Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Minutes Animal Bioethics (WERA 204) Portland, OR June 11, 2005 In attendance: Debbie Cherney (Cornell), Candace Croney (Oregon State University), Steve Davis (Oregon State University), Clare Hinrichs (Pennsylvania State University), Harvey James (University of Missouri), Harry Kunkel (Texas A&M), Jim Males (Oregon State University), Joy Mench (University of California, Davis), Ed Pajor (Purdue University ), Richard Reynells (USDA), and Paul Thompson (Michigan State University). The meeting was held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society. Vice-Chair (acting Chair) Candace Croney called the meeting to order at 11:40 a.m. 1. Jim Males delivered the Administrative report. There are currently 13 persons that have submitted Appendix E forms (available via NIMMS) to be included on the regional project. If your name is not on the list (see attached Table), you need to submit your Appendix E form. 2. The proposal project to convert WERA-204 to a full regional project has been posted on NIMMS (http://www.nimss.umd.edu/). Miriam Webster-Nielson (Chair) submitted four reviewers names and the proposal is now in review. There is still time to make suggestions for changes, as Miriam and Candace will have to make changes per the reviewers suggestions. If you have suggestions, please send them to Candace ASAP. 3. Future program at 2006 ASAS, PSA. At the 2004 meeting of ADSA/ASAS meeting, the bioethics symposium that WERA-204 hosted, Bioethics: Symposium-Ethics and the Cost of Food: What is the Impact of Lessening Food Prices on Citizens, Producers, Animals and the Environment? was very successful. There were several hundred people in attendance and the subject was well received. WERA-204 has requested a time at the 2006 Poultry Science Association Annual Meeting to conduct a symposium in the area of bio-ethics. The tentative schedule and speakers are as follows: Tentative Title: Proactive Approaches to Controversial Welfare and Ethical Concerns in Poultry Science Total 15 minutes Welcome and Introduction, Richard Reynnells, USDA/CSREES/PAS (WERA-204 Liaison) Total 45 minutes Welfare as an Ethical Issue: Are Blind Chickens the Answer? Paul Thompson, Michigan State University Total 90 minutes Panel: Ethical Issues Affecting Poultry Processing Industry: Perdue/or Tysons/or Foster/or Julie Northcutt, ARS, Athens/ Production Practices PAACO Representative/or Inma Estevez, University of Maryland/or& Societal Responsibilities Debbie Cherney, Cornell University Approaches/Alternatives Joy Mench, University of California, Davis/or Candace Croney, Oregon State University/or& Total 60 minutes Panel: Electric, gas or religious slaughter: Which has better welfare, which is more ethical? Joe Regenstein, Cornell University/or S-292 Multi-state Research Committee representative/or& Mohan Raj, Bristol University/ or UK/Don Lay, ARS, West Lafayette Total time: 210 minutes; 3 hours 30 minutes A decision will be made by July. WERA-204 will put together a proposal for the joint meeting of the ASAS/ADSA in Minneapolis for next year (2006). The following suggestions were put forth: Animal Biotechnology- Ethical Issues (Similar to Pew Foundation Symposium) Grazing-Social and Environmental Issues Antibiotic Persistance and Issues Involved-Paul Thompson and Wesley Dean Certification Issues (Might be better for ASAS,ADSA, PSA, Mexican Societies Joint Meeting in San Antonio, 2007.) What do producers feel their role is in the obesity problem? Do producers feel they have a moral obligation to deal with the problem? (Harvey James) The proposal for the Symposium on Biotech had the most discussion. Potential speakers and topics Biotechnology in Farm Animals- Jim Murray  UC Davis (jdmurray@ucdavis.edu Religious Issues University of Victoria, BC group Peter Sandoe (European Experience Genetically Engineering Animal Welfare Robert Streiffer (rstreifeer@wisc.edu) Production Groups-Beyond Niche Markets Oregon Country Beef (Oregon)-Hatfield Philosophical Issues Ethical Consumption- John Jenson (Luther College, Iowa) (jensjo()1@luther.edu) Pull Economics- Restructuring of economics- Mary Hendricksen (University of Missouri) (HendricksonM@missouri.edu) Food Safety and other issues, Laurian Unnevehr (laurian@uiuc.edu), University of Illinois; Jeff Sharp, Penn State 4. Membership in WERA-204 There was a discussion concerning membership in WCC204. It was generally agreed that we would like balance on the committee, but how do we achieve this? Currently membership includes personnel with university affiliations. Questions: Do we invite industry collaboration with the committee? What would the nature of this collaboration be? If industry collaboration, should NGOs be invited to provide balance? Do we need rigorous restrictions on membership? Jim Males pointed out that another way of obtaining outside influence would be to invite individuals to our own symposium. 5. USDA Challenge Grant This is still something we want to do as a committee. The idea is to develop ethics modules that could serve as parts of a course or a whole course on ethics. Workshops would be included to distribute the materials. One idea is to work on the Challenge Grant at our next meeting. As such, a grant would not be submitted until 2006. Debbie Cherney, Ed Pajor, Harvey James and Candace Croney expressed interest in developing this idea. 6. The next item of business was where and when to have our next meeting. There was discussion about whether meetings should be held in conjunction with national meetings. While there is some benefit to this, the general consensus was that we should meet just as a group next year. The members present decided that Las Vegas would be a good meeting location due to costs. Members present elected not to decide on a time, as many members were not present at this meeting. We will poll WERA members to determine a meeting date. 7. The last item of business was election of officers. Officers voted in for 2003-2004 include: Chair: Croney, Vice chair: Cherney, Secretary: Pajor. The meeting was adjourned at 1.20 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Debbie Cherney Secretary

A bioethical symposium was held June 2005: Incorporating ethical values into animal sciences at the joint annual meeting of the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society (AFHVS) and the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS) in Portland, OR. Approximately 27 people (faculty, students, others) attended.

Davis, S., Cherney, D., Croney, C., Pajor, E. and Tiedeman, G. 2005. Incorporating ethics and social values into Animal Sciences. Proceedings of the joint meeting of Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society and the Association for the Study of Food and Society. Portland, OR. P.42. Thompson, P. B. Animal Agriculture and the Welfare of Animals, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 226(2005): 1325-1327. Thompson, P. B. Getting Pragmatic about Farm Animal Welfare, in Animal Pragmatism: Rethinking Human-Nonhuman Relationships. E. McKenna and A. Light, Eds. Bloomington, IN: 2004, Indiana University Press, pp. 140-159. Thompson, P. B. Research Ethics for Animal Biotechnology, in Ethics for Life Scientists. M. Korthals and R. J. Bogers, Eds. Dordrecht: 2004, Springer. pp. 105-120. Burkhardt, Jeffrey, Comstock, Gary, Hartel, Peter G., and Thompson, Paul B.. Agricultural Ethics, CAST Issue Paper Number 29, February 2005. Council on Agricultural Science and Technology, Ames, IA, 12 pp. Thompson, P. B. Animal Rights, Animal Wefare and Animal Well-being: How to Communicate with the Outside World, in Local and Global Considerations in Animal Agriculture: The Big Picture, R. Reynnells, Ed. Washington, DC: 2004, USDA/CSREES/PAS, pp. 22-31.