[asa] seminar-Animal Welfare & Global Sustainability: Fri. Nov. 30, 3:30

For the Grand Rapids, MI, area:

The next Christian Perspectives in Science seminar at Calvin College is

        Friday, November 30, 3:30 PM in Science Building room 110.

Speaker: Matthew Halteman, Philosophy Department

Title: Animal Welfare and Global Sustainability:
             Compassionate Eating as Care of Creation

Abstract:
      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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http://www.calvin.edu/~lhaarsma/ChrPerspSciSeminarPage.html)

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Received on Wed Nov 21 16:32:23 2007