Some Observations...(all are welcomed)

[Fyron]

Captain Kwok said:
Fyron should hope that the animals that are raised for his consumption are happy, because it certainly makes a difference in the end product that he will see on his dinner table.

I've yet to encounter any "organic" (or whatever the appropriate term in this case is) chicken/eggs that was any different from other chicken/eggs. Maybe for animals that do not produce bland and insipid meat, but chicken?

PvK said:
You should care about them because you are compassionate and would like to reduce suffering.

Why should I extend compassion to food products? There is plenty of human suffering to be compastionate about; compassion for what is going to be on my dinner table soon enough is wasted effort.

[Captain Kwok]

A lot of chicken you'll encounter in the grocery store is pumped with a solution of salt, water, and phosphates to help counter stress-induced meat characteristics and present a nice visual (not to mention increase the price with extra water weight!). It's so prevalent that having unpumped chicken is probably a rarity for most consumers.

Also, with high volume operations, processors tend to use various concoctions of antibiotics/hormones in feed etc. to help prevent disease and promote growth etc. - these items do make it to the shelf (and surrounding environment) in some quantities.

For Beef it does make a lot of difference. You'll note that all the highest grade beef comes from generally smaller producers that raise their cattle more naturally vs. the large producers.

[PvK]

Imperator Fyron said:
Why should I extend compassion to food products? There is plenty of human suffering to be compastionate about; compassion for what is going to be on my dinner table soon enough is wasted effort.

Because you're grateful, gracious and humble? Because you're a nice person who doesn't like suffering? Because "none of the above" is one of the multiple-choice options for "who would you like to suffer a miserable existance?" Because you reflect that if you were raised for food, you'd rather be given better treatment than being packed shoulder to shoulder with others in a dark cage before being slaughtered and turned into human McNuggets? Because the risk of serious new disease strains and human malnutrition may be greatly increased by some industrial farm practices?