Critical Analysis: Globalisation and Sustainable Development Report

This report provides a critical analysis of globalisation and sustainable development, focusing on Val Plumwood's essay, "Prey to a Crocodile," and a media report concerning a Swiss referendum on factory farming. Plumwood's work explores the human tendency towards anthropocentrism and its impact on the environment and animal welfare, using her experience with a crocodile to illustrate the human disconnect from the food chain. The report then examines a media report on the Swiss vote, which addressed the ethical implications of factory farming, highlighting animal cruelty and environmental damage. The analysis connects these two pieces, demonstrating how the media report serves as a modern example of the issues discussed in Plumwood's essay. It argues that human actions, driven by economic interests, disrupt the natural order and create imbalances in the ecosystem, ultimately affecting the future of humanity. The report concludes that there is a growing global crisis stemming from the impact of human activities on the environment and advocates for a more ethical approach towards animal welfare and environmental sustainability.

Running head: GLOBALISATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
GLOBALISATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
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Critical Reading: Prey to a Crocodile by Val Plumwood
Summary of Reading
Val Plumwood was an eco-feminist and philosopher from Australia widely
recognized for her works of anthoropocentrism or the belief that humans are the most
superior animals in the planet (Alder and Wilkinson 2016). In Prey to a Crocodile, Plumwood
relates her experience about an encounter with a crocodile during her venture on a canoe, at
the East Alligator Lagoon in Australia. Her experience of being dragged into the water and
rolled by the alligator more than three times provided her with an insight on the western
psyche of humans being above and outside the food chain. Her struggle for existence and
survival within the powerful grip of the alligator’s jaws also induced a reflection in her about
how humans eat without having an ethical concern about the ecology around them. Such a
supremacist culture existing among humans poses a danger upon all the other forms of life
co-existing in the ecology, denying our existence in the food chain. The cruel practices of
human beings endangering the lives of other animals for several purposes like those of food
or clothing is considered to be a violation of the law of nature (Cole and Stewart 2016). The
identity of human beings is positioned in a manner that looks at predatory animals like
crocodiles and tigers as monsters and are often subjects of horror. However, the predatory
nature of these animals marks ecological integrity that humans fail to recognize due to their
sense of superiority in the ecosystem. Human manipulation of nature thereby leads to their
devilish acts of animal consumption, thereby causing an imbalance and lack of sustainability
in the ecology.
Val Plumwood’s encounter with the crocodile therefore provides important insight on
factory farming which is a globally recognized system of cruelty towards animals. With the
rising environmental problems in recent times, individuals across the world are laying focus

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on issues that disrupt the balance of nature and striving to stop acts of animal and
environmental cruelty.
Media Report Analysis
Overview
The media report published by Common Dreams on 18th of September, 2019
mentioned the campaign which allowed the citizens of Switzerland to vote whether factory
farming should be banned in the country or not. According to Eoin Higgins, the author of the
report, the number of signatures in favor of the movement proved the success of the
campaign (Commondreams.org 2019). The campaign was initiated with collaborative efforts
of the animal rights group of Switzerland, Sentience Politics, Franz Weber Foundation and
Greenpeace. The beginning of June 2018 saw the commencement of the movement with the
major issues cited being animal cruelty and climate change. Philipp Ryf a campaigner of
animal rights and member of the movement stated that this initiative marked the milestone for
animal and environment protection in Switzerland.
Purpose
The purpose of the campaign can be demonstrated through the identification of the ill
effects of the practice of factory farming on the global ecology and environment. Identifiably,
the primary disadvantage of factory farming pertains to the contamination caused due to its
process that has detrimental effects on human health, causing diseases and health issues like
brain damage, birth defects, miscarriages and the like. Other health problems caused due to
the processes of factory farming include respiratory problems and the emergence and growth
of bacteria that is anti-biotic resistant (Thegreentimes.co.za 2019). Factory farming also has
harmful effects on the environment in the form of air pollution, water pollution, deforestation,
carbon emissions and over usage of fossil fuels and monocultures (Anomaly 2015). The

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major issue pertaining to the practice of factory farming concerns the welfare of the
biodiversity and particularly the farm animals. The economic interests of the organizations
involved in factory farming does leads to the inhumane practice of reckless animal slaughter,
which in turn creates imbalances in the ecosystem.
Alignment of the Media Report with the Critical Reading
According to the article by Val Plumwood, the practice of factory farming shows how
the anthropocentricism of humans leads to the mistreatment of animals and thereby creates
imbalances in nature. The account of the encounter with a crocodile led Plumwood to realize
that humans are an integral of the food chain and has certain distinct role to play in the
ecosystem. However, the inhuman practices undertaken by humans for their economic
benefits, like factory farming, disrupts the natural order of the ecosystem (Ben-Ami et al.
2014). The media report also identifies this problem through its presentation of a campaign
that acts against the practice of factory farming. The key points of the critical reading indicate
the environmental adversities pertaining to human activities. The report on factory farming
also points out the ill effects of such human activities and refers to a campaign that strives to
put a ban on such practices (Bohanec 2014). Factory farming is a globally recognized
phenomenon of animal cruelty and has direct effects on the ecology and environment. The
anthropocentrism observed among human beings leads them to engage in inhumane practices
like animal slaughter and factory farming without regarding its impact on the environment
around them (Rauw and Gomez-Raya 2015). Similarly, the encounter with the crocodile
provided Val Plumwood with an insight on how the behavior and attitude of human beings is
not aligned with natural order of the ecosystem.

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Conclusion
From the evaluation of the critical reading and the media report, it can be deduced that
there is an emergence of a global crisis in recent times that can be observed through the
impact of human activities on the environment. The practice of factory farming involves the
inhumane activities of subjecting farm animals to abuse and utilizing every part of their body
for economic purposes. This clearly portrays the anthropocentricism as observed by Val
Plumwood in her article about an encounter with a crocodile. Such behavior and attitude
among human beings disregards the natural order of the ecosystem by considering themselves
as superior beings in the food chain system. However, such attitude leads to detrimental
effects to the environment that will ultimately affect the future of human beings in the planet.

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References
Alder, J. and Wilkinson, D., 2016. Environmental law and ethics. Macmillan International
Higher Education.
Anomaly, J., 2015. What’s wrong with factory farming?. Public Health Ethics, 8(3), pp.246-
254.
Ben-Ami, D., Boom, K., Boronyak, L., Townend, C., Ramp, D., Croft, D. and Bekoff, M.,
2014. The welfare ethics of the commercial killing of free-ranging kangaroos: an evaluation
of the benefits and costs of the industry. Animal Welfare, 23(1), pp.1-10.
Bohanec, H., 2014. Factory Farming vs. Alternative Farming: The Humane Hoax. Free from
Harm. Retrieved April, 14, p.2014.
Cole, M. and Stewart, K., 2016. Our children and other animals: The cultural construction of
human-animal relations in childhood. Routledge.
Commondreams.org (2019). Swiss Voters to Decide on Whether to Allow Factory Farming to
Continue in 'Milestone' Moment. [online] Common Dreams. Available at:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/09/18/swiss-voters-decide-whether-allow-
factory-farming-continue-milestone-moment [Accessed 25 Sep. 2019].
Rauw, W.M. and Gomez-Raya, L., 2015. Genotype by environment interaction and breeding
for robustness in livestock. Frontiers in genetics, 6, p.310.
Thegreentimes.co.za (2019). Negative impacts of factory farming. [online] The Green Times.
Available at: http://thegreentimes.co.za/negative-impacts-of-factory-farming/ [Accessed 27
Sep. 2019].

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Appendix
Published on
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
By: Common Dreams
Swiss Voters to Decide on Whether to Allow Factory Farming to Continue
in 'Milestone' Moment
On September 16, the campaign submitted more than enough signatures for the measure to
appear on the upcoming ballot.
By: Eoin Higgins, staff writer
Voters in Switzerland will soon have their say on whether or not the country continues to
allow factory farming thanks to an initiative by animal rights campaigners that delivered that
country's Parliament on Monday over 100,000 signatures to force a referendum on the matter.
"A milestone for the Swiss environmental and animal protection movement," tweeted animal
rights campaigner Philipp Ryf.
The campaign was the result of work by a broad coalition of groups, including Swiss animal
rights group Sentience Politics, Greenpeace, the Franz Weber Foundation, and many others.
The push for the referendum began in June of 2018, citing climate change and animal cruelty
as motivating factors.
"Fifty percent of all piglets raised in Switzerland are slaughtered without ever seeing the
sky," said Sentience Politics' Meret Schneider.
On September 16, the campaign submitted more than enough signatures for the measure to
appear on the upcoming ballot.
Campaigners celebrated on social media and shared pictures of the petition delivery.
Was für eine gelungene Einreichung! Danke an alle, die an unserer Einreichung
teilgenommen haben und ganz besonders den Sammler*innen. Ohne euch wären wir heute
nicht hier! Danke! #massentierhaltungsinitiative pic.twitter.com/QCFgqA6uS9
— Sentience Politics (@SentienceInfo) September 17, 2019

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Heute wurde die Massentierhaltungsinitiative eingereicht. Verzichten wir auf
#Massentierhaltung!
Für glückliche Tiere
für eine ökologische Landwirtschaft
für Klima und Umwelt
für unsere Gesundheit! pic.twitter.com/jmxTWL4NEm
— GRÜNE Schweiz (@GrueneCH) September 17, 2019
The Swiss Parliament will discuss the proposal before setting a date for the vote, according
to SwissInfo.