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This is an odd argument. I'd bet the environmental impact of a battery farm chicken is less than a free-roaming chicken, in terms of hectares of land use, feed
by floodle 3y ago
This is an odd argument. I'd bet the environmental impact of a battery farm chicken is less than a free-roaming chicken, in terms of hectares of land use, feed (less energy expended from movement), water use.
So if you are vegetarian for environmental reasons and had to eat a chicken, you should go with the battery-farmed one.
You would go with the (arguably mythical) happy chicken if you were vegetarian for moral reasons.
- Gordonjcp 3y agoIt's actually ecologically and ethically better to have "barn" chickens, which live in massive steel sheds on trays with roosting boxes and perches about 50cm high, miles and miles of racking. They're free to move about at least in their "bay" and have the company of other hens that can wander about too. Sure, they don't get the marketing feelgood "sun on their backs and wind in their feathers", but they also don't get raptors, foxes, or rats. You can get rescue hens and they're just about savvy enough to figure out - after you've lost one or two - that predators are a thing, and you'll get an egg every couple of days per hen. They'll eat all the bugs in your garden (and most of the herbs, and the tops of your carrots) and shit everywhere.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- lm28469 3y agoIf your moral compass is a boolean switch I guess. > feed (less energy expended from movement) Less muscles, more disease, worse health, lifespan of 4 weeks, &c.
- cfn 3y agoArguing that the impact of free roaming chickens is higher than a battery farm tells me you haven't seen one or the other. Roaming chicken have a positive impact in the environment by spreading their manure over the land (where does this negative impact for anything that moves and eats comes from?) whereas chicken batteries stink for miles and produce a huge amount of sludge that contains heavy metals that is hard to process.
- ejb999 3y agoI agree - chickens roaming around your yard or small farm as free range, are a net positive for many reasons.
- jabradoodle 3y agoIt really isn't. They have ethical problems with factory farming. They eat a specific diet to reduce environmental impact. There is nothing contradictory in those statements.
- diffeomorphism 3y agoThat seems very contradictory. Their specific diet increases their environmental impact: the opposite of what they want.
- fnordlord 3y agoMy takeaway was that it would only increase the environmental impact if their actual diet stays the same, in other words they ate the same # of chickens but only from free-range, local farms. Given the same amount of money, I'm assuming they mean buy less chicken (but from non-factory sources) and spend the remainder on other foods with less environmental impact.
- jabradoodle 3y agoI don't think you read the OP comment. They said they are vegetarian.
- diffeomorphism 3y agoI don't think you read their second sentence.