DeepSummary
In this episode of the New Books Network's Animal Studies channel, host Kyle Johansson interviews Dr. Josh Milburn, a lecturer in political philosophy at Loughborough University and host of the animal studies podcast Knowing Animals. They discuss Milburn's recent book "Food, Justice, and Animals: Feeding the World Respectfully" which challenges the assumption that an ideally just society would necessitate a vegan food system.
Milburn argues that a non-vegan but rights-respecting food system may be preferable as it could better accommodate people's reasonable conceptions of the good life, address potential food injustices, and avoid negative outcomes for animals. He explores possibilities such as farming invertebrates, producing plant-based and cultivated animal products, and co-working with animals on genuinely humane farms.
The conversation delves into topics like the ethics of animal rights versus mere morality, the treatment of plausibly sentient invertebrates, cellular agriculture, and the prospect of animals as rights-bearing workers in food production. Milburn's vision challenges conventional assumptions about the relationship between veganism and ideal theory in animal ethics.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Milburn argues for a non-vegan but rights-respecting food system as an ethical ideal, challenging assumptions about veganism.
- He explores ethical possibilities like cellular agriculture, ethical invertebrate farming, and treating animals as rights-bearing workers.
- This aims to better accommodate reasonable pluralism in conceptions of the good life while upholding justice for animals.
- Milburn's vision rejects conventional animal agriculture but allows minimal animal inputs under strong protections.
- His arguments distinguish justice from mere morality and value psychological continuity for sentience assessments.
- The book offers an alternative to abolitionism while still centering on an animal rights framework.
- Milburn discusses implications for animal activism, suggesting openness to emerging technologies and a range of approaches.
- Overall, the work challenges common assumptions by proposing an idealized non-vegan food future respecting animal rights.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “If we could identify an animal rights respecting future in which those things continue to be accessible to these individuals who find such importance in them, that would be better than a future in which those opportunities were cut off.“ by Josh Milburn
- “What this book, what this project that I have put together, what food justice and animals is all about, is basically bringing together these two questions, these two concerns, on the one hand, really rigorously, deeply exploring these edge cases, these seeming counterexamples to veganism, where a case for animal rights does not seem to entail a fully vegan diet, and on the other hand, trying to envision what a food system for this future state in which humans and animals live in peace would be, and crucially, therefore, trying to offer a slightly different vision of a future human animal relationship than an abolitionist future, even though I'm offering an animal rights future.“ by Josh Milburn
- “But what I'm hopefully offering here is a kind of route, a vision, a direction we could move in, which says something like, animals are welcome in our future society, and animals have a place in our future society, and animals can contribute to our future society, provided that contribution carries with it the sorts of protections and assurances that we give each other about our contributions to society.“ by Josh Milburn
- “I'm envisaging a future without slaughterhouses. Right. I'm talking about a meat industry that may involve animals in some minimal way, but certainly doesn't involve killing animals, doesn't involve closely confining animals, doesn't involve mutilating animals.“ by Josh Milburn
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Episode Information
New Books in Environmental Studies
Marshall Poe
6/15/23