Legitimacy &; Canadian Farm Animal Welfare Standards Development: The Case of the National Farm Animal Care Council

Awareness of farm animal welfare issues is growing in Canada, as part of a larger food movement. The baseline Canadian standards for farm animal welfare—the Recommended Codes of Practice for the Care and Handling of Farm Animals—are up for revision. The success of these standards will depend in part on perceived legitimacy, which helps determine whether voluntary code systems are adopted, implemented, and accepted by target audiences. In the context of the Codes, legitimacy will also hinge on whether the standards-developers marshal narratives about farm animals that accord with their audiences’ expectations. The aim of this paper is to catalogue factors that influence legitimacy in farm animal welfare standard-setting, including which narratives of animal welfare are emphasized by standard-setters. Drawing upon the example of the baseline Canadian standards, and the National Farm Animal Care Council, the paper will present a theoretical and methodological framework for analyzing legitimacy in the context of animal welfare standards-development and discuss associated policy considerations.     

Naturalness: Beyond Animal Welfare

There is an ongoing debate in animalethics on the meaning and scope of animalwelfare. In certain broader views, leading anatural life through the development of naturalcapabilities is also headed under the conceptof animal welfare. I argue that a concern forthe development of natural capabilities of ananimal such as expressed when living freelyshould be distinguished from the preservationof the naturalness of its behavior andappearance. However, it is not always clearwhere a plea for natural living changes overinto a plea for the preservation of theirnaturalness or wildness. In the first part ofthis article, I examine to what extent theconcerns for natural living meet ``theexperience requirement.' I conclude that someof these concerns go beyond welfare. In thesecond part of the article. I ask whether wehave moral reasons to respect concernsfor the naturalness of an animal's living thattranscend its welfare. I argue that the moralrelevance of such considerations can be graspedwhen we see animals as entities bearingnon-moral intrinsic values. In my view the``natural' appearance and behavior of an animalmay embody intrinsic values. Caring for ananimal's naturalness should then be understoodas caring for such intrinsic values. Intrinsicvalues provide moral reasons for action iffthey are seen as constitutive of the good lifefor humans. I conclude by reinterpreting,within the framework of a perfectionist ethicaltheory, the notion of indirect dutiesregarding animals, which go beyond andsupplement the direct duties towardsanimals.     

联合利华环境公益事业的先行者

2001年 5月 24日,联合利华（中国）有限公司在北京召开了“联合利华杯”公众环境意识调查成果和 2001年行动发布会,这是联合利华（中国）有限公司自去年 6月发起的“联合利华绿水青山行动”的第二阶段计划的启动仪式,我刊记者参加了发布会,并在会后就有关计划中环境教育内容采访了联合利华（中国）有限公司组织发展董事 Paul Neely先生。 　　采访地点：北京希尔顿饭店 　　采访人：邹晶 　　被访人： Mr. Paul Neely     

Evaluating Environmental Public Participation: Methodological Questions

Increasingly, environmental agencies are engaged in public participation activities. Unfortunately, the limited evaluation of public participation programmes also makes improvement of such programmes more difficult. To encourage further thinking about the evaluation of environmental public participation programmes, this article discusses some of the basic issues raised by evaluators of social programmes (e.g. unemployment and housing, etc.) that have served as methodological proving grounds for evaluation. These issues include why evaluate and what and how to evaluate, as well as questions concerning the role of evaluators. To illustrate ways in which evaluators of environmental public participation programmes have grappled with these issues, examples of different methodological approaches are included. Finally, based on this review, recommendations are made to improve evaluations of environmental public participation programmes, such as increasing evaluation aimed at making mid-course corrections, which includes involving participants in evaluation and assessing a variety of participatory goals.     

铅酸电池行业环保专项行动的环境与经济影响研究

"十五"以来,我国涉重行业高速发展,造成了严重的重金属污染和多起群体性污染事故。从2009年起,环保部等九部委连续四年对重金属排放企业违法排污行为进行环保专项行动。本文以2011年铅蓄电池行业环保专项行动为例,分析重金属污染治理的环境影响、经济影响和社会影响。专项行动对行业短期赢利能力和中小企业就业有一定负面影响,但是显著改善了行业产能利用率,提升了行业整体技术水平,提高了产业集中度,促进了空间布局向工业园区、向东部地区集中。总体来看,铅蓄电池行业环保专项行动达到了预期的环境和经济目标,行业发展从高增长、高代价的"非常态"模式进入相对可持续的中高速、低代价的"新常态"。"十三五"期间,要实现经济中高速增长和环境质量总体改善的双重目标,必须加强对高污染行业的环境管理。将行政执法与刑事执法紧密衔接,通过提高企业违法成本从源头遏制违法排污行为;根据污染企业的空间布局建设相应的环保机构,加强农村地区的环保能力;在欠发达地区要保持经济规划、城镇规划和环境规划的一致性,在区域协调发展过程中实现绿色发展。     

Legitimacy for climate policies: politics and participation in the Green City of Freiburg

Cities are crucial to mitigating climate change and can serve as sites for innovations, providing examples of ways to conduct effective politics in transport, energy and land-use. What does it take to become a model for climate politics? This article argues that a few innovative measures will not suffice. A common vision based on broad legitimacy is crucial to achieving this position. Using a theoretical framework on input and output legitimacy with the City of Freiburg as the case, this article explores the political dimensions of the climate innovative city. The study shows that a specific kind of “green conservative” politics and a consensual view on climate issues across parties have been very important to creating political legitimacy. This has been supported by extraordinary and extensive citizen engagement in combination with the actual output, i.e. what environmental policies have delivered. The legitimacy for the Green City model also means that Freiburg is viewed as a highly livable city, in turn, creating self-enforcing dynamics that challenge its innovative potential.     

Human Diets and Animal Welfare: the Illogic of the Larder

Few moral arguments have been made against vegetarian diets. One exception is the “Logic of the Larder:” We do animals a favor by purchasing their meat, eggs, and milk, for if we did not purchase these products, fewer animals would exist. This argument fails because many farm animals have lives that are probably not worth living, while others prevent a significant number of wild animals from existing. Even if this were not so, the purchase of animal products uses resources that could otherwise be used to bring a much greater number of animals into existence.     

No Room at the Zoo: Management Euthanasia and Animal Welfare

The practice of ‘management euthanasia’, in which zoos kill otherwise healthy surplus animals, is a controversial one. The debate over the permissibility of the practice tends to divide along two different views in animal ethics—animal rights and animal welfare. Traditionally, those arguments against the practice have come from the animal rights camp, who see it as a violation of the rights of the animal involved. Arguments in favour come from the animal welfare perspective, who argue that as the animal does not suffer, there is no harm in the practice and it is justified by its potential benefits. Here, I argue that an expansion of the welfare view, encompassing longevity and opportunities for positive welfare, give stronger considerations against management euthanasia, which then require greater benefits to justify its use.     

Transgenesis in Animal Agriculture: Addressing Animal Health and Welfare Concerns

The US Food and Drug Administration??s final Guidance for Industry on the regulation of transgenesis in animal agriculture has paved the way for the commercialization of genetically engineered (GE) farm animals. The production-related diseases associated with extant breeding technologies are reviewed, as well as the predictable welfare consequences of continued emphasis on prolificacy at the potential expense of physical fitness. Areas in which biotechnology could be used to improve the welfare of animals while maintaining profitability are explored along with regulatory schema to improve agency integration in GE animal oversight.     

LASALA: Evaluating Local Agenda 21 in Europe

Local Agenda 21 (LA 21) may be regarded as one of the most enduring and possibly most effective outcomes of the 1992 Rio de Janeiro ‘Earth Summit’. In Europe alone, approximately 4000 cities, municipalities at regional and local level, and regional authorities are now engaged in a LA 21 process of some kind. This paper reports on the main findings of the recent Local Authorities' Self-Assessment of Local Agenda 21 (LASALA) project, which conducted a Europe-wide research programme into the European LA 21 initiative. The research demonstrates the significant levels of commit ment to the LA 21 process amongst European local government, and some notable achievements in sustainable development policies within a very short space of time. Although there is still a long way to go, the LASALA research indicates that LA 21 is an effective policy vehicle for encouraging and supporting sustainable development initiatives at the local level in Europe.     

Finfish Aquaculture: Animal Welfare, the Environment, and Ethical Implications

The aim of this review is to assess the ethical implications of finfish aquaculture, regarding fish welfare and environmental aspects. The finfish aquaculture industry has grown substantially the last decades, both as a result of the over-fishing of wild fish populations, and because of the increasing consumer demand for fish meat. As the industry is growing, a significant amount of research on the subject is being conducted, monitoring the effects of aquaculture on the environment and on animal welfare. The areas of concern when it comes to animal welfare have here been divided into four different stages: breeding period; growth period; capturing and handling; and slaughter. Besides these stages, this report includes a chapter on the current evidence of fish sentience, since this issue is still being debated among biologists. However, most biologists are at present acknowledging the probability of fish being sentient creatures. Current aquaculture practices are affecting fish welfare during all four of the cited stages, both on physical and mental levels, as well as on the ability of fish to carry out natural behaviors. The effect fish farming has on the environment is here separated into five different categories: the decline of wild fish populations; waste and chemical discharge; loss of habitat; spreading of diseases; and invasion of exotic organisms. There is evidence of severe negative effects on the environment when looking at these five categories, even when considering the difficulty of studying environmental effects, due to the closely interacting variables. The ethical arguments and scientific evidences here reviewed have not all come to the same conclusions. Nevertheless, the general agreement is that current aquaculture practices are neither meeting the needs of fish nor environment. Thus, the obvious environmental and animal welfare aspects of finfish aquaculture make it hard to ethically defend a fish diet.     

Evaluating and Managing Cumulative Effects: Process and Constraints

Since any proposed activity could contribute to a wide range of potential CEs at different spatial and temporal scales, a tiered or nested approach should be followed to assess CEs. The difficulty of assessing and predicting CEs also suggests that in many cases the most efficient approach is to focus on minimizing on-site impacts. Under some circumstances adaptive management can also be a viable alternative to detailed CE assessments. Regular monitoring and feedback is critical to the successful management and regulation of CEs.     

Enduring decisions: Evaluating environmental impacts for sustainability planning

This paper aims to establish a framework in which potential methods for evaluating environmental impacts can be considered, with particular reference to the UK planning system. To do this a number of complementary ways of conceptualising sustainable development and making it more practical are outlined. Some basic arguments about the meaning of sustainability are reviewed; and some common misconceptions about the concept exposed. The concept of sustainability constraints is outlined and a functional distinction between quantitative and qualitative constraints is proposed. The adoption of sustainability constraints based on measures of environmental capacity is proposed. These suggest significant reductions in consumption of most environmental resources. The efficiency and sufficiency strategies that would be needed to meet the proposed quantified constraints are outlined. In conclusion, evaluation processes and indicators of sustainability, including environmental foot-printing and environmental impact assessment, are discussed, offering some pointers towards the type of measures that will be needed to help implement sustainability strategies.     

Public and Consumer Policies for Higher Welfare Food Products: Challenges and Opportunities

Farm animal welfare in livestock production is a topical and important issue attracting growing interest of policy makers, consumers, stakeholders in the supply chain and others. While there is much public interest in the issue this is not reflected in the supply and market shares of animal food products that are produced under welfare standards that exceed legislative requirements. Given the obstacles to devising stricter legislative standards, higher welfare animal food products are mostly made available through market-based approaches. This paper discusses different challenges and opportunities for a range of public and consumer policies and makes recommendations on how these might be strengthened. The paper does not report primary empirical findings but assembles available knowledge on citizen and consumer attitudes and perceptions towards animal welfare from various research disciplines. We argue that in order for public and consumer policies to be (more) efficient and effective, it is important to develop a segmented and targeted strategy. This paper will thus elaborate on what information could and should be provided to whom. This implies the need for a good understanding of how people conceptualize farm animal welfare. Further, information provisioning should address the needs and expectations of those specific consumer segments most likely to be motivated to purchase higher welfare products. Based on the assembled information, opportunities and challenges for information provisioning and communication to the public and consumers are identified. The merits and limitations of different forms of information provisioning and animal welfare labelling are discussed and recommendations are set forth for future research.     

Evaluating Management of Protected Areas: Integrating Planning and Evaluation

/ An approach to evaluating the effectiveness of management of protected areas is proposed. This approach has been used in developing an evaluation strategy for the Fraser Island World Heritage Area in Australia. The main component of the strategy is built upon the desired outcomes specified in the management plan for the area and thus provides a basis for assessing the extent to which the plan's objectives are being achieved. A series of monitoring programs have been proposed to enable this assessment. Examples of monitoring programs developed as part of the evaluation strategy are presented. A second component of the strategy monitors the implementation of the management plan. A management information system has been developed to record and report on the extent to which the specific actions specified in the management plan have been implemented. The strategy is discussed in relation to seven objectives set for the evaluation program in its design phase.KEY WORDS: Planning; Evaluation; Monitoring; Management; Protected areas