• Ephera@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    37
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 months ago

    The longest was probably the vegetarian → vegan pipeline.
    My position was that ‘employment’ of animals was humanely possible, if you genuinely treated them like you’d want to be treated.

    It was until I read how cows need to basically be kept continuously pregnant, that I realized there was just no way.
    I believe, you could have a bite of cheese every year or so, if we don’t do forceful impregnation, but at that point, why even bother?

    • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      19
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      2 months ago

      I mean maybe eggs, if allowed to roam and given their shells back. But modern chickens are just absolutely genetically ravaged by centuries of breeding for absurd egg output and massive growth.

      Before domestication they’d lay about a dozen a year. Now they lay once a day or so.

      • Lumisal@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        15
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        2 months ago

        Chickens always gave a lot of eggs. That’s why they were popular since ancient times. As long as they had surplus food, they start laying eggs. A dozen a year is just misinformation - that’s only in the wild, during spring because that’s when they have a surplus a food. If humans feed them every day, then they lay eggs because they always have extra food.

        We raised free roaming wild chickens. The hens had a high up coop we’d close to keep safe from predators that they’d return to on their own at night.

        • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          A dozen a year is just misinformation - that’s only in the wild,

          That’s likely true, but I also have serious doubts that a chicken completely untouched by human breeding would output like the breeds bred to lay even if given unlimited food. I also doubt their bodies are made for such production.

          • Lumisal@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            11
            ·
            2 months ago

            They still lay about 24 eggs a month, sometimes more sometimes less depending on the temperature and if there’s a rooster around. Again, we had the wild breed of chicken (Gallus gallus). We also had guinea fowl and ducks.

            It’s an animal that can reproduce a lot. Don’t know why people find that hard to believe but don’t bat an eye at the reproduction rates of rabbits.

    • Schmoo@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      2 months ago

      The US government stores over a billion pounds of cheese in enormous caves. I think we can probably get away with reducing production quite a bit.