4 September 2013 – Is ‘more efficient’ food production in conflict with animal welfare?

The Year 2050 might seem far away, but the current generation of children will only be in their forties and will be raising families. This series of lectures targets three of the key issues that will likely shape the nature of human food in 2050. All lectures are free and open to the public.

Greater efficiency may for some people be an obvious goal for providing food security for an increasing human population but what are the implications for animal welfare? Will greater agricultural efficiency inevitably lead to lower standards of welfare? This lecture will ask whether there is really a conflict between human well-being and animal welfare and argue that good animal welfare can provide the basis of healthy safe food for humans, benefits for the environment and productive commercial farming.

Speaker: Marian Stamp Dawkins, Professor of Animal Behaviour, University of Oxford