Thanks. I found the figures on the quantity of animals needed to supply each person v interesting (I’d never seen them expressed like that before). This helps my personal (only half thought-through) position, which is:
Current factory farming of poultry is bad (if they’re sentient), and maybe pigs, but well-farmed cattle and sheep seem to have a pretty fair deal. We get to eat them (and/or consume their milk/hide/wool), in return for them getting food, shelter, and veterinary treatment rather than suffering disease, predation, and starvation in the wild.
So if we can ensure (e.g. by future regulation) that all bred animals are similarly well treated, then it’s a fair deal for them. They get to live at a reasonable standard, better than in the wild, rather than not exist. And for now, those concerned about it can limit ourselves to eating well-farmed beef & lamb.
To which a response I’ve heard is, “Oh but we can’t possibly farm all the animals people would want to eat in such good conditions—there isn’t space (or it would be too expensive), particularly once people in developing countries eat Western levels of meat. So become vegan instead.”
Your figures suggest there would be space. (Or worst case, we could eat less; e.g. if high farming standards were regulated, then the supply would be somewhat restricted and people would have to pay more or eat less.)
Thanks. I found the figures on the quantity of animals needed to supply each person v interesting (I’d never seen them expressed like that before). This helps my personal (only half thought-through) position, which is:
Current factory farming of poultry is bad (if they’re sentient), and maybe pigs, but well-farmed cattle and sheep seem to have a pretty fair deal. We get to eat them (and/or consume their milk/hide/wool), in return for them getting food, shelter, and veterinary treatment rather than suffering disease, predation, and starvation in the wild.
So if we can ensure (e.g. by future regulation) that all bred animals are similarly well treated, then it’s a fair deal for them. They get to live at a reasonable standard, better than in the wild, rather than not exist. And for now, those concerned about it can limit ourselves to eating well-farmed beef & lamb.
To which a response I’ve heard is, “Oh but we can’t possibly farm all the animals people would want to eat in such good conditions—there isn’t space (or it would be too expensive), particularly once people in developing countries eat Western levels of meat. So become vegan instead.”
Your figures suggest there would be space. (Or worst case, we could eat less; e.g. if high farming standards were regulated, then the supply would be somewhat restricted and people would have to pay more or eat less.)
Except that animals are bred into existence and not rescued from “the wild”
I think people typically say “better than in the wild” based on a presumption that wild animals don’t (net) suffer.
(Which I don’t think is known either way)