EA Forum Podcast (All audio) “Chicken welfare reforms may be harmful accounting for effects on wild arthropods?” by Vasco Grilo🔸
May 11, 2025
32:51
Summary
- Broiler welfare and cage-free reforms change the amount of feed needed to produce a given quantity of chicken meat or eggs. So they affect feed production, and therefore result in land use change. The density and welfare conditions of wild animals vary by type of land, so chicken welfare reforms influence wild animal welfare.
- I estimate broiler welfare (cage-free) reforms increase or decrease the welfare of wild arthropods 47.7 (4.66) times as much as they increase the welfare of broilers (hens). Nonetheless, the effects on arthropods can be anything from negligible to much larger. I estimate uncertainty in arthropods’ welfare range alone means broiler welfare reforms increase or decrease their welfare 0 to 1.74 k times as much as they increase the welfare of broilers, and cage-free reforms increase or decrease their welfare 0 to 170 times as much as they increase the welfare of hens (5th to 95th [...]
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Outline:
(00:12) Summary
(03:31) Effects of cage-free reforms
(03:36) Overview
(04:07) Broiler welfare reforms
(09:52) Cage-free reforms
(14:34) Comparisons
(16:59) Discussion
(17:02) Effects on arthropods
(24:53) My recommendations
(32:23) Acknowledgements
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First published:
May 9th, 2025
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.