Most poultry producers in the United States have been able to optimize their farms’ productivity by fattening up their chickens with conventional soy-based feeds. While this kind of feed is relatively inexpensive, it’s not great for the environment. There are some more eco-friendly alternative feeds, but they tend to be more expensive and there has been some question in the past over whether they affect the taste of the birds they’re fed to. But new research has found that chickens fed two specific eco-friendly alternatives taste just like… chicken! A new study, conducted by German scientists and published in the
Really depends on your definition of how much of green is green enough to be called green. Many people wouldn’t consider any sort of animal farming green.
There are probably with few extreme exceptions that are often quoted like bug farming in extremely impoverished countries but generally calling meat “green” is a really long stretch.
A strict definition of green is certainly not my personal ethos; my guidelines are local, slave-free, and at least doing more than 50% of what people consider green, so renewable energy or fair trade. A little more than 50% means that we can overlook some of the faults of green energy (wind farms killing wildlife, solar panels made of oil, etc.)
Animal farming being bad implies pets are bad (dogs and cats eat meat) and that is something I just don’t believe in, both pets and animal farming. My mom grew up on the farm and it’s really a personal connection to the food you eat and not overindulging on it. I eat meat rarely, but I’m not going to completely eliminate it from my diet. And, I’ve seen some people argue that local food is FAR more green than getting grains from other sides of the world.
Plus, if its a question of ethics about eating a living concious thing, plants I’d argue ARE concious beings too. Pretty anthropocentric to assume our human version of conciousness is the most important to assert worthiness of living. Now, I know that’s a weak argument (fruits are made to be eaten, but then again, roots of plants that we eat does kill the plant), but it is something that I’ve considered at length both in morality and in spirituality. I’m not gonna convince people to eat meat, but I also am not going to be convinced to not eat meat.
I appreciate your anecdotes but your mom having connection with farm animals has nothing to do with meta-discussion of what’s philosophically green and what isn’t. Also pets aren’t “green” no matter how you look at it and pets have nothing to do with industrial animal farming. What are you even on about.