Speciesism in modern food culture: socioeconomic, health, environmental and ethical impacts of the animal production chain in Brazil

Abstract

This article carries out a critical reflection on the speciesism in modern food culture and its implications in Brazil. The purpose of the discussion is to show that speciesism, understood as a form of prejudice based on belonging to a species, presents fertile ground for an interdisciplinary debate and to think about important dimensions of sustainable development. In accordance with the social constructivist perspective and based on the analysis, the study indicates that the production of foods of animal origin presents a speciesist character, that is, it ignores the interests of nonhumans. We suggest that the confluence of speciesism, private property and industrial production methods have negative socioeconomic, health, environmental and ethical impacts. In view of its broad implications, the speciesism should be better discussed in Brazilian science, especially in the Social Sciences. We conclude that the naturalization of speciesism not only has negative social, environmental and health consequences, but also ethical ones, that must be discussed in the scientific scope in order to seek, in this way, to overcome anthropocentric ideas that contributed to the appearance and aggravation of environmental crises that we live in today.