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Based on a sample of 46 Portuguese schoolbooks, this study aims to understand how factory-farmed animals are presented in such books across the themes of food and health, the environment and sustainability, and animal welfare. It examines whether schoolbooks address the importance of reducing the consumption of animal-based products for a healthy d...
Citations
... This insight aids in assessing the health and welfare of each pig. The analysis of facial expressions further offers the potential to identify the emotional states of pigs, providing valuable insights into their emotional well-being and responses to environmental changes [10][11][12][13][14]. ...
With the advancement of machine vision technology, pig face recognition has garnered significant attention as a key component in the establishment of precision breeding models. In order to explore non-contact individual pig recognition, this study proposes a lightweight pig face feature learning method based on attention mechanism and two-stage transfer learning. Using a combined approach of online and offline data augmentation, both the self-collected dataset from Shanxi Agricultural University's grazing station and public datasets underwent enhancements in terms of quantity and quality. YOLOv8 was employed for feature extraction and fusion of pig face images. The Coordinate Attention (CA) module was integrated into the YOLOv8 model to enhance the extraction of critical pig face features. Fine-tuning of the feature network was conducted to establish a pig face feature learning model based on two-stage transfer learning. The YOLOv8 model achieved a mean average precision (mAP) of 97.73% for pig face feature learning, surpassing lightweight models such as EfficientDet, SDD, YOLOv5, YOLOv7-tiny, and swin_transformer by 0.32, 1.23, 1.56, 0.43 and 0.14 percentage points, respectively. The YOLOv8-CA model’s mAP reached 98.03%, a 0.3 percentage point improvement from before its addition. Furthermore, the mAP of the two-stage transfer learning-based pig face feature learning model was 95.73%, exceeding the backbone network and pre-trained weight models by 10.92 and 3.13 percentage points, respectively. The lightweight pig face feature learning method, based on attention mechanism and two-stage transfer learning, effectively captures unique pig features. This approach serves as a valuable reference for achieving non-contact individual pig recognition in precision breeding.
... Indeed, the banking model in pedagogy which Freire critiques also applies in this case: It treats learners as objects, or empty containers that can be filled with knowledge deemed appropriate by the elite, thereby silencing the students and reproducing the oppressive system -here anthropocentrism, speciesism, and the carnistic ideology. While these are certainly present in society at large and reproduced via socialisation the education system also contributes to this state of affairs in a number of ways (e.g., Fonseca, 2022;Pedersen, 2010). Beyond this similarity, however, the applicability of Freire's approach to human-animal relations is less clear, especially because of his explicitly anthropocentric humanism that makes the liberation of nonhumans and a nonexploitative relationship with them impossible (e.g., Bell & Russell, 2019;Corman, 2011;Kahn, 2010). ...
This essay discusses the nonhuman learner in the context of critical animal pedagogy. While critical animal pedagogy (CAP) aims to liberate nonhumans from human oppression and exploitation, applying the notions of liberation and learning to nonhumans is not straightforward. In particular, the dichotomy between educating humans and training nonhumans represents an unwarranted speciesism that should not be reproduced by CAP.
... A major factor in attributing fewer sentience capacities to farmed animals can be the (physical and emotional) distance between the consumed species and consumers (especially in urban contexts), and vice-versa (the physical and emotional proximity between many consumers and pets). A second factor is the reproduced anthropocentric and utilitarian framings of other animals as food resources (meat and analogs) [176,177], which facilitates animal-meat dissociation [101,102,124] and reduces the ability to reflect upon the animal [170,172]. Devaluation of animal sentience is more evident in men with a lower level of education, the elderly, those from rural regions [178], and less ethically minded participants [128]. ...
... Other factors, such as taste preferences, culinary traditions, social norms [185], hedonism, affinity, and privilege [186], also play a major role in meat intake still occupying a central role in contemporary diets [187]. Western cultural and educational discourses play a structurally major role in reproducing the invisibility of animal suffering, in reinforcing anthropocentric dualisms (e.g., human/animal; animal/meat), and therefore legitimizing instrumentalized and utilitarian views of factory-farmed animals [176,177,188]. Furthermore, neoliberal policies continue to value economic development [189], framing animals as assets and food resources, to the detriment of sentient individuals. ...
Planetary and human health depend on Westerners' ability to reduce meat consumption. Meat production degrades the environment while excessive meat intake is associated with cancer and cardiovascular disease, among others. Effective reasons and motivations are needed for consumers to change their diet. The fact that modern animal agriculture inflicts a great deal of pain on animals from their birth to their slaughter, animal welfare/suffering may drive consumers to curtail their meat consumption. This systematic review examined a total of 90 papers to ascertain consum-ers' awareness of the pain animals experience in animal agriculture, as well as consumer attitudes towards meat reduction due to animal welfare. Results show that consumers have low awareness of animal agriculture. Awareness of animal agricultural practices and animal sentience is associated with increased negative attitudes towards animal suffering. Animal suffering due to farming practices , transportation, slaughter, and animal sentience are factors that may encourage a reduction in meat consumption, and even dietary change in the short term. There is also evidence that animal suffering may be a more compelling motivation for consumers' willingness to change their diet than for health or environmental reasons. Therefore, increasing consumers' awareness of animal suffering in meat production is paramount to contributing to reduced pressure on the environment and improved human health.
Sustainability education is crucial in helping students deal with current health and environmental challenges through dietary choices. This study aims to provide an understanding of how the teachers surveyed (n = 416, 85% women; 58% teaching natural sciences) view the importance of the following interrelated issues for sustainability: (1) the viability of diets for tackling environmental challenges and natural resource management; (2) the health benefits of traditional versus plant-based diets; and (3) the impacts of factory farming on animals and animal sentience. Most participants recognised the importance of a sustainable education model that encourages reducing meat consumption while adopting healthy plant-based diets. Furthermore, the majority recognise animal sentience and agree that schools should address the negative impacts of factory farming on animals and the environment. The results are striking, as they indicate that most teachers’ views contrast with the traditionalist and instrumental portrayal of animals in national core curricula.
