the nitrogen pollution from these chicken farms creates nitrogen blankets in the low atmosphere and pollutes water. All told they are more dangerous to human health than the nutrients they provide---and then we eat other animals and plants similarly overly-nitrogenated.
Given how profitable it seems to have been, it’s hard to believe that this wouldn’t have happened sooner or later anyway. But yeah accelerating it is still a pretty massive harm!
One unfortunate typo indeed. Though I suspect that "ingenuity" and serendipity being what they are, this evil would have had its way with us. One way or another.
My main concern with animal agriculture is the (net) suffering involved. If the animals' lives were overall OK, I don't see residual objections to the "slaughter and eat" part as carrying much weight (neither is intrinsically bad). For related discussion, see:
the nitrogen pollution from these chicken farms creates nitrogen blankets in the low atmosphere and pollutes water. All told they are more dangerous to human health than the nutrients they provide---and then we eat other animals and plants similarly overly-nitrogenated.
see https://www.usgs.gov/news/report-finds-poultry-farming-sends-more-pollution-chesapeake-bay-previously-thought
Given how profitable it seems to have been, it’s hard to believe that this wouldn’t have happened sooner or later anyway. But yeah accelerating it is still a pretty massive harm!
One unfortunate typo indeed. Though I suspect that "ingenuity" and serendipity being what they are, this evil would have had its way with us. One way or another.
Is the implication that it would have been morally acceptable to slaughter and eat chickens if they weren't crowded together and kept in the dark?
My main concern with animal agriculture is the (net) suffering involved. If the animals' lives were overall OK, I don't see residual objections to the "slaughter and eat" part as carrying much weight (neither is intrinsically bad). For related discussion, see:
https://www.goodthoughts.blog/p/accepting-merely-comparative-harms#%C2%A7creating-short-lived-lives