What’s Wrong with Happy Meat?

Spencer Lo

Suppose animals could be raised humanely, live considerably long lives, and then painlessly killed for food. Would eating such happy creatures be wrong? That question is suggested in a recent article by New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof, who answered it in the negative. According to Kristof, as an alternative to consuming tortured animals raised in factory farms, which is problematic, it is possible to consume happy ones raised on efficient farms with “soul.” Some will even have names: like “Jill,” Sophie,” and “Hosta.” In the article, Kristof introduces us to his high school friend Bob Bansen, a farmer raising Jersey cows on “lovely green pastures” in Oregon. Bob’s 400+ cows are not only grass-fed and antibiotic-free, they are loved “like children” – every one of them named. “I want to work hard for them because they’ve taken good care of me… They’re living things, and you have to treat them right.” With great enthusiasm, Kristof concludes: “The next time you drink an Organic Valley glass of milk, it may have come from one of Bob’s cows. If so, you can bet it was a happy cow. And it has a name.”  

Many people who object to factory-farming find this alternative, “happy picture” appealing, believing that consumption of animals treated as well as Bob’s cows is not morally problematic. Are they wrong? Professor Gary Francione wrote a response to Kristof’s article in which he points out that, despite the above idyllic image, there is still the imposition of unnecessary pain and suffering, and that imposition for mere pleasure is wrong. Indeed, as Kristof acknowledges, even for most of Bob’s cows, there is still a “day of reckoning” – slaughter is postponed, not prevented. And moreover, there is much evidence that cows raised under even the best of conditions are treated poorly. [See this response by PETA’s President Ingrid K. Newkirk, and this informative article by James McWilliams.]

However, for people like Kristof who believe that Bob’s cows are truly happy, I doubt he’s likely to be moved by Francione’s response. Perhaps for Kristof, there is a moral difference between imposing suffering for pleasure on animals who live overall good lives, which is okay, and imposing suffering for pleasure on those who live overall bad ones, which is not. Further, if happily raised animals can be painlessly killed, and they won’t suffer at all, then the unjustified suffering concern is met. Is this position defensible? Below I sketch an argument drawn from philosopher Jeff McMahan’s very forceful and subtle paper, aptly titled “Eating animals the nice way” (see also here), arguing ‘no.’

Besides suffering, animals can experience pleasure, which is also morally significant—and the principle of equal consideration of interests requires taking their pleasure into account. Consider one of Bob’s cows, Pesto. When Pesto goes to be killed for food, she will be deprived of years of her natural life, during which she could have experienced a great deal of pleasure. For instance, Pesto experiences pleasure every time she eats, and if she is deprived of, say, two years of life, then killing her amounts to a deprivation of two years worth of eating-pleasure. The same is true of other experienced pleasures. How does Pesto’s loss in pleasure compare to the human interests gained in killing her?

Suppose Pesto’s flesh translates to 20 tasty meals, one per person. What is the human interest at stake? It is not the pleasure gained from those 20 meals, but rather, the difference in pleasure between those meals and 20 tasty plant-based meals that could have been eaten instead: e.g., 15 units of pleasure from Pesto-meals minus 12 units of pleasure from plant-meals, with 3 net units of pleasure. Hence, there is only a slight increase in human interests gained, if any, and it is wildly implausible to suppose that they could outweigh all the pleasures Pesto would have experienced during the remainder of her natural life (for animals experience consciousness to the same degree as humans – see here).

What about the common argument that if farmers can’t raise animals for food, they wouldn’t exist? For those who truly live good lives, surely it’s better for them to exist than to never have existed; otherwise there would be no Pesto, and thus none of the numerous pleasures she experiences—the alternative is non-existence. However, as McMahan points out, this view commits a conceptual error: it is incoherent to claim that it is better off for Pesto to be caused to exist, for that would imply that she – that very individual – would have been worse off had she never existed. But to speak of Pesto being worse off had she never existed is to compare the Pesto in the actual world with an entity in a possible world – namely, non-existent Pesto. Non-existence is simply not a state in which one can be worse or better off, so the argument is confused.

Instead, one could coherently claim that it is good for Pesto to exist, for the term ‘good’ (and ‘bad’) is noncomparative. Would this help the defender of happy meat? Not at all. From McMahan’s article: “To cause an individual to exist in a vulnerable and dependent condition is arguably to make oneself liable to certain duties of care…One must either refrain from causing it to exist or else arrange for it to have the care it requires once it s exists.”

Finally, it is worth noting that if it’s morally permissible to raise and kill happy animals for food, then it would be morally permissible to raise and kill happy humans who are cognitively similar for virtually any reason, including important ones such as organ replacement. Almost no one would find the latter acceptable, and if the only dividing line is species membership, then there is no reason to think differently about the former.

————————————

Related links.

[Philosopher Jean Kazez, author of the book “Animalkind: What We Owe to Animals,” offered a summary of McMahan’s paper here.]

[Response by James McWilliams to Kristof’s article.]