Alcohol, weapons and factory farming

[jeznag]

James Long had a few suggestions to ban use by:

• alcohol producers
• weapons manufacturers
• factory farming companies

I'd be interested in seeing this brought in. Alcohol and weapons are commonly screened out by ethical investment funds (see https://www.choice.com.au/money/financial-planning-and-investing/superannuation/articles/australian-ethical-super-funds).

Alcohol

Alcohol is probably a bit controversial. There's certainly an argument that in small amounts, it's not a problem. However, research indicates that the majority of profits come from problem drinkers: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jan/22/problem-drinkers-alcohol-industry-most-sales-figures-reveal

Perhaps we could make an exemption for micro breweries/distilleries/vineyards.

Weapons manufacturing

We do already have a section that prevents activities that lead to warfare. However, defence contractors could argue that they are working towards peace instead. An explicit ban on weapons manufacturers seems reasonable to me.

Factory farming

We have another issue open about animal rights that might have some broader implications. Factory farming seems pretty clear cut to me.

[chrisjensen]

Factory farming and weapons manufacture: yes, they should be clear exclusions.

While there are good arguments to be made that the alcohol industry is an exploitive and harmful one, I initially left it out because it's a controversial one as you say. Beer o'clock is practically a religion in Australia, so to exclude alcohol may harm the adoptability of the license.

[tommaitland]

Factory farming will need to be tightly defined and while it may not be controversial, it is blurry. For example, does factory farming include cage eggs? Is there a density limit we impose for particular animals?

[tommaitland]

Created PR #42 to add weapons manufacturing.

For factory farming what if we added inhumane treatment of animals to 4.a? It would cover a wider range of animal rights abuses too.

[chrisjensen]

Let's continue to discuss animals in #28
#42 is merging and we're leaving alcohol out, so closing this issue.