Posted on 02/25/2012 12:37:19 PM PST by DogByte6RER
Is farming brain-dead chickens more ethical?
Architecture Student André Ford is proposing raising chickens for meat in vertical racks after severing their frontal cortexes, rendering them effectively brain-dead. It would be much, much more efficient, there's no doubt about that, but would it be any more ethical than current factory farms?
The images of the conceptual chicken racks are fairly disturbing- the chickens are suspended, completely immobile, with their feet removed. Tubes feed water and nutrients directly into the them while other tubes carry away waste. The chickens themselves, though, aren't suffering at all, since their brains have been surgically cut in half, rendering them permanently unconscious. Basically, what you're looking at aren't animals anymore: they're just pieces of meat that are being grown for consumption.
A system like this would significantly reduce the amount of space needed to farm chickens, raising productivity while cutting costs. And arguably, it's better for the chickens, too, since being factory farmed is a miserably inhumane experience. In an ideal world, chickens would roam free in the wild, and there'd be no factories at all. But this isn't how it works, and while you're perfectly free to buy only super happy free range organic chickens, demand is such that factory farms aren't likely to disappear.
The fact that this concept is a lot like The Matrix isn't lost on the artist, but in this case, the chickens don't have it nearly as good:
"The similarities are patent, although in The Matrix the dominant species were kind enough to provide the sub-species with a alternate reality, which was far better than the their 'real' post-apocalyptic world. This was a lovely gesture by 'The Machines', but the chickens in this system will not be privy to such a luxurious appendage to an already elaborate system, especially in this age of austerity."
What the chickens would experience might not be a fantasy world filled with the chicken equivalent of the woman in the red dress, but it's possible that no reality is better than the reality of a factory farm. We should be clear that this is just an art project, and as far as we know no chickens were harmed in the making of it, but it definitely raises some questions about some of the ways in which we get our food.
So, what do you think? Are brain-dead chickens in racks a more ethical way to manufacture food, or not?
Funky indeed.
Looks like a wayback prototype for a T-Rex.
Looks like a wayback prototype for a T-Rex.
yes and i know where you can find him when e isn’t on vacatio
Will they put sweaters on them in the winter to keep them warm?
http://www.miketheheadlesschicken.org/
....I'm stayin' away from it!o-o
They could replace Congress.
I’m not disagreeing with this for the chickens.
But, knowing ethicists as a I do, the next step are humans that are created strictly for organ transplants.
If we are talking moon colony in a big tube one mile deep, then yes this sounds good, other than that I don’t think so.
I've been in a chicken farm, and the smell is overwhelming. Chickens spend their whole life breathing ammonia in poorly ventilated buildings, which is what makes them taste worse than free roaming chickens. Their only breath of fresh are on the truck to the processing factory. Can't imagine how bad the meat would taste with less ventilation.
I think that’s a bunch of bunk that would be corrected by an accurate view of history,
However, for sake of discussion, let’s stipulate it’s accurate.
What are suggesting, that we go back to the pre-confinment days for meat production?
You have to know that current agricultural methods have lowered real food prices by 30% during the last 40 years, and maybe as much as 40% or more since the 40’s.
Do you think people will stand for food prices nearly doubling, just so beaks etc aren’t clipped?
I, for one, would complain loudly.
That's what progressivism, socialism, communism, etc all ultimately boil down to - a tiny, self-appointed 'elite' factory raising armies of brain-dead voters. Funny, the ag ethics handwringers want free-range everything except free-range citizens.
I agree 1000%
Raising chickens that way looks both expensive, equipment-wise, and labor-intensive.
Fail.
It might work experimentally, but not on a farm.
This will make them taste like frog legs.
The chicken had to get laid before the egg could.
>The morons who propose things like this obviously know nothing about chickens. No chicken has a thought in its head worth considering. <
Have you ever been around a live chicken? They do have individual personalities and interact with humans far more than will a caged finch if they’re handled and socialized. If they don’t think, how come they’ll run to a human and beg for food. If they don’t think, why will they hop up on a human lap or shoulder? Why will they get excited when they see a human they know (and like)?
And no I’m not suggesting we stop eating them, even though they react a heck of a lot more strongly to humans than do finches or canaries.
“A: It depends ... will the brain-dead chickens taste better?”
LOL
The Chicken/Borg picture though is a bit un-settling.
poor thing.
For some reason i sometimes picture myself either being reincarnated as a clam or maybe one of those Borg Chickens.
It’s just my luck.
Joy.....
“...and as far as we know no chickens were harmed in the making of it”
So is that Borg chicken in the photo just an actor?
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