Environmental Sustainability in Agriculture: Bioethical and Religious Arguments Against Carnivory

Abstract

This paper presents the case that diet matters for environmental sustainability in the agriculture/food/population nexus from the ethical, religious and health points of view. This paper is addressed to all concerned with accelerating the transition to sustainability in agriculture in an ethical manner. There is little agreement that diet matters for agricultural sustainability; not even that it is a legitimate issue for agricultural policy. Ethical, health and religious arguments carry little weight in economic development decisions. Most agriculture is not sustainable, and there is little agreement on what the sustainability criterion may be when applied to the agriculture sector (FAO 1995, 1996). Agriculture has degraded more natural capital and caused more extinctions of species than any other sector.KeywordsFood ChainEnvironmental SustainabilityBovine Spongiform EncephalopathyNatural CapitalEnvironmental EthicThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.