- 2 days ago
If You Eat Meat You Should Know This
Most of us love animals but also eat meat. Unfortunately, most animals we eat live in truly horrible conditions. We don’t torture them for better meat, just for cheaper meat. If we all paid just a bit more, we could avoid most animal suffering – often just for a few cents per meal. What would it truly cost us to avoid animal torture and still eat meat?
If you eat meat, there’s something you must know: the hidden cost behind your favorite meals isn’t just in dollars – it’s in animal suffering. Factory farming conditions are shockingly cruel, with billions of animals crammed into small cages, pumped with chemicals, and denied even basic comfort – all so that meat stays cheap. The sad truth is, animals are not being tortured for better taste, but simply for affordability. By spending just a few cents more per meal, we could dramatically reduce this cruelty and still enjoy meat ethically and responsibly.
This video dives deep into the true impact of industrial meat production, animal cruelty in factory farming, ethical meat consumption, and how small changes in our choices can lead to big changes for animal welfare. Whether you are a meat-eater, flexitarian, or just someone who cares about ethical food, this video will open your eyes. Learn what it really means to support cruelty-free meat, why paying a little more can make a big difference, and how conscious consumerism can create a more humane food system for everyone.
Audience Queries :
What happens to animals in factory farms?
Is cheap meat really worth the cost?
How can I eat meat more ethically?
What is cruelty-free meat?
Are animals tortured for cheap meat?
Can paying more reduce animal suffering?
What are humane farming practices?
Is grass-fed meat better for animals?
How to avoid factory-farmed meat?
What is the real cost of industrial meat?
Tags:
animal cruelty, factory farming, ethical meat, meat industry secrets, cruelty free meat, factory farm facts, how meat is made, animal suffering, industrial farming, ethical food choices,
Hashtags:
#AnimalCruelty #FactoryFarming #EthicalEating #CrueltyFreeMeat #MeatIndustry #AnimalWelfare #SustainableEating #ConsciousConsumer #FactoryFarmsExposed #EatWithCompassion
Most of us love animals but also eat meat. Unfortunately, most animals we eat live in truly horrible conditions. We don’t torture them for better meat, just for cheaper meat. If we all paid just a bit more, we could avoid most animal suffering – often just for a few cents per meal. What would it truly cost us to avoid animal torture and still eat meat?
If you eat meat, there’s something you must know: the hidden cost behind your favorite meals isn’t just in dollars – it’s in animal suffering. Factory farming conditions are shockingly cruel, with billions of animals crammed into small cages, pumped with chemicals, and denied even basic comfort – all so that meat stays cheap. The sad truth is, animals are not being tortured for better taste, but simply for affordability. By spending just a few cents more per meal, we could dramatically reduce this cruelty and still enjoy meat ethically and responsibly.
This video dives deep into the true impact of industrial meat production, animal cruelty in factory farming, ethical meat consumption, and how small changes in our choices can lead to big changes for animal welfare. Whether you are a meat-eater, flexitarian, or just someone who cares about ethical food, this video will open your eyes. Learn what it really means to support cruelty-free meat, why paying a little more can make a big difference, and how conscious consumerism can create a more humane food system for everyone.
Audience Queries :
What happens to animals in factory farms?
Is cheap meat really worth the cost?
How can I eat meat more ethically?
What is cruelty-free meat?
Are animals tortured for cheap meat?
Can paying more reduce animal suffering?
What are humane farming practices?
Is grass-fed meat better for animals?
How to avoid factory-farmed meat?
What is the real cost of industrial meat?
Tags:
animal cruelty, factory farming, ethical meat, meat industry secrets, cruelty free meat, factory farm facts, how meat is made, animal suffering, industrial farming, ethical food choices,
Hashtags:
#AnimalCruelty #FactoryFarming #EthicalEating #CrueltyFreeMeat #MeatIndustry #AnimalWelfare #SustainableEating #ConsciousConsumer #FactoryFarmsExposed #EatWithCompassion
Category
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LearningTranscript
00:01This is not an anti-meat video.
00:04We've all heard the arguments against meat,
00:07and yet in the EU and US only between 1 and 6% of people don't eat it.
00:12Meat is just too tasty, convenient and ingrained in our culture
00:16for most of us to consider giving it up.
00:18Also, food is personal and nobody likes to be morally lectured.
00:23At the same time, we love animals.
00:25Most of us have pets and believe in animal rights.
00:28Few things make the internet as angry as animal cruelty.
00:32Both are true.
00:33We love meat and we love animals.
00:36Unfortunately, most animals we eat live in truly horrible conditions.
00:40We don't torture them for fun,
00:42but because it makes meat just a little bit more, incredibly cheap.
00:46If we all paid just a tad more, we could avoid most animal suffering,
00:50often just for a few pennies per meal.
00:53Farming is complicated.
00:56Many farmers are genuinely trying to give their animals the best life possible,
01:00but they're trapped in a complex system with extreme market pressure to keep prices low.
01:05No two countries have the same standards, no two farms are equal,
01:09and solid data is often scarce.
01:11We've done our best to combine data from different regions and the prices you pay in the end.
01:17To keep things simple, we're going to classify farming practices into three broad groups.
01:22Decent, prisons, and torture camps.
01:26This is a bit sketchy, and you've probably seen many more categories in the supermarket,
01:30like organic or grass-fed.
01:32We'll come to that later.
01:34So, fellow omnivores, what would it cost us to avoid animal torture and still have our fried chicken?
01:42Chickens.
01:43At any given time, there are about 26 billion chickens alive on Earth,
01:49as many as all other birds combined.
01:51Chickens seem dumb, but they're social, can communicate, solve problems, and feel empathy.
01:57And yet, we keep the vast majority in insane torture.
02:03Let's start with eggs.
02:05Worldwide, about 90% of laying hens live in torture camps,
02:09crammed in extremely tight cages where they can barely move.
02:13They're unable to show any natural chicken behavior like nesting, roosting, foraging, or pecking at the ground,
02:19so they become extremely frustrated and end up hurting each other badly.
02:24To stop this, many farms clip their beaks.
02:27In the US and Europe, legal bans and consumer initiatives have improved the situation a lot in the last few years.
02:34But still, more than 50% of hens remain in cages.
02:38The insane thing is that this doesn't even save a lot of money.
02:41Let's say a dozen eggs cost you around 360 euros or dollars, 30 cents per egg.
02:47How much does it cost to free the hens?
02:50The main alternative to cages are barn systems.
02:53Hens are still kept indoors, but have twice as much space and roam freely.
02:58Barns are prisons.
02:59Still not amazing, but so much better.
03:01In the EU, barns increase the consumer price by about 2 cents per egg.
03:06The somewhat decent alternative is free-range, where hens are allowed outdoors, often with proper access to vegetation.
03:14In the EU, this increases the price by about 7 cents per egg.
03:19Housing aside, one of the cruelest practices is chick culling.
03:23Male chicks don't lay eggs, so they're killed right after birth, usually by gassing or grinding.
03:28This is a really widespread practice used for caged, barn and even organic eggs.
03:33Seven billion baby chickens are killed this way each year.
03:37France and Germany have banned this, so many breeding eggs here are scanned early and only female birds hatch,
03:43which may have increased costs by only 2 to 5 cents per egg.
03:48So if you pay 85 cents more for a dozen eggs, you can make a difference between serious chicken torture and pretty decent chicken lives.
03:56And for another 60 cents, you can help end chick culling too.
04:00Chicken meat is a different story.
04:03Most meat chickens today are genetic freaks, bred to reach amazing weights incredibly fast.
04:09Their internal organs are under a huge amount of stress, and they can't even walk properly because of their weight,
04:14which causes them a lot of pain for much of their lives.
04:17It's hard to give exact numbers here, but if farmers were to switch to breeds that grow slower and suffer far less,
04:23a serving of chicken breast that you buy at one and a half dollars would become 9 cents more expensive in the US.
04:3090% of meat chickens in the EU live in prisons or torture camps.
04:34They're kept indoors in extremely crowded conditions with sometimes dozens of birds per square meter,
04:40often in the dark and with poor ventilation.
04:43So what if we move them all to prisons?
04:45One EU study found that giving them 30% more space, perches, fresh air and daylight
04:51would increase the price by another 13 cents per serving.
04:55Probably less than 5% of meat chickens live free-range in relatively decent conditions.
05:00This meat is actually noticeably more expensive, double the price of regular chicken.
05:05But chicken is the cheapest meat, so depending on the cut, you'd pay 35 cents to 1 euro or dollar more
05:12for a serving of chicken that had a decent life.
05:16Pigs
05:17Pigs are basically dogs.
05:20They're as intelligent, social and playful as are wolf buddies and make lovable pets.
05:25So pigs really feel how they live and arguably have it the worst of all animals we eat.
05:31Probably more than 90% of all pigs live in torture camps.
05:35They spend their entire lives indoors in extremely crowded spaces on concrete floors without straw or bedding.
05:41Since this is far from what they need, they get frustrated and often fight.
05:46Piglets have their tails docked to stop tail biting.
05:49Most males are castrated after birth so that their meat will taste better, often without pain relief to save time.
05:55Mothers are kept in crates, extremely tight metal straight jackets where they can't move at all.
06:01This leads to extreme suffering for the mother and for the piglets, which are held in a barren area separated by metal bars and taken away at just three weeks old.
06:10Imagine treating dogs like that.
06:13First, let's get to the prison level.
06:16Getting rid of crates would raise the cost of a 2 euro serving of pork by about 20 cents.
06:21Anesthesia for castration costs almost nothing, around 1 cent per kilogram of meat.
06:27And a study in Denmark found that giving pigs more straw and bedding material and 30% more space and other things that are more animal friendly would increase the price per serving by another 20 cents.
06:38This is still an awful life for an animal this intelligent, but obviously much better.
06:43For 40 cents more per serving.
06:46Going one level further and giving pigs outdoor access for at least 40% of their lives and 300 to 400% more space indoors would increase the price per serving by another 80 cents.
06:58Just over 1% of pigs in the EU live in these or similar conditions.
07:03We can't know if this is really okay for such a smart and social animal, but it starts resembling something decent.
07:10And all for about 1.2 dollars or euros more per serving of pig.
07:15Cows.
07:17Cows raised for meat have it the best because they usually spend about 2 thirds of their lives outdoors, making their lives pretty good.
07:24If they were in the wild, it would be basically the same thing but less safe.
07:28Their lives are far from perfect though, especially the end.
07:32The vast majority of cows spend the last months of their short lives in finishing feedlots, either prisons or torture camps, where they are fattened to reach their slaughter weight as fast as possible.
07:43Probably less than 5% of beef cattle in the US have lifelong access to outdoor pasture.
07:50And yet, a recent German study found that it only increases the price of beef by around 15%.
07:56The life quality of cows varies widely even within countries and regions, depending on the available land, climate and farming traditions.
08:05So, it's really impossible to make more easy and cheap suggestions to make their lives better.
08:11Dairy cows do have it much worse.
08:14They are often kept indoors for most of the year and suffer pain, soul ulcers and lesions from standing on concrete.
08:21But once again, none of these things seem to be needed to have affordable milk.
08:25In Germany, outdoor pasture increases the price of the milk by about 10 cents per litre.
08:31We could go on with many other animals and farming practices, but the summary is clear.
08:36For the animals we eat the most, upgrading their living conditions from outright torture to somewhat decent may cost you about 15% more for beef and milk,
08:4650% for eggs and pork and 100% for chicken meat.
08:50The meat of the issue.
08:53Opinion part.
08:54Meat has gotten so cheap that we have to torture animals to keep the prices insanely low.
09:00This really is all there is to it.
09:02Food in developed countries is the cheapest it's been in history.
09:05In the US, the largest meat consumer in the world, an average person spends $337 a month on food.
09:12$88 on meat, eggs and dairy.
09:15If these became an average 50% more expensive, that would increase the monthly expenditure on food by about $43.
09:23This may sound like a lot, but relative to income, this only means paying as much for food as US consumers did in 1987.
09:30In Germany, the average person spends about €70 a month on meat, eggs and dairy.
09:36If we increased prices by 50% on average to make the lives of these animals better in a really meaningful way, this would rise by about €35 to about €100.
09:47If this still sounds too expensive, it may be because around 20% of all meat people buy is simply thrown away.
09:54Meat got so cheap that we often don't eat it before it goes bad. It's no longer valuable.
10:00Ok, so if you go shopping, what can you do?
10:05It can feel like you can't do anything as an individual consumer, but this is not true.
10:10The market follows demand.
10:12So if you don't want to buy torture meat, look at the labels on holding conditions.
10:17If there is none, it is torture meat for sure.
10:20If there is, well, it's complicated.
10:23It's often unclear what different labels mean, if they are strictly enforced or legally binding.
10:29Some are great, others whitewashing.
10:31And we haven't talked about the most expensive meat so far, organic meat.
10:36You've probably noticed that many price estimates we've given here don't quite match your experience in the supermarket.
10:42This is in part because some retailers consider ethical products luxury goods and charge an even higher price,
10:49and also because many labels like organic, natural, ecological, bio, or the worst of all, biodynamic,
10:56often contain a lot of extras or pseudoscience that have nothing to do with animal welfare.
11:01Many but not all of these labels include some of the best practices mentioned before, but not necessarily all.
11:08Organic brands often include, for a lack of a better word, stupid measures, like forbidding GMO feed.
11:14As we covered in another video, banning GMOs doesn't do anything good for you or the animals.
11:20It just makes your food more expensive and seem more natural,
11:24while you are consuming unnatural animal breeds living a deeply unnatural life.
11:29Unfortunately, the label situation in many countries is extremely confusing, often on purpose.
11:35All too often we don't know what we're really buying.
11:38So, grudgingly, if you can afford it and want at least a high chance of torture-free meat, go for the label.
11:45If you can afford it, buy organic.
11:47If you can afford it and have time, research local farms and get your meat from a place you've seen yourself.
11:54There's one exception too good not to mention.
11:58Mussels.
11:59They suck up carbon and filter water, making coastlines cleaner.
12:04Calling mussels dumb is giving them too much credit.
12:07With no central nervous system and probably no thoughts or pain, they're basically moss.
12:13Really, everyone should eat more mussels.
12:16Okay, let's wrap up.
12:18You don't need to be vegan to think the current situation is unacceptable.
12:22The conditions of most animals we eat are hard to stomach and could all be avoided if we paid as much for meat as our parents did.
12:30Things are slowly getting better, at least in the West.
12:33Consumers can push the industry in the right direction if we bite the bullet and pay more.
12:38If you can't afford this, maybe eat a bit less meat.
12:41Don't throw meat away.
12:43Maybe avoid the worst torture meat like pork, at least sometimes.
12:48And push for legislation that bans the most horrific practices.
12:52We can help make the lives of billions of animals dramatically better.
12:56It really is that simple.
12:58You can only advocate for better policies if you have enough reliable information.
13:09When the financial incentives are prioritized, facts can be manipulated or even omitted altogether.
13:15In 2024, many major fast food chains backtracked on serving chicken that's free from antibiotics and do use it on sick chickens now.
13:24But is this the full story?
13:26To get nuanced perspectives, we draw on ground news.
13:29We admire them, as a long-time sponsor, for their aim to provide a balanced account and leave the final conclusion up to you.
13:36This is what we're aiming for as well.
13:38Ground news lets you easily access nearly 100 additional articles published worldwide on these policy changes.
13:45Let's look closer.
13:46Scripps News cites flu outbreaks in farms across the US as causing limited supplies and higher prices.
13:52One source raises concerns that this move could increase the risk of spreading antibiotic resistance amongst humans.
13:58At the same time, the Associated Press reports that Tyson's senior director of animal welfare noted a plan to use antibiotics known as ionophores,
14:06which are claimed to have no effect on human health.
14:09You can easily see the different angles of each publication side by side and assess the situation for yourself.
14:15Plus, context like a credibility rating per publication and its source of funding.
14:20Go to ground.news.kin or scan the QR code to check it out.
14:24Our link saves you 40% off their unlimited subscription to worldwide coverage and a better way to stay informed.
14:31This comes down to just $5 a month, the best investment you can make for a tool we think is more important now than ever.
14:40This video was only possible thanks to a special group of people, our patrons.
14:45They are a vital part of the Kurzgesagt team, lifting us up, supporting us and giving us the freedom to continue sparking curiosity all around the world.
14:54We couldn't do it without them.
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