Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals

Singer begins Chapter 4 with the importance of raising awareness about speciesism and animal cruelty. In this chapter, he tells the readers what direct actions can be taken against the many horrors that he has detailed previously. Singer emphasizes the importance of political actions such as voting and writing to representatives, spreading the message with friends and family alike, and protesting animal abuse. He believes that vegetarianism is a practice reflective of the ethical abhorrence of animal exploitation and torture and encourages vegetarians to be vocal about the reasons behind their diets in order to convince others to boycott the meat industry. 

Singer emphasizes that the amount of food and money spent on animals before slaughter could be used to feed those who do not get enough to eat. Plants will yield more than ten times as much protein per acre as meat does, and vegetables such as broccoli and grain such as oats yield greater protein, calcium, and iron in comparison to milk or beef. Singer addresses the question of fossil fuels as well: “Growing crops would be at least five times more energy-efficient than grazing cattle, twenty times more energy-efficient than producing chickens, and more than fifty times as energy-efficient as feedlot cattle production” (164).