Farm Animal Welfare: A Systemic Challenge

Abstract

There are two questions that are central to talk of improvements in any particular human enterprise: Who decides what constitutes “better” in any specific context– And what particular criteria for betterment are privileged in that context– As animal scientist David Fraser illustrates in his chapter on the intensification of livestock production, even in the case of something as seemingly straightforward as the welfare of farm animals, to address these questions seriously is to enter into a world of complexity, uncertainty, contextuality, and inevitable controversy.