Abstract

In Laudato si’, Pope Francis calls for an “ecological conversion,” inviting his readers to abandon the interspecies violence characterizing our “throwaway culture,” which reductively and lamentably instrumentalizes the earth. Yet, while Francis recognizes the problems of systemic anthropogenic animal violence and economic agricultural imperialisms inherent in corporatized food production systems individually, he does not address the intersectional nature of these issues. Neither does he address the most obvious ethical conflicts arising in industrialized food production: the conflicts focused on meat eating. In this article, we explore what Laudato si’ means for the ethics of eating well with reference to industrialized animal agriculture and its relation to animal dignity and environmental concerns. After analyzing Laudato si’ on the economics and ethics of food, animal well-being, and ecological ethics, we discuss the possibilities and limitations of Catholic vegetarianism in the context of traditional ascetic fasting practices and a discussion of ecological lamentation.