Competition, Regulation, and the Race to the Bottom in Animal Agriculture

McMullen, Steven

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-97142-7_6

Cited by 2 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Often, farmers do not have much financial leeway. According to a study by the National Contract Poultry Growers Association and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 70% of chicken farmers in the US, who rely on their chicken business for income, live below the poverty line (cited in McMullen, 2022; The Pew Environment Group, 2013). Farmers must often decide between “adopting the latest inhuman production techniques” or “leaving the industry entirely” (McMullen, 2022, p. 12).…”

Section: Three Stages Of Avoiding Unnecessary Suffering In the Animal...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to a study by the National Contract Poultry Growers Association and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 70% of chicken farmers in the US, who rely on their chicken business for income, live below the poverty line (cited in McMullen, 2022; The Pew Environment Group, 2013). Farmers must often decide between “adopting the latest inhuman production techniques” or “leaving the industry entirely” (McMullen, 2022, p. 12). As higher animal welfare can mean higher production costs, the existence of a market for these goods, with consumers who are willing to pay more for welfare‐friendly products, does facilitate the transition.…”

Section: Three Stages Of Avoiding Unnecessary Suffering In the Animal...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Farmers could seek collaborations with distributors who specialize in marketing higher‐welfare animal products, to ensure they will be able to sell their products at a price that enables them to produce in this fashion. Firms could also tackle information issues on the consumer side (McMullen, 2022). In their marketing, they could compare and contrast their higher‐welfare products with the standard industry means of producing such products, thereby enabling consumers to make well‐informed choices.…”

Section: Three Stages Of Avoiding Unnecessary Suffering In the Animal...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For those who have begun transforming their business in the direction of higher farm animal welfare, and especially for those who possess a certain political power, it could be an adequate accompanying measure to lobby in diverse political arenas for national or supernational legislation, in terms of regulating higher animal welfare legal standards. Regulations could thus set ground rules which remedy the “race to the bottom” when it comes to animal welfare (McMullen, 2022). Such regulations need to be kept as geographically broad as possible.…”

Section: Three Stages Of Avoiding Unnecessary Suffering In the Animal...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such regulations need to be kept as geographically broad as possible. Producers might otherwise be incentivized to move production to states or nations without comparably strict regulations (McMullen, 2022). Lobbying efforts could include stricter regulation of live transport, the legitimacy of killing animals on farm premises instead of this being undertaken in distant slaughterhouses, lower speeds on slaughter lines, higher prices for animal products in general, higher standards for the living conditions of farmed animals, and bans or tariffs on imports of lower animal welfare products.…”

Section: Three Stages Of Avoiding Unnecessary Suffering In the Animal...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Avoiding unnecessary suffering: Towards a moral minimum standard for humans' responsibility for animal welfare

Köllen

Schneeberger

2023

Business Ethics Env & Resp

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Animals are an important part of our social, economic and corporate world. Their wellbeing is significantly affected by the ways in which humans treat them. However, animals have long remained (and, indeed, continue to remain) effectively invisible in the business ethics and corporate responsibility discourse. This article argues in favor of the moral necessity of according animal welfare a higher priority in business. In line with most streams in both recent and traditional animal ethics, this article derives the avoidance of unnecessary animal suffering as the moral minimum standard for responsible management in the livestock industry. Based on a broad range of different interpretations of what animal suffering may be necessary, the article discusses three distinct ways in which humans working in the animal industry could meet their moral responsibility to avoid unnecessary suffering, and, with this, increase animal welfare: by ameliorating circumstances for animals, by aiming at a two‐pronged transformation, or by transforming into a “zero‐suffering” business. Considering animal welfare as a legitimate ethical value in and of itself is a first step towards overcoming the anthropocentric bias in today's sustainability and corporate responsibility debate.

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Section: Three Stages Of Avoiding Unnecessary Suffering In the Animal...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Three Stages Of Avoiding Unnecessary Suffering In the Animal...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Three Stages Of Avoiding Unnecessary Suffering In the Animal...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Three Stages Of Avoiding Unnecessary Suffering In the Animal...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Three Stages Of Avoiding Unnecessary Suffering In the Animal...mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Avoiding unnecessary suffering: Towards a moral minimum standard for humans' responsibility for animal welfare

Köllen

Schneeberger

2023

Business Ethics Env & Resp

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Quantifying internal and external influences on Swedish farmers’ strategic choices and performance outcomes

Nybom¹

2023

Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae

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The Swedish agricultural sector is undergoing a period of rationalization and structural change where farms have become fewer and larger. This has created a number of challenges for the remaining farms in terms of how to survive and prosper in the changing competitive landscape. This compilation thesis investigates how the external environment (competitive intensity), social environment (advisors and family) and internal environment (identity) influences farmers’ strategic choices related to strategic orientation and entrepreneurship as well as outcomes related to performance. Based on a sample of 388 randomly selected farmers, paper I revealed that as perceptions of competitive intensity increase, farmers tend to become more market and Lean production oriented, but not entrepreneurial oriented. Fittingly, those farms that adopted a more market or Lean production orientation experienced better overall performance than those who increased their entrepreneurial orientation. In paper II, a three-group between subject experimental design was conducted on 122 Swedish farm management students in order to investigate the influence of “cultural intolerance” on the advice given to a farmer considering different strategic options to develop their farm. As the subject’s cultural intolerance (as measured through their level of “Jante”) increased, their recommendations towards adopting entrepreneurship decreased. Paper III in this thesis used a survey of 269 Swedish farmers to measure social identity and the level of involvement of family members on the farm in order to predict strategic choices related to financial, social and environmental sustainability goals. Findings reveal that family influences sustainability goals, however this influence is limited to social sustainability goals, but not economic or environmental sustainability goals. The findings can be useful to understand farmer’s social justification to be in business. Finally, the kappa in this thesis employs a post-literature scoping review in order to reflect on the choices made in conceptualizing, operationalizing, and positioning the work in order to develop recommendations for future research.

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Competition, Regulation, and the Race to the Bottom in Animal Agriculture

Cited by 2 publications

References 22 publications

Avoiding unnecessary suffering: Towards a moral minimum standard for humans' responsibility for animal welfare

Avoiding unnecessary suffering: Towards a moral minimum standard for humans' responsibility for animal welfare

Quantifying internal and external influences on Swedish farmers’ strategic choices and performance outcomes

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