Emerging from COVID-19: A New, Rights-Based Relationship with the Nonhuman World?

This essay argues that the global response to COVID-19 should lead to new thinking and action, and specifically, a new relationship with the nonhuman world that is centered on mutuality and respect, not commodification and exploitation. Such a response would acknowledge and embed concepts like ecological justice and One Welfare in policy and practice, particularly regarding the consequences of intensive animal agriculture and production of monocultures of feedstock for the billions of farmed animals used in food production each year. Drawing on examples from the Global South and Global North, the essay suggests ways forward that provide opportunities for new thinking, research, and action, with the COVID-19 crisis contextualized by the urgency of the climate and biodiversity crises. With deep inequalities and infringement of rights embedded in each of these global challenges, successfully addressing them likely depends on useful disruptions in, and a bridging of, the divides that have separated human and nonhuman rights and have limited the intersections between public health, the environment, and animal welfare and rights.