Thanks for the interesting post, Vasco. It certainly gave me some food for thought on Monday morning! It raises several important issues for me; primarily, the issue with pitching one ethical issue against another.
Within chicken advocacy, we frequently encounter the argument that welfare improvements are not viable due to environmental sustainability concerns. I dispute this claim on the same grounds that I would challenge the idea that advocating for higher welfare chicken production could negatively impact arthropod welfare and thus be net harmful overall. The issue is not the higher welfare production itself, but rather the agricultural methods (or other potentially harmful practices) employed. For instance, slower-growing chicken breeds can thrive on diets with less soybean than conventional strains, which has been shown to reduce emissions from land-use change per kilogram of feed in certain higher welfare systems (as demonstrated by Mostert et al., 2022). This indicates that we can modify feed production methods, rather than abandoning welfare improvements, to achieve more comprehensive positive change. We can simultaneously advocate for better welfare standards and expect the implementation of environmental (or other, such as wildlife welfare) mitigation strategies. Higher welfare farming is not inherently incompatible with other social goals; rather, businesses must adapt and implement supplementary or alternative strategies alongside welfare enhancements to ensure this compatibility.
Your findings “suggest it is unclear whether chicken welfare reforms are beneficial or harmful” from a holistic perspective. However, regarding chicken welfare specifically, the benefits of these reforms are unequivocally clear—even when these animals live longer lives, as in the case of meat chickens (see Welfare Footprint’s findings). If these reforms inadvertently cause harm elsewhere, those harms should also be addressed as our understanding evolves, for example, through the use of alternative feeds, reductions in consumption, and decreases in land-use change. While we don’t yet (or may never) have perfect solutions, the significant suffering prevalent on factory farms and the measurable impact we can have in alleviating that suffering necessitate our continued advocacy for higher welfare farming practices. At the same time, issues related to environmental compatibility, wildlife impacts, and insect welfare should remain areas of ongoing research and mitigation.
Welfare interventions such as cage-free systems and the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC) aim to improve chicken welfare by directly enhancing the well-being of individual birds during production. A potential secondary benefit to welfare is a reduction in overall meat and egg consumption, for example if conventional chicken is seen as a reputational risk for corporations & they seek alternatives. The progress observed in the Dutch retail sector illustrates the potential for broader benefits, where meat reduction pledges have followed successful campaigns for cage-free eggs and improved broiler welfare.
Thanks for the interesting post, Vasco. It certainly gave me some food for thought on Monday morning! It raises several important issues for me; primarily, the issue with pitching one ethical issue against another.
Within chicken advocacy, we frequently encounter the argument that welfare improvements are not viable due to environmental sustainability concerns. I dispute this claim on the same grounds that I would challenge the idea that advocating for higher welfare chicken production could negatively impact arthropod welfare and thus be net harmful overall. The issue is not the higher welfare production itself, but rather the agricultural methods (or other potentially harmful practices) employed. For instance, slower-growing chicken breeds can thrive on diets with less soybean than conventional strains, which has been shown to reduce emissions from land-use change per kilogram of feed in certain higher welfare systems (as demonstrated by Mostert et al., 2022). This indicates that we can modify feed production methods, rather than abandoning welfare improvements, to achieve more comprehensive positive change. We can simultaneously advocate for better welfare standards and expect the implementation of environmental (or other, such as wildlife welfare) mitigation strategies. Higher welfare farming is not inherently incompatible with other social goals; rather, businesses must adapt and implement supplementary or alternative strategies alongside welfare enhancements to ensure this compatibility.
Your findings “suggest it is unclear whether chicken welfare reforms are beneficial or harmful” from a holistic perspective. However, regarding chicken welfare specifically, the benefits of these reforms are unequivocally clear—even when these animals live longer lives, as in the case of meat chickens (see Welfare Footprint’s findings). If these reforms inadvertently cause harm elsewhere, those harms should also be addressed as our understanding evolves, for example, through the use of alternative feeds, reductions in consumption, and decreases in land-use change. While we don’t yet (or may never) have perfect solutions, the significant suffering prevalent on factory farms and the measurable impact we can have in alleviating that suffering necessitate our continued advocacy for higher welfare farming practices. At the same time, issues related to environmental compatibility, wildlife impacts, and insect welfare should remain areas of ongoing research and mitigation.
Welfare interventions such as cage-free systems and the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC) aim to improve chicken welfare by directly enhancing the well-being of individual birds during production. A potential secondary benefit to welfare is a reduction in overall meat and egg consumption, for example if conventional chicken is seen as a reputational risk for corporations & they seek alternatives. The progress observed in the Dutch retail sector illustrates the potential for broader benefits, where meat reduction pledges have followed successful campaigns for cage-free eggs and improved broiler welfare.