Johnston, Connie L. 2015. The political science of farm animal welfare in the US and EU. In The Political Ecology of Meat, J. Emel and H. Neo, eds. London: Earthscan (original) (raw)

Abstract

In the US and Europe, animal welfare is a term that can conjure thoughts of, on one end of the spectrum, broadly appealing ideas of “rescuing” typical companion species from inhumane conditions and, on the other, of often contentious political and public opinion battles over legislating what can and cannot be done to certain species in scientific laboratories and on industrial farms. Implicit in the term “animal welfare” is some level of presumed understanding of a particular animal’s or species’ needs. The ways in which we humans come to understand other animals are various, and in Western societies, science often plays a role. Our understandings also have as their foundations our ontological conceptualizations of ourselves as beings in relation to the rest of the world which, again in Western societies, can contain at least an implicit dualism of human society and non-human nature. Political ecology scholarship often challenges hegemonic epistemologies and dualistic thinking. Thou...

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