I actually found it more persuasive that buying broilers from a reformed scenario seems to get you both a reduction in pain and a more climate-positive outcome.
There is a reduction in pain due to replacing chicken meat from broilers in a conventional scenario with that from a reformed scenario. However, replacing chicken meat from broilers in a reformed scenario with beef or pork still reduces annoying pain by tens of hours, hurtful pain by tens of hours, disabling pain by around 1 hour, and excruciating pain by tenths of seconds. I have now added numbers for these reductions in the sheet, which I got from the numbers below I already had in the sheet for the time in pain by animal.
That ‘conventional scenario’ is referring to conditions a la most factory farming, and ‘reformed scenario’ is referring to more humane conditions, including free range. But there’s a good chance I just misinterpreted this?
Both scenarios involve factory-farming. The conventional scenario respects a faster growth rate, 60 g/​d in the United States (US) and 62 g/​d in the European Union (EU). The reformed scenario respects a slower growth rate, 45 to 46 g/​d.
However, I estimate the welfare per chicken-year of the reformed scenario is 92.9 % larger than that of the conventional scenario, accounting for both pain and pleasure, and adjusting WFP’s time in pain[1] (for my post on replacing chicken meat by beef or pork, I did not adjust WFP’s time in pain). That is quite close to 100 %, which would imply neutral lives in the reformed scenario. So, given uncertainty, it might be that replacing beef or pork with chicken meat from broilers in a reformed scenario increases animal welfare besides decreasing GHG emissions.
The vast majority of chicken meat comes from broilers in a conventional scenario, so replacing chicken meat with beef or pork is still better than the reverse. Yet, I would say at least chickens’ lives can become positive over the next few decades in some animal-friendly countries. In this case, I think replacing beef or pork by chicken meat would be beneficial.
Thanks for the discussion!
There is a reduction in pain due to replacing chicken meat from broilers in a conventional scenario with that from a reformed scenario. However, replacing chicken meat from broilers in a reformed scenario with beef or pork still reduces annoying pain by tens of hours, hurtful pain by tens of hours, disabling pain by around 1 hour, and excruciating pain by tenths of seconds. I have now added numbers for these reductions in the sheet, which I got from the numbers below I already had in the sheet for the time in pain by animal.
Both scenarios involve factory-farming. The conventional scenario respects a faster growth rate, 60 g/​d in the United States (US) and 62 g/​d in the European Union (EU). The reformed scenario respects a slower growth rate, 45 to 46 g/​d.
However, I estimate the welfare per chicken-year of the reformed scenario is 92.9 % larger than that of the conventional scenario, accounting for both pain and pleasure, and adjusting WFP’s time in pain[1] (for my post on replacing chicken meat by beef or pork, I did not adjust WFP’s time in pain). That is quite close to 100 %, which would imply neutral lives in the reformed scenario. So, given uncertainty, it might be that replacing beef or pork with chicken meat from broilers in a reformed scenario increases animal welfare besides decreasing GHG emissions.
The vast majority of chicken meat comes from broilers in a conventional scenario, so replacing chicken meat with beef or pork is still better than the reverse. Yet, I would say at least chickens’ lives can become positive over the next few decades in some animal-friendly countries. In this case, I think replacing beef or pork by chicken meat would be beneficial.
Thank you—this is a great clarification! Appreciate your work!