Animal Welfare and Global Sustainability:  Compassionate Eating as Care of Creation
Matt Halteman,Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Christian Perspectives in Science Seminar Series
November 30, 2007

    The two-fold purpose of this presentation is (1) to demonstrate the value of questions concerning the just and compassionate treatment of animals (“the animal question”) for provoking a more holistic understanding of the wide spectrum of issues organized under the general heading of “creation care”; and (2) to highlight the moral and spiritual significance that the act of eating takes on in light of these important but often hidden connections between animal welfare and global sustainability. The animal question may at first appear far removed from the most pressing problems of our age. But a closer look reveals that our seemingly trivial daily decisions concerning the use of animals (especially the billions of animals raised for food in confined animal feeding operations or “factory farms”) have serious consequences not just for the animals, but for the food, commerce, and education systems of developing countries, the dignity of the human workforce that brings animal products to market, the integrity of rural communities here and abroad, the health of an increasingly obese and diseased human population, the viability of the healthcare systems that treat these ills, the sustainability of the world’s natural resources, and even the hastening of global climate change. The ways in which we currently use animals, it turns out, have profound implications for all facets of creation—human, animal, and environmental.       As this evidence of the unintended consequences of industrial livestock production continues to mount, it is becoming increasingly clear that, far from being a trivial matter of personal preference, eating is an activity that has deep moral and spiritual significance. Surprising as it may sound, the simple question of what to eat can prompt us daily to answer God’s call to care for creation—to bear witness to the marginalization of the poor, the exploitation of the oppressed, the suffering of the innocent, and the degradation of the natural world, and to participate in the reconciliation of these ills through intentional acts of love, justice, mercy, and good stewardship.

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