Protect the Animals
Gratitude for our food
Food is so easy to find nowadays in Singapore. We not only have supermarkets, mini-marts, hawker centres, restaurants, and delivery services almost everywhere we turn, we now also have many vending machines stocked with food.
But as anyone who has tried growing food can tell you, food production is not easy. Farmers have a difficult job. We should be grateful to them for their hard work and skills. Gratitude is also due to the people who cook the food in restaurants and homes, to the people who stock the shelves at markets, and to the people, including our family members, who bring the food to our homes.
Not all our food grows from the ground. Some of it grows in the bodies of animals. Last time, we talked about the female cows and the milk that grows in their bodies after they give birth to calves. Sadly, the calves are taken from their mothers, often the day they are born, so that the mother’s milk can be sold to humans.
Many scientists believe that chickens are descended from the red jungle fowl who are native to Southeast Asia, and we still see some of them walking around Singapore today, for example at Botanic Gardens. However, the chickens whom humans use for food have seen their bodies engineered to better fit the need of food production, rather than the life needs of the chickens themselves.
The eggs we eat grow in the bodies of the layer hens. Like the cows, these hens never get to enjoy motherhood, as most of the eggs never hatch. Instead, the eggs are taken away by humans to be sold to other humans.
These layer eggs can’t hatch as they are not fertilized as these hens are not mated with cockerels. They are basically egg periods. So in this case there’s no direct comparison with dairy cows. Indirectly it’s true that they never get to enjoy motherhood, not even to experience the physical maternal brooding of their eggs, albeit unfertilized.
Some of the eggs, however, do hatch. These chicks, whom their mothers never see, are raised to become more hens. But, of course, the male chicks will never lay eggs, and they are the wrong type of chicken to be raised for meat. Thus, they are killed shortly after birth.
The male chicks resulted from the breeding conducted to get the layer hens. We don’t know if broiler chickens are only all hens. If so then the resulting male chicks will also be killed.
Perhaps, the male chicks are fortunate compared to their sisters, who become hens. Most hens spend their lives in buildings with 10,000 or more other hens. Usually, they live in what are called battery cages with perhaps four or five other hens. The space per hen is approximately that of an A4 piece of paper.
Like other females, including human females, hens’ egg production goes down after a number of years. What happens to the hens then? Do they retire and live the rest of their lives in a field, taken care of by grateful humans? That would be nice, but it would make no sense from an economic point of view.
What can we do to show compassion for chickens?
Choose “Free Range” eggs. These come from chickens who are allowed to roam together as a group in a bigger enclosure, and not individually in battery cages.
Use egg substitutes, such as using tofu to substitute for scrambled eggs. In baking, we can use applesauce, mashed banana, ground flaxseeds, or commercial egg replacer.
Technology is developing new replacements for eggs. Perhaps the most famous brand is Just Egg.
Yes, we should be grateful to the humans who bring us the delicious food we enjoy.
But what about the nonhuman animals? Do they have to give us eggs or something else to earn our gratitude? After all, chickens, other birds, and their ancestors have lived on the Earth since long before humans. Maybe we should be grateful to them for sharing the Earth with us.
Written by George Jacobs
Edited by Andrew Tay