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You know what also sparea chicks, not eating eggs and chicken

impossible

Should grow the males for Capon meat

I kind of agree. I often wonder how many issues could be solved by just adjusting our culture instead of trying to science it away. There's nothing wrong with male chicken meat, we just aren't culturally used to eating it. We need to go back to eating the whole (as much as possible) animal.

It's more that chickens bred to lay eggs are different breeds from meat chickens and less efficient to raise for that purpose.

Pretty sure no one is buying fertilized eggs and chick legs at the grocery store.

Yeah I get that but...meat is meat. We should learn to eat 'imperfect' stuff again, be it animals not entirely 'perfect' to our tastebuds or wonky veggies.

It's not about whether it's "perfect", it's that it's more expensive for farmers to raise traditional mixed purpose chicken breeds - meat breeds grow faster and put on weight more efficiently (to the point that, uh, some of them often break their legs growing so fast and I hope those ones are banned). It's just more cost effective to kill male chicks from egg breeds than to raise and sell them.

I don't love the system but it's definitely about cost rather than taste.

I get that too. But that's easily fixed by legislation.

I thought KFC used the first cull.

It's also a good way to monopize chickens.

You wouldn't like it. Chickens bread for laying eggs are not good for eating. Even if they raised them long enough for pet food, it wouldn't be profitable or resource economical.

I thought the same thing when I first heard about this issue, so I looked into it a little bit. In the old days, chickens were chickens. Not so anymore. They have been bread for specific uses. Agriculture isn't for the faint of heart.

It would be a bad use of resources. We shouldn't legislate to force agriculture to waste resources and raise poor quality meat chickens to sell expensively to consumers. It would be bad for everyone.

Cue Q anon whackyness in 3...2...

Holy cow! Nightmare! Matrix reality?!

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No but one needs to breed chicken to get filet cgicken nugetts and eggs, which sometimes may be fertilized

Technically true.

Eggs and rotisserie chicken are so good though. Scientists need to hurry up and make a commercially viable vat grown substitute.

Not a big fan of egg so i cant agree there but rotisserie chicken, that mighty good. Still think it is possible to get that taste with a plant based approach

I've tried various plant meats and while the taste has usually been fine I've generally found the texture somewhat off-putting.

Though to be fair I haven't yet tried a plant based chicken breast.

At this point you get to a matter of opinion/ethics. I personally think decreasing cruelty/waste of life is worth the cost in resources. You may think otherwise.

If people go vegan, this stops being an issue. Until then, we shouldn't over-regulate the industry because it will only create new problems.

No, I am not vegan, but I understand fully where my food comes from. We can try to be less cruel, but the meat industry is harsh by its very nature.

Have a good night.

I'm not someone who subscribes to the idea of 'over regulation'. Capable ministers should be able to form regulations that function smoothly.

People aren't going to go 100% vegan for a very long time, I don't think problems caused by 'over-regulation' is a reason to not try to stop baby chicks being thrown into macerators. To me personally, stopping that is more important than any 'new problems.' The world isn't black and white, and I'm very much against perfect being the enemy of good ('...the meat industry is harsh..."). Yes it is harsh, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't work to make it less so.

A good night to you too.

If culinary history has taught me anything is that humans are exceptional at getting mediocre meat to taste good. Don't try to tell me that chicken meat, even if it's not from a meat chicken, wouldn't taste decent braised for a long time in a creamy paprika sauce.

They would taste okay, but they would be scrawny and not worth the resources put into raising them. Do you want to buy the big meaty chicken at market price, or the scrawny chicken at twice that price because someone wasted resources raising them? They are going to be side by side in the case at the supermarket, which will you buy? I'm buying the meaty chicken for less.

Do you see the issue now? Nobody is going to buy the expensive scrawny chicken at a higher price when they can buy a meaty chicken for less. We, as a society, have industries dedicated to breeding animals for specific uses. Meat chickens are for meat, and both genders are good for meat. Layers are for laying eggs and only the females are useful. Male layers will not be adequate for meat and will be a waste of feed, space, time, and money. It's a sad reality.

It's not 'a sad reality.' It's all man-made. Resources more expensive leading to a more expensive product? Subsidise it. Make it cheaper than meat chicken.

I saw the issue, as would anyone, to begin with, and quite frankly you're beginning to sound patronising.

The 'sad reality' right now is that the majority of people in power value profit over ethics/life. Replace them with people who value lessened cruelty over profit and this would be very easily solved. Why the people in power value money over not grinding up baby chickens is another issue entierly.

The people in power are only part of the equation. Consumers mostly don't care where their food comes from. They care that it is affordable.

My family owned a butcher shop. 50 years ago nearly everyone knew exactly how their food was raised and accepted it. Now most people do not know where their food comes from because they don't want to know. Greedy people in power are there by giving consumers what they want. The company that does it your way goes out of business. Nobody is going to buy the scrawny chickens at higher cost than the meaty ones. It ain't gonna happen.

Hence, why further up this thread I state that we need to change as a society.

Also, I already replied to the problem of higher cost.

I personally Like planted chicken, if you want to try it

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