Australian Fair Food Forum

Animals- Breeds, role, ethics

These notes were taken from a group discussion session at the Food Sovereignty Convergence in Canberra, 23/24 November 2017.

  • European vs. heritage breeds from around the world
  • Eu breeds may be less suitable to Australian environment
  • Multi purpose breeds
  • Markets for products beyond meat/dairy
  • Glucosamine? Feathers, wool etc.
  • Work with rare breed trusts to diversify
  • Open source poultry genetics- alternative to IP for supporting breed developers
  • What happened to Austrolorps? Was once an effective dual purpose chook, now useless due to being bred to a show standard
  • Selective breeding for size effects- animal health/reproduction?
  • Are chickens viable? As part of a polyculture system- yes!
  • Consumption of chooks- need a fair option- ACTION: promote small home flocks for slaughter.
  • Genetic diversity- selecting for resilience
  • Animals in urban spaces- small flocks/herds or single animals.
  • Travelling stock routes/ shared yards/ commons/ nature strips
  • Change minds by showcasing polycultures
  • Publish case studies on cost/best practices etc.
  • Return to native animals- hunted vs farmed (eg. ANC Game Meats, Nthrn Rivers)
  • ACTION: Collaboration with local farmers to diversify breeds and strengthen local ecosystems
  • Processing not viable for poultry
  • Collaborate with animal rights orgs, share our ethical techniques, start the convo
  • Veggie production uses animal products- where are they sourced?
  • Market and regulation of Game
  • Rewilding farming and incorporating game
  • Meat has cyclic nature in culture
  • Pacdon Pork- Using blood/ethical meat
  • Ethics- post-vegan ethics.
  • Catie Gressier has written about ethics and animals
  • ACTION- coat of arms pies
  • Vegan abolitionists- counter with ‘free meat’ during protest. Still very damaging to business.