Andre Ford is an Architecture Student that is proposing an idea that seems to come straight out of the Matrix, raising chickens to be used for meat in vertical racks after severing their frontal cortexes, rendering them brain dead. He claims that having chickens on top of each other in the vertical racks is far more efficient, and he’s probably right about that, but do you think this is going to go well with animal activists groups? Probably not.
The images in the bottom show you exactly what he wants to have on his futuristic farms. The chickens are suspended from their heads, they are no longer able to move, their bodies and their feet have been removed. The holding “cranes” have tubes that feed the chickens water and nutrients, then the other end of the crane has tubs that carry the “nutrients” out of their bodies. As far as their brain being able to feel any pain that’s out of the picture as well. The chickens are not tortured at all, the scientist completely remove all the unnecessary parts of the brain and leave only the parts needed to run basic functions like breathing, keeping a heart beating, and most importantly process nutrients. At this stage, the chicken is no longer an animal that can feel pain or even suffer… so does this make it ethical?
It all depends on how you look at it, it would be the equivalent of removing the brain from the chicken and keeping them alive to lay eggs. I feel like today’s standards in chicken production are not bad, this however pushes the boundary. Imagine keeping a brain dead woman alive and using her body to create babies?
Sure, having this kind of system is great if you want to reduce the amount of space needed to farm chickens, it’s also cheaper to maintain, it’s cleaner, and it’s better for the chickens since they can’t really feel. The advantages of this for the chicken are great, unlike the current factory farming where the chickens are packed up in cages with other chickens, at least in this set up the chicken is no longer aware of what’s going on around him.
Now, keep in mind this is an art project and is not something that is currently in place ANYWHERE not even in a lab, but the question needs to be asked, if you remove the ability to feel pain and emotion from an animal… is it more ethical than the current farming standards?
