Abstract
In this chapter, I examine the philosophical and ethical views undergirding Farm Forward, a nonprofit animal advocacy group focused on reforming agricultural practices and ending factory farming. Specifically, I frame Farm Forward as an organization that embodies key dimensions of the pragmatist philosophical tradition. I begin by providing a brief overview of existing pragmatist work within animal ethics and describing the pragmatist concepts of pluralism, particularism, and amelioration. After placing Farm Forward’s general vision for agricultural reform within this philosophical context, I review a number of the organization’s recent projects to illustrate their commitment to the above pragmatist principles, as well as the progress that they have attained through particular advocacy strategies including education initiatives, public engagement, negotiations with multinational corporations, and building coalitions with other advocacy groups. Farm Forward’s pragmatist approach to advocacy in agriculture, I argue, serves as an exemplary model for achieving positive change in concrete and inclusive ways.
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Notes
- 1.
Here, I refer specifically to Tom Regan’s rendering of deontology. Regan modifies Immanuel Kant’s formulation of deontology such that it is nonanthropocentric, taking nonhuman animals into account as moral patients.
- 2.
Routine mutilations are performed on animals within industrial agriculture to reduce profit-loss incurred through destructive behaviors (e.g. feather-pecking, cannibalism, and tail-biting). These destructive behaviors are exacerbated through overcrowded conditions in barren environments. Rather than altering the conditions that lead to these behaviors, it is considered more economically feasible to perform the aforementioned surgical mutilations.
- 3.
Mainstream perspectives on mayonnaise currently and historically entail that eggs are a necessary ingredient for a product to appropriately count as “mayonnaise.” However, the increasing popularity of vegan products such as Hampton Creek’s Just Mayo, as well as the FDA and Unilever’s recent challenges to Hampton Creek regarding the legal definition of mayonnaise, raise important ontological questions regarding the nature of this and other food products.
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Tuminello, J.A. (2017). Farm Forward: A Pragmatist Approach to Advocacy in Agriculture. In: Werkheiser, I., Piso, Z. (eds) Food Justice in US and Global Contexts. The International Library of Environmental, Agricultural and Food Ethics, vol 24. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57174-4_21
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