Are We Morally Permitted to Eat Animals?

by Jacob C. Maichel

The Gwartney Institute just held its most recent “Ottawa Minds and Unwined” and it was the first one I have been able to attend. The speaker for this event was a philosophy professor, Dr. Justin Clarke, and the title of his presentation was “Are we morally permitted to eat animals?” I was excited to hear Dr. Clarke’s take on an interesting topic and it offered a unique and refreshing perspective. I wrote this post based on the speech because I thought it was fantastic!

The speech began by laying a foundation describing assertions from Australian philosopher Peter Singer’s famous 1975 book Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for our Treatment of Animals. This work has become the basis of the modern animal liberation movement’s understanding of humanity's relationship with animals. Once Singer established animals are capable of suffering he takes a very utilitarian approach to minimize said suffering in animals and humans alike. Dr. Clarke outlined 4 premises and 2 conclusions:

Premise 1: All suffering is equal (morally)

Premise 2: Animal experimentation causes unnecessary suffering.

Conclusion 1:Animal experimentation should stop unless we would do the same experiments on humans.

Premise 3: Animal consumption causes unnecessary suffering.

Premise 4: We are morally required to feed ourselves in a way to minimize suffering.

Conclusion 2: We should be vegetarian or vegan.

Once these were explained, Dr. Clarke then began to give evidence to support premise 2 and 3 in particular. For premise 2, he pointed to a number of past and recent experiments that were extremely damaging to animals. Support for premise 3 comes from the atrocities that occur in so-called factory farming, suggesting we should eat in a way that minimizes animal suffering. The needless suffering inherent in meat diets suggests a moral hierarchy of diets:

Least suffering: Vegetarian/Vegan

Omnivore 

Most suffering is carnivore

Dr. Clarke then dives farther in giving a in depth ranking of suffering caused by diet which goes;

Most preferable: Vegan

   Vegetarian

   Pescertarian (fish only)

   Principled Omnivore (looks into how the animals are raised, i.e. eats free range)

   Plebian Omnivore (does not care where meat comes from)

Least preferable: Carnivore 

Veganism surely causes less suffering to animals than a monster carnivorous diet, right? According to Dr. Clarke, that is incorrect! His list would actually go

Most preferable: Principled Omnivore

    Vegan

    Vegetarian

    Pescatarian

    Plebian Omnivore

Least Preferable: Carnivore

How can this be true? Dr. Clarke’s point was that we treat vegan and vegetarian diets as if they do not cause suffering, which is false. Evidence of this is shown by analyzing the per 100kg usable protein in pastured cattle production vs grain production. For cattle there are 2.2 deaths per 100kg, compared to 55 deaths for the same amount of protein in grain! Dr. Clarke pointed out the gruesome end these animals suffer in the grain production process.

The victims of grain production are mice which are often discounted by many people but these animals sing to their young and have at least the same capacity for suffering as chickens.  Therefore, if it is true that all suffering is equal, principled omnivores cause the least amount of suffering (ahead of vegans!). Does that mean everyone should become a principled omnivore according to Dr. Clarke? No! This is because premise four is not true according to him.

Dr. Clarke himself makes four well drawn conclusions in his fantastic presentation. First is that suffering surely counts, but not equally. Next there are better and worse ways to eat. Third is that we are not morally all required to eat the best way but should be conscious of eating in better ways. Lastly, if all this is correct Dr. Clarke says we can “put down our pitchforks," although for some it may be more difficult than others.

Dr. Clarke’s speech is part of a recurring Gwartney Institute event held at UnWined at Studio 111 which brings in a new speaker the first Thursday every month. The presentations are about 20 minutes in length with questions and optional conversation after. Please join us next time when Professor Jaime Fuentes will be speaking about Bitcoin!

 Jacob C. Maichel is a Graduate Assistant at the Gwartney Institute and an MBA student at Ottawa University