Are animals more than just food?

MANY believe that the way we treat the most vulnerable is the moral litmus of our humanity. But does this extend beyond humankind to other creatures, and if so in what ways?

The debate about how we treat animals is particularly intense around modern farming methods, intensive rearing and the sheer scale of local, regional and global food industries.

Pragmatically and ethically, is treating animals well a luxury we can’t afford or a feature of our spiritual journey through the world which we cannot be without?

The reality is that the majority of the animals who provide our meat, milk and eggs for us (whether we are carnivores herbivores, ovo-lacto vegetarians or pescatarians) are factory farmed.

What is done to them is done in the name of efficiency and cheap food. But is it really cheap or efficient? Can we eat well and behave towards animals with humanity?

The speakers at an important conversation on all this today, as part of Just Festival, will be Peter Stevenson (Compassion in World Farming), Dr Fritha Langford (Scotland's Rural College), along with chair Michael Appleby (The World Society for the Protection of Animals).

The discussion runs from 6-7.30pm in the hall at St John's Church (venue 127), Friday 23rd August, priced £5. Tickets can be purchased online, or at the cash-only ticket office at the venue.  Organised in association with Compassion in World Farming.