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Animal efficiencies, animal welfare: either/or, or both/and? Some Reflections from an Informal Meeting

Late December last year Tara Garnett, researcher on food systems and climate change and coordinator of the FCRN, initiated a meeting that brought together Marian Dawkins, Prof in Animal Behaviour at Oxford University, Jude Capper, researcher and livestock sustainability consultant who has worked mainly in the US, and Elin Röös, Swedish LCA researcher and the initiator of the Swedish Meat Guide,  for an informal discussion on the subject of sustainable intensification of agriculture and what that entails for the animal welfare of farm animals.

During the course of this meeting, a number of assumptions were challenged, diverse ethical and philosophical questions raised, and some areas that need further exploration and research identified.  The purpose of this article is to share our reflections with the FCRN community and to seek out your thoughts and ideas about what sort of research and activity is needed next.

You can download the article below.

We’d be keen to hear the thoughts of the FCRN community on this short article and on the questions raised.  We want to encourage an open discussion - please do get back to us with your comments, with links to relevant research and perhaps with ideas for how we might take forward work in this area. Please read comments from other members and submit your comments on this page where the article was first published.

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