Kirt: >At my local supermarket a fresh 5 lb battery raised chicken is about a $5. >A frozen pastured/caged chicken is about $15 for the same weight. Fresh is >unavailable. How much are you willing to pay for a cageless chicken? At my "supermarket" (Orkos) fresh pastured (not caged) chicken is about 70DM per kilogram, that is $17,23 per lb. That is $86,15 for a 5 lb chicken!!! And like in Kirt's case it is not available the whole year round. Maybe 6 weeks in the year I can order it. Kirt: >IOW, if there was a new method which put electric shocks through the >eyelids of caged animals and these animals had the excellent nutritional >profiles of wild animals, I would delight that I could eat it, not bemoan >that the shocks cause it pain. Yet, realistically, cruel methods are >usually not health-producing so we have a similar dilemma. Hm, I don't think I would go so far and indeed the more naturally an animal has lived and been fed the better its health and meat so I am concerned about this. Whether I would be concerned if there existed other quite cruel farming methods which still produce healthy animals is a question of ethics. And before ethics there comes my empty stomach. ;-) But if the basic needs are satisfied I think one should think about ethical questions. If you can avoid torturing (or let torture) other beings by paying a neglectable price you should do it. Kind regards, Stefan E-Mail: [log in to unmask]