Abstract
This article explores a practical approach to teaching animal ethics in food systems as part of a business course. We argue that tackling such complex and emotionally charged topics is vital to shifting unsustainable and hurtful behaviours towards more positive futures. Our teaching example outlines a pedagogy of courageously witnessing, inquiring with empathy and prompting positive action; an activist approach we term fierce compassion. These three layers blend positive and critical perspectives in a classroom to address contentious issues of large-scale industrial animal production hitherto largely neglected in a traditional business curriculum. While acknowledging that academic activism is controversial, we argue that fierce compassion – noticing the suffering that is remote and often systemically hidden – can inform and structure education towards more post-anthropocentric and just futures for all living beings – human and nonhuman alike.
Highlights
In the global food industry, nonhuman animals face conditions that many humans find confronting and emotionally disturbing
Over 81 billion land-based animals are slaughtered for food production mostly in large-scale production systems
Cruelties are institutionalised, ingrained into ‘taken-for-granted assumptions that form a hidden structure of violence. . .that make the most unspeakable atrocities seem an acceptable part of everyday life’ (Matsuoka and Sorenson, 2018: 1–2). It is common for animal production processes to be screened from sight, such that many consumers remain uncertain about the source of everyday foods (Adams, 1990), making this a potentially contentious topic for the business school classroom when discussing food ethics and sustainability
Summary
In the global food industry, nonhuman animals face conditions that many humans find confronting and emotionally disturbing. . .that make the most unspeakable atrocities seem an acceptable part of everyday life’ (Matsuoka and Sorenson, 2018: 1–2) It is common for animal production processes to be screened from sight, such that many consumers remain uncertain about the source of everyday foods (Adams, 1990), making this a potentially contentious topic for the business school classroom when discussing food ethics and sustainability. The burning challenge for business schools is to ‘own up to the role we play in creating the problems that society faces through the courses we teach, the theories we espouse, and the values we profess’ (Hoffman, 2021a: 515) and this article argues that large-scale animal food production presents one such burning challenge. Many students (and teachers), are unprepared for the potential angst that may result from exposure to and engagement with large-scale ethical and social problems (Moratis and Melissen, 2021), which means courage (Worline, 2012) and support is needed to handle complex issues of ethics (Singer, 2002), social justice (Hooks, 1994), and engaging in compassionate behaviours (Lilius et al, 2011); qualities needed for reimagining ‘business education as if people and the planet really matter’ (Hoffman, 2021a)
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