Animal Welfare Through Cage Free Campaigns

At this meetup we'll discuss this article about how animal advocates have made progress through cage free campaigns for egg laying chickens: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22331708/eggs-cages-chickens-hens-meat-poultry

Some discussion questions to think about:

1. What do you think about the strategy to incrementally increase the welfare of farmed animals rather than attempting to eliminate demand?
2. Why is this particular intervention considered so cost effective?
3. How have a relatively small group of people with a relatively small budget been able to affect the business practices of huge corporations?
4. What are some risks or downsides to relying on corporate accountability to improve animal welfare?

For more context and information check out some of these shorter articles:

An article by the humane league describing their work in this area: https://thehumaneleague.org/article/cage-free-future-is-coming

Open philantrophy article giving more detailed statistics on corporate campaigns: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/farm-animal-welfare/cage-free-reforms/

A cost effectiveness analysis by rethink priorities: https://rethinkpriorities.org/publications/corporate-campaigns-affect-9-to-120-years-of-chicken-life-per-dollar-spent

Info on companies that aren't following through: https://sentientmedia.org/21-companies-fail-cage-free-eggs/