Martin Aucoin's De-Naturalizing the Poultry Plant is the winning essay from TABLE's 2024 Essay Challenge. The Challenge asked participants to consider the question, 'Should food systems be more natural?'Martin's essay reflects both on our understanding of the word 'natural' and on the deeply embedded but often invisible structures our food systems rely upon. Distilling questions from his own experience and research, he proposes the poultry plant as a natural consequence of a modern way to eat and feed. Martin Aucoin grew up in the rural Brazos Valley of Texas, never far away from people growing food: "Being surrounded by massive corn and soy fields, pecan orchards, and cattle and poultry operations, impressed upon me the vast scale at which modern agriculture operates. This made me feel disconnected from the food I ate – too small to even count. I felt this even more distinctly when I moved to the Dallas area for my undergraduate studies. The disjuncture between producer and consumer drove me to get involved in Dallas/Fort Worth local food movements and inspires my work to this day. Since then, I’ve worked as an environmental educator in Massachusetts, a Peace Corps Volunteer in The Gambia, and am currently finishing my graduate studies. My current life in Boston leaves little time or space for growing food other than a small garden, but I try to take as much pleasure as possible in cooking food and serving it to people. I dream of greater connectivity with the food I eat, the people who grow it, and the other species whose lives nourish humanity. I think many people share this dream, even if subconsciously; my work and writing explore this disjuncture and seek innovative pathways towards putting people back into relationship with their food."

As many welcome the novel spotlight on food systems at COP28, the UN Climate Change Conference taking place in the United Arab Emirates this month, authors Cleo Verkuijl and Jeff Sebo call for a renewed focus on animal welfare and the ethical price being paid for a narrow and inattentive focus on emissions reduction. About the authors: Cleo Verkuijl is a scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute US and a visiting research fellow at Harvard Law School’s Animal Law and Policy Programme. She has served as a coordinating lead author of three UN climate policy assessments. Jeff Sebo is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Affiliated Professor of Bioethics, Medical Ethics, Philosophy, and Law, Director of the Animal Studies M.A. Program, Director of the Mind, Ethics, and Policy Program, and Co-Director of the Wild Animal Welfare Program at New York University. His most recent book is Saving Animals, Saving Ourselves.