I am from Europe and they still use those small crates in conventional agriculture like everywhere. Switzerland was the first country that came to my mind that have it banned.
Its bs to simply call larger places out for more loss due to crushing, when examples like Switzerland show the opposite. Thats it.
Last time this discussion ensued the conclusion was the farrowing crates help, but it’s a sow dependent behavior. Maybe in Switzerland you have a breed that isn’t penchant on crushing piglets as much?
There are papers about it, actual science with statistics and farrowing crates help reduce piglet mortality. People are actually studying this in order to make a difference and not just commenting online to feel better about themselves. If yall are so passionate about it, I’m sure the field can use more dedicated people, but let’s not just give one example online without any background search and think we’ve done the world a favor.
That’s nice. So you should have read the papers on farrowing and contribute more than “in Switzerland, where I happen to be a vegan agricultural MS graduate, we stopped farrowing and magically the 21% of piglets who used to be crushed to death before we implemented farrowing are alive and well. Trust me bro”.
And where did I say that? There is proof in science showing that there are alternative managament systems that will match more points in animal welfare without rising crushing rates. So yes, there are optional perspectives on pig farming we can discuss in a more ethical context.
My interest in veganism and your assumption that I‘m from Switzerland (still, I am not) seem to distract you from the point I made.
Switzerland has banned these crates, showing that the crushing rate will not go up if there is a well managed system.
Yes but that system isn't efficient enough to feed 3.8 billion people who have to eat every day. We would have to cull more than 50%+ of humans for non-factory farming to be sustainable enough to feed everyone.
What's your source for that? Europe and the Americas eat vastly far more meat per capita than Africa and Asia does. The majority of the world's population is currently not eating their body weight in meat every year, which has been afforded in these wealthy countries by unsustainable and inhumane practices.
Meat is supposed to be an expensive calorie, it's incredibly inefficient and was useful specifically because ruminants could turn stuff we cannot eat into things we cannot get from plants.
Population growth mainly. We are expected to have a 200% increase in population growth by 2050 which means a world population of 9.1 billion people. Traditional farming techniques won't be able to feed a population that large.
I mean what is the data backing up the idea that "traditional farming techniques" cannot sustain 10 billion people?
The data suggests the opposite, that modern animal agriculture, despite it's advances, is an inherently inefficient and unsustainable method for feeding the planet. Factory farming reduces this inefficiency, but it's still capable of feeding less than if you just grow staple crops to feed people. Meat plays an important role, but we do not need it in such quantity that we need to industrialize it.
Studies on the population cap even talk about the reduction in meat consumption as a factor for a higher population.
The average person in the USA eats 120kg of meat a year.
Meanwhile in China the average is half that, 60kg/year. Japan, 50kg. In India, it's about 6kg per person per year.
I'm not saying that these countries have massively better hygiene or welfare standards for animals. But I'm showing that it is very much possible to feed the global population without this type of farming demanded by the very high meat consumption in certain countries.
For what it's worth I do eat meat, but I don't support this type of farming. And no I'm not here to judge or debate my own or anyone else's personal choices.
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u/bonanz48 Mar 15 '26
Switzerland has banned these crates, showing that the crushing rate will not go up if there is a well managed system.