Josh Mund

Industrial animal agriculture—the source of nearly all animal-based food in the United States—causes extensive animal suffering. Humane animal agriculture, in contrast, aspires to provide animals lives that are worth living. Although preferable to industrial farming, humane animal agriculture kills healthy farm animals early in life and thus requires moral defense. This project evaluates two such defenses. According to the first, farm animals lack awareness of their own futures, and painless death does not harm individuals lacking this awareness. The second maintains that humane animal agriculture actually benefits animals, by granting them lives that they otherwise would not have.