Category Archives: Ethics

Integrity rules

Rules of conduct regarding integrity Continue reading

Posted in Code of conduct, Ethics, Integrity, Justice, Justice, Politics, Science, Semantics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Did European pig-welfare legislation reduce pig welfare? Perhaps not, but experts confirm that common indestructible materials are not proper enrichment for pigs at all, except perhaps for an enhanced novel branched-chains design.

Published as: Marc B.M. Bracke and Paul Koene, 2019. Expert opinion on metal chains and other indestructible objects as proper enrichment for intensively-farmed pigs. PLOS ONE. Available at http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0212610. EC Directive 2001/93 requires that all pigs have access to proper … Continue reading

Posted in Enrichment, Ethics, Experts, Future, Justice, Modelling, Pigs, Politics, Science | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

How can we feed the world?

How can we feed the world? That is no doubt a serious question. In this post I show why this question is also ambiguous in a way that may be blocking a sustainable solution. The problem The world population is … Continue reading

Posted in Animal welfare, Ethics, Food, Future, Happiness, Money, Politics, Population, Public, Science | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pig animation – Improved, branched chain design as proper enrichment for pigs

Pig animation: Rearing pigs in barren conditions reduces their welfare. Enrichment of pig pens is needed to allow the performance of species-specific natural behaviour like rooting. A metal chain provides rather limited enrichment, but when presented in an optimized way, … Continue reading

Posted in Ethics, Happiness, Videos | Tagged , | Leave a comment

An essential element of sustainable, circular farming: Integrity & a circular welfare economy

This blog post argues to recognize the importance of an often forgotten element of sustainability: Integrity. In particular, I will argue that honesty and emotions are necessary elements of a sustainable, circular agricultural economy. Sustainability Sustainability is often perceived as … Continue reading

Posted in Ethics, Food, Future, Justice, Money, Semantics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How would I spend 10 billion to improve the Netherlands? I’d burn it.

How would I spend 10 billion € to improve the Netherlands? NRC newspaper asked readers to write a short answer to this question. This is my answer: Seven opinionators already gave their answer (NRC 16 aug, 2017). Each had a … Continue reading

Posted in Ethics, Future, Geen categorie, Happiness, Justice, Money, Objectives, Politics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Reflection on running science as a business

Would it be proper to run a scientific institute as a business, or would it be a category mistake? Category mistake A category mistake is a rather fundamental mistake concerning the true nature of a concept. An example would be … Continue reading

Posted in Ethics, Justice, Money, Politics, Science, Semantics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Horror slaughterhouse to be memorial centre of compassion?

Indignation about animal cruelty Widespread indignation about animal cruelty in a large slaughterhouse in the Belgium town of Tielt is calling for direct action based on arousal and compassion. Undercover footage taken by an animal-rights organisation, called Animal Rights, shows a … Continue reading

Posted in Ethics, Future, Happiness, Money, Public, Videos | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Happiness: Fact or fiction – Good or bad?

Happiness Today is the UN’s International Day of Happiness. Skandinavian countries, Switserland, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands are among the happiest countries in the world. Over the past year, the large majority (88%) of Dutch people were happy, i.e. they … Continue reading

Posted in Ethics, Happiness | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Plea for Ag-gag in the Netherlands

Plea to draft Ag-gag legislation in the Netherlands This post considers why we need ag-gag. Ag-gag laws protect the livestock industry from exposure of animal cruelty by animal activists. This mainly US-based legislature forbids the undercover filming or photography of on-farm … Continue reading

Posted in Ethics, Food, Politics | Tagged | 2 Comments