Josh Milburn on Just Fodder: The Ethics of Feeding Animals Part 2

Thought About Food Podcast

This is Part 2 of an interview with Josh Milburn about his new book Just Fodder: The Ethics of Feeding Animals. In this part of our conversation, we talk about our responsibilities toward and for wild animals that come under our care, such as in zoos or when we rescue wild predators.

Show Notes:

• Follow us on Twitter at @FoodThoughtPod, and you can drop us a line at ThoughtAboutFood on Gmail. Rate our podcast and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts! It helps people find the show.
• We have a YouTube channel! It features more conversations about the meaning of food in our lives, and includes some great recipes to boot. Check it out here and subscribe!
• Dr. Josh Milburn is a Lecturer in Political Philosophy and a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at Loughborough University. You can learn more on his website or by following him on Twitter.
• Josh's new book is Just Fodder: The Ethics of Feeding Animals from McGill-Queen's University Press. Check it out!
• I was a guest on Josh's podcast Knowing Animals. If you haven't heard it before, take a listen to episode 157, in which we discuss Precision Livestock Farming.
• The intro and outro music is "Whiskey Before Breakfast" which is both a great traditional song and at least one thing that should definitely not be served to our companion animals. It was performed and shared by The Dan River Ramblers under a Creative Commons license.
• Appropriately, this time Josh shared a recipe with us for a vegan suet feeder from the book Happy Vegan Christmas, though as he warns us, results may vary depending on the ambient temperature where you are (specifically, is coconut oil solid where you live). Take a look!
  "Suet Cups for Winter Garden Birds
  500g / 1lb. 2 oz. coconut oil
  100ml / 3 1/2 fl. oz. / a generous 1/3 cup canola oil
  700g / 1lb. 9oz. / 5 cups mixed wild bird seed
  Melt the coconut oil in a pan and stir in the [canola oil] and seeds . Scoop the mixture into old cups (or other vessels such as milk bottles or plastic containers). To make sure the birds can sit and enjoy picking their seeds, I insert a stick into each cup. Leave the fat to set. Tie string or a ribbon around the cup's handle and hang it up in a tree or at a bird feeding station. For my chickens, I make seed cups without inserting the sticks."