We already have ethical options for replacing industrial farming

THE industrialised food system is approaching a crossroads. Though it undoubtedly produces more than enough food, it is butting up against ethical and environmental limits. The system, especially factory farming, is doing great damage to the environment, biodiversity, water resources and animal welfare. It is also ultimately self-defeating as soils can’t sustain it for much longer – by some estimates we have just 60 harvests left.

But environmental and ethical concerns sometimes come into conflict. As the influential philosopher Peter Singer points out in our feature “Peter Singer on animal rights, octopus farms and why AI is speciesist”, …