Abstract
Livestock are vital to sustainable agriculture in most developing countries. In Asia, in general, the integration of livestock, fish and crops has proved to be a sustainable system through centuries of experience. Traditional use of dung for manuring the fields and bullocks for ploughing is the 'biodynamic farming', which has special significance in dry land agriculture comprising about 65 percent of India's cropped area. Gene-based technologies will be useful for developing special draught breeds of cattle so that their valuable source of energy remains available especially to the small and marginal farmers. Further, the livestock in the developing countries form an essential part of an integrated agricultural system and, therefore, development strategies for gene-based applications should consider the total production system (i.e., breeding fodder and forage crops, animal and crop disease and pest management etc). The gene-technologies of relevance to the developing countries are (i) rumen molecular techniques for reducing methane production and for increasing protein and energy supply; ruminant food stuffs currently used in India and a few other developing countries are fibrous, low in nitrogen, and contain anti-nutritive factors, (ii) improving animal productivity in developing countries by manipulation of nutrition in utero to alter gene expression of key
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Kesavan, P C;
Swaminathan, M S;
[1]
net, mssrfed@vsnl
- Research Foundation, Third Cross Street, Taramani Institutional Area, Chennai - 600 113 (India)
Citation Formats
Kesavan, P C, Swaminathan, M S, and net, mssrfed@vsnl.
Ethical, social, environmental and economic issues in animal agriculture.
IAEA: N. p.,
2003.
Web.
Kesavan, P C, Swaminathan, M S, & net, mssrfed@vsnl.
Ethical, social, environmental and economic issues in animal agriculture.
IAEA.
Kesavan, P C, Swaminathan, M S, and net, mssrfed@vsnl.
2003.
"Ethical, social, environmental and economic issues in animal agriculture."
IAEA.
@misc{etde_20417843,
title = {Ethical, social, environmental and economic issues in animal agriculture}
author = {Kesavan, P C, Swaminathan, M S, and net, mssrfed@vsnl}
abstractNote = {Livestock are vital to sustainable agriculture in most developing countries. In Asia, in general, the integration of livestock, fish and crops has proved to be a sustainable system through centuries of experience. Traditional use of dung for manuring the fields and bullocks for ploughing is the 'biodynamic farming', which has special significance in dry land agriculture comprising about 65 percent of India's cropped area. Gene-based technologies will be useful for developing special draught breeds of cattle so that their valuable source of energy remains available especially to the small and marginal farmers. Further, the livestock in the developing countries form an essential part of an integrated agricultural system and, therefore, development strategies for gene-based applications should consider the total production system (i.e., breeding fodder and forage crops, animal and crop disease and pest management etc). The gene-technologies of relevance to the developing countries are (i) rumen molecular techniques for reducing methane production and for increasing protein and energy supply; ruminant food stuffs currently used in India and a few other developing countries are fibrous, low in nitrogen, and contain anti-nutritive factors, (ii) improving animal productivity in developing countries by manipulation of nutrition in utero to alter gene expression of key metabolic hormones and enzymes for a long period after birth in cattle, (iii) genetic resistance to Helminthes in sheep, and (iv) molecular methods of diagnosis, molecular epidemiology and treatment of swine fever. Although not gene-based, artificial insemination (AI) for genetic improvement of dairy cattle and buffalo, and embryo-transfer (ET) for rapid multiplication of elite cattle are also relevant. Cloning (of the 'Dolly' - the sheep kind) will be useful to revive the rare and endangered animal species such as one-horned rhinoceros, swamp deer, wild buffalo and dugongs in India, for restoring environmental balance and social harmony with the forest, coastal and hill communities of various regions of India. The ethical issues from a technological point of view centre around both gene-based and nongene- based technologies to improve the nutrition, health and productivity of the farm animals. In particular, a reference needs to be made to bovine somatotropin (bST), a natural growth hormone secreted by the anterior pituitary in all animals, with a major effect on the regulation of growth and also milk production. Since the quantities of bST obtained from slaughtered animals are quite small, recombinant DNA technology-based r-bST is produced, and widely used in the USA to increase the milk production by 10% to 20%. Exhaustive evaluation tests conducted in the USA have shown that r-bST has no harmful effects in milk, but a high production of milk makes higher demands on animal physiology, and if an adequate food supply is lacking, negative effects are observed on fertility besides other health problems, especially mastitis and ketosis. Presently, neither r-bST, nor adequate nutritious feed is available for millions of dairy cattle in the developing countries. The economic benefits of 'mass production' over 'production by masses' are obvious; further, the access to the r-bST in the 'mass production' system, but not in the system of 'production by masses' could accentuate the economic disparity. The above-said scenario has further ramifications in view of the implications arising from the WTO-related Agreement on Agriculture. With an array of domestic supports, products of 'mass production' could be dumped into developing countries causing a substantial rise in the already high levels of livelihood and food insecurity. Since the r-DNA based technologies for 'pharming' or for human food are not yet applied to farm animals in the developing countries there are no serious concerns of bio-safety, and violation of ethical norms. In the countries, where animals for human food are genetically altered, the issues of 'animal sentience' and 'telos' become quite pertinent. For example, the 'growth genes' introduced into pigs (i.e. Beltsville Pigs) to accelerate growth and produce leaner meat also result in a number of serious physical disabilities to the pigs. Of course, in the case of 'broiler' chickens too, it is true that their skeleton and cardio-vascular systems are more poorly developed than their muscles and gut. The broiler chickens never live their natural life and thus their rights are ignored. With an ever increasing concern for 'animal welfare', the need is to recognize the 'animal right' (the right not to be tortured and left in pain) and to introduce humane and kindly treatment so that the unpleasantness of pain is greatly reduced. The objection is about treating animals as 'raw materials' upon which our ends and purposes can be imposed regardless of the ends and purposes natural to them. [abstract truncated]}
place = {IAEA}
year = {2003}
month = {Jul}
}
title = {Ethical, social, environmental and economic issues in animal agriculture}
author = {Kesavan, P C, Swaminathan, M S, and net, mssrfed@vsnl}
abstractNote = {Livestock are vital to sustainable agriculture in most developing countries. In Asia, in general, the integration of livestock, fish and crops has proved to be a sustainable system through centuries of experience. Traditional use of dung for manuring the fields and bullocks for ploughing is the 'biodynamic farming', which has special significance in dry land agriculture comprising about 65 percent of India's cropped area. Gene-based technologies will be useful for developing special draught breeds of cattle so that their valuable source of energy remains available especially to the small and marginal farmers. Further, the livestock in the developing countries form an essential part of an integrated agricultural system and, therefore, development strategies for gene-based applications should consider the total production system (i.e., breeding fodder and forage crops, animal and crop disease and pest management etc). The gene-technologies of relevance to the developing countries are (i) rumen molecular techniques for reducing methane production and for increasing protein and energy supply; ruminant food stuffs currently used in India and a few other developing countries are fibrous, low in nitrogen, and contain anti-nutritive factors, (ii) improving animal productivity in developing countries by manipulation of nutrition in utero to alter gene expression of key metabolic hormones and enzymes for a long period after birth in cattle, (iii) genetic resistance to Helminthes in sheep, and (iv) molecular methods of diagnosis, molecular epidemiology and treatment of swine fever. Although not gene-based, artificial insemination (AI) for genetic improvement of dairy cattle and buffalo, and embryo-transfer (ET) for rapid multiplication of elite cattle are also relevant. Cloning (of the 'Dolly' - the sheep kind) will be useful to revive the rare and endangered animal species such as one-horned rhinoceros, swamp deer, wild buffalo and dugongs in India, for restoring environmental balance and social harmony with the forest, coastal and hill communities of various regions of India. The ethical issues from a technological point of view centre around both gene-based and nongene- based technologies to improve the nutrition, health and productivity of the farm animals. In particular, a reference needs to be made to bovine somatotropin (bST), a natural growth hormone secreted by the anterior pituitary in all animals, with a major effect on the regulation of growth and also milk production. Since the quantities of bST obtained from slaughtered animals are quite small, recombinant DNA technology-based r-bST is produced, and widely used in the USA to increase the milk production by 10% to 20%. Exhaustive evaluation tests conducted in the USA have shown that r-bST has no harmful effects in milk, but a high production of milk makes higher demands on animal physiology, and if an adequate food supply is lacking, negative effects are observed on fertility besides other health problems, especially mastitis and ketosis. Presently, neither r-bST, nor adequate nutritious feed is available for millions of dairy cattle in the developing countries. The economic benefits of 'mass production' over 'production by masses' are obvious; further, the access to the r-bST in the 'mass production' system, but not in the system of 'production by masses' could accentuate the economic disparity. The above-said scenario has further ramifications in view of the implications arising from the WTO-related Agreement on Agriculture. With an array of domestic supports, products of 'mass production' could be dumped into developing countries causing a substantial rise in the already high levels of livelihood and food insecurity. Since the r-DNA based technologies for 'pharming' or for human food are not yet applied to farm animals in the developing countries there are no serious concerns of bio-safety, and violation of ethical norms. In the countries, where animals for human food are genetically altered, the issues of 'animal sentience' and 'telos' become quite pertinent. For example, the 'growth genes' introduced into pigs (i.e. Beltsville Pigs) to accelerate growth and produce leaner meat also result in a number of serious physical disabilities to the pigs. Of course, in the case of 'broiler' chickens too, it is true that their skeleton and cardio-vascular systems are more poorly developed than their muscles and gut. The broiler chickens never live their natural life and thus their rights are ignored. With an ever increasing concern for 'animal welfare', the need is to recognize the 'animal right' (the right not to be tortured and left in pain) and to introduce humane and kindly treatment so that the unpleasantness of pain is greatly reduced. The objection is about treating animals as 'raw materials' upon which our ends and purposes can be imposed regardless of the ends and purposes natural to them. [abstract truncated]}
place = {IAEA}
year = {2003}
month = {Jul}
}