While writing, reviewing and editing TABLE's explainer on Animal welfare ethics in food and agriculture, we were struck by the complex overlaps and divergences between the different groups involved. Why do activists, scientists and policymakers interested in charting a pathway to a better future for non-human animals so often disagree on the details? This diagram is our attempt to visualise these contrasting visions of the future, routes to reach them, and values underlying them.
Many different groups critique the relationship between humans and other animals in the food system and hope to chart a path to a better future. Conservation scientists, specialists in animal welfare, animal rights campaigners, and philosophers of ethics all call for reform or even revolution in the ways we use animals to produce food. At first glance, the criticisms overlap, focusing on suffering, slaughter and environmental destruction. Yet when we go deeper, we find real differences at the level of values and ideals, and in ways that these different movements and disciplines think about non-human animals. In their tactics, strategies and long-term goals we find a complex patchwork of partial consensus and sharp disagreement.
In this graphic, we visualise some of these different groups and the pathways they would chart to a better future. Hover over the individual labels to see an explanation below, and click on the pathways to highlight them. For more detailed discussion, see our full explainer Animal welfare ethics in food and agriculture. Please note, this page is best viewed on desktop and does not work well on mobile!
