Importance and neglect aside, I am skeptical of the tractability. The 13 to 19% is interesting, but I have doubts that translates to a significant amount of real-world behavior. It seems like you almost need to be vegan to be motivated enough to make your cat/ādog vegan.
Jack White š¹
Karma: 22
Yeah, it seems like EU countries are starting to do so, and some fully as you note, but it is not really in practice at all in the US or Asia, and could take a while until, if ever, it is fully implemented.
āHumane eggsā (using parentheses because it is debatable to what extent such a thing exists) still have a range of issues.In the US, if you buy cage-free eggs, the chickens likely still live a life not worth living.
āEven in cage-free facilities, hens may still spend a majority of their lives in dark, windowless shedsāa far cry from the wooded areas that chickens prefer to live in. Artificial lighting manipulates the hensā laying cycle, as do farming practices like forced molting, which starves hens in order to force their bodies to produce more eggs.ā (From THL Article). Not too much is different for free-range birds. Moreover, in tight quarters for cage-free or free-range, new welfare issues are presented, like feather pecking, bone fractures, infections, etc. The bio-risk issues donāt go away either.
Once you get to pasture raised, which definitely seems like a bump in welfare for the birds, you start to run into more environmental footprint per egg and a scaling issue. And these birds are still genetically optimized for non-natural production, which leads to various issues for them. Even at pasture-raised, bio-risks are still there, and could spread easily to wild birds.
Hope this is helpful, and I appreciate your curiosity!
Interesting points! An important caveat is that, in addition to animal welfare, people do not eat meat/āanimal products because of the environmental impact, biorisks, social justice, etc. Moreover, the whole world cannot eat off pasture-raised beef or āhigh-welfareā eggs, which complicates a bit what we ought to do as individuals. And even in the best scenarios of eating animal products, pasture-raised cows are often transported far distances with no water, cramped, etc., and slaughtered in problematic ways. āHigh welfareā eggs still require sourcing laying hens and male chicks being disposed of, etc. No shame in doing what is best for you and your health, though!
Really looking forward to watching this beyond the trailer. Impressive work!