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E-book Animal Industries : Nordic Perspectives on the Exploitation of Animals since 1860

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Penilaian

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In 2019, Juha Marttila, the President of the Central Union of Agricultural Pro-ducers and Forest Owners (MTK) in Finland, expressed his astonishment in apress interview about the increasing public criticism of intensive meat and dairyproduction:“The cow has kept us alive for some ten thousand years, so how comeit has now been made a criminal?”1He was quite right about the long interrela-tionship between humans and livestock. At the same time, however, the commentignored the profound change from the traditional model of raising a small num-ber of animals as a part of subsistence farming with low-profit or non-profitthresholds into modern animal industries that consist of all kinds of activitiesvis-à-vis the manufacturing of animal products for a globalised market, which fol-lows an industrial logic and aims at profit. That is not to say that traditionalsmall-scale livestock production would have been problem-free.2However, as thenumber of farmed animals on the planet has quadrupled since the 1960s, togetherwith industrial aquaculture, both immediate and chronic problems caused by ani-mal industries have simultaneously accelerated exponentially.3This book explores the history and development of animal industries by fo-cusing on the Nordic countries over a long time span stretching from the latenineteenth century to the present day. It examines the roles of farmed animalsand animal industries in countries thatduring this period transformed frombeing poor and predominantly rural to the richest welfare states in the world. Inthe influential narrative about world development given by modernisation the-ory, the industrialisation of animal agriculture is often portrayed as an inevitable In 2019, Juha Marttila, the President of the Central Union of Agricultural Pro-ducers and Forest Owners (MTK) in Finland, expressed his astonishment in apress interview about the increasing public criticism of intensive meat and dairyproduction:“The cow has kept us alive for some ten thousand years, so how comeit has now been made a criminal?”1He was quite right about the long interrela-tionship between humans and livestock. At the same time, however, the commentignored the profound change from the traditional model of raising a small num-ber of animals as a part of subsistence farming with low-profit or non-profitthresholds into modern animal industries that consist of all kinds of activitiesvis-à-vis the manufacturing of animal products for a globalised market, which fol-lows an industrial logic and aims at profit. That is not to say that traditionalsmall-scale livestock production would have been problem-free.2However, as thenumber of farmed animals on the planet has quadrupled since the 1960s, togetherwith industrial aquaculture, both immediate and chronic problems caused by ani-mal industries have simultaneously accelerated exponentially.3This book explores the history and development of animal industries by fo-cusing on the Nordic countries over a long time span stretching from the latenineteenth century to the present day. It examines the roles of farmed animalsand animal industries in countries thatduring this period transformed frombeing poor and predominantly rural to the richest welfare states in the world. Inthe influential narrative about world development given by modernisation the-ory, the industrialisation of animal agriculture is often portrayed as an inevitable process. To cite the geographer Tony Weis, while all nations are supposedly striv-ing to ascend some sort of shared pathway out of poverty, the climb up the“ani-mal protein ladder”is considered in this theory to be part and parcel of the climbup the“development ladder.”As the naturalising effect of such transitional narra-tives easily obscures the staggering pace and scale of growth in animal produc-tion since the late nineteenth century, it is hence vital to ask how we got to wherewe are now.4Our book makes visible historical and cultural processes that havecreated the current tension between the (self-)image of the Nordic countries asprogressive and advanced in animal protection and the fact that the prevailingNordic consumption practices are highly excessive in relation to planetary re-sources and are currently among the most unsustainable on a global scale.According to Egbert Hardeman and Henk Jochemsen, both philosophers of ag-ricultural ethics, the industrialisation of animal agriculture can be defined by fivemain characteristics. The first is“mechanisation,”whereby human and animal la-bour is replaced by machines and technological procedures. The second salient de-velopment is“intensification,”meaning an increase in production per animal. Thethird characteristic of industrialisation is“specialisation,”whereby farms specialisein one type of animal, instead of rearing different species of livestock. Fourth,“sci-ence and technology”assume a leading role within agronomic research, which con-siders an increase of productivity as its main goal. And finally, the industrialisationof agriculture has led to the“increased scale”of farming, and farms have increas-ingly come to resemble factories. On the cultural and economic level, the centralaspect of this process is a drive for efficiency and profit.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

940 BJO a

Penerbit

Boston : De Gruyter Saur., 2024

Deskripsi Fisik

281 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9783110787337

Klasifikasi

940

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

-

Subjek

HIstory of Europe

Info Detail Spesifik

-

Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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