This work examines the use of nonhuman animals in the farming industry and seeks to understand why this practice takes place and what supports its continuation. The research is approached from a critical realist perspective and after a description of past and current practices in the industry, it uses abduction and retroduction to determine the essential conditions for the continuation of the phenomenon of nonhuman animal farming. One essential condition is found to be the existence of negative discourses relating to nonhuman animals and this aspect is examined in more detail by analyzing a corpus of texts from a farming magazine using Critical Discourse Analysis. Major discourses which were found to be present were those of production, science and slavery which construct the nonhumans respectively as objects of scientific investigation, as production machines and as slaves. A minor discourse of achievement relating to the nonhumans was also present. Further analysis of linguistic features examined the way in which the nonhumans are socially constructed in the discourses. Drawing on work in experimental psychology by Millgram, Zimbardo and Bandura it was found that the effects of these discourses fulfil many of the conditions for bringing about moral disengagement in people thus explaining why billions of people are able to support animal farming in various ways even though what happens in the phenomenon is contrary to their basic ethical and moral beliefs.

Orientador: Luiz Antonio Rossi / DissertaCAo (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Agricola / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-05T22:18:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Sarubbi_Juliana_M.pdf: 972594 bytes, checksum: 6ec7cadc10c91ba20ca67df226c71482 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Resumo: Um grande desafio na suinocultura é a definição de um modelo de edificação capaz de proporcionar melhor conforto térmico para os animais. As maiores perdas na produção ocorrem em virtude dos dias muito quentes e das grandes variações térmicas, que são características do clima tropical. Uma alternativa para minimizar estas perdas é a utilização de sistemas diversos de climatização. No entanto, estes equipamentos apresentam custos de implantação, funcionamento e manutenção variáveis que podem interferir na lucratividade do empreendimento. A utilização de um sistema de controle, por exemplo, pode reduzir os custos de funcionamento dos equipamentos. Este trabalho objetivou avaliar a eficiência de diferentes instalações suinícolas, considerando os aspectos do desempenho dos animais, do conforto térmico e da utilização de energia elétrica. Foram comparadas quatro salas de criação de suínos nas fases de crescimento e terminação em uma granja comercial. As salas estudadas são diferentes sob os pontos de vista de construção e climatização (idade dos equipamentos, número de ventiladores, forma de controle da climatização). Os parâmetros utilizados para a comparação entre as edificações foram o desempenho dos animais, condição sanitária do plantel, variáveis climáticas (temperatura e umidade), entalpia e índice de conforto térmico (ITU), variáveis elétricas (consumo, demanda e fator de potência) e índices de eficiência energética dos tratamentos. A utilização de dois ventiladores novos e sistema de nebulização, ambos com acionamento automático, foi capaz de proporcionar melhor conforto térmico aos animais, embora este resultado não tenha sido suficiente para agregar maior produção. Os ventiladores mais novos consumiram menor quantidade de energia elétrica que os antigos e apresentaram melhor fator de potência O tratamento que contou com sistema de nebulização e um ventilador, acionados manualmente, que forneceu a pior condição em termos de conforto térmico, porém apresentou as melhores condições de consumo específico (kg produzido/ kWh consumido). De acordo com a análise dos índices de eficiência energética (fator de carga), os ventiladores com acionamento automático foram melhores utilizados ao longo do tempo. Assim, concluiu-se que a utilização de controle automático de equipamentos de climatização foi capaz de melhorar as condições ambientais e da utilização de energia elétrica / Abstract: A great challenge in the swine production is the definition of a construction model capable of bringing a better thermal comfort to the animals. The greatest losses on production occur due very hot days and great thermal variation, which are the chief characteristics of the tropical weather. An alternative to minimize these losses is the use of diverse climate systems. Nevertheless, these equipment present variable implementation, functioning and maintenance costs that may interfere in the business lucrativity. The use of a control system, for instance, may reduce the equipment functioning costs. This work's main goal is the evaluation on performance of two different swine buildings, considering the animal performance, thermal comfort and electric energy consumption. Four rooms placed on two different swine structures were compared. It all happened on growing and finishing phases, in a commercial pigsty. These rooms are different under building and acclimatization systems (equipment¿s age, numbers of fans and climate control). The parameters used for the comparison between the buildings were the animal performance, group sanitary condition, climate variables (temperature and humidity), enthalpy, thermal comfort index (THI), electric energy variables (electric energy consumption, power factor, demand) and energetic efficiency. The use of two new fans and evaporative cooling system, both with automatic startup, was able to bring a better thermal comfort to the animals, however this result was not enough for bringing higher production. The newer fans consume less electric energy than the older fans and showed the best power factor. The use of an evaporative cooling and only one fan, without automatic control, was able to bring the worst thermal comfort, the worst utilization electrical energy index and showed the best specific consumption. Therefore, we may conclude that the use of an automatic control system to the climate equipment is capable of improving the environmental conditions and the use of electric energy / Mestrado / Construções Rurais e Ambiencia / Mestre em Engenharia Agrícola

The smallholder livestock farmer in South Africa is in a difficult position, not only grappling with a changing global environment, but at the local front, without access to domestic markets. This is due to very limited knowledge of buyer requirements emanating from lack of marketing information. This limits adequate access to livestock markets by smallholder farmers in South Africa and more specifically in the Moretele area of the North West Province, resulting in limited growth and less disposable income. Some of the problems facing the smallholder livestock farmer are a lack of understanding of buyer requirements regarding livestock product characteristics, industry price determination processes, alternative marketing channels and how to promote livestock. Empowerment and equitable access to markets by these farmers can only be realised when knowledge is disseminated and training and capacity building is enhanced. It is especially an understanding of what the market requires, how price determination occurs and how marketing channels and promotional tools are used in the livestock industry that is lacking. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

In South Africa, communal and/or emerging farmers’ rangeland condition and grazing capacities deteriorate, because grazing capacity is usually over-estimated due to lack of knowledge on veld and livestock production system by the farmers. Woody plants has encroached in the arid and semi-arid savannas and grasslands biomes many parts of world, including in southern Africa. This causes challenges to farm owners due to its negative effects on the herbaceous plant material, which offers a substantial part of forage for livestock production. Although the consequences of deteriorating rangeland condition on livestock production is understood, there is limited research on the impact of land ownership on rangeland condition. Furthermore, knowledge on how farmers manages their livestock and rangelands. The objectives were to document the knowledge of emerging livestock farmers on livestock-rangeland management practices, and to determine the effects of land ownership and practices on rangeland condition. Firstly, we hypothesize that, emerging livestock farmers unknowingly manages livestock in isolation from their rangelands, and secondly, rangeland in private owned lands are relatively in good conditions compared to communal and leased lands. Fifty (50) emerging livestock farmers (i.e. ruminants) in different vegetation types and district municipalities of the Gauteng province were selected using a snowball procedure. To investigate the knowledge of emerging farmers on livestock - rangeland management practices, the farmers were asked questions about their 1) demographic information, 2) livestock management practices and 3) rangeland management practices. To test the differences in farmers’ demographic profiles, Chi-square statistics was employed. To determine the effects of land ownership on rangeland condition of the selected farms, rangeland condition among three land ownership types was compared using ANOVA, and the relations between veld condition score (%) and herbaceous biomass production (kg DM/ha) was tested using Pearson’s correlation analysis The results revealed that, the emerging livestock farmer are dominated by males (68 %) compared to female (32%). Majority (66%) of the farmers are old aged (> 50 years) compared to middle aged (30% (31 – 50 years)) and young (< 30 years) farmers (4%). Farmers who did not receive any agricultural training were higher (74%) than farmers who had prior training (26%). Sixty-three percent of the farmers had knowledge and understanding of breeding and calving seasons of their livestock, with only 27% having no knowledge and understanding of breeding and calving seasons of their animals. Eighty-three percent of the farmers keep mixed livestock (cattle, sheep and goats) species and 17% only keep cattle. The mean cattle herd sizes were significantly lower 8.2 ± 7.16 compared to goats and sheep (15.5 ±11.2). Feed shortage was the major constrain to livestock production (46%) compared to diseases (26%), marketing (14%), stock theft (8%) and other (6%) constrains. Sixty-three percent of the farmers had knowledge and understanding of breeding and calving seasons of their livestock, with only 27% having no knowledge and understanding. Eighty-three percent of the farmers keep mixed livestock (cattle, sheep and goats) species and 17% only keep cattle. All of the farmers indicated that they did not conduct rangeland condition assessment (mainly due to lack of knowledge). All farmers did not have fodder conservation plan for their farms and highlighted that during dry season, forage is scarce for their animals. Majority (58%) of the farmers relay on government-drought relief programme compared to those who were supplementing (20%), selling their animals (14%) and those with no drought coping strategy (8%). v Vegetation was assessed using nearest plant technique. In total, 28 grass species were identified during field survey, of which n=23, n=4 and n=2 were perennials, annuals and short-lived perennial, respectively. The most commonly observed and very palatable grass species, Digitaria eriantha had the highest frequency on private lands (n=92 and the lowest on communal lands (n=51). There were no significance difference in grass species richness and basal cover among land ownership types (P > 0.05). There were significant differences in veld condition score, large stock units, grazing capacity and herbaceous biomass production among land ownership types (P < 0.05). Private lands had a significantly higher veld condition score (69.63%) than leased (56.07%) and communal lands (52.55%). The herbaceous biomass production was positively correlated to the veld condition score (r = 0.159; P<0.005). The outcomes of this study show that emerging livestock farmers in Gauteng province have little understanding of rangeland-livestock management practices. The current results further indicated that poor grazing practices such as overgrazing might be common on leased and communal lands due to farmers’ lack of knowledge on rangeland management practices. This may lead to rangeland degradation thus negatively affecting livestock production and the livelihood of farmers who rely on farming as a source of income. / Agriculture, Animal Health and Human Ecology / M. Sc. (Agriculture)

The smallholder livestock farmer in South Africa is in a difficult position, not only grappling with a changing global environment, but at the local front, without access to domestic markets. This is due to very limited knowledge of buyer requirements emanating from lack of marketing information. This limits adequate access to livestock markets by smallholder farmers in South Africa and more specifically in the Moretele area of the North West Province, resulting in limited growth and less disposable income. Some of the problems facing the smallholder livestock farmer are a lack of understanding of buyer requirements regarding livestock product characteristics, industry price determination processes, alternative marketing channels and how to promote livestock. Empowerment and equitable access to markets by these farmers can only be realised when knowledge is disseminated and training and capacity building is enhanced. It is especially an understanding of what the market requires, how price determination occurs and how marketing channels and promotional tools are used in the livestock industry that is lacking. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

This report covers a preliminary life cycle assessment (LCA) on imitation leather made from hemp fiber (hemp leather) and a comparison to bovine leather, to examine whether hemp leather is an environmentally sustainable alternative. The bovine leather industry is responsible for heavy chemical use and emissions, detrimental effects to the environment as well as to human health. The United Nations (UN) and other organizations call for immediate action against the animal product industry sector to greatly reduce emissions and protect the environment. Hemp is a versatile plant that can be used for many things, including paper, composites, textiles, food and medicine, and is probably a suitable material for imitation leather. The hemp plant requires little inputs, grows fast and without pesticides, has positive effects on the environment and can be cultivated on every inhabited continent. The preliminary LCA was based on a patent describing the manufacturing process of hemp leather completed with data from literature and a few assumptions made. LCA-results for bovine leather were collected from literature and the two leather fabrics were then compared. The comparison showed that hemp leather is superior to bovine leather in all compared categories except for water consumption and hazardous waste. Bovine leather had 99% more energy use, 78% higher acidification potential (AP), 99,9% higher eutrophication potential (EP) and 83% higher global warming potential (GWP) than hemp leather. The large water consumption in the manufacturing phase of hemp leather is possible to be explained by over dimensioning of inputs. The report concludes that hemp leather would be the environmentally and ethically admirable choice between the two leathers and that more research on more modern methods of manufacturing it should be performed. / Denna rapport omfattar en preliminär livscykelanalys (LCA) på syntetiskt läder gjort av hampfiber (hampläder) och en jämförelse med nötskinn, för att undersöka om hampläder är ett miljövänligt alternativ. Nötskinnsindustrin är ansvarig för stor kemikalieanvändning och tunga utsläpp, skadlig inverkan på miljö samt människors hälsa. Förenta nationerna och andra organisationer fordrar till omedelbar handling mot djurindustrisektorn för att drastiskt minska utsläpp och skydda miljön. Hampa är en mångsidig växt som kan användas inom många olika applikationer, såsom till papper, kompositer, textiler, mat och medicin, och är förmodligen ett passande material till imitationsläder. Hampan behöver liten mängd tillförd energi, växer fort och utan bekämpningsmedel, har positiva effekter på miljön och kan odlas på alla bebodda kontinenter. Den preliminära LCA:n är baserad på ett patent beskrivande hampläders produktionsprocess, kompletterat med data från litteratur samt några antaganden. LCA-resultat från nötskinnsproduktion samlades från litteratur och resultaten från de två lädertyperna jämfördes sedan. Jämförelsen visade att hampläder är överlägset nötskinn i alla jämförda kategorier utom vattenkonsumtion och farligt avfall. Nötskinn har 99% högre energianvändning, 78% högre försurningspotential (AP), 99,9% högre övergödningspotential (EP) och 83% högre potential till global uppvärmning (GWP) än hampläder, enligt resultaten. Hampläders produktionsprocess stora vattenkonsumtion kan troligtvis förklaras av en överdimensionering av indata. Denna rapport drar slutsatsen att hampläder skulle vara det mest miljövänliga och etiskt försvarbara valet mellan de två lädertyperna och att modernare produktionsmetoder för hampläder bör studeras.