One of the many excellent speakers at the recent International Compassionate Living Festival, “Speaking Their Truth,” was Che Green of the Humane Research Council, whose presentation was particularly informative. He summarizes his talk, “It’s the (Animal) Economy, Stupid,” here and here’s a brief extract to inspire you to read all of it.
Under capitalism, the profit motive trumps ethics toward animals. And although capitalism probably isn’t going anywhere soon, there are opportunities to make corporations accountable to animals in the same way that they are becoming accountable to the environment. So called “true-cost economics” can help ensure that the price of consumer goods reflects the actual cost not only of producing those goods, but also the impact on animals and the environment. Although it may be impossible to assign dollar values to animal suffering, increasing the cost of animal-based products would be one way to reduce demand for those products.
