I am not very familiar with the terminology, but from context clues such as:
I assumed cows’ conditions are as bad as those of broilers in a reformed scenario
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?
Regardless, whatever you think the reformed scenario is, it sure seems like it would be advantageous to switch your chicken consumption to it!
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.
I am not very familiar with the terminology, but from context clues such as:
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?
Regardless, whatever you think the reformed scenario is, it sure seems like it would be advantageous to switch your chicken consumption to it!
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!