Interview
The 7 most promising ways to end factory farming + how AI might help or hurt animals | Lewis Bollard
- The movement to end factory farming is expected to succeed through three reinforcing paths: a moral revolution, rising government and corporate welfare standards, and wider adoption of alternative proteins, though Lewis Bollard cautions that affordable cultivated meat is unlikely to arrive for at least five to ten years due to scientific and cost barriers.
- Global adoption of alternative proteins is projected to grow as nations like Japan aim to lead in cellular agriculture and China incorporates them into five-year food security plans, while European and US retailers face increasing incentives from climate commitments and Scope Three emissions calculations to increase plant-based protein shares.
- In the European Union, the next commission is anticipated to revisit scrapped animal welfare legislative reforms following elections, though the proposals may be weakened by the Parliament and Council; conversely, the US Supreme Court's ruling on Proposition 12 is predicted to be a significant win that upholds state-level rights to ban cruelly produced goods.
- Technological adoption includes the inevitable global rollout of inovo-sexing technology to eliminate male chick culling, with 15% of European hens already benefiting, while the 3,000+ corporate cage-free pledges are expected to eventually benefit 450 million hens at any given time.
- Artificial Intelligence presents dual risks and opportunities: it may optimize factory farming by intensifying animal suffering and yielding up to 50% more shrimp through crowding, or it could accelerate alternative protein development, improve product taste and affordability, and aid in detecting animal distress if labs adopt specific ethical training principles.
- Material expectations indicate that inflation reductions will reverse stagnation in plant-based meat sales, as current costs remain at least double that of meat, while the "moral circle" is predicted to expand to include invertebrates and wild animals, despite the latter requiring significant research to match the tractability of farm animal interventions.
- Regulatory pressures are expected to extend to aquatic life, with standards likely affecting over 2.5 billion fish and eventual EU regulations mandating pre-slaughter stunning, alongside increased government funding of over one billion dollars for alternative protein research and infrastructure.
- Political and structural challenges remain, including the US administration's support for industry interests in legal challenges, the limitations of US legal advocacy regarding animal conditions, and the risk that "sustainable intensification" could worsen animal welfare despite climate mitigation goals.
- The transition to higher welfare farming is projected to create better jobs focused on stockmanship rather than handling dead animals, with Northern European nations like Denmark and the Netherlands serving as progressive models that other countries will increasingly follow as they become wealthier.
- Risks include the potential for AI to lock in current moral values tolerating mass cruelty and for the focus on invertebrates to trigger a public reductio ad absurdum, alongside the persistence of the "moral error" of excluding animals from the moral circle due to political inertia and lobbying power.