Thursday, 28 November 2013

Animals as Food? Three Views

Most consumers respond with scepticism or hostility when asked directly about factory farming, based on their associations of cruelty to animals. Most people say to be willing to pay higher prices for meat if livestock is held in a more animal-friendly way. This however does not translate into consumer decisions: around 98% of the meat comes from large scale livestock farming. Why? Which living conditions have to be guaranteed to animals? Is it right to eat animals? And how can customers take more responsibility?

Introduction:
Steffen Huck, Professor of Economics at University College London and Director of the WZB research unit Economics of Change.

Presenters:

  • Melanie Joy, lecturer of sociology at the University of Massachusetts Boston and founder and president of CAAN (Carnism Awawareness & Action Network)

  • Bernd Ladwig, professor of political theory and philosophy at Freie Universität Berlin, currently writing a monograph on animal ethics

  • Gerhard Manteuffel, Scientific director of the Institute of Behavioural Physiology at the Leibniz-Institute for Farm Animal Biology at Rostock-Dummerstorf and apl. Prof. of Neuroethology at the University Bremen

Moderated by Nora Szech, Professor of economics at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and WZB fellow.