Livestock, Ethics and Quality of Life

Rating:
Summary: At last! - clarification of those ethical issues & choices!
Review: Increasingly novel & sophisticated applications of science & technology to animal breeding and production are raising ethical concerns in many countries in an era when public caring and spiritual values are widely rising. Ethical, political and trade issues in how we treat farm animals have become headline news. To name but a few: quality of life in factory farming systems; cloning; genetic engineering; "Mad Cow" disease (BSE); transplantation of animal organs into humans; bovine & porcine somatotrophin. Complex cultural, emotional, philosophical and spiritual reactions have emerged to the economic, scientific and technical developments in agriculture. At last an authoritative textbook has emerged to guide us through this tangled and growing web of concern, conflict and debate. This excellent new book "Livestock, Ethics & Quality of Life" does not seek to thrust answers upon us but to clarify the arguments and issues for us so that we can review and understand the range of approaches available and make our own informed assessments. Our way is then cleared to choose a forward direction that is based on clarity, discernment and wisdom rather than fantasy, fear and muddled thinking. It originated in a special symposium held at the 1998 World Congress on Animal Production but additional chapters have been specially commissioned to provide a more comprehensive and balanced account.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Questions; What Are Your Answers?
Review: Thought-provoking" is probably the best way to describe this book. A series of papers, primarily those presented at a 1998 symposium as a part of a Congress on Animal Production, each of which present some of the questions raised by many of the new and newer methods of production of animal protein for food. Essentially the questions raised revolve about the axis of, "What is it ethical to do in order to allow ten billion people to eat?" Several different perspectives are used as starting points, though the primary basis is that of Religion (abstract or particular). Answers are not all provided; these are left as an exercise for the reader. Though the book and the papers contained therein have their origins with professional ethicists, geneticists, and Animal Scientists, the layman can read and enjoy at least parts ~ large parts, i believe ~ of it. I suspect this would be a fine supplemental textbook for studies in either Ethics or Animal Production, or even other, less closely related science disciplines. Nevertheless, it does not "feel" like a pure textbook; i read it for interest's sake, and enjoyed it.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Questions; What Are Your Answers?
Review: Thought-provoking" is probably the best way to describe this book. A series of papers, primarily those presented at a 1998 symposium as a part of a Congress on Animal Production, each of which present some of the questions raised by many of the new and newer methods of production of animal protein for food. Essentially the questions raised revolve about the axis of, "What is it ethical to do in order to allow ten billion people to eat?" Several different perspectives are used as starting points, though the primary basis is that of Religion (abstract or particular). Answers are not all provided; these are left as an exercise for the reader. Though the book and the papers contained therein have their origins with professional ethicists, geneticists, and Animal Scientists, the layman can read and enjoy at least parts ~ large parts, i believe ~ of it. I suspect this would be a fine supplemental textbook for studies in either Ethics or Animal Production, or even other, less closely related science disciplines. Nevertheless, it does not "feel" like a pure textbook; i read it for interest's sake, and enjoyed it.