Eating to Save the Planet, Avoid Cruelty and Reduce the Risk of Pandemics

November 09, 2020

Information

November 4, 2020

ID5860

To CiteDCA Citation Guide

00:00Good evening my friends.
00:02My name is Mark Mercurio.
00:04I'm the director of the Program
00:06for Biomedical Ethics at the Yale
00:08School of Medicine and Welcome to
00:10our Evening Ethics Seminar series
00:12in a very special session tonight.
00:14Doctor Professor Peter Singer from
00:17Princeton an from Australia and
00:19coming to us tonight from Australia.
00:22Tonight's session will be
00:23moderated by Doctor Sarah Hall.
00:25Dr Hall is associate director of our
00:28program and on behalf of Doctor Hull,
00:30another associate director,
00:31Jack use an R manager turn cold by I welcome
00:35you and thank you so much for coming tonight.
00:38The way these sessions will work is is
00:41that Sarah will introduce doctor professor,
00:43singer Ann.
00:44Professor single will speak for about
00:4645 minutes, plus or minus a little bit,
00:49and then they'll be a chance for a Q&A and.
00:52Doctor Hall will moderate that session,
00:56so Sarah Hall.
00:57Receive their education at Harvard and
00:59then pen and while at Penn getting her MD,
01:02she also got a Masters degree in bioethics,
01:05and she came to us at Yale to
01:07learn how to be a cardiologist.
01:10And she's now in our cardiology faculty.
01:12Ann is also service.
01:13Thankfully,
01:13as associate director of our program here,
01:16and is very well known within Yale for
01:18being one of our most prized teachers.
01:21And so I'm very happy to turn this
01:23session over tonight and the introduction
01:25of Professor Singer turn it over.
01:27Doctor Sarah Hall Sarah take it away.
01:30Thank you so much Doctor Mercurio
01:33and thank you professor Singer for
01:35coming to speak with us tonight.
01:37I know I'm not alone in saying that
01:39the topic that you're going to speak
01:42about is of incredible importance
01:44and to have you really lead us
01:46through this really important work.
01:48I think we're just really privileged
01:50and honored to have you.
01:52So just as a brief introduction for
01:54those of you who aren't familiar
01:56with Professor Singer and I assume
01:58that's a vanishingly small number,
02:00but.
02:01Peter Singer is sometimes called the world's
02:03most influential living philosopher.
02:04Although he thinks that if that is true,
02:07it doesn't say much for all the other
02:09living philosophers around today.
02:10He has also been called the father
02:12of the modern Animal Rights movement,
02:14even though he does not base his
02:16philosophical views on rights.
02:18Professor Singer is known especially
02:19for his work on the ethics of
02:21our Treatment of Animals and for
02:23his controversial critique of
02:24the Sanctity of Life doctrine,
02:26bioethics,
02:26as well As for his writings on the
02:29obligations of the affluent to aid
02:31those living in extreme poverty.
02:33He was born in Melbourne,
02:35an educated at the University of
02:37Melbourne and the University of Oxford.
02:39After teaching in England the USANA
02:41Australia in 1999 he paid he became
02:43Iroda Camp Professor Bioethics in
02:45the University Center for Human
02:47Values at Princeton,
02:48where he spends part of the year teaching,
02:51and he spends the rest and the other
02:53part of the year in Australia.
02:55He he first became well known
02:58internationally after the publication
02:59of Animal Liberation in 1975,
03:01and in 2011 time included animal Liberation
03:04on its all time list of the 100 Best
03:07Nonfiction Books published in English
03:09since their magazine began in 1923.
03:12Professor Singer has written Co,
03:14authored, edited or coedited more than
03:1650 books including practical ethics,
03:17the expanding circle.
03:18How are we to live?
03:20Rethinking life and death?
03:21The ethics of what we eat?
03:23The point of view of the universe.
03:25The most good you can do ethics in
03:28the real world, and utilitarianism.
03:30A very short introduction and his most
03:32recent book Why Vegan was just published
03:35in the Penguin Great Ideas series.
03:37And finally, his book,
03:38The Life You can Save First Publishing
03:412009 led him to found a nonprofit
03:45organization of the same name.
03:47So without further ado.
03:48Chester Singer take take it away
03:50and thank you so much again.
03:52Thank you very much darker Hal and
03:55of course thank you Doctor Mercurio
03:58for the invitation for this event.
04:00Very happy to have the opportunity to speak
04:03to you on these important issues relating
04:06to what we eat relating to questions about.
04:10The Treatment of Animals and the climate,
04:14and also now very relevant today.
04:17The question questions about
04:19the risks of further pandemics.
04:22So what I'm going to do is to
04:26share my screen with you now and.
04:30To show you some slides as we
04:32go through this topic.
04:34And let me just. Bring that up.
04:38I need to.
04:41Change that just a minute.
04:47Trips that went too far.
04:50OK, there we are. So.
04:54As I say, we're going to talk
04:57about these three topics,
04:59and I'm going to start with
05:01questions about ethics and animals.
05:03I think this is the area in which
05:05perhaps I have the most to contribute
05:08specifically from the point of view
05:10of ethics and ethical argument,
05:13rather than questions about facts,
05:14which of course connect two questions
05:17about ethics and what we ought to do.
05:20But that's why I will begin with
05:23issues about ethics and animals.
05:25As was mentioned, I've put forward
05:27in my book Animal Liberation,
05:30which was first published in 1975 and
05:33I'm happy to say is still in print.
05:36A different approach to the Treatment
05:39of Animals different to what I'm
05:41here calling today's mainstream view
05:44about the Treatment of Animals.
05:46This view is somewhat different from
05:48somewhat earlier views that have been held,
05:51which they denied that we had
05:53any obligations to animals.
05:55We can certainly find those views in
05:57the Western tradition, Descartes's view.
05:59The animals don't feel anything.
06:01Thomas Aquinas is view that we have
06:04no obligations to animals because
06:06Ascential E God gave us Dominion over them,
06:09and Aquinas interpreted that to suggest
06:12that we can do what we like with him.
06:15But today we are, I think,
06:18somewhat better attitudes to animals,
06:20but still rather limited.
06:23So,
06:23as I say,
06:24the mainstream view is that we
06:25ought to be kind to animals,
06:27and we ought to avoid being cruel to them.
06:31And as part of that,
06:33we think of wanton cruelty as bad.
06:36So the kinds of things that just
06:38people being cruel to animals for fun,
06:41setting fire to a cat to watch it in agony,
06:45beating a dog with a heavy stick.
06:48Leaving a horse in a field where there's no
06:51food and the horse is starting to starve.
06:53All of those things we have
06:55no doubt that they're bad.
06:57So animals interests.
06:59Do cat on this mainstream view,
07:01but they don't count comparably
07:03to our own interests.
07:05And they may be overwritten
07:08by our own interests.
07:09For example, our interest in eating them.
07:12Or perhaps our interest in using them
07:15in research and other complex issue,
07:18which is not really my subject today.
07:21Now, so the mainstream view, at least in.
07:26Couch is like the United
07:29States and Australia.
07:31English speaking cultures condemns.
07:33Sports like Bull fighting or or dog
07:37fighting would have been another example.
07:40Even more clearly,
07:41'cause we see that as wanton cruelty
07:45is making the bull suffer for sport.
07:48But in contrast.
07:50We don't condemn this now.
07:52You probably saying,
07:53well, what is this?
07:55So this is a procedure that is
07:57done to every virtually every egg
07:59laying hen in the United States,
08:01and pretty much every other country.
08:03It's called.
08:04Well,
08:04let me say it used to be
08:06called when I wrote about it in
08:09animal liberation in the 70s.
08:11It was called Debeaking and when
08:13I say that what it was called,
08:15you could pick up any farming Journal
08:17and that was what it was called.
08:20Now because of the.
08:21Poor PR image of that word.
08:24The industry refers to it as big trimming.
08:27In fact,
08:28what what you've got here is a newly
08:31hatched chick just a couple of days old,
08:35with the beak being stuck into a hot,
08:38knifer guillotine.
08:39To cut off the point of the beak.
08:43This is a painful procedure.
08:44Becausw chickens have a lot
08:46of nerves in their beak.
08:48When you think how a chicken
08:50behaves in the farmyard.
08:52She's using her beak to pick up
08:54food to detect what is edible,
08:57grain,
08:57say or what is a little Pebble
09:00that it can't eat.
09:02So it's clearly a lot of nerves there,
09:05and there's no doubt that this
09:07is a painful procedure for chicks
09:09without any pain relief being used.
09:12You might say, well, why is that being done?
09:15The reason that's being done is
09:18that combination of the breeding
09:20of chickens to lay a lot of eggs.
09:23Crowding of the confinement of chickens.
09:27Because laying hands are.
09:29Invariably confined,
09:30usually in small wire cages,
09:32sometimes on the floors of large sheds,
09:35but always very crowded and the
09:38more aggressive birds will under
09:40the stress of crowding,
09:42will attack the weaker birds,
09:44and once they draw blood,
09:46they start to get a bit crazy for it,
09:49and cannibalism occurs.
09:51So cutting off the point pointy
09:53part of the beak is standard
09:56procedure done to all hands.
09:58To prevent that happening,
10:00obviously in preference,
10:01economic preference to giving them
10:04more space and allowing them to sort
10:08themselves into natural sized flocks.
10:11OK, so that's just one example that
10:13I just at this stage want to use to
10:16contrast the way in which we think that
10:19some things are cruel and wrong and other
10:22things press we don't know about at all.
10:25Perhaps you didn't know
10:27about this until right now,
10:28but nevertheless it's happening.
10:30Everybody in the egg producing industry
10:33knows that it's happening and yet nothing
10:36is done to find alternatives to it.
10:38Alright, in animal liberation
10:40I use the term speciesism,
10:43Tameka parallel with racism and sexism.
10:46I define speciesism as a bias against other
10:49beings simply because of their species,
10:52just as we may see racism or sexism
10:56as biases against other beings
10:59simply because of their race or sex.
11:03And I argue that we should reject
11:06it as we reject.
11:07Hope I can take it for granted
11:10that you will reject the idea that
11:13being should be classified as.
11:15Superior or inferior is more important,
11:17less important that they're interested,
11:19count or not count on the basis
11:21of their race or sex.
11:23Uh, an eye,
11:24although of course I don't say
11:26that in every respect these these
11:29patterns of conduct are the same.
11:32They are not,
11:33but I do think that in all of these
11:36cases we have a dominant group of
11:39beings who want to use other beings or
11:43exploit other beings for their own benefit,
11:46and they develop an ideology
11:48according to which that exploitation
11:51or domination is justified.
11:53And we see that in the ideologies of racism,
11:56especially when it's not so blatant nowadays.
11:59But if you go back to the ideologies
12:02that justified slavery in the
12:0418th and early 19th century,
12:06you find those that ideology with sexism.
12:09Of course, much more, much more recently,
12:12part of our tradition.
12:14And only partially rejected Preps,
12:16but with spaces in them it's almost
12:18universal and we do take it for granted.
12:21So the point of this comparison is to
12:24say think about people who did also
12:26grow up in racist and sexist societies
12:29and took those biases for granted.
12:32And then think about your own assumptions
12:35that we are entitled to give more
12:38weight to our own interests than we do
12:41to the interests of non human animals.
12:44So what's the alternative to speciesism,
12:46I suggest it's equal consideration
12:48of interests.
12:49That is,
12:50we should give equal weight to similar
12:53interests irrespective of the species
12:55of the being whose interests they are.
12:58Just as if you substitute race or sex,
13:00I think you would also clearly
13:03agree with that statement.
13:04Now equal consideration of interests
13:07though doesn't mean that were
13:09beings have different interests.
13:11You should give them the same treatment
13:15or even necessarily give equal weight so.
13:19Here's a photo of some cows living
13:21in a organic on an organic farm.
13:24Reasonably good condition with their carves.
13:26Still with him, plenty to eat.
13:29As you can see, they do not share
13:31your interest in getting an education
13:33or in hearing discussions of the
13:36kind that we're having tonight,
13:38so clearly you have to look at the
13:41interest at different beings have.
13:44And sometimes they are more closely
13:46comparable with our interests,
13:47and sometimes they're not. Ah.
13:51And interest that is quite
13:53closely comparable with hours,
13:55I think is the interest
13:57in not experiencing pain,
13:58particularly severe pain, obviously,
13:59and generally not suffering,
14:01so those are the interest that I'll be
14:05referring to most in talking about the
14:08ethics of how we ought to treat animals.
14:11Now some people will say,
14:13but you know,
14:15whereas there aren't really any
14:17differences between people on the
14:18basis of their race or their sex,
14:20or at least know differences
14:23that matter morally.
14:24With humans there are these
14:26differences because only humans are.
14:28And now then we get a whole
14:30lot of terms to fill this in.
14:33Only humans are rational and
14:35the humans are self aware.
14:37Only humans are autonomous beings,
14:39self directing only humans are moral
14:41agents only humans used language.
14:44So.
14:48Do these things make a important
14:50moral difference?
14:51Sorry,
14:51I had another one there able to
14:54take part in a social contract that
14:56we're thinking of philosophers
14:58like John Rules for instance.
15:00Then that is an important part
15:03of moral status and so on.
15:05So what should we say about that?
15:08Well,
15:08in fact that was discussed along
15:10time ago by this man Jeremy Bentham,
15:13who's the founder of the School of
15:16English Utilitarians, Bentham was writing.
15:18These lines towards the end
15:20of the 18th century in fact,
15:23just after the French Revolution
15:25had broken out in 1789.
15:28And.
15:28In one of his works there he has
15:30a kind of prophetic footnote in
15:32which he notes that the French
15:35revolutionaries have discovered
15:36that the color of a man's skin
15:39is no reason for abandoning him
15:42to the Caprice of a tormentor.
15:44In other words,
15:45he was pointing to the fact that
15:47the French revolutionaries had
15:48declared that all human beings
15:50are free and had abolished slavery
15:52in the French colonies,
15:54was in fact later reintroduced
15:56after the revolution,
15:57but they did abolish it temporally.
15:59Anne Benton then goes on to make this,
16:02you know,
16:02quite remarkable comment for the
16:04time that maybe one day the day
16:07will come when we will also realize
16:09that weather being has a tail or
16:11fur is not a reason for allowing
16:13it to be tortured by others.
16:15And this was at a time you have
16:18to remember when there was no
16:20legislation anywhere in the world
16:22against cruelty to animals and
16:24not in England.
16:25And bent the mastic addressed it.
16:27Just this point we're making,
16:29he says he considers the idea
16:31that maybe humans can reason,
16:33or they can talk and animals can't.
16:36And he says the question is not
16:39can they reason? Or can they talk?
16:42But can they suffer? And then he asked.
16:45The question what else is it
16:47that you trace the insuperable line?
16:50In other words, what else is it
16:52that should mark this line between
16:54beings whose suffering matters?
16:56An beings who suffering doesn't
16:58matter and he went on to say.
17:01To show that it couldn't be
17:03simply reasoning or talk,
17:05he said a dog or a horse can reason better,
17:08and for that matter,
17:10he said is more conversable.
17:11You can have a better conversation with them.
17:14I'm not sure if there was a joke,
17:17but perhaps you can.
17:18Then a human of a day,
17:20a week or even a month old.
17:23So essentially saying if you wanted to
17:26draw the line on the base of reasoning
17:29abilities or the use of language,
17:32you would have to exclude newborn
17:34humans to that people might say.
17:37But humans newborn humans
17:39have the potential to reason,
17:41and that's certainly possible difference.
17:43Whether you can't potential is
17:45another question you need to think
17:47about the implications for abortion.
17:49If you're a liberal on abortion if you do,
17:53but.
17:53Bentham could have said that some
17:56humans don't have that potential.
17:58That is,
17:59they are born with such irreparable
18:01brain damage or with a genetic
18:04abnormality that they never will
18:06have the ability to reason or talk
18:08to a level that a human cannot.
18:11Sorry will ever let an animal cannot.
18:14And yet we certainly don't treat
18:16them the way we treat animals.
18:19We don't use them in the way we use animals,
18:22and we would be horrified if people did.
18:26So I think that is simply for evidence
18:28of our species bias that even when
18:31mental capacities are similar,
18:33or for that matter to the advantage
18:35of the non human animal,
18:37we still give more weight and
18:40have much more concern for the
18:43interests of the human beings.
18:45OK,
18:46so that's why I think the way we think about
18:49animals needs to be rethought and is wrong.
18:53But I do now want to move to.
18:56What is the big implication of that
18:58and what is the point of this talk?
19:01We're talking about food,
19:03and when we're concerned with cruelty to
19:06animals or inflicting suffering on animals,
19:08food is.
19:09The big issue,
19:10compare it for example with the
19:13number of animals killed in research.
19:15Let's say these are rather rough figures.
19:18We don't have any any good figures.
19:21But let's say we could say maybe
19:24100 million animals are used in
19:27research worldwide each year.
19:29Vertebrate land animals
19:30only not talking about fish,
19:33not talking about invertebrates.
19:35Vertebrate land animals according
19:37to the United Nations.
19:39Food and Agriculture organization.
19:42Is in excess of 74 billion.
19:46So if you do this comparison,
19:50food production uses 740
19:52times more animals with ad,
19:55including fish than research.
19:57And if you added fish in,
20:00it would be far more still,
20:03some estimates of the number of
20:05fish killed for human and human
20:07consumption go up to a trillion.
20:10So.
20:10This is by far larger problem and I
20:13think it's quite possible that actually
20:17the suffering of each individual
20:20animal in this group is greater in
20:23food production than in laboratories,
20:25although some some experiments may
20:27cause more severe short-term suffering,
20:29the long term suffering of confinement,
20:32basically lifelong suffering of
20:34confinement for these animals,
20:35and the stress of that and the
20:38deprivation of other things to do,
20:41I think, is worse.
20:44Here's a way of looking at our.
20:47I would say misappropriation of concern
20:50for animals as reflected by the amount
20:53of money we donate to animal charities.
20:56On the left you have this large bluish
21:00box showing the number of animals
21:02killed or used each year in the United
21:06States alone for various purposes,
21:09and the box is basically blueish
21:12because that's farm animals.
21:14If you look down in the right hand
21:16bottom corner you see a little
21:19square of a different color,
21:20which is mostly laboratory animals.
21:22Those used in research and you
21:24probably can't even see it.
21:26There are small green light.
21:28There's a small green line for the
21:30number of animals in shelters that is
21:32dogs and cats in pounds and shelters,
21:35and the number of animals killed
21:37for clothing, basically for fur,
21:39and it can hardly see those lines
21:41on this chat.
21:42Then you look at the box on the right.
21:45And you see that the green the
21:47this is now the amount of money
21:50donated to animal charities annually
21:53in the United States.
21:55The green is for money donated to shelters
21:58and it's what is at least 2/3 close
22:01to 3/4 perhaps of the money donated.
22:04And then there comes this big category other,
22:07which is probably mostly wild animals,
22:10endangered animals and so on.
22:12And farm animals is just
22:13a small part down here,
22:14so I think we an if you want more on this
22:17have a look at Animal Charity evaluators,
22:19by the way,
22:20which is a really good website
22:22for looking at one of the most
22:24effective charities to help animals.
22:26So we really have a complete false
22:28sense of where animal suffering is
22:31and what we should be doing about it,
22:34because there's no reason to think
22:37that pigs or cows or chickens for that
22:41matter either suffer less than dogs or cats.
22:44And getting to those animals.
22:46So let me show you some slides of this.
22:50This is a standard chicken
22:52producing unit vast,
22:53shared with maybe 20,000 chickens in it.
22:56As you see,
22:58extremely crowded,
22:58and that's where they will live.
23:01All all of their life,
23:03which is not that long because they
23:06are bred to grow extremely fast
23:08and in about 6 to 7 weeks there.
23:11Market weight and ready for slaughter,
23:14and that in itself. Is a problem.
23:18It's why Professor John Webster,
23:20who is a veterinary scientists and
23:22the founder of a major animal Welfare
23:25Research Center at the University of Bristol,
23:28says that chicken farming is the
23:30single most severe systematic
23:31example of man's inhumanity.
23:33To another Santee, an animal.
23:35So why is that?
23:36You might say, well,
23:38look,
23:38they get fed,
23:39you know, yes, they're very crowded.
23:41But why is it so bad?
23:44Well, it is because of this question
23:46about breeding them to grow so fast.
23:49Here's a photo of a chicken in one
23:51of these factory farms whose legs
23:54have collapsed under her weight.
23:56This is not a position in which
23:59chickens would normally rest.
24:00Why did the lakes collapse?
24:02Because she's nearly ready for
24:04market nearly fully grown.
24:06She's about six weeks old,
24:08but she weighs what market chickens do.
24:11Whatever that is maybe 4 pounds,
24:134 to 5 pounds, which is a completely
24:16unnatural wait for a bird of that.
24:19Age and her leg bones are still immature,
24:22so this is something that is known
24:24to happen regularly in chicken farms,
24:27and nobody is going to pick up
24:29this chicken an euthanize it.
24:31The chicken is going to die because
24:33the chicken can no longer walk,
24:36and this chicken is not anywhere
24:38near food or water.
24:39So this chicken is going to
24:41likely to die of thirst,
24:43or dehydration or starvation,
24:45because there are, as you saw,
24:47all of those 20,000 chickens in the shed.
24:50Nobody pays individual attention to the
24:52veterinary needs of individual chickens.
24:54It's just not worth it.
24:55Just doesn't pay their.
24:56They're not worth enough.
24:58So every maybe once a day someone will
25:00walk through the shed and pick up the
25:03corpses and collect them and take them out.
25:05But that's all it's going to happen.
25:08OK,
25:09here's a chart from a website called
25:11counting animals that shows the number
25:14of chickens who suffer to death.
25:16That is,
25:17who don't even make it to slaughter.
25:19Although,
25:20as I say there slaughtered at a very
25:23young age each year in the United States,
25:26so they die in the way that I just described,
25:29or they die from the stress of
25:32overcrowding or something of that sort.
25:34It's 100, nearly 140 million chickens
25:36every year or 380,000 chickens every day.
25:39Feel like you can count how many
25:41died wise while I've been talking
25:43that just dwarfs again the number
25:45of animals killed in shelters
25:47for an in laboratories each year,
25:50adding altogether.
25:52So those were meat chickens that I
25:54was talking about so called broilers.
25:57The chickens that I showed you earlier
25:59being debeaked the laying hens.
26:01You can see one in Frontier with
26:03a shortened off speak and that's
26:06the degree of crowding that we
26:08get in standard caged.
26:10Hence which is still predominantly
26:12the way of keeping hens laying
26:15eggs in the United States.
26:17Here you can see how the crowding leads
26:19to the birds feathers being rubbed
26:21off on her chest against the wire or
26:24against the other birds in the cage.
26:27And here you can see what one of
26:29these hands looks like if there's
26:31no extraordinary lucky hand and it's
26:33rescued by an animal organization
26:35rather than being taken to slaughter at
26:37the end of Leigh Ann is let out on grass,
26:41you can see how the feathers
26:43have been worn off
26:44almost everywhere, although this
26:46is still a relatively young bird,
26:48maybe 18 months old. Uh,
26:49and chickens can live seven or eight years,
26:52but because the right of way is dropping off,
26:55it's not economic to keep them.
26:57So that's why she would
26:58have been slaughtered.
26:59And now she's out on grass.
27:01An interesting Lee.
27:02As soon as she's out on grass,
27:04she starts chasing insects.
27:05She tries to build a nest from grass or straw
27:09before she lays her egg and she dust both.
27:11She gets to a dusty Patch and
27:13fluffs the dirt around her wings.
27:15These are all instincts that
27:17this bird has had all her life.
27:19And never been able to satisfy because
27:23she was on why are not on grass? OK,
27:27let's move quickly through to pig farming.
27:31See the confinement of pigs
27:33in a standard factory farm.
27:34Here crowded in small pens,
27:36again with nothing to do.
27:38Pigs a sensitive intelligent animals.
27:40If you read George Orwell's Animal Farm,
27:43you will know that he made
27:45them the boss of Animal Farm,
27:47perhaps because they are the
27:49smartest of the farm animals,
27:51and essentially they're bored there.
27:53They have nothing to do all day
27:56except eat and sleep, basically.
27:58And their mothers.
27:59The breeding size tend to get
28:01confined much more closely,
28:03often in narrow stores like this,
28:05where they can't even turn around there
28:07too big to turn around in these stalls.
28:10They can't walk more than
28:12maybe one Step 2 or throe,
28:14and even to lie down.
28:16They have to put their legs
28:18into the into the next animal.
28:20That's just all basically labor,
28:22saving there on metal slats so
28:24their manure can be hosed through.
28:26It's all to save costs and produce
28:29the product as cheaply as possible.
28:32His she is when she gives birth she's
28:34again confined in a different way.
28:36Faring crate and she becomes a
28:38kind of milking machine for her
28:40piglets until they're taken from
28:42her and she's given artificially
28:44given hormones to be going on heat
28:46again so she can be inseminated
28:48or put with a bore and the whole
28:51cycle goes around once again.
28:55Moving to cattle.
28:56This is a beef feed lot somewhere
28:59out in America's Midwest.
29:01It's a vast number of animals.
29:04Obviously, they're not as crowded
29:06as the animals you've seen,
29:08but it is unnatural conditions for them
29:11to be fed on corn rather than grass.
29:15It's also as I come to an immense
29:19methane producing factory.
29:21And it's a highly inefficient
29:23way of producing food as well,
29:24but we'll come to that.
29:27Now is Thanksgiving is approaching.
29:29I thought I would show you some turkeys,
29:32basically rather like chicken production.
29:35Again, maybe thousands of birds
29:37in a single shared, very crowded.
29:40But there is one difference,
29:42and that is that because Turkey turkeys
29:45have been bred to have a very large breast,
29:48they cannot mate naturally.
29:50So essentially every Turkey.
29:51There are some exceptions.
29:52The heritage breeds that are outside.
29:55It's tiny,
29:55tiny percentage of the turkeys
29:57Americans eat at Thanksgiving,
29:59but essentially every American Turkey has
30:00the result of artificial insemination,
30:03which means that there is somebody
30:04whose job it is to masturbate the
30:07male turkeys to collect sperm,
30:09and someone else whose job it is.
30:12To inject that sperm into the female Turkey,
30:15which is certainly a procedure
30:16that she's been through many
30:18times because he's a breeder, Ann.
30:20She hates, she struggles and tries to resist.
30:23While that is being done to her,
30:26understandably.
30:26So if you want a new topic of
30:29conversation around the Thanksgiving
30:31table and a couple of weeks,
30:33and if a Turkey is being served,
30:35you might ask if people know
30:37how that Turkey was produced.
30:41OK, I said a moment ago that that
30:44beef feed lot that you saw is a very
30:47inefficient way of producing food.
30:49Alot of people say when you raise the
30:52issue of factory farming they say, well,
30:55the world has a growing population.
30:57We need to do this to feed the world.
31:00But feeding grain to animals
31:02is a waste of food.
31:03It doesn't produce more food,
31:05it produces less food as you can see here.
31:08So the vast US grain crop
31:11we're feeding about 70% of it.
31:132 animals I either in this country
31:16or it's exported for that purpose.
31:19And on average it takes 6 pounds
31:22of feed protein to produce £1 of
31:26meat protein that can go as high
31:29as 12:50 ratio for some beef cattle
31:33and goes lower 4 bit lower for
31:36pigs and lower still for chickens.
31:39But in all of these cases we are
31:43producing more food and essentially.
31:46Putting it,
31:47feeding it into animals and
31:50getting less food at the end.
31:52And here's another way of showing
31:54this from AUS government source.
31:56How many pans of usable protein can
31:58you get per acre from different crops
32:00or different ways of producing food?
32:03And you see that the soybeans
32:05are right up the top on the left,
32:07then you get a lot of other grains.
32:10And the remarkable thing about
32:12this is it's protein, not calories,
32:14and you still even from corn.
32:16You get a lot more protein than
32:18you do from down in the bottom.
32:20The animal product, the milk,
32:22the eggs, the meat.
32:23For cones and West of all the beef.
32:28I now want to briefly move to
32:31questions about climate change,
32:33the saving the planet part of this equation,
32:38which is also really important. So.
32:41How do we reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
32:45I'm not going to make the case for why we
32:48need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
32:51I hope that you or understand that,
32:53and if not going,
32:55read one of the basic websites and I
32:57think that case is made very clearly.
33:00So one way of reducing your greenhouse
33:02gas emissions if you drive a car is to
33:05switch from your typical American car.
33:07Shown here is a Toyota Camry,
33:09sort of middle of the range American
33:11car in terms of fuel efficiency.
33:13To a hybrid, like a Prius,
33:16and if the average US driver doing that
33:19will save about a ton of carbon per year,
33:22truly a good thing to do.
33:24Significant part of your
33:26greenhouse gas emissions.
33:27But suppose that you the average
33:29euros consumer switches from
33:30the typical American diet,
33:32which is a diet pretty heavy and beef.
33:35To a vegan diet with the same number of
33:38calories you'll save even more carbon.
33:411 1/2 tons of carbon per year.
33:44So whether or not you become
33:46strictly vegan or you simply reduce
33:48the amount of beef in your diet,
33:51these are important steps towards
33:53reducing your greenhouse gas footprint.
33:57And how important is that agricultural
34:00footprint of greenhouse gases?
34:02The livestock footprint in particular.
34:04So here's a statement.
34:05A few years ago from the United Nations
34:08Food and Agriculture Organization.
34:11Which says the livestock sector generates
34:14more greenhouse gas emissions than
34:17the whole transport sector than all
34:20of the cars and planes and trains and
34:23ships and trucks around the world.
34:26I think that statement has
34:28stood out fairly well.
34:29It's being contested in both directions.
34:32Some people have said it's no, it's only 14%.
34:35I've seen that figure quoted.
34:36Some people have said it's a
34:38significant under estimate of the
34:40amount of greenhouse gas emissions
34:42generated through the livestock sector,
34:44but it's it's certainly quite
34:46a significant part of it, and.
34:48It's also a part that's easier
34:50to change really than changing
34:53the way we generate electricity.
34:55For example.
34:56Certainly something that we as
34:58individuals have much more control over.
35:01We can choose what we're going
35:03to eat from your next meal.
35:06If you like,
35:07you can't choose how you're going
35:09to power your house or your office,
35:12nor perhaps how you're going to travel.
35:16Quite as easily,
35:16unless you live in walking or
35:18biking range of your office.
35:20For example,
35:20it may be difficult to get there
35:22without using some fossil fuel may
35:24be difficult to heat your home.
35:26You may not have control over those things,
35:29but you do have control over what you eat.
35:33And here's another chart
35:35showing the different things.
35:36This is a little bit small.
35:39I'm not sure if we can make a little larger,
35:43but what you what we're looking at is the
35:46greenhouse gas emissions of various foods,
35:49and as you see here, the top line.
35:52If you can read that is beef so
35:55you can see how far that extends
35:58beyond any of the other bars.
36:00The green is what happens through
36:03land use change and the Brown is
36:07the methane production which is
36:09the major reason why beef is so
36:12carbon intensive or methane as
36:15carbon equivalent because of them.
36:17The methane they produce through
36:19their digestive process and lamb
36:22and mutton come next because
36:24they're also ruminant animals.
36:26They also.
36:27Produce methane during their digestion,
36:29so their next and cheese is the third rank,
36:33because that comes from cars who produce
36:37methane and beef taken from a dairy herd
36:41that is the male calves reared for beef.
36:44Is there, then you get a couple of things
36:48that are not a major part of Dyett.
36:52Really chocolate and coffee.
36:54And then you get other prawns and so on.
36:58Pig meat is down there.
37:00Poultry meat is a little bit lower.
37:02Eggs there an.
37:04Write down the very bottom line on
37:07this chart is ground nuts or peanuts,
37:10so certainly.
37:11Plants, plant foods and legumes
37:13far lower than the animal product.
37:15As this chart shows,
37:17this is taken from world in data.
37:21And sorry OK,
37:23one more slide.
37:24Also maybe a little small.
37:27Let me show you this.
37:29Is this really two chats so?
37:33As you're interested in medical issues,
37:35I thought I would show you that the chat
37:38on the left compares two different things.
37:42The horizontal axis is the relative
37:44risk of dying that comes from
37:46one extra serving per day of
37:48the food that you're looking at,
37:51and the vertical axis is the
37:53relative environmental impact.
37:54So the interesting thing is that.
37:57Red meat basically well along with eggs.
38:01The major things that increase
38:04your relative risk of dying
38:07with processed red meat,
38:10things like sausage being the worst.
38:13And unprocessed red meat
38:16and eggs being the next.
38:19And of course, unprocessed red meat.
38:21As I've already said,
38:22is the worst in terms of
38:24environmental impact and processed.
38:26Red meat is pretty bad as well,
38:28and then other animal products and
38:30you see that vegetables and nuts
38:33down the bottom for environmental
38:34impact and also very much to the
38:37left for relative risk of dying.
38:38In fact, eating more servings of them.
38:41Reduces your relative risk of dying,
38:44in contrast to the things to the
38:46right of that vertical line,
38:48which will increase your relative risk
38:51of dying. And are all animal product.
38:54And on the left hand side what
38:57you get is the US greenhouse gas
39:00footprints of different diets.
39:02So the average diet at the top is the worst.
39:07A diet with reduced quantities
39:09of meat is better.
39:10A diet with reduced quantities
39:12of meat and no dairy
39:15is better still.
39:16A vegetarian diet is better
39:18still a kind of flexible vegan
39:21diet where you're mostly vegan.
39:232/3 vegan is better still.
39:25And they can die comes out best of
39:29all in terms of greenhouse gases,
39:32so that's another powerful reason why we.
39:36Or to be shifting in that direction
39:38in the direction of a vegan diet.
39:40Whether or not you manage to be
39:42completely vegan or not, I think,
39:44is not really the critical ethical point.
39:46I think it's moving in that direction
39:48to reduce our greenhouse gas impact.
39:50And of course your complicity in the
39:53animal suffering that I've shown.
39:55Now very briefly,
39:56'cause I do want to make sure that
39:58I have time for questions just a
40:00minute so he's gone wrong there.
40:02OK, very briefly,
40:03I want to say a little bit about pandemics.
40:07Since we're in the middle of that situation.
40:10We we we know that the present pandemic has
40:17arisen from the transmission of viruses
40:22from non human wild animals to humans.
40:28It's believed that the Corona of the
40:31novel coronavirus has come from bats.
40:34That's the most likely and probably
40:36transmitted from bats preps to pangolins,
40:39which is a an animal that is eaten in China.
40:43Prize is a delicacy and it's thought,
40:46although it's not completely
40:48certain that the transmission came
40:50through the Wuhan wet market.
40:52If you're not familiar with water wet
40:54market is it's a market at which live
40:57animals are caged and held by stalls.
41:00The customer comes along points
41:02to an animal says,
41:03I'll have that one and the animals then
41:06slaughtered on the spot and the corpse of
41:09the animal is handed over to the customer,
41:12who is then going to eat it.
41:15Obviously,
41:16if you have many different species
41:18of animals as the Wuhan market has
41:21wild animals being caught because for
41:23one reason or another there regarded
41:26as something to be eaten in China,
41:28then you get different species mixing and
41:32you get you have humans around there too.
41:35So viruses can be transmitted
41:37from one to the other.
41:39You have a sensually the animals shitting
41:42all over the place on top of each other,
41:45and that's another source of.
41:47Poor hygiene,
41:48clearly.
41:49And then you have the animals being
41:53slaughtered on the same table and
41:56the blood running around it as well.
41:59So they're very unhygienic places
42:01and it's very likely that that's
42:04why we are suffering through the
42:08coronavirus pandemic with all of
42:10its enormous economic implications,
42:13as well as having killed well
42:16over a million people worldwide.
42:18238 thousand Americans, I think,
42:21was the last figure that I saw.
42:24So certainly we want to reduce
42:26the risks of pandemics and trying
42:29to get wet markets closed would
42:30be one way of doing that.
42:32But there is another risk as well.
42:36Which is closer to home and more within
42:38our power and that is factory farms again,
42:41so the previous pandemic to this
42:44novel coronavirus pandemic was
42:45the swine flu pandemic of 2009.
42:47You might say, how come I
42:49didn't hear much about that?
42:51Certainly, compared to the present pandemic,
42:53you didn't hear very much about it at all.
42:56The reason for that is that most of the
42:59people who killed were in low income
43:02countries didn't kill many Americans at all,
43:05but it did kill the.
43:06The estimates vary,
43:08but it certainly killed hundreds
43:09of thousands of people,
43:11and I think that you an estimate went up
43:13to over half a million or the movie was
43:16the CDC's or the World Health Organization.
43:19Can't remember there was an
43:21estimate of over half a million,
43:23so it killed quite a lot of people,
43:25and it appears to have begun an
43:28intensive pig farm in North Carolina,
43:30so it's possible that it began
43:32intensive pig farm in Mexico.
43:34I think there's was detected in both places.
43:36But scientists looking at factory farms
43:39have said if you wanted to create an
43:42environment for breathing new viruses.
43:45What would you do?
43:46You would take thousands of animals,
43:48you would crowd them together.
43:50Indoors you would.
43:51There would be stressed from the crowding.
43:53So their immune systems would be
43:56weakened and viruses would be able
43:58to spread rapidly through them.
43:59And then you would have humans who
44:02handle these animals in various ways to
44:04whom the viruses could be transferred.
44:06And that's exactly what we've done.
44:08Said we have already had the
44:11swine flu pandemic.
44:12They were also avian flu that
44:14came out of chicken factory farms.
44:17So if we're serious now that we've
44:19seen how devastating pandemics can be,
44:22both in terms of loss of human life,
44:25illness and damage to the economy,
44:27then we ought to be thinking
44:29seriously about ending factory
44:31farms and one more health issue not
44:34specifically related to pandemics,
44:35but possibly could be.
44:37Is that because these animals are?
44:39Stressed it's standard in many cases
44:42to routinely give them low doses of
44:46antibiotics to improve their survival
44:49and growth to keep them healthy.
44:52But that of course means
44:55that bacteria become.
44:56Develop resistance to the.
45:00Antibiotics, the animals reading,
45:02and that's a well known health risk.
45:05So we're not talking about viruses
45:07now 'cause we're talking bout
45:09antibiotics were talking about bacteria,
45:11but resistant bacteria are
45:12already a well known health risk.
45:14For example, Golden staff.
45:16And if we lose the ability of
45:18our antibiotics to control them,
45:20we could also be in very serious
45:23health problems.
45:24So with that I'm going to stop.
45:27I'm looking forward to your
45:28questions and discussions.
45:29Thank you.