According to this NYT article, one of the country’s biggest restaurant moguls has decided that he will only sell humanely treated animals in all of his restaurants. This is, in one sense, a great victory.
But I fear that there may be unintended consequences. Humane meat is likely to be nearly as environmentally intensive and inefficient as factory-farm raised meat (requiring much more water, energy, and producing much more CO2 than plant food) so by convincing the public that the meat sold at these restaurants is “humane” may direct attention away from the environmental costs. The best solution is for people to eat less and less meat period, but maybe this is a step in the right direction. I’m still not sure. Thoughts?
