The Future of Animal Farming: Renewing the Ancient Contract

Marian Stamp Dawkins · Roland Bonney

Sep 2011 · Sold by John Wiley & Sons

About this ebook

Does animal welfare have a place in sustainable farming, or do the demands of a rising human population and the threat of climate change mean that the interests of animals must be put aside? Can we improve the way we keep animals and still feed the world – or is it a choice between ethics and economics?

The aim of this book is to challenge the "them-and-us" thinking that sets the interests of humans and farm animals against each other and to show that to be really "sustainable," farming needs to include, not ignore, animal welfare. The authors of this remarkable book come from a diversity of backgrounds: industry, animal welfare organizations, academic institutions, and practical farming. They are united in arguing that farm animals matter and that sustainable farming must have animal welfare at its ethical core, along with the production of healthy, affordable food and care for the environment.

About the author

Marian Stamp Dawkins is Professor of Animal Behaviour in the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford and Vice-Principal of Somerville College, Oxford. As a graduate student, she was supervised by Niko Tinbergen, the Nobel Prize winning pioneer of the study of animal behaviour. She has a long-standing interest in the study of animal welfare and the practical application of research to commercial farming.

Roland Bonney is a Director of the Food Animal Initiative and a main board Director of the Benchmark Holdings group. He has more than twenty years of professional farming experience, from New Zealand, Australia and the UK, and set up his own agricultural business based on arable, sheep and cattle production in Wiltshire, UK. He is committed to driving progress towards sustainable agriculture that delivers good animal welfare and conserves the environment, while feeding people and providing farmers with a viable income.