4 ms·

Why aren't those workers getting paid enough?

newbamboo 5y ago
Because the value of chicken lives is too great.
gruez 5y ago
Because like it or not, organic free range chicken breasts are a luxury, and producing them take substantially more resources than conventional chicken. I see you're going for the corporate greed/income inequality angle, that's orthogonal to this issue. Those might be important issues to address, but even in an economy with zero inequality, I would want the ability to choose between low-end basic product and high-end luxury product. That's especially the case when the negatives of the low end product are unclear. I don't need sashimi-grade chicken if I'm going to be braising it for 2 hours.
- netizen-936824 5y ago
  In my opinion treating another living being with respect is not a luxury, it is a necessity Both workers and chicken
- cheese_goddess 5y ago
  > I see you're going for the corporate greed/income inequality angle, that's orthogonal to this issue. I disagree! We pay the people who make the food we eat a pittance, we optimise our food production for cheap food rather than wellfare of workers and animals, we cut corners all over the place, but in the end all we manage to do is to make cheap, low-quality food that people only eat because they can't afford anything better... and they can't afford anything better because we pay them a pittance to do work that everyone neeeds done in the first place, like producing the food we eat. There is a cost to producing food and it has to be paid one way or another. By making food cheaper and cheaper by exploiting everyone and everything along the line we only push this cost to where it can't be seen, not eliminate it. And the costs are coming back and biting us in the behind, constantly, in all sorts of ways: environmental destruction, obesity and other diseases, orthorexia, nutritional deficiencies, etc etc. > I don't need sashimi-grade chicken if I'm going to be braising it for 2 hours. With respect, but you don't need to braise supermarket chicken for 2 hours, either. I did it just yesterday, and the supermarket chicken simply disintegrated (I cooked it in my French oven, at medium heat). I'm used to our backyard chicken that has to be cooked for 2 hours, minimal, otherwise it's inedible, and I haven't cooked a supermarket bird for a while. I was going for a casserole but I got ... mush. That's just awful. What they do to those poor birds is horrible and I can't believe it doesn't affect their nutritional value. We'd all be much better if food was more expensive but better quality and a decent day's job paid enough to feed your family anyway. But that can't happen because the whole economy must be shaped like a pyramid, with all the money percolating to the top and all the work at the bottom. Greed and inequality are at the core of how we are forced to eat and what we do to ourselves, the environment and animals, in the process.
  - netizen-936824 5y ago
    You're right, it does affect the nutritional value. The exercise that animals can get from roaming outside makes changes to things such as mitochondrial density of the muscle cells. Diet is also important. We need a wide variety of nutrients for our own cells to work optimally, some of those can be biosynthesized by our food sources if they are given better nutrients (that act as substrate to synth what we need) Just as one example: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21673178/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21673178/

Because the value of chicken lives is too great.

Because like it or not, organic free range chicken breasts are a luxury, and producing them take substantially more resources than conventional chicken. I see you're going for the corporate greed/income inequality angle, that's orthogonal to this issue. Those might be important issues to address, but even in an economy with zero inequality, I would want the ability to choose between low-end basic product and high-end luxury product. That's especially the case when the negatives of the low end product are unclear. I don't need sashimi-grade chicken if I'm going to be braising it for 2 hours.

netizen-936824 5y ago
In my opinion treating another living being with respect is not a luxury, it is a necessity Both workers and chicken
cheese_goddess 5y ago
> I see you're going for the corporate greed/income inequality angle, that's orthogonal to this issue. I disagree! We pay the people who make the food we eat a pittance, we optimise our food production for cheap food rather than wellfare of workers and animals, we cut corners all over the place, but in the end all we manage to do is to make cheap, low-quality food that people only eat because they can't afford anything better... and they can't afford anything better because we pay them a pittance to do work that everyone neeeds done in the first place, like producing the food we eat. There is a cost to producing food and it has to be paid one way or another. By making food cheaper and cheaper by exploiting everyone and everything along the line we only push this cost to where it can't be seen, not eliminate it. And the costs are coming back and biting us in the behind, constantly, in all sorts of ways: environmental destruction, obesity and other diseases, orthorexia, nutritional deficiencies, etc etc. > I don't need sashimi-grade chicken if I'm going to be braising it for 2 hours. With respect, but you don't need to braise supermarket chicken for 2 hours, either. I did it just yesterday, and the supermarket chicken simply disintegrated (I cooked it in my French oven, at medium heat). I'm used to our backyard chicken that has to be cooked for 2 hours, minimal, otherwise it's inedible, and I haven't cooked a supermarket bird for a while. I was going for a casserole but I got ... mush. That's just awful. What they do to those poor birds is horrible and I can't believe it doesn't affect their nutritional value. We'd all be much better if food was more expensive but better quality and a decent day's job paid enough to feed your family anyway. But that can't happen because the whole economy must be shaped like a pyramid, with all the money percolating to the top and all the work at the bottom. Greed and inequality are at the core of how we are forced to eat and what we do to ourselves, the environment and animals, in the process.
- netizen-936824 5y ago
  You're right, it does affect the nutritional value. The exercise that animals can get from roaming outside makes changes to things such as mitochondrial density of the muscle cells. Diet is also important. We need a wide variety of nutrients for our own cells to work optimally, some of those can be biosynthesized by our food sources if they are given better nutrients (that act as substrate to synth what we need) Just as one example: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21673178/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21673178/