Animal husbandry and food production in China and Europe: A shared moral problem?

Abstract

In China and Europe many millions of animals are used for food production. For both regions animal food production is considered to be important for both the internal market, but also for export. In spite of these similarities there are many differences. First, while in Europe there currently is a lot of public attention to animal welfare, the moral value of animals and discussions on animal rights, the discussion on these topics in China seems to be relatively limited. This difference is remarkable and cannot only be explained by the fact that food security and food safety rather than food quality are in China more on the public agenda than in Europe. Traditionally, China has a much stronger philosophical tradition with regard to the human-animal relationship than the Western tradition. Nonetheless, current advocates of animal welfare or animal rights in China refer to modern Western philosophers rather than to the Chinese tradition. At the same time, recent discussions in Europe on animal ethics show that the proposals from the last century (e.g., Singer and Regan) still raise many theoretical and practical questions. This suggests that the East and the West can genuinely learn from each other in the case of the ethical evaluation of animal husbandry. In our paper we explore the Chinese traditions and the current animal welfare discussions in China. Next we draft ideas about how these traditions can serve as input for the debate on animal welfare in China and Europe.