Killing Cows
Carnivore and steak-lover Jo Fidgen attempts to work out if killing cows for food can be morally justified.
Carnivore and steak-lover Jo Fidgen attempts to work out whether killing cows for food can be morally justified
Many meat eaters believe animal suffering should be avoided. They buy higher welfare products or free range eggs and hope the animal they plan to eat has had a good life and a painless death. But if animal suffering matters, surely animal death does too?
Omnivorous Jo Fidgen explores the ethics of killing cows for food. She discusses cow psychology, fart spray and cannibalism with leading philosophers like Peter Singer and Jeff MacMahan. And she tests her own intuitions about meat eating as she looks a bullock in the eye before picking up some of his his minced and butchered body a few weeks later. And eating it.
While on this ethical journey Jo confronts big questions about where morals come from, what is bad about killing humans and how we decide what beings are worthy of our moral attention.
Producer: Lucy Proctor.
Last on
More episodes
Previous
Michael Pollan on Food
What should we eat? An interview with author Michael Pollan about what food is and is not.
Precedents or Principles?
How far are we influenced by precedent in reaching decisions and how much by principles?
Scotland's Radical Land Reform
Euan McIllwraith explores why Scotland's land ownership is up for grabs and why now.
Broadcasts
- Mon 26 Oct 2015 20:30Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
- Sun 1 Nov 2015 21:30Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
Read our Facebook Q&A on the ethics of killing cattle and eating meat
Profs Jeff McMahan and Gary Comstock joined presenter Jo Fidgen in a live online debate
Podcast
-
Analysis
Programme examining the ideas and forces which shape public policy in Britain and abroad.