With over 70 billion chickens raised for meat annually, broiler chicken welfare represents potentially the largest single pool of farmed animal suffering — and the largest opportunity for welfare improvement.
The scale of broiler chicken production means that marginal welfare improvements translate into enormous aggregate reductions in suffering. A 10% improvement in welfare outcomes for 70 billion animals annually affects more individual welfare experiences than almost any other intervention in animal welfare. This scale argument cuts both ways — it also means that the current welfare failure affects an almost incomprehensible number of individual sentient animals. Corporate commitments by major food companies to slower-growing breeds, lower stocking densities, and improved lighting and enrichment represent the most scalable pathway to welfare improvement for more sentient beings than any other intervention in history.