200 Billion Animals Are Killed for Food Each Year (#224)
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What is the main ethical issue discussed in this episode?
As my guest today says in his book, in 2015, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer asked what present practice universally engaged in and accepted by people of great intelligence and moral sensitivity will be seen by future generations as abominable in the way that we now see slavery as abominable. Mr. Krauthammer's answer was our treatment of animals. I'm convinced, he wrote, that our great-grandchildren will find it difficult to believe that we actually raised, herded, and slaughtered them on an industrial scale for eating. How should we think about our treatment of animals? Hi, everyone. I'm Lynne Thoman, and this is Three Takeaways. On Three Takeaways, I talk with some of the world's best thinkers, business leaders, writers, politicians, newsmakers and scientists. Each episode ends with three key takeaways to help us understand the world and maybe even ourselves a little better. Today, I'm excited to be joined by Peter Singer. He's thought a lot about our ethics and our treatment of animals.
He was born in Australia, educated at the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford, and became a professor of bioethics at Princeton University Center for Human Values. His work specializes in practical ethics, and he is known for his work on animals and on global poverty. He's the author of numerous books, including Animal Liberation, Practical Ethics, and The Life You Can Save. His most recent book is Consider the Turkey. Welcome, Peter, and thanks so much for joining Three Takeaways today.
Thanks very much, Lynn. I'm happy to be with you.
How many animals are raised for food each year?
It is my pleasure. Peter, let's start with some numbers so everyone understands the scale of what we're talking about, about how many animals, cows, lambs, pigs, chickens, and fish are produced for food each year.
We're talking about an estimated 200 billion animals raised for food each year. And I'm not including in that wild-caught fish, who would make the number go several times that. I'm just talking about the animals we actually raise from birth to death, and the death, of course, we cause. And the largest proportion of those are chickens and fish, but there are very large numbers of all of those animals you mentioned.
That's an enormous number of animals. As you've pointed out, raising all those animals has a huge impact on the environment. What is the impact on the environment?
Well, there are multiple impacts on the environment. We're all concerned now about climate change, and that is one really important impact. The animal raising industry clearly contributes to climate change. Estimates vary. Something like 15% is a reasonable estimate. Particularly when you take into account the power of methane, which the ruminant animals in particular emit. And it's especially over a short time period, like a 20-year period, it's perhaps 80 times as powerful as carbon dioxide. And people often don't factor into it that we really need to talk about the next 20 years, because if we don't, we've lost the whole game. And they have put a lower value on methane because it does break down faster than carbon dioxide. but not fast enough.
So that's one difference. Another important impact it has on the environment is that it's a huge waste of food to raise animals in confinement and then have to grow food to feed them. Because the animals just to live and move around, and at least in the case of the birds and mammals, keep their bodies warm, have to use a lot of the food value just to do that. And of course, also to form bones and other things that we don't even eat. So we're wasting a lot of the good agricultural land. We don't really need as much agricultural cleared land as we have, except for the fact that we're feeding a lot of this grain and soybeans to animals. So we could leave a lot more land to grow trees and absorb more carbon again.
We would also have a lot less manure, of course, concentrated manure, which gets into rivers and pollutes rivers. And if any of your listeners happen to live near these places, they will know that it pollutes the air very badly. Factory farms simply stink.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main ethical issue discussed in this episode?
0:02–2:07
2
How many animals are raised for food each year?
2:07–5:01
3
What is the environmental impact of animal agriculture?
5:01–8:24
4
How do animal emissions compare to cars in contributing to climate change?
8:24–9:49
5
What is the food efficiency of different types of livestock?
9:49–11:33
6
How are pigs raised in modern farming?
11:33–14:47
7
What are the conditions for dairy cows in industrial farming?
14:47–19:24
8
Is fish farming humane?
19:24–19:54
Speakers
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