An on-site slaughter house as a standard just doesn't make sense vs having an off-site slaughter house that multiple farms use. Sure it might work for some of the biggest farms but regulations have generally been in the direction of decreasing the number of chickens allowed in one factory farm barn. If the transport times are low and the chickens are unloaded directly into a nitrogen gas chamber as is often done today (CO2 is presumably more common), i don't see what the problem is. The problem for me with factory farms is primarily the condition of the chickens in the ff. Long travel times & CO2 stunning should be addressed but the 4-6 week lifespan of a broiler chicken is fairly gruesome and in more need of addressing.
I would have thought that in a transformative AI scenario, cultivated meat becomes way easier and so I would have thought that would be the primary path to utopic chicken production. Why the focus on animal farming? Is it because you’re thinking about very large but not transformative levels of economic growth from AI? Is it because you think a world where we breed a bunch of animals that perhaps lead positive lives is better than cultivated meat? Or is it because animal farming is your wheelhouse? Or something else?
1) It's not clear that people will want to eat cultivated meat
2) Humane farming is morally superior under many population ethics, and perhaps under commonsense ethics as well
Also, I'm fairly confident that the vision I'm describing here is technologically much more feasible than cultivated meat, although in transformative AI scenarios I'm not sure what role that fact would play.
Thanks for the post, Robert! I guess investing resources from fast economic growth into increasing the welfare during rearing would be more cost-effective than into eliminating transport.
The insight around the current gold standard in humane slaughter was a great call-out.
Especially as sourcing ethically is at the heart of the natural protein snack I'm trying to develop, using animal-based sources.
Thanks for this optimistic view on farming - it can definitely feel bleak at times
An on-site slaughter house as a standard just doesn't make sense vs having an off-site slaughter house that multiple farms use. Sure it might work for some of the biggest farms but regulations have generally been in the direction of decreasing the number of chickens allowed in one factory farm barn. If the transport times are low and the chickens are unloaded directly into a nitrogen gas chamber as is often done today (CO2 is presumably more common), i don't see what the problem is. The problem for me with factory farms is primarily the condition of the chickens in the ff. Long travel times & CO2 stunning should be addressed but the 4-6 week lifespan of a broiler chicken is fairly gruesome and in more need of addressing.
I would have thought that in a transformative AI scenario, cultivated meat becomes way easier and so I would have thought that would be the primary path to utopic chicken production. Why the focus on animal farming? Is it because you’re thinking about very large but not transformative levels of economic growth from AI? Is it because you think a world where we breed a bunch of animals that perhaps lead positive lives is better than cultivated meat? Or is it because animal farming is your wheelhouse? Or something else?
1) It's not clear that people will want to eat cultivated meat
2) Humane farming is morally superior under many population ethics, and perhaps under commonsense ethics as well
Also, I'm fairly confident that the vision I'm describing here is technologically much more feasible than cultivated meat, although in transformative AI scenarios I'm not sure what role that fact would play.
Thanks for clarifying!
Has anyone come across a table like this but for stages of life cycle? https://ourworldindata.org/cdn-cgi/imagedelivery/qLq-8BTgXU8yG0N6HnOy8g/e7b59d7e-a7fd-4b22-dd37-ba88c771d700/w=802
Id be curious to see how significant transportation is a proportion of lifetime suffering (I’d assumed it’d be well below 10%)
I like the chickens walking up the walls in the AI p
Thanks for the post, Robert! I guess investing resources from fast economic growth into increasing the welfare during rearing would be more cost-effective than into eliminating transport.