Page 108 - How to Be a Conscious Eater - Making Food Choices That Are Good for You

The global population of livestock consists of approxi-
mately 19.6 billion chickens, 1.9 billion sheep and goats, 1.4
billion cattle, and 980 million pigs. For these food-producing
animals, there’s much agreement among NGOs and advocacy
groups that agribusiness producers should be required to com-
ply with the following policies to ensure that at least most of
these freedoms are met most of the time:

Pregnant sows in hog-breeding operations should not
be kept in gestation crates, which confine them during
their pregnancy, preventing them from walking, turn-
ing, or interacting with other pigs.

Egg-laying hens should not be raised in battery cages,
which inhibit movement by restricting each chicken to
a space smaller than a single piece of printer paper—for
their entire lives!

Beyond being able to move around, animals should ide-
ally be given access to the outdoors, preferably pasture.

For animals that are restricted to the indoors or to feed-
lots (enclosed spaces where livestock get fattened up
before slaughter), housing should be as comfortable as
possible. This includes things like shade to protect them
from the sun, and fresh air in buildings along with ade-
quate lighting and clean bedding.
Chickens should be bred more slowly so they don’t
become so heavy that they can’t support their own
weight.

Animals should not be raised with the nontherapeu-
tic use of antibiotics that are medically important to
humans. Because the unhygienic conditions of confined

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