I wonder about having backyard chickens then, that otherwise live happy stress free lives. That seems like a trade off of their “work” for being safe well fed and taken care of, but I haven’t thought into it super deeply. I think if I were that chicken I’d rather be alive than not exist.
If you didn’t exist you wouldn’t have cared about not existing. It’s only once you have existed that you wish to continue doing so. It’s no use making up conscious beings that don’t exist and concerning yourself with what they might have wanted had they existed. It isn’t comparable to asking yourself “If there was a button I could push that would make me never have existed…”
It would be possible, in theory, to have an ethical chicken egg, but by the time you jumped through all the hoops to manage that at any appreciable scale you will have realized why it makes more sense to simply not.
For a start you would have to reverse hundreds of years of selective breeding so they’re comfortable and healthy and not laying eggs every 12 hours.
Or you could have some of my kickass tofu scramble which totally looks and tastes the part.
It’s pretty standard. I take some medium to firm tofu and crumble it up in a hot, dry, well seasoned cast iron pan and dry it for just a moment, then I add black salt (special salt that tastes like eggs), a little nutritional yeast, and some turmeric for color, as well as black pepper, garlic and usually some smoked paprika. Then when it’s cooked a little bit I like to add a little corn starch slurry to mimic a runnier scrambled egg.
I usually have mushrooms, spinach, diced tomatoes, maybe onions in there too!
Distilled down to the essentials mine is:
1- 12oz pack extra/firm tofu (also like the 14oz ones from KS). Only remove from the liquid, no need to drain
Crumble by hand and heated for a few minutes medium heat, then add all at once for another minute~ish:
~1tbsp soy sauce
1tsp each turmeric, black salt, curry powder.
Beyond that it’s just modifying to taste. I always saute some bell peppers and onions before the tofu. Makes two hearty portions and reheats well. Usually tater tots air frying in the background.
Tofu scramble is one of those things that blew my mind when I found out how easy it was to make. I haven’t even tried the black salt; it’s good with just salt, pepper, and turmeric. I’ll try it out when I find some, though.
I think I’d agree we want to reverse the selective breeding. However I’ve seen backyard chickens that seem really happy, curious, and have a huge area to walk around in with a big variety of food, and in return lay an egg every 24-36 hours. It’s hard for me to say raising chickens like that is immoral, but I could be wrong.
I wonder about having backyard chickens then, that otherwise live happy stress free lives. That seems like a trade off of their “work” for being safe well fed and taken care of, but I haven’t thought into it super deeply. I think if I were that chicken I’d rather be alive than not exist.
If you didn’t exist you wouldn’t have cared about not existing. It’s only once you have existed that you wish to continue doing so. It’s no use making up conscious beings that don’t exist and concerning yourself with what they might have wanted had they existed. It isn’t comparable to asking yourself “If there was a button I could push that would make me never have existed…”
It would be possible, in theory, to have an ethical chicken egg, but by the time you jumped through all the hoops to manage that at any appreciable scale you will have realized why it makes more sense to simply not. For a start you would have to reverse hundreds of years of selective breeding so they’re comfortable and healthy and not laying eggs every 12 hours.
Or you could have some of my kickass tofu scramble which totally looks and tastes the part.
What’s your recipe?
It’s pretty standard. I take some medium to firm tofu and crumble it up in a hot, dry, well seasoned cast iron pan and dry it for just a moment, then I add black salt (special salt that tastes like eggs), a little nutritional yeast, and some turmeric for color, as well as black pepper, garlic and usually some smoked paprika. Then when it’s cooked a little bit I like to add a little corn starch slurry to mimic a runnier scrambled egg.
I usually have mushrooms, spinach, diced tomatoes, maybe onions in there too!
Distilled down to the essentials mine is: 1- 12oz pack extra/firm tofu (also like the 14oz ones from KS). Only remove from the liquid, no need to drain Crumble by hand and heated for a few minutes medium heat, then add all at once for another minute~ish: ~1tbsp soy sauce 1tsp each turmeric, black salt, curry powder.
Beyond that it’s just modifying to taste. I always saute some bell peppers and onions before the tofu. Makes two hearty portions and reheats well. Usually tater tots air frying in the background.
Tofu scramble is one of those things that blew my mind when I found out how easy it was to make. I haven’t even tried the black salt; it’s good with just salt, pepper, and turmeric. I’ll try it out when I find some, though.
I can’t comment on how egg laying affects their mood/daily experience, but it seems laying for healthy hens should only very rarely be painful https://peteducate.com/does-it-hurt-a-chicken-to-lay-an-egg/
I think I’d agree we want to reverse the selective breeding. However I’ve seen backyard chickens that seem really happy, curious, and have a huge area to walk around in with a big variety of food, and in return lay an egg every 24-36 hours. It’s hard for me to say raising chickens like that is immoral, but I could be wrong.
It’s already getting pretty stretched, so why not just have a delicious vegan meal instead?