An AI-powered utopian vision of chicken farming sounds like a big improvement on the status quo, but can technology fix the inherent welfare issues of modern broiler breeds? These birds —selectively bred to grow >4x heavier in their first 56 days than they did in the 1950s — suffer mobility limitations, chronic pain, and cardiovascular problems as their bodies struggle to support their growth. Can we solving these welfare problems with tech, or does the vision neccessarily include switching to traditional breeds?
Right, the line "[a]utomated food and water dispensers could also deliver precisely optimized diets.." comes accross as ignorant of what an optimised diet looks like for a broiler chicken.
An AI-powered utopian vision of chicken farming sounds like a big improvement on the status quo, but can technology fix the inherent welfare issues of modern broiler breeds? These birds —selectively bred to grow >4x heavier in their first 56 days than they did in the 1950s — suffer mobility limitations, chronic pain, and cardiovascular problems as their bodies struggle to support their growth. Can we solving these welfare problems with tech, or does the vision neccessarily include switching to traditional breeds?
Right, the line "[a]utomated food and water dispensers could also deliver precisely optimized diets.." comes accross as ignorant of what an optimised diet looks like for a broiler chicken.
The vision I had for the most moral form of humane husbandry?
Imagine the cow, lamb or chicken
Living its best life
Grazing the land/environment
Chilling with its crew and tribe
Maybe mating, or living single life
Then one day its taken into a dark, peaceful shed
That's it
Lights off
Slaughtered with innocuous gas, or stun bolt
But this vision always had a human in the final step
Maybe we don't need to even be there?
Remove the last stressor from the environment
Great post again Rob!
Wow, amazing post as always rob! (btw sent you a message!)