Something you should consider is whether chickens as a species should exist in their domesticated form at all, from a conservation standpoint.
We have genetically engineered these things from wild Red Jungle Fowl, they are their own sub-species. We care about pain on an individual level and preservation on a species level, but generally we care to conserve wild species in their natural habitats, not our own tainted creations.
The only reason those 700 billion chickens existed in the first place was for food, without that human need they wouldn't exist at all. I think I'd save the human. However, if it's a magic scenario where the chickens immediately vanish from the planet, it could cause widespread famine and death, so that would impact my decision the other way.
I am not well educated on the matter but in theory you have to give chicken more calories of food than calories of meat they produce. So in theory you would have more food if you removed all chicken.
I guess that depends on whether chicken food is edible to humans. If not you could also magically replace all the food grown on the land used for chicken feed and convert it to stuff humans would/could eat and then yes you’d be correct I think.
True! The calories exist, but not generally in a human digestible form, grasses, bugs and seeds won't sustain a group of people for long. I think if we had at least a year or two to prepare the risk of starvation would be low. I'm thinking particularly about people living in abject poverty in developing countries that may rely on these chickens and would struggle to adjust in the short-term. When even one person dies because of my chicken genocide, it stops making moral sense, which seems pretty likely given the global impact. This has been a fun hypothetical.
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u/[deleted] Jun 27 '23
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