Dang. That makes sense, but it seems pretty grim. The second half of that argument is, “We can’t select for not-feeling-pain, because we need to spend all of our future genetic modification points on the chickens getting bigger and growing even faster.”
I’m kind of surprised that this argument isn’t at all about the weirdness of it. It’s purely pragmatic, from their standpoint. “Sure, we might be able to stop most of the chicken suffering, but that would increase costs by ~20% or so, so it’s a non-issue”
20% of the global cost of growing chickens is probably in the order of at least ~$20B, which is much more than the global economy is willing to spend on animal welfare.
As mentioned in the other comment, I think it’s extremely unlikely that there is a way to stop “most” of the chicken suffering while increasing costs by only ~20%.
Some estimate the better chicken commitment already increases costs by 20% (although there is no consensus on that, and factory farmers estimate 37.5%), and my understanding is that it doesn’t stop most of the suffering, but “just” reduces it a lot.
Dang. That makes sense, but it seems pretty grim. The second half of that argument is, “We can’t select for not-feeling-pain, because we need to spend all of our future genetic modification points on the chickens getting bigger and growing even faster.”
I’m kind of surprised that this argument isn’t at all about the weirdness of it. It’s purely pragmatic, from their standpoint. “Sure, we might be able to stop most of the chicken suffering, but that would increase costs by ~20% or so, so it’s a non-issue”
20% of the global cost of growing chickens is probably in the order of at least ~$20B, which is much more than the global economy is willing to spend on animal welfare.
As mentioned in the other comment, I think it’s extremely unlikely that there is a way to stop “most” of the chicken suffering while increasing costs by only ~20%.
Some estimate the better chicken commitment already increases costs by 20% (although there is no consensus on that, and factory farmers estimate 37.5%), and my understanding is that it doesn’t stop most of the suffering, but “just” reduces it a lot.