ABSTRACT
Chapter 8, “The ethics of food production,” discusses the implications of these impacts for the ethics of food production. If a particular industry causes unnecessary harm to humans, nonhumans, and the environment, is it morally wrong to work in that industry? How much–if at all–does the answer to this question depend on the degree to which we make a contribution to that system or have other options? We start by considering ethical questions that arise for people within industrial animal agriculture, including corporate executives and workers in factory farms and slaughterhouses. We then consider ethical questions that arise for people who pursue alternatives. Here we focus on the ethics of local, organic, free-range animal agriculture, exploring questions such as: Is it morally permissible to use, confine, and kill animals for food if we treat them well otherwise? We also consider arguments for and against hunting, plant-based agriculture, and plant-based and cultured meat.
