Farming, Food and Nature: Respecting Animals, People and the Environment

303 Pages·2018·6.8 MB·English

by  Joyce D’Silva (Editor)

Farming, Food and Nature
Livestock production and its use of finite resources is devastating biodiver-
sity and pushing wildlife to the brink of extinction. This powerful book
examines the massive global impact caused by intensive livestock production
and then explores solutions, ranging from moving to agroecological farm-
ing to reducing consumption of animal products, including examples of best
practice and innovation, both on land and within the investment and food
industries.
Leading international contributors spell out the problems in terms of plan-
etary limits, climate change, resources, the massive use of cereals and soy for
animal feed, and the direct impact of industrial farming on the welfare of
farmed animals. They call for an urgent move to a flourishing food system
for the sake of animals, the planet and us. Some offer examples of global
good practice in farming or the power of the investment community to drive
change, and others highlight food business innovation and exciting develop-
ments in protein diversification. Providing a highly accessible overview of
key issues, this book creates a timely resource for all concerned about the en-
vironmental, social and ethical issues facing food, farming and nature. It will
be an invaluable resource and provide inspiration for students, professionals,
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the general reader.
Joyce D’Silva is Ambassador Emeritus for Compassion in World Farming,
the leading charity advancing the welfare of farm animals worldwide. She is
co-editor of The Meat Crisis (second edition 2017).
Carol McKenna is Special Advisor to the Chief Executive of Compassion in
World Farming and organised the Extinction and Livestock Conference on
which this book is based.
Other books in the Earthscan Food and Agriculture Series
Farmers’ Cooperatives and Sustainable Food Systems in Europe
Raquel Ajates Gonzalez
The New Peasantries
Rural Development in Times of Globalization (Second Edition)
Jan Douwe van der Ploeg
Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture
Greening the World’s Food Economy
Jules N. Pretty and Zareen Pervez Bharucha
Contested Sustainability Discourses in the Agrifood System
Edited by Douglas H. Constance, Jason Konefal and Maki Hatanaka
The Financialization of Agri-Food Systems
Contested Transformations
Edited by Hilde Bjørkhaug, André Magnan and Geoffrey Lawrence
Redesigning the Global Seed Commons
Law and Policy for Agrobiodiversity and Food Security
Christine Frison
Organic Food and Farming in China
Top-down and Bottom-up Ecological Initiatives
Steffanie Scott, Zhenzhong Si, Theresa Schumilas and Aijuan Chen
Farming, Food and Nature
Respecting Animals, People and the Environment
Edited by Joyce D’Silva and Carol McKenna
For further details please visit the series page on the Routledge website:
http://www.routledge.com/books/series/ECEFA/
Farming, Food and Nature
Respecting Animals, People and the
Environment
Edited by Joyce D’Silva
and Carol McKenna
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 selection and editorial matter, Joyce D’Silva and Carol
McKenna; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Joyce D’Silva and Carol McKenna to be identified as
the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their
individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: D’Silva, Joyce, editor. | McKenna, Carol, editor.
Title: Farming, food and nature: respecting animals, people and the
environment / edited by Joyce D’Silva and Carol McKenna.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York,
NY: Routledge, 2018. | Series: Earthscan food and agriculture |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018028203 | ISBN 9781138541412 (hbk) |
ISBN 9781138541443 (pbk) | ISBN 9781351011013 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Livestock—Social aspects. | Livestock—Climatic factor. |
Livestock—Moral and ethical aspects.
Classification: LCC SF140.S62 F37 2018 | DDC 636—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018028203
ISBN: 978-1-138-54141-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-54144-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-01101-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by codeMantra
Contents
List of contributors ix
Foreword xxi
JANE GOODALL
1 Introduction 1
JOYCE D’SILvA AND CAROL McKENNA
PART I
Setting the planetary scene 5
2 Livestock and the boundaries of our planet 7
KATHERINE RICHARDSON
PART II
The impacts of livestock production on the natural world 11
3 The great disappearing act 13
PHILIP LYMBERY
4 Biodiversity, extinction and livestock production 30
TONY JuNIPER
5 Bees versus robots 38
DAvE GOuLSON
6 Conservation and the sacred cow 41
DOMINIC WORMELL
7 Protected Cerrado and sustainable diets: complementary
pathways towards a more conscious appetite 46
JEAN FRANçOIS TIMMERS
vi Contents
8 The growing demand for fish: impacts on the
environment, animal welfare and food security 55
KRzYSzTOF WOTJAS AND NATASHA BOYLAND
PART III
The impact of livestock production on people 61
9 Livestock production and human rights or how the
chicken came home to roost 63
RAJ PATEL
10 The role of livestock in developing countries 69
JIMMY SMITH
PART IV
The significance of sentience in wild and farmed animals 75
11 Beyond words: what animals think and feel 77
CARL SAFINA
12 Creatures of the factory farm 86
JOYCE D’SILvA
13 The scientific basis for action on animal welfare and
other aspects of sustainability 93
DONALD M. BROOM
14 Green and pleasant farming: cattle, sheep and habitat 101
JOHN WEBSTER
PART V
Solutions for people, planet and animals 107
15 Agroecology working in Africa: the case of
Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania (SAT) 109
JANET MARO
16 Balancing the needs of food production, farming
and nature in the UK uplands 116
CHRIS CLARK AND PAT THOMPSON
Contents vii
17 Chikolongo – a win for people and parks 123
JOSEPH OKORI AND PETER BORCHERT
18 Silvopastoral systems: a feasible step towards
environmentally sustainable livestock systems in Mexico 131
KAREN F. MANCERA
19 Farming in harmony with nature 138
PATRICK HOLDEN
PART VI
Food policy for the future 141
20 Paying for the true costs of our meat, eggs and dairy 143
PETER STEvENSON
21 Changing the world, one meal at a time 164
MARTIN PALMER
22 The Sustainable Development Goals: challenge or
opportunity? 171
HANS R. HERREN
23 Rethinking our global food systems 175
JONATHON PORRITT
24 Sustainability in the agro-food sector 178
KARL FALKENBERG
25 Farming insects for food or feed 181
PHIL BROOKE
26 Hopeful signposts to a plant-based future 198
CAROL McKENNA
PART VII
Healthy and sustainable diets 221
27 Healthy and sustainable dietary patterns for prevention
of chronic diseases and premature death 223
ELENA HEMLER AND FRANK B. Hu
viii Contents
28 The threat to public health from livestock production 230
AYSHA AKHTAR
29 Food, feed and sustainable diets 232
DuNCAN WILLIAMSON
30 Conserving biodiversity through sustainable diets 236
GLYN DAvIES
31 The case for veganism 238
ANDREW KNIGHT AND JASMIJN DE BOO
PART VIII
Investing in a flourishing food system 249
32 Corporate engagement strategies to improve farm
animal welfare and why they work 251
LEAH GARCES
33 The power of investor influence 257
ROSIE WARDLE
34 The role of business in reducing meat and dairy
consumption 262
MICHAEL PELLMAN ROWLAND
35 Plant-based and clean meat will save the world 265
BRuCE FRIEDRICH
Conclusion 271
JOYCE D’SILvA AND CAROL McKENNA
Index 273
Contributors
Editors
Joyce D’Silva has an MA from Dublin university, Trinity College, and has
been awarded honorary doctorates from the universities of Winchester
and Keele. She has taught in schools in India and the uK. She wrote the
uK’s second vegan cookbook, Healthy Eating for the New Age Wildwood
House, 1980), which ran to four editions.
In 1985 Joyce began a long career at Compassion in World Farming
(Compassion), becoming Chief Executive in 1991, a post she held for 14
years. Since April 2016 she has been working as Ambassador Emeritus for
Compassion on a consultancy basis. She played a key role in achieving
the uK ban on sow stalls in the 1990s and in getting recognition of an-
imal sentience enshrined in the European union (Eu) Treaties. She has
given evidence to the uK and New zealand governments, the European
Commission and the uK Government’s Advisory Committee on Climate
Change.
Joyce addressed (and organised, with the Royal Society for the Preven-
tion of Cruelty to Animals, RSPCA) the first conference on pig welfare in
Beijing in 2005; initiated Compassion’s 2005 Conference “From Darwin
to Dawkins: the Science and Implications of Animal Sentience”; and, in
2017, helped organise the conference “Extinction and Livestock: mov-
ing to a flourishing food system for wildlife, farm animals and us”. Joyce
co-edited (with John Webster) The Meat Crisis: Developing more sustainable
and ethical production and consumption, Earthscan, 2017. She has received sev-
eral awards for her animal welfare work and was the joint recipient of the
RSPCA Lord Erskine Award in recognition of a “very important contri-
bution in the field of animal welfare” in 2004.
Joyce is a Patron of the Animal Interfaith Alliance and a Trustee of the
uK branch of Help in Suffering, a charity carrying out veterinary work in
Jaipur, India. She is on the Advisory Council of CreatureKind.
Joyce has authored chapters for several books and reports, including Wel-
fare Challenges ed. Dr Andy Butterworth, CABI, publication pending 2018;
The Impact of Meat Consumption on Health and Environmental Sustainability, eds