Ants even raise livestock. Though it’s not industrialized. Though I sometimes wonder if given enough time, if ants will develop machines at some point.
I raise my own chickens, I eat their eggs and eventually their meat. They all have good lives, with plenty of space, food and fellow chickens. I think that’s as close to humane meat as I can get.
That doesn’t, however, reflect the meat industry at large. It is also not very scalable due to the higher land demand (and production already has high land demand)
We estimate that 99% of US farmed animals are living in factory farms at present. By species, we estimate that 70.4% of cows, 98.3% of pigs, 99.8% of turkeys, 98.2% of chickens raised for eggs, and over 99.9% of chickens raised for meat are living in factory farms. Based on the confinement and living conditions of farmed fish, we estimate that virtually all US fish farms are suitably described as factory farms, though there is limited data on fish farm conditions and no standardized definition.[1] Land animal figures use data from the USDA Census of Agriculture[2] and EPA definitions of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations.[3]
We estimate that over 90% of farmed animals globally are living in factory farms at present. This includes an estimated 74% of farmed land animals (vertebrates only) and virtually all farmed fish.[1] However, there is substantial uncertainty in these figures given the land animal estimates’ heavy reliance on information from Worldwatch Institute with unclear methodology[2] and limited data on fish farming.
It will not be super efficient unfortunately 😬 at least not by my reasoning based on my cell culture experience. Though I will say that surely it can be made better and I’m definitely hopeful for that.
