
2M chickens to be killed in US processing plants due to lack of employees - oavioklein
https://www.wcvb.com/article/2-million-chickens-will-be-killed-in-us-processing-plants-because-of-lack-of-employees/32279804
======
sandworm101
I don't get it. If they had enough employees, then these processing plants
_wouldn 't_ kill 2M chickens?

I think these birds were doomed. A more accurate title might be "Processors
throw away 2M Pounds of chicken meat due to lack of employees."

~~~
mongol
I think the word prematurely is missing

~~~
Melting_Harps
> I think the word prematurely is missing

If its a the processing plant that's kind of true, even if they could run them
through the automated 'harvesting' system its probably really expensive to
store until an undisclosed time for it to be processed and then sent to
market. At a significant loss in Market price, I imagine. So its best to take
the subsidy/insured loss and restart again.

This is actually really fucking sad... I hope it encourages more people to
focus on the World's broken food supply and its immense waste and do something
about it. I hope we don't have to see the same thing that happened with toilet
paper, and paper towels happen with our food before people get the message
that we have to re-think our entire infrastructure.

> Americans eat 24M chickens per day. So 2M killed is only a fraction of the
> number eaten in a single day.

That's a horrible calculus, and quite frankly stereotypical of People so
detached from their food system: have you taken into consideration the
externalities of hatching, raising, and ultimately getting them to Market
size? It's actually incredibly costly. And they were probably factory farmed,
which makes it even worse given the cruel practices involved.

On a positive note: Spring is finally here, and I saw a bunch of people's
Community Garden's today.

~~~
mike_d
> focus on the World's broken food supply and its immense waste

That is an extremely hyperbolic statement.

According to the United Nations
[[https://tinyurl.com/y9esnjez](https://tinyurl.com/y9esnjez)] fruits,
vegetables, cereals, and roots account for 70% of all food waste. It is
unfortunate that due to a global pandemic they had to be put down, but
chickens are the most efficient form for preserving and delivering calories
from grains to the table.

Additionally, industrialized and developing nations waste food at the same
rate - just in different stages of the logistics chain. No system is perfectly
efficient, and while there are improvements to be made - it is pretty damn
amazing that the majority of 7 billion people have a meal a day.

~~~
skybrian
Well, that raises further questions. How could a chicken farm or chicken meat
in a freezer be more efficient forms of calorie storage than a grain silo or a
shipment of flour? Do you have a source?

~~~
sandworm101
Because frozen meat stays good literally forever. Flour eventually goes bad.
Grain can rot.

~~~
strgcmc
Your comment inspired me to do a little reading, since this is an interesting
idea (and maybe represents an opportunity in the supply chain... maybe what we
need is better/newer technology for long-term storage of grains/flour/etc.).

Apparently, flour can (should?) be frozen for long-term storage, and would
keep indefinitely: [https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/33890/is-it-
okay...](https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/33890/is-it-okay-to-keep-
flour-in-the-freezer) (unfortunately that link to University of Nebraska is
404 now).

Long-term grain storage concerns:
[https://www.agriculture.com/machinery/grain-handling-and-
equ...](https://www.agriculture.com/machinery/grain-handling-and-
equipment/grain-bins/8-tips-f-longterm-grain-stage_214-ar45622) ; as a non-
expert, this begs the question of why more climate control is not done, to
create indefinite/permanent storage (probably just not economical to do so,
but given disruptions like COVID-19, maybe this will change?).

~~~
bryanlarsen
> just not economical to do so

Yup. Grains are so incredibly cheap that's it's not worth preserving them.

My favorite stat to pull out at parties:

The price of a bushel of wheat (aka 60 pounds) has been approximately one
British pound since the mid 1300's.

It's currently worth about 4 British pounds, but that says more about how much
the British pound has declined against the USD than it says about the price of
wheat.

~~~
Melting_Harps
Interesting, but not at all accurate.

First: Its only 'cheap' because Wheat is an almost universally subsidized crop
in most of the World. Which means the farmers externalities are obscured in
what is actually a ubiquitous but environmentally challenging crop to grow in
terms of land use, and irrigation. Harvesting, too if you don't have access to
modern combines and want viable yields. Not to mention growing practices
themselves and if its a GMO crop its often sprayed into oblivion with all kind
of pesticides that cross contaminate and pollute water supplies and kill local
insects and soil bacteria, microbes, and unsettle the flora/fauna.

Second: The USD-GBP bushel parallel is also not correct as neither are what
they were meant to actually represent since becoming fiat: A pound sterling in
the case of GBP, and grains of silver (371.25) in the case of USD. The
measurements are off for the analogy that you're trying to make.

------
mrb
Americans eat 24M chickens per day. So 2M killed is only a fraction of the
number eaten in a single day.

However it's still deplorable that we can't find a way to not waste this
amount of food.

~~~
robbrown451
Americans go through 24M chickens a day, but a significant portion isn't
eaten. Think of all the food thrown away at restaurants because it sat too
long, food that goes bad in the fridge (oops! guilty), food that kids get
served but don't eat (as a parent, I see this a lot).

While it is disturbing to hear this, I'm sure this amount of chicken meat is
wasted on a daily, or at least close to it.

~~~
ObsoleteNerd
Roughly 40% of food created, is wasted:
[https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/wasted-2017-report....](https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/wasted-2017-report.pdf)

~~~
orbifold
Well the alternative would probably be empty food shelves like you had in
planned economies like the DDR and Soviet Union. Just in time food production
just doesn't work for things that have to start production ~2-6 months before
they are delivered and have a shelf life of ~1-2 weeks. Fresh bread delivered
to bakeries regularly sells out here and this is expected, same with Meat and
some vegetables. But there is no way to achieve empty vegetable and Meat
shelves without pissing people off.

~~~
ben_w
Part of the current waste is a desire for photogenic foods; minor blemishes
don’t sell as well as pristine items.

Another part (not counted in the statistics if I understand right), is
obesity. We over-consume to the point of illness.

Another part is deliberate over-production in good years so that we don’t go
hungry in bad years. This part ought to be considered as unavoidable.

Another part is the types of food. Meat is, in general, a wasteful indirection
between sunlight and us. Even ignoring any argument about vegetarian/vegan
diets, I accept that this isn’t _universally_ so, as some land (I don’t know
about fish vs. seaweed) is unsuitable for growing human crops. However, it
remains broadly true.

In principle, though perhaps not in practice, indoor farming (not just
artificial lighting, also greenhouses etc.) could supply a more consistent
yield. I can’t comment on the economics of that, not even a little. However,
as farming as a whole represents a very small, and still diminishing, fraction
of the west’s GDP, my _guess_ is that it could _become_ achievable even if it
is not _yet_ achievable.

~~~
Melting_Harps
> Part of the current waste is a desire for photogenic foods; minor blemishes
> don’t sell as well as pristine items.

Agreed, often to the detriment of your second point.

> Another part (not counted in the statistics if I understand right), is
> obesity. We over-consume to the point of illness.

Also agree, most cultivars are created not for taste, quality or nutrient
density/availability but for shelf life and transport robustness. Which when
looking at this from a biological metabolic satiation feedback system
standpoint, specifically those damaged from processed foods and, you get that
end result. Its actually really dark when you think about how poor the Human
physiology and psychology has responded to excess in the modern age, and we al
do it to ourselves to some degree.

> Another part is deliberate over-production in good years so that we don’t go
> hungry in bad years. This part ought to be considered as unavoidable.

Agree again, the key difference is if best practices are put into place: food
shelters, food banks can be well supplied for those in need and value added
products can be made to recapture perceived waste and sent to Market, what
isn't used from that is fed to livestock or composted and returned to the
soil.

> Another part is the types of food. Meat is, in general, a wasteful
> indirection between sunlight and us. Even ignoring any argument about
> vegetarian/vegan diets, I accept that this isn’t universally so, as some
> land (I don’t know about fish vs. seaweed) is unsuitable for growing human
> crops. However, it remains broadly true.

Partly agree, its way over-consumed in the North and South America in relation
to the rest of the World. I took it particularly hard when I realized how
accustomed I had become to it, especially after 15+ hours of exhausting farm
work. My body had come to depend on it for recovery, and mood enhancement.

However, I think/know it can be done correctly with proper field grazing and
rotation systems: part of my apprenticeship was tending to 45 dairy cows at
the base of the Swiss alps on less than 35 acres in Spring, while keeping
quality and yield of milk near or at same and within budget. Its hard,
actually really hard... but it can be done. Its about putting the right
incentives in place, that milk was bought for 2,5 CHF a liter from a a well-
renown local Cheese artisan. When they go up the Alps in the summer-fall its
closer to 5 CHF as its much higher quality and more desired by cheese makers,
but are smaller yields with higher transport costs.

> In principle, though perhaps not in practice, indoor farming (not just
> artificial lighting, also greenhouses etc.) could supply a more consistent
> yield. I can’t comment on the economics of that, not even a little. However,
> as farming as a whole represents a very small, and still diminishing,
> fraction of the west’s GDP, my guess is that it could become achievable even
> if it is not yet achievable.

I think your post underscores how easy people can get lost in the superficial
view derived from focusing on just statistics and averages, can you quantify
that statistical analysis in GDP without seeing the loss in all economic
activity if food shelves are empty? Agriculture/Food is actually the World
biggest Industry [1] its just impossible to properly quantify.

Also, Modern Greenhouses can be very efficient at creating profits when
correctly modeled: I worked in Germany on a farm that had 2 half hectare glass
houses with temperature/humidity controlled sensors, self watering and auto-
lifting panels. I've only ever seen this for large scale, well funded MJ
operations in the US. But, the yield was amazing for things like nightshades
in one, and quick growing greens in the other.

The fact that we could charge 5 euros for a healthy Eggplant, 3,5 euros for a
head of salad, and 4 euros/Kg for tomatoes because of Biodynamic prices (with
more demand than supply) made this a lucrative operation.

The few days I did at the Farmer's Market for that Farm were eye opening to
say the least; the main issues with this model I saw were infrastructure costs
and labour as they require a long pay-back period but when it does it pays
well if you're a multi-generational farming family as they were.

I wrote a proposal in my, later stolen, journal and notebook about how if Ag
subsidies shifted from crop insurance to solely infrastructure/equipment based
models how the food supply would change. I didn't get far, as I couldn't apply
any analysis or experimentation to it but you just reminded me of that idea I
had.

~~~
ben_w
Thanks for the information :)

Slight misunderstanding, my apologies for being unclear.

I was trying to suggest greenhouses for staple crops like rice or wheat, so
that the overproduction margin for famine years could be significantly reduced
rather than totally eliminated.

I didn’t make that at all clear, sorry.

Do any greenhouses grow meaningful quantities of staple crops? This is far
outside my area.

~~~
Melting_Harps
> Do any greenhouses grow meaningful quantities of staple crops? This is far
> outside my area.

None that I know of as its unlikely to be a good idea outside of a breeding
program because of the opportunity costs; I imagine staples like
wheat/rice/potatoes confined to such limited scale/size would not be able to
recover the costs if profit from yield is the only source for ROI in its
current model.

> I was trying to suggest greenhouses for staple crops like rice or wheat, so
> that the overproduction margin for famine years could be significantly
> reduced rather than totally eliminated.

Perishability is an inherit and unavoidable factor, and famines are not
uniform throughout the Earth which is why I think optimizing the Global Food
Supply Chain, rather than entirely abandoning it is the goal; the Citrus
Industry in Florida nearly collapsed a few years ago due to a psyllid issue
that destroyed nearly 1/2 of Florida's orange groves [1], only to find out in
PR (after failed studies in China and Mexico) where topology differences
revealed that its preferable to grow citrus at higher elevation to avoid the
disease they were seeing below that--after a certain elevation, reported at
600M, the groves weren't as susceptible to infestation from the psyllid.

Having data, metrics and analytics in place accessible in Real Time in a
readily available and comprehensible system for producers to work with is
critical moving forward in the 21st Century; adapting an Ag model to suit this
is no longer a luxury but has become a necessity if we have any chance of
surviving on this planet as Climate Change, and nearly unpredictable weather
patterns/disasters are becoming ever more prevalent and even more severe.

Again, the opportunity costs in not addressing this problem is so unbelievably
immense to anyone who takes the time to just look; we can see the 2 million
chicken culling and its subsequent waste and be outraged--and it would be
justifiable--but more importantly I hope it serves as indication of what is
seen as common practices and serves as a catalyst for change as this cannot go
on any longer without severe widely felt repercussions.

1: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-
science/wp/2...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-
science/wp/2015/01/20/one-way-to-beat-a-bug-thats-destroying-floridas-citrus-
get-them-high/)

------
naruvimama
It is our collective karma, to outsource cruelty to industrial animal farming.

Even though I have become mostly vegetarian, it is quite tempting to buy meat
for the convenience and the fact that sometimes it is much cheaper than fresh
vegetables (at least in the west).

Human progress and social evolution has somehow come with greater compassion
for fellow beings. Will our coming generations value compassion in itself and
will that affect the way we eat/farm.

Will an advanced alien visitor be shocked by our animal farming or will will
they hunt us down for meat. I guess we should expect either based on our own
behaviour.

~~~
sfj
I find the assumptions embedded in this argument very strange. It brings up a
huge number of questions.

Only a conscious being would feel pain, so what is consciousness? Does it come
down and embed itself into creatures that are born? If so, if they weren't
born, would that be necessarily better? What if consciousness, if it didn't
have a body to enter into, appeared in a different universe from ours with its
own, possibly worse, sufferings? Wouldn't it be better to give the animal a
full, relatively pain free life than the possibility that it would suffer
greater in some other universe in some other dimension?

Or does consciousness originate on the spot, somehow born along with the
creature? In that case it would be better to not be born at all? Or would it
be better to have more consciousness in the universe, despite the suffering an
individual might experience, rather than otherwise? Is consciousness a good in
itself? Would a universe devoid of all conscious beings be the perfect good,
lonely, desolate, without meaning. Or one full of them, with shared misery to
go around?

All in all, it's seems quite a murky topic to be throwing around judgement on
people about.

~~~
dr_dshiv
Well, it's murky, but some easy thought experiments might bring clarity: *
Should we raise humans on factory farms, in order to increase the amount of
conscious experience? * if so, and assuming that humans pay more attention to
aversive stimuli than positive/neutral stimuli, should we deliberately torture
them?

Both propositions are obviously horrible. But why? The answer is similar to
why the death of worms < chickens < pet dogs < people < great people.

Consciousness is a matter of connected/integrated complexity; as a result,
millions of worms do not eventually produce the depth and richness of human
consciousness. Secondly, consciousness is dependent upon other conscious
beings; our consciousness isn't really our own, it is part of a shared web.
So, consciousness that does not participate in that shared web is less
conscious, in a real sense, than consciousness that does.

For both these reasons, if we value consciousness, the only real benefits of
factory farmed chickens would come from how they help contribute to the
overall conscious ecosystem. Perhaps they let us build more integrated
complexity, in which case, thanks.

~~~
sfj
> Well, it's murky, but some easy thought experiments might bring clarity: *
> Should we raise humans on factory farms, in order to increase the amount of
> conscious experience? * if so, and assuming that humans pay more attention
> to aversive stimuli than positive/neutral stimuli, should we deliberately
> torture them?

> Both propositions are obviously horrible. But why? The answer is similar to
> why the death of worms < chickens < pet dogs < people < great people.

>Consciousness is a matter of connected/integrated complexity

Can you prove this supposition, though? Would that make the internet
conscious, for example? I would think not.

I think the propositions you mentioned seem horrible because of an offshoot of
our instinct to form tribes to survive better. It feels bad to torture people
and other beings that help us survive, because that's integral to our
survival. A lone human being has a much rougher time than a group does, and a
group that trusts each other would survive better than where everyone is at
each other's throats.

My theory is that human beings need a religion to feel sane. If there isn't an
organized one that they accept, they create one of their own. This is why
these sort of "common sense" laws of morality (better to not raise animals in
a factory) come into being. People need to believe in a higher set of laws
than what man can provide, even if there isn't any real justification for them
one way or the other.

~~~
dr_dshiv
> Would that make the internet conscious, for example? I would think not.

The internet is governed by consciousness and consciousness emerges from it,
in the same way as our neurons or brain parts are not conscious per se but are
structured by consciousness and provide the mechanism for it.

------
zhte415
I'd say set them free.

But given the breeding of commercial chickens they'd simply not survive in the
wild - not stop growing and after just days be unable to move, and easy prey.

If you're fortunate enough to have land, use it, even a balcony or window sill
can be put to good use. There are plenty of guides on YouTube, and for a
window sill no need to spend money on herbs again. For food or for leisure (or
both) - if you like flowers grow some flowers!

And don't throw away potato skins, carrot tops, strings of beans, etc. Compost
them, it really enriches the soil.

~~~
enneff
Releasing them would be dooming them to a horrible death. They'd end up ripped
apart by wild animals or otherwise injured and live in pain until they die.

~~~
koheripbal
> They'd end up ripped apart by wild animals

...so exactly like the fate of literally every other wild animal on Earth.

~~~
enneff
Not really. Wild animals mostly live in the environment they are adapted to.
Most birds survive just fine out in the world. Chickens are not adapted to
anything, but rather selected by us, and they certainly weren’t selected for
toughness.

------
irjustin
Sadly this trend will continue. There will be a lot of wastage because our
society and systems were built on higher levels of consumption, for better or
for worse.

There's momentum built in a system of scale and we're seeing what happens when
the end consuming falls off the charts.

Once society starts back up, we'll see the opposite where we'll be angry there
are shortages of things we expect even though we're "back online".

------
msie
Just today I saw the news about famine in West Africa. Sigh...

~~~
cmauniada
We live in a bubble, I feel so out of touch with how people live in many of
the other places in the world. Last October I visited Pakistan and what I saw
there really made me think about the scale of globally inequality that’s just
allowed to “exist”. Not just in food, but so many other places in our lives we
take for granted.

~~~
newyankee
Pakistan is a lot of human created issues though. They have the most fertile
land in the subcontinent along the indus river. However they have had
absolutely no population control measures unlike India and Bangladesh which
are almost at replacement level fertility. Throw in a backward society,
mismanagement, lack of democracy and you get this.

My point simply is that the hunger is not merely because of shortage of food.

~~~
notechback
There is no winning with population control measures. Hans Rosling did a great
job to spell out the arguments and evidence in his book "Factfulness" which
made the charts in most countries. Really recommended reading and incredible
enlightening.

To give a very short version of his conclusions: the only factor reducing
births is reduced child mortality. Better healthcare and generally better
economic prospects and birth rates drop on their own - no need for central
planning or interventions. The book lays the evidence out extremely well and
if you're a person that likes to have his/her worldview challenged I warmly
recommend it!

------
superpermutat0r
I think chickens are ground up with their feathers and ugly bits by falling
from a treadmill.

I guess one can't sell that as food but I'm pretty sure they can do something
with it.

Although, it's fine by me, meat is in its nature pretty wasteful, in addition
to those 2M chickens there's probably more tons of soy protein wasted on
chicken feed.

Good thing that protein rich legumes do not need much processing.

~~~
triyambakam
My family and I are on day number 1153 of eating beans every day (and no
animal products)

~~~
d0100
I've had vegetarian rice and beans many times, forced to by lack of money for
protein. It's just a bland mixture of sadness and despair

~~~
triceratops
> It's just a bland mixture of sadness and despair reply

That might have been from the lack of money, not the food itself. If you're
eating them by choice and making the right dishes, beans are fucking
delicious.

I understand that you associate beans with poverty, but when your
circumstances are better (or now that they're already better, I don't know
which) try them again, this time with some good recipes. And not the canned
shit - gotta buy 'em dried, soak 'em, cook 'em in a slow cooker, instant pot,
or pressure cooker.

~~~
d0100
I do eat beans all the time, its a staple food here. G

I just make them with meat, pork, sausage and the whole party

------
palae
Taking a critical look at one's own meat consumption can be enlightening,
because it is something that we often take for granted. Do I eat meat because
it is necessary for my health? If not, what are the reasons? How is the meat
that I'm eating produced? How long do these animals live compared to their
natural life span? What is the environmental cost of animal farming? Etc.,
Etc.

I did not find convincing answers to these questions, so I stopped buying and
eating meat.

~~~
koheripbal
I eat hamburgers because they are delicious.

I assume that the ethical, ecological, and societal impacts of that decision
is somehow internalize in the price.

I know I am wrong - but I hope that becomes true one day.

~~~
notechback
So you are aware that you are deluding yourself but don't take steps about it?
:-)

------
kwhitefoot
All I got from that was:

Sorry, this content is not available in your region.

------
ryndbfsrw
Squint really hard with me... From an environmental point of view I think its
encouraging there is so much headway we can collectively make by reducing
waste than hoping new tech and infrastructure will allow the same level of
consumption

[https://www.nrdc.org/resources/wasted-how-america-
losing-40-...](https://www.nrdc.org/resources/wasted-how-america-
losing-40-percent-its-food-farm-fork-landfill)

------
peschu
hmm anyone else get this:

"Sorry, this content is not available in your region."

~~~
RubenvanE
I got the same 403 message.

Luckily outline.com was able to fetch the article:
[https://outline.com/yecexc](https://outline.com/yecexc)

------
koolhead17
How much of deforestation their food would have resulted in?

~~~
koheripbal
None. Chicks eat very little and grain is already plentiful in the US.

------
hkai
While people in developing countries will be suffering shortly because of lack
of protein and malnutrition, I'm sure many in the West will celebrate this as
a great step towards veganism.

~~~
notechback
I doubt any vegans will celebrate unnecessary slaughter of 2M chickens.

And animal protein consumes a lot of plant protein to make. If you want to
feed people it's much more efficient to send over the soj and grain the
chickens are fed, rather than the chicken meat.

------
ra
Can we not just put them in a field for a while?

------
mesozoic
Word on the street is they would be able to kill them properly if the
employees were there.

------
dvsfish
the true victims of covid-19....

------
mawuenash
I am disappointed, Does anybody can act to not waste all this food in this
time?

~~~
Melting_Harps
> I am disappointed, Does anybody can act to not waste all this food in this
> time?

Yes: you! That's what it takes, if I'm honest.

But if you're asking about startups, yes there is on based out of Texas and
Colorado called Food Maven:

[https://foodmaven.com/](https://foodmaven.com/)

Check out Roy Choi's PBS series Breaking bread, its all good, there they
highlight how other places have tackled this issue in regards to environmental
impact, local economic commerce, and food insecurity. It's really a rad
series, and makes me glad Roy has gotten the success that he has!

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrV8WrqnyrM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrV8WrqnyrM)

------
pcdoodle
We need to lift this shelter in place order and hold these assholes
accountable.

------
sytelus
I don't remember who but someone (Naval?) had this quote that generations 100
years from now will think of us as utterly barbaric for eating animals. When I
look around how we treat animals as if they were just sacs of meat, its
amazingly heart wrenching. In Alaska I saw a casual 4th of July competitions
where you throw dead fish and other person catches it. Sometime fish fall
apart and all its guts spread out during these games while audience literally
laugh at that scene. I wonder how people get so heartlessly cruel that not
only they are killing animals for entertainment but also enjoy when their
bodies fall apart? What is their internal justification system? A devout
Christian explained to me that its their God given right to be superior to
animals and God has instructed them to consume these animals. In a Chinese
restaurant I had hard time explaining someone that fish is not really a plant.
It seems minds can be programmed to shield away from any cruelty. Perhaps
that's how people working in Nazi camps justified cruelty towards Jews: they
aren't really living beings like rest of us, they are something else quite
lower so no need to take all these to heart.

~~~
dmitriid
I hate to break it to you, but in general our treatment of animals is way
better than a 100 years ago. Animal shelters? Animal cruelty laws? Etc.

That fish throwing contest? Oh, it's almost definitely older than 100 years
(as are dog fights, dolphin slaughter, goose pulling, cock throwing and other
wonderful traditions from around the world).

~~~
317070
That is one side of the scale. The other side of the scale has the meat
industry in it (which is absolutely not like 100 years ago). As someone who
used to work in a slaughter house, I am not convinced that today is better. I
can see our children looking back in a few generations and think of us as
barbaric. I thought of it as barbaric and surreal when working there.

~~~
dmitriid
The scale? Yeah, the scale is much bigger. Conditions for animals? Not much
different than 100 years ago [1]. And I'd argue they are better in many cases
(and in many countries).

[1] [https://io9.gizmodo.com/utterly-disturbing-century-old-
photo...](https://io9.gizmodo.com/utterly-disturbing-century-old-photos-of-
meat-packing-1579470458)

~~~
LaEc
Those open-air stockyards in Chicago look like crap, and even then still miles
better than what pigs go through today. At least they saw the sky for more
than the few minutes just before their deaths.

------
Scapeghost
This is just wrong.

Anyone who justifies in any way this is evil.

With practices like this, and other less murderous but still extremely
wasteful shit like airlines burning thousands of gallons of fuel to keep their
"slots"
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22511488](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22511488)),
I for one won't even mind if something decimates our so-called civilization.

~~~
codeulike
[https://www.quora.com/How-many-chickens-are-killed-
everyday](https://www.quora.com/How-many-chickens-are-killed-everyday)

 _The U.S. consumes 9 billion chickens per year, so that’s 24 million chickens
killed per day for food._

So this article (about the 2m chickens) is about 9% of one days worth of
chicken death in the usa, just for reference.

(I agree with your point, industrialised meat production is nighmarish)

