Hidden costs of food production: the veterinarian's role.
Veterinarians who work in food-animal production and food safety help to deliver food policy by enabling farmers to supply safe, affordable food. However, existing food policy reflects a production bias and is increasingly being criticized for its hidden costs. These costs include reduced animal welfare, the inflated risk of anti-microbial resistance, and the current pandemic of human obesity and overweight. Veterinarians do not generally recognize that this is the context within which they do their work. In this article, I review this context and argue that veterinary students should be taught about it. I also argue that the profession should join with food-policy analysts, ethicists, and others who are already calling for a rethinking of food policy, so that new policy might meet the full wealth of problems and not just some.
Hewson
Caroline J
CJ
Sir James Dunn Animal Welfare Centre, Atlantic Veterinary College, Charlottetown, PE, Canada. cjhewson@hotmail.com
D000822:Animal Husbandry / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods; D000827:Animal Welfare; D000818:Animals; D003257:Consumer Product Safety; D004520:Education, Veterinary; D005523:Food Supply / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D007881:Legislation, Food; D009765:Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control; D011634:Public Health