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A farming friend of mine is setting up a huge chicken shed, should he feel guilty, or should consumers feel guilty buying the factory farmed meat?
He is not feeling guilty as he says the birds will get better treatment than old broiler sheds and similar factory farms around the world. He will be able to monitor every part of the shed by computer and make sure every chicken is healthy and has enough food.
He may also think chickens have very small brains and it does not matter if kept in very cramped conditions. Or, that he is providing people with what they want, cheap food.
Most consumers buying the chickens will also not feel guilty. 1 Because they have not seen how their meat has been produced and 2. Because they posses the secret weapon all marketeers love. For more on this watch this video. (she is a bit of a smart-arse but has a great closing comment)
Is this right? Are we wilfully ignorant, or do we place our trust in the shops we buy from, and government to provide rules to protect animals.
Or do we all really know what is really going on and feel a subconscious guilt when we know a cheap chicken, or pig, has had such a horrible life?
Socrates said that doing bad things damaged our soul. The shops we buy from are like my farming friend, and government is too busy to care. So to avoid the guilt, and feed our soul, we should switch from supermarkets to local shops and make sure we are buying meat that has not been tortured. Please use our local food map here.