sample_response_discussion_3_.docx
Week 3 Sample Discussion Post
Case Study: Perdue
In this post, I will addresses the environmental effects of the operations by the American company Perdue, which is part of the factory farming industry. The term ‘factory farming’ refers to highly mechanized systems for raising large numbers of livestock in crowded quarters (citation). The environmental effects are amoral problem because although the negative effects are known to be the result of the very nature of factory farming, this industry is n either regulated by government, nor any attempts to reduce them have been made on the part of business. This displays a lack of moral responsibility on the part of government and of Perdue as a business. One of the environmental effects is that five hundred million tons of animal waste are produced in factory farms in the United States every year, and this waste is the source of forty different diseases that can afflict humans (citation). Urine and manure are deposited in lagoons that can store up to 45 million gallons (citation). What is surprising is that this practice was established not by the factory farming industry but by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the waste removal method for factory farms (citation). In addition to spreading disease, this waste water emits gases such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and methane that have a negative impact on the ozone layer (citation). As a mixed economy, the United States government can exert some control over the environmen tal impact of factory farms but there are no attempts to do so at the Federal level (citation). At the state level, some state havelaws that address the environmental impact of factory farms but, rather than taking a firm hand in regulating negative environmental effects, the laws protect factory farms from external scrutiny. For example, “New legislation has made it illegal in several states to film or photograph any part of the factory farming process” (citation). As such, the problem does not seem to be an unfettered free market but, rather, an industry whose detrimental effects are protected by government.
I believe that the operations of Perdue are not morally justified. I will defend this moral position with virtue ethics. In my opinion all things are good in moderation and, in virtue ethics, it is the Golden Mean that identifies all virtuous action (citation; citation). In order to choose virtuous actions, factory farmers should strive to follow the Golden Mean. In my opinion these farmers suffer from the vice of excess (overindulgence), by overproducing livestock at a single location in horrible conditions. Aristotle describes the Golden Mean as the middle point between the extremes of excess and deficiency. (citation; citation). Moreover, Aristotle explains that there is no middle point to vices, such as murder and cruelty (citation). Similarly, there cannot be a middle point to pollution, which means the destruction of the environment and the spread of disease. Factory farmers are not merely responsible for reducing pollution in their operations but to investigate ways to eliminate the waste pools that are the starting point for disease, and also the source of greenhouse gas emissions. By following the Golden Mean, factory farmers will not only take the path of virtue and shape their character accordingly, this path will also lead to the reduction of the environmental problems created by Perdue and other factory farms.
Stephicks78
0
