Paper short abstract:

Nonhuman animals as food pathways continue to gain more considerable attention, in both an academic and public contexts. In many post domestic societies media representations inform public knowledge, thus it is through these representations that change in policy and legislation can be instigated.

Paper long abstract:

Nonhuman animals as livestock have received considerable academic attention, albeit with regards to ethics and welfare, and continue to receive increasing attention in post domestic social contexts with the rise in vegetarian and vegan lifestyle choices. In post domestic societies whereby the majority of the human social members are living in urban environments and are divorced from nonhuman animal livestock production, media representation becomes the primary means of establishing a form of relation between the human and farmed nonhuman animal. With regards to visual representation, it has been argued that visual media occupies a dominant role in disseminating and circulating cultural imagery. In this instance, media imagery can be seen to function mimetically, as a simulacrum of farmed nonhuman animals, without which human animals would otherwise not engage.

Current post domestic agriculture and livestock practices are somewhat implicated in agribusiness systems, and are thus contingent and temporal to socio-economic market forces. It has already been proven in various studies that an increased awareness of methods in nonhuman animal livestock keeping and production has been an underlying reason for the elective exclusion of non-human animal flesh (i.e. meat) and by-products in individuals' diets. Thus, the use of visual media and developing visual anthrozoology can serve as an instrumental tool for advocating nonhuman animal rights and welfare, ultimately affecting change in policy and legislation.