3 ms·
I think the two estimates you mention are different things: 17B is the population of chickens alive in a single moment, 50B for number slaughtered in a year. (B
by DominikPeters 10y ago
I think the two estimates you mention are different things: 17B is the population of chickens alive in a single moment, 50B for number slaughtered in a year. (Broiler chickens live much less than a year.)
The comparison of farm and wild population sizes is relevant, because humans have control over both the size of the chicken population (through choice of eating habits) and the size of wild animal populations (through habitat reduction or conversion).
- schoen 10y agoI took this xkcd https://xkcd.com/1338/ https://xkcd.com/1338/ at the time as an argument that people's decisions about farming may affect a lot of the overall animal suffering in the world, but I guess if you include even some non-mammals the direction of the comparison will reverse!
- elif 10y agoHow do I have control over wild animal population? Hunting? Is the implication that hunting a wild bird whose individual suffering I have ascertained is somehow a preferable alternative to picking a box from the shelf that says chikn nuggets instead of one which says chicken nuggets? Or am I to believe that all wild animals suffer equivalently because of some hand wavey quantification of an academic in some no name journal?
- DominikPeters 10y agoYou personally have less control over habitat sizes, perhaps, beyond subtle effects from consumption choices (e.g., using a car will, in expectation, convert some nature to parking spaces; beef consumption converts forests to graze land). Collectively we may have more choices (such as conducting research).
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]