Christian Ethics of Farmed Animal Welfare

这个项目解决了一个对人类、动物和更广泛的环境有深远影响的紧迫问题，在英国有很高的公众利益。养殖动物是一项重要的全球性企业，对家畜和野生动物、人类食物和水安全、人类健康和环境产生巨大影响。2013年，全球770亿只鸟类和哺乳动物以及约6万亿条鱼类被用于人类食物，占用了78%的可用农业用地，消耗了全球35%的谷物产量，造成的温室气体排放量超过了全球运输产生的温室气体排放量，并造成了广泛的人类健康问题，包括抗生素耐药性、禽流感和猪流感等人畜共患疾病，以及心脏病、癌症、2型糖尿病的发病率增加。以及与之相关的肉类消费增加导致的中风。自20世纪中期以来，养殖动物的数量显著增长，这主要是由于生产方法的革命性集约化。在过去的50年里，家禽消费的增长速度是人口增长速度的三倍，预计到2050年，肉类需求将比2010年的水平增长73%。养殖动物饲养的逐步加强，公众对养殖动物福利的高度关注和不断上升，以及英国脱欧后养殖动物福利标准的不确定性，使该项目变得及时。英国的教会和其他基督教组织通过拥有农业用地、投资食品生产商和零售商、参与政策辩论和消费动物产品，对英国的动物养殖有着重大的利益和影响，因此将在有关养殖动物福利的公共辩论中发挥重要作用。因此，令人惊讶的是，他们目前没有关于农场动物福利的政策。该项目将产生关于养殖动物福利的基督教伦理的第一次实质性学术讨论，并通过与国家教会和其他组织伙伴合作，将为制定新政策提供资源，并影响有关养殖动物及其产品消费的机构实践。它还将提供一种新的模式，说明如何使宗教团体和其他团体对新科学知识的伦理影响及其对实践的影响有特殊的承诺和关注。该项目将采用跨学科研究团队与机构合作伙伴之间的合作研究过程，从而形成(1)机构政策和实践的框架；(2)使各机构参与该框架的过程，以便在实践中制定政策和变革；(3)本领域学术专著第一篇，并在相关期刊发表论文。致力于该项目的合作伙伴是代表英国大多数基督徒的主要基督教教派（英格兰教会，罗马天主教会，苏格兰教会，威尔士教会，卫理公会教会和联合归正教会），全球领先的农场动物福利慈善机构（世界农场同情），代表农民和兽医的团体以及基督教动物组织。这种合作的范围及其对改善福利结果的潜在影响是显著的和前所未有的。该项目将在实践中促成体制变革，这将对养殖动物福利产生重大影响，并由此对人类福祉和环境产生影响。这些变化将通过图形插画师、行为艺术家和变革促进者的过程来实现，以帮助机构认识到变革的必要性和实现变革的途径。在资助期结束后，新的机构将参与其中，美国计划的后续项目将以这个项目为基础，产生更大的影响。

This project addresses an urgent issue that has profound effects on humans, animals, and the wider environment, and in which there is high public interest in the UK. The raising of farmed animals is a major global enterprise with massive impacts on domestic and wild animals, human food and water security, human health, and the environment. In 2013, 77 billion birds and mammals and around 6 trillion fish were used for human food globally, using 78% of available agricultural land, consuming 35% of global cereal output, resulting in more greenhouse gas emissions than those from transport globally, and contributing to a wide range of human health problems including antibiotic resistance, zoonotic diseases such as bird and swine flu, and increased incidence of heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, and stroke from the associated increase in meat consumption. The raising of farmed animals has grown markedly since the mid-20th century, primarily as a result of a revolutionary intensification of production methods. Poultry consumption has increased at three times that of human population growth in each of the past five decades and a 73% rise in demand for meat from 2010 levels is expected by 2050. Progressive intensification in the rearing of farmed animals, high and rising public concern about farmed animal welfare, and uncertainty about UK farmed animal welfare standards post-Brexit make this project timely.Churches and other Christian organizations in the UK have significant interests in and influence over animal farming in the UK, through ownership of agricultural land, investments in food producers and retailers, participation in policy debates, and consumption of animal products, and will therefore play an important role in public debates about farmed animal welfare. It is striking, therefore, that they currently have no policies concerning farmed animal welfare. This project will produce the first substantive academic discussion of the Christian ethics of farmed animal welfare and, by working with national churches and other organizational partners, will resource the development of new policy and influence institutional practice concerning the raising of farmed animals and consumption of products derived from them. It will also provide a new model of how to engage religious groups and other groups with particular commitments and concerns with the ethical implications of new scientific knowledge and its implications for practice.The project will use a collaborative research process between an interdisciplinary research team and institutional partners which will result in (1) a framework for institutional policy and practice; (2) a process for engaging institutions with that framework to enable development of policy and changes in practice; (3) the first academic monograph in the field and related journal outputs. The partners committed to this project are major Christian denominations representing the majority of the Christians in the UK (Church of England, Roman Catholic Church, Church of Scotland, Church in Wales, Methodist Church, and United Reformed Church), the globally leading charity addressing farmed animal welfare (Compassion in World Farming), groups representing farmers and veterinarians, and Christian animals organizations. The range of this collaboration and its potential influence to improve welfare outcomes is remarkable and unprecedented. The project will enable institutional changes in practice that will have substantial implications for farmed animal welfare and a resulting impact on human well-being and the environment. These changes will be enabled through a process that draws on graphic illustrators, a performance artist, and change facilitators, to help institutions appreciate the need for change and the route to achieve it. Beyond the funded period, new institutions will be engaged, and a planned successor project in the US will build on this one to generate even greater impacts.