRR Protein Producer Index

Coller FAIRR Protein Producer Index 2021

The fourth edition of the Coller FAIRR Protein Producer Index assesses 60 of the world’s largest protein producers, covering beef, pork, poultry and eggs, dairy and aquaculture, against several environmental, social and governance factors, including climate, biodiversity, water use, antibiotics, working conditions and alternatives to animal protein.

Genome editing and farmed animals: Social and ethical issues

Genome editing and farmed animals: Social and ethical issues

This report from the Nuffield Council on Bioethics examines the social and ethical issues that could arise from applying genome editing to farmed animals. While genome editing could help address some food systems challenges, for example by giving animals greater resistance to some diseases, it also may lead to less attention being paid to animal welfare.

Image: Shutterbug75, Animal big boar, Pixabay, Pixabay Licence

Loving some animals, eating others: Food preferences in childhood

This blog post is written by Dr Luke McGuire, who is a lecturer at the University of Exeter Department of Psychology with interests in social & moral development across childhood, adolescence and emerging adulthood.

Saving Animals, Saving Ourselves

Saving Animals, Saving Ourselves

This book sets out the case for considering the wellbeing of animals as part of our responses to pandemics, climate change and other global threats, for example by reducing support for factory farming, deforestation and the wildlife trade.

Image: johnrp, Cumbrian sheep Herdwick, Pixabay, Pixabay Licence

On flesh and the spirit: understanding British Muslims’ meat consumption

Hibba Mazhary is a part-time PhD student in Geography at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford. Hibba first entered the department as a BA Geography undergraduate in 2013, before going on to complete an MSc there in Nature, Society and Environmental Governance. She divides her time between fieldwork, teaching undergraduates, and undertaking various part-time research assistant roles, including a project on parenting and the gut microbiome, one on meat normalisation media narratives, and one with the RSPCA on laboratory rat welfare. Hibba is interested in all things farm animal welfare and food sustainability. Her first TABLE blog, in which she sets out the aims of her PhD research, can be found here: Distancing death: slaughter, welfare and consumption in the British halal meat industry.

Engaging academics in countering the factory farming in Africa

Engaging academics in countering the factory farming in Africa

This report from US public policy think tank Brighter Green discusses industrial-style livestock production in Africa, which, although growing, has not yet reached the scale seen in the United States. Starting from the assumption that industrial livestock production is undesirable, the report sets out how Brighter Green engaged with academics and researchers in sub-Saharan Africa to challenge this agricultural development model.

Planting value in the food system

Planting value in the food system

This report from the UK’s Vegan Society explores how policies, principles and legislation could lead towards a sustainable plant-based food system. It aims to avoid a polarised “vegans vs. farmers” narrative and instead aims to find common ground between stakeholders. It uses a “multi-criteria lens” to consider the food system from the perspectives of animal equity, human health, economy and just work, climate change and ecosystems, and social and cultural values.

Animals in Our Midst: The Challenges of Co-existing with Animals in the Anthropocene

The challenges of co-existing with animals in the Anthropocene

This open access book explores the ethics of the changing relationships between humans and animals in the Anthropocene. It takes animal agency as its starting point and includes discussion of farmed animals, rewilding and cultured meat.

Image: Megha Mangal, Fried egg with seasonings, Pexels, Pexels Licence

Journal articles

How many chickens does it take to make an egg?

This paper, co-authored by FCRN member David Cleveland, aims to quantify the animal welfare and environmental implications of replacing egg-based mayonnaise with plant-based mayonnaise and replacing eggs with tofu, using a case study from the University of California, Santa Barbara.