Today I came across a very disturbing story about animal abuse in the poultry industry. I have written in the past about a future leveraging technology to 'farm' animal proteins in a lab, thus avoiding ethical and ecological concerns, as well as to reduce the risk of cross contamination during the slaughter process.
This particular incident involved chickens (and yes, the sad potential of hum depravity also extends to abusing chickens). The animals in question are part of a large supply chain in Canada - and so this cannot be written off as fringe behaviour well outside mainstream process.
Indeed, given the rapid advancement of biotechnology, let's hope in the not to distant future, food production can be 'grown' via biotech processes in the lab, much like we grow vegetables. There would be significant cost, environmental and ethical savings if this were to be achieved. Farmers would still have an important role to play in maintaining the breeding stock of animals - who would provide the stem cells for the lab to grow our food. This could also preserve land and culture that has been used in traditional farming all across the world. The mass agri-industrial production of meat - would no longer be a source of global warming (number one cause), and we would also avoid the sad cases of brutality that seem to follow the mass industrial process of animal farming. It's no a stretch to see the entire system as inhumane...and so even more inhumane behaviour like the one cited below emerges.
Growth in technology not only solves our physical needs, but also may reduce negative influences in our moral and psychological condition.
Link to complete article below:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40264535