Doctoral Dissertation Research: Bio-industrialization and Emerging Notions of Animal-Care Ethics in America's Dairyland

University Of California-Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz CA

Investigators

Abstract

This ethnographic study of Wisconsin dairy farmers examines how emerging biotechnologies and industrial practices are changing ethical considerations. Cows are producing unprecedented amounts of milk due to infrastructural, nutritional, hormonal, and pharmaceutical interventions and these changes entail new kinds of daily interactions between farmers and their cows. While dairy farmers take pride in their expertise in cow care, the industrial logics and market pressures that pervade the dairy industry create tensions between ethics of care and drives for productivity. This empirical study will investigate these tensions through fifteen months of ethnographic research with dairy farmers, veterinarians, dairy engineers, and children's groups such as 4-H. The broader impacts of this project include a Ph.D. dissertation and several articles, public lectures and presentations at professional conferences, the creation of networks among scholars, industry professionals, and farmers who are working on issues pertaining to animal care in dairy farming, and contributions to policy work on animal care ethics.