Abstract
This chapter situates anarchist concern around human relations with non-human animals, and with the raising of animals for food, in the context of the history of anarchist thought. The openness of anarchism to considering multiple forms of domination means that it is well-suited to critique the human domination of other animals. The chapter begins with a consideration of important anarchist contributions to debates on human relations with other animals: those of Kropotkin and Bookchin, both of whom see humanity as co-constituted in ‘federations’ of life with non-humans. Particular attention is paid to Élisée Reclus’ arguments in On Vegetarianism, which emphasise our emotional connections to other creatures and the dominatory power and violence implied in the production and consumption of meat. The chapter proceeds to examine anarchist work which foregrounds the intersectionalised oppression of humans and other animals in the food and farming industries, looking in particular at the contributions of Bob Torres and Erika Cudworth examining the mass breeding and raising of animals for meat and other ‘animal products’ (eggs, ‘dairy’). It suggests that while intersectionality and social domination are increasingly engaged with by both anarchism and animal liberation discourse, there is a significant way to go.
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Notes
- 1.
The term ‘non-human animals’ is used to make clear that the author knows that humans are animals! Where the term ‘animal(s)’ is used, it should be read as ‘non-human animals’ but has been shortened for ease of reading only.
- 2.
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- 10.
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- 11.
J. Rifkin, Beyond Beef: the Rise and Fall of Cattle Culture (London: Thorsons, 1994), pp. 74–76; Nibert, Animal Oppression, 103–107.
- 12.
Franklin, Animals, 130.
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- 16.
J. Rifkin, Beyond Beef: the Rise and Fall of Cattle Culture (London: Thorsons, 1994), 12–13.
- 17.
D. Nibert, Animal Oppression and Human Violence: Domesecration, Capitalism and Global Conflict (New York: Colombia University Press, 2013).
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- 19.
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P. Kropotkin, Mutual Aid (London: Freedom Press, 1998 [1902]).
- 26.
Ibid., 234.
- 27.
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- 28.
E. Reclus, On Vegetarianism (1901) Retrieved from http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/Élisée -reclus-on-vegetarianism.pdf, 1.
- 29.
R. White, ‘Following in the footsteps of Élisée Reclus: Disturbing spaces of inter-species violence that are hidden in plain sight’ in A.J. Nocella II et al. (Eds) Anarchism and Animal Liberation (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2015), 212–229.
- 30.
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M. Bookchin, The Philosophy of Social Ecology (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1990).
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- 34.
G. Orwell, Animal Farm (London: Secker and Walberg, 1949) 11–12.
- 35.
Nibert, Animal Oppression, 7.
- 36.
B. Torres, Making a Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights (Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2007), 36–58.
- 37.
Ibid., 156.
- 38.
Ibid., 3.
- 39.
Ibid., 58.
- 40.
Ibid., 64.
- 41.
Ibid., 85–87.
- 42.
Ibid., 11.
- 43.
B. Dominick, ‘Anarcho-veganism revisited’. In A. J. Nocella II, R. White and E. Cudworth (Eds) Anarchism and Animal Liberation (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2015) p. 13.
- 44.
Ibid.
- 45.
Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) (2012), The Life of Laying Hens, September 2013, Compassion in World Farming, available from www.ciwf.org.uk.
- 46.
E. Cudworth, “Most Farmers Prefer Blondes’—Dynamics of Anthroparchy in Animals’ Becoming Meat’, The Journal for Critical Animal Studies, 6: 1 (2008), 32–45.
- 47.
Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) (2013b), The Life of Pigs, May 2010, Compassion in World Farming, available from www.ciwf.org.uk.
- 48.
Cudworth, ‘Most Farmers’.
- 49.
Ibid; N. Alexis, ‘Beyond Suffering: Resisting Patriarchy and Reproductive Control’, in A.J Nocella, R. While and E. Cudworth (Eds). Anarchism and Animals: Critical Animal Studies,Intersectionalityand Total Liberation (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2015).
- 50.
E. Cudworth, ‘Killing Animals: Sociology, species relations and institutionalised violence’ The Sociological Review, 63: 1 (2017), 1–18.
- 51.
See, for example, Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) (2009a), Factsheet: Meat Chicken, March 2010, Compassion in World Farming, available from www.ciwf.org.uk.; Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) (2013a), The Life of Broiler Chickens, May 2013, Compassion in World Farming, available from www.ciwf.org.uk.
- 52.
E. Cudworth, Social Lives with Other Animals: Tales of Sex, Death and Love (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2011).
- 53.
Nibert, Animal Oppression.
- 54.
B. Torres, Making a Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights (Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2007).
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M. Zerzan, Future Primitive (Los Angeles, CA: Feral House, 1994).
- 56.
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- 57.
D. Nibert, Animal Oppression and Human Violence: Domesecration, Capitalism and Global Conflict (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013).
- 58.
Nibert, Animal Oppression.
- 59.
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- 63.
D. Abram, Becoming Animal: an earthly cosmology (Vintage: London, 2013).
- 64.
C. Foster, Being a Beast (London: Profile Books, 2016).
- 65.
See, for example, A. J. Nocella II et al. (Eds), Defining Critical Animal Studies (New York: Peter Lang, 2014).
- 66.
S. Colling, S. Parson and A. Arrigoni, ‘Until all are free’.
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- 68.
D. Agren, ‘Mexico considers importing avocados as global demand pushes up prices’ retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/aug/06/mexico-considers-importing-avocados-as-global-demand-drives-up-prices, accessed 20 September 2017.
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E. Cudworth, E. and S. Hobden, The Emancipatory Project of Posthumanism (London: Routledge, 2018).
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Cudworth, E. (2019). Farming and Food. In: Levy, C., Adams, M.S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75620-2_36
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