🐔 Will Technology Help to End Animal Suffering?
At any given time, over 23 billion animals are being raised on farms worldwide. According to some estimates, an average of 2,300 chickens are slaughtered every second, only to be replaced by new ones.
However, the livestock industry is so optimized that new ethical technologies, such as lab-grown meat, are economically unfavorable, says Lewis Bollard, Farm Animal Welfare Program Officer at Open Philanthropy.
🐷 Efforts to increase efficiency often lead to new forms of suffering. When pigs were moved into confined spaces and selectively bred for rapid growth, they began biting each other's tails out of boredom—so their tails were docked. Then their teeth were filed down, and eventually, they were confined in conditions where they couldn't move. Livestock began dying from this lifestyle, and antibiotics were introduced as a "solution."
🍗 The industry is even discussing dystopian ideas, such as creating brainless animals to eliminate the very possibility of suffering. And it's not just an ethical issue—stress causes diseases and weight loss in animals. However, from an economic perspective, it's often cheaper to offset losses by scaling up production rather than adopting new technologies.
🐣 But there are some successful examples. In the past, up to 8 billion male chicks of egg-laying breeds were culled immediately after hatching because they were useless for egg production. Now, it's possible to determine the sex of the embryo in advance and simply discard unsuitable eggs at an early stage.
🥗 At present, Bollard doesn't see much potential for a large-scale shift to alternative proteins. That's why vegetarianism isn't just about personal diet choices, he says.
"Real change happens when we influence the system: through technology, reforms, and corporate pressure. Personal diets matter, but the key to ending mass suffering lies in changing the rules of the game for the entire industry," Bollard believes.
📱 You can watch the interview with Lewis Bollard here.