Meat Production and Climate Change: an Ethical Investigation

Anders Nordgren

There is a growing consensus among climatologists that humans - by emissions of greenhouse gases - cause the global warming, and a recent report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) shows that the livestock sector is an important contributing factor. One might expect that mitigation of the global warming to the extent it is caused by this sector would be of high political priority. In fact, this issue is almost completely neglected by the politicians. A number of organisations have responded to the FAO report, however. In this project we investigate from an ethical perspective different views on how to mitigate climate change to the extent it is caused by animal agriculture. The project consists of two parts. The first part is an ethical analysis of reports, statements and academic articles. In the second part, we carry out interviews with representatives of key stakeholders in Sweden.

Participants:

Professor Anders Nordgren (Principal investigator)
Professor Bo Algers, Department of Animal Environment and Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Skara, www.hmh.slu.se
Dr. Stefan Gunnarsson, Department of Animal Environment and Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Skara, www.hmh.slu.se
Dr. Henrik Lerner, Centre for Applied Ethics, Linköping University

Funding:

The Swedish Research Council 2009-2011

Publications:

Nordgren A, 2009. Animal agriculture and climate change: ethical perspectives. In: Millar K, Hobson West P, Nerlich B (eds.). Ethical futures: bioscience and food horizons. Wageningen: Wageningen Academic Publishers, pp. 86-91.

Lerner H, Algers B, Gunnarsson S, Nordgren A, 2011. Livestock’s "short shadow"? Balancing mitigation of climate change against other values. XVth ISAH Congress, Vienna, Austria, 3-7 July 2011, Proceedings, Volume 1, pp. 213-214 (extended abstract).

Gunnarsson S, Lerner H, Algers B, Nordgren A, 2011. Meat production, climate change and ethics. XVth ISAH Congress, Vienna, Austria, 3-7 July 2011, Proceedings, Volume 1, pp. 209-211 (extended abstract).

Nordgren A, 2012. Ethical Issues in Mitigation of Climate Change: The Option of Reduced Meat Production and Consumption. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 25(4), pp. 563-584.

Nordgren A, 2012. A climate tax on meat? In: Potthast T, Meisch S (eds.). Climate Change and Sustainable Development: Ethical Perspetives on Land Use and Food Production. Wageningen: Wageningen Academic Publishers, pp. 109-114.

Lerner H, Algers B, Gunnarsson S, Nordgren A (advance publication online). Stakeholders on meat production, meat consumption and mitigation of climate change: Sweden as a case. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics. DOI 10.1007/s10806-012-9420-0.

Nordgren A (accepted). Meat and Global Warming: Impact Models, Mitigation Approaches and Ethical Aspects. Environmental Values.

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