Most people care about farm animals — our food system doesn't reflect that

In a world that often feels deeply polarized, it is rare to find a topic where almost everyone agrees.

在一个经常感觉两极分化严重的世界里，很难找到一个几乎所有人都同意的话题。

The treatment of farm animals is one of them.

农场动物的治疗就是其中之一。

Surveys show that a strong majority of people, regardless of their diet, oppose common practices in animal agriculture.

调查显示，绝大多数人，无论其饮食如何，都反对畜牧业的常见做法。

The chart below shows results from a survey of British adults on whether several common farming practices are acceptable.

下图显示了对英国成年人进行的关于几种常见农业做法是否可以接受的调查结果。

For every practice listed, less than 13% of respondents rated it “acceptable”.

对于列出的每项做法，只有不到 13% 的受访者认为“可以接受”。

A small minority approved of procedures such as castrating newborn calves or trimming the tails of newborn piglets, but large majorities judged each practice as “not acceptable”.

少数人赞成阉割新生牛犊或修剪新生仔猪尾巴等程序，但大多数人认为每种做法“不可接受”。

Some of the practices mentioned in the survey — such as killing newborn chicks, keeping animals in cages, or amputating body parts — may sound extreme.

调查中提到的一些做法——例如杀死新生雏鸡、将动物关在笼子里或截肢——可能听起来很极端。

As a recent US survey suggests , most consumers believe ​​that the meat they buy comes from animals raised in good conditions.

美国最近的一项调查显示，大多数消费者认为他们购买的肉来自条件良好的饲养动物。

But in modern agriculture, these practices are widespread: most farmed animals globally are raised in factory farms, including around 85% in the UK, and 99% in the US.

但在现代农业中，这些做法很普遍：全球大多数养殖动物都是在工厂化农场饲养的，其中英国约 85%，美国约 99%。

1 For example, in both countries, nearly all male chicks born in the egg industry are killed, including in free-range systems.

1 例如，在这两个国家，几乎所有在鸡蛋工业中出生的雄性雏鸡都被杀死，包括散养系统中的雄性雏鸡。

2 In the appendix at the end of this article, we describe these and other practices in more detail, including some estimates of how common they are in the UK.

2 在本文末尾的附录中，我们更详细地描述了这些做法和其他做法，包括对它们在英国的普遍程度的一些估计。

Other surveys show similarly large opposition to common farming practices.

其他调查显示，人们对常见的农业做法也有同样的强烈反对。

In a recent US survey, at most one in five respondents rated each practice as “acceptable”.

在美国最近的一项调查中，最多五分之一的受访者将每种做法评为“可接受”。

The researchers noted that this view was broadly shared across age, gender, income, political affiliation, ethnicity, and region.

研究人员指出，这种观点在年龄、性别、收入、政治派别、种族和地区之间得到了广泛认同。

As the following chart shows, the vast majority rated each practice as either somewhat or very unacceptable.

如下图所示，绝大多数人认为每种做法都有些或非常不可接受。

In another US survey , around two in five of respondents agreed on banning slaughterhouses and factory farming, and close to a third supported banning animal farming altogether.

在美国的另一项调查中，约五分之二的受访者同意禁止屠宰场和工厂化养殖，近三分之一的受访者支持完全禁止畜牧业。

These views are not limited to the UK and the US.

这些观点不仅限于英国和美国。

At the end of this article, we include a list of related surveys showing that concern for animal welfare extends across many other countries.

在本文末尾，我们列出了一系列相关调查，显示许多其他国家对动物福利的关注。

Given all this, and with more plant-based foods now on the market, including meat alternatives, one might expect people in these countries to be shifting away from consuming animal products.

鉴于这一切，再加上市场上现在有更多植物性食品（包括肉类替代品），人们可能会预计这些国家的人们将不再消费动物产品。

But the data shows a different story.

但数据显示了不同的情况。

At a global level, meat consumption is not only high but also increasing.

在全球范围内，肉类消费不仅很高，而且还在不断增加。

Each year, hundreds of billions of land animals , fish , and crustaceans are farmed and killed to produce food.

每年，数千亿陆地动物、鱼类和甲壳类动物被养殖和宰杀以生产食物。

In the UK, only a small share of adults identify as vegetarian or vegan, while the share of people who consume meat or fish remains around 90%.

在英国，只有一小部分成年人认为自己是素食主义者或严格素食主义者，而吃肉或鱼的人比例仍保持在 90% 左右。

In fact, due to a gradual shift from red meat to poultry, the number of animals slaughtered in the UK has actually increased by around 20% in the last decade.

事实上，由于人们从红肉逐渐转向家禽，过去十年英国屠宰的动物数量实际上增加了 20% 左右。

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The same pattern holds for the US: most people continue to eat meat, and more animals are slaughtered now than ever before.

同样的模式也适用于美国：大多数人继续吃肉，现在被屠宰的动物比以往任何时候都多。

This highlights that the widespread opposition to common farming practices we saw earlier is not limited to vegans and vegetarians: the vast majority of survey respondents regularly consume meat.

这凸显出，我们之前看到的对常见农业实践的广泛反对不仅限于素食主义者和素食者：绝大多数调查受访者经常食用肉类。

It would therefore seem that for most people, reducing meat consumption would not be contrary to their values — it would be, in many ways, more consistent with them.

因此，对于大多数人来说，减少肉类消费似乎并不违背他们的价值观——在很多方面，这更符合他们的价值观。

There is a clear gap between what people want — meat produced without suffering — and what the food system delivers.

人们想要的——没有痛苦地生产肉类——与食品系统提供的东西之间存在明显的差距。

Understanding this gap is the first step to closing it.

了解这一差距是缩小差距的第一步。

We send two regular newsletters so you can stay up to date on our work and receive curated highlights from across Our World in Data.

我们定期发送两份时事通讯，以便您及时了解我们的工作并接收来自“我们的数据世界”的精选亮点。

The data suggests we do not need to convince people to care about animals.

数据表明我们不需要说服人们关心动物。

The majority already do.

大多数人已经这样做了。

But changing behavior on a large scale is difficult, especially in a food system that makes animal products cheap and convenient while hiding many of the associated welfare costs.

但大规模改变人们的行为是很困难的，尤其是在一个使动物产品变得便宜和方便、同时隐藏了许多相关福利成本的食品体系中。

If we want to close the gap between our food system and our values, we can’t just rely on changing people’s diets.

如果我们想缩小食物系统与价值观之间的差距，我们不能仅仅依靠改变人们的饮食。

Several other levers need to move together, including innovation and policy.

其他几个杠杆需要共同发挥作用，包括创新和政策。

Food companies offer products that look and taste similar to meat and fish, but are made from plants.

食品公司提供的产品外观和味道与肉和鱼相似，但由植物制成。

And soon, we will be able to buy cultivated meat, produced without raising and slaughtering animals.

很快，我们将能够购买不饲养和屠宰动物而生产的人造肉。

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Once these new products reach price parity with conventional foods, consumers may be more willing to adopt them, as a recent US survey suggested.

正如美国最近的一项调查显示，一旦这些新产品的价格与传统食品持平，消费者可能会更愿意采用它们。

The challenge now is to make alternative proteins cheaper, tastier, and more widely available.

现在的挑战是让替代蛋白质更便宜、更美味、更广泛可用。

In the meantime, as long as animals are still part of the system, policy can ensure welfare standards improve, phasing out the worst practices that most people oppose.

与此同时，只要动物仍然是系统的一部分，政策就可以确保福利标准的提高，逐步淘汰大多数人反对的最糟糕的做法。

One of the biggest opportunities of our generation is to build a system where the food we eat reflects the values we already hold.

我们这一代人最大的机会之一就是建立一个系统，让我们吃的食物反映我们已经持有的价值观。

I would like to thank Max Roser and Hannah Ritchie for their valuable suggestions and feedback on this article.

我要感谢 Max Roser 和 Hannah Ritchie 对本文提出的宝贵建议和反馈。

Hundreds of millions of animals get killed for meat every day.

每天有数亿只动物被宰杀以获取肉食。

The majority of farm animals in the world are factory-farmed.

世界上大多数农场动物都是工厂化养殖的。

Research suggests that moving hens from battery cages to cage-free environments reduces the time animals spend in pain substantially.

研究表明，将母鸡从笼子里转移到无笼环境中可以大大减少动物承受疼痛的时间。

Here is an overview of common farming practices used today worldwide in meat, egg, and dairy production that impact animal welfare.

以下概述了当今世界范围内影响动物福利的肉类、蛋类和乳制品生产中常见的农业做法。

They are designed to manage large numbers of animals efficiently and profitably, at the cost of the animals experiencing substantial pain and distress.

它们旨在有效且有利地管理大量动物，但代价是动物遭受巨大的痛苦和困扰。

There is no comprehensive data on the prevalence of these practices: farmers are often not required to report them, and national statistics are scarce.

没有关于这些做法普遍程度的全面数据：农民往往不需要报告这些做法，而且国家统计数据也很少。

We therefore include some estimates of how many animals may be affected each year in the UK alone, taken from a separate article by Bryant Research: 5

因此，我们对仅在英国每年可能受到影响的动物数量进行了一些估计，这些估计取自布莱恩特研究公司的另一篇文章：5

There are also other routine procedures involved in food production that have major welfare implications, such as feed withdrawal before slaughter, and the slaughter process itself, which varies in the level of pain and distress animals may experience depending on the species and method used.

食品生产中还涉及其他对福利产生重大影响的常规程序，例如屠宰前的停料以及屠宰过程本身，动物可能经历的疼痛和痛苦程度因所使用的物种和方法而异。

In addition, there are other painful practices that occur in specific sectors, for example, force-feeding ducks and geese to produce foie gras, or removing the eyestalks of shrimp to stimulate reproduction in aquaculture.

此外，在特定部门还存在其他令人痛苦的做法，例如强行喂鸭和鹅以生产鹅肝，或在水产养殖中去除虾的眼柄以刺激繁殖。

To accelerate progress in reducing farm animal suffering, we need reliable data on how often these practices are used, and robust estimates of the intensity and duration of the pain they cause, as the Welfare Footprint Institute aims to quantify.

为了加快减少农场动物痛苦的进展，我们需要关于这些做法的使用频率的可靠数据，以及对它们造成的疼痛的强度和持续时间的可靠估计，正如福利足迹研究所旨在量化的那样。

Here is a selection of surveys and petitions related to animal welfare:

以下是与动物福利相关的调查和请愿书精选：

And here are some additional polls on general attitudes towards animals and animal rights:

以下是一些关于对动物和动物权利的普遍态度的其他民意调查：

As my colleague Hannah explains in a separate article , there is no specific definition of a “factory farm”.

正如我的同事汉娜在另一篇文章中解释的那样，“工厂化农场”没有具体的定义。

Under reasonable assumptions, 85% of animals in the UK are factory farmed, according to Compassion in World Farming , and 99% in the US, according to the Sentience Institute .

根据世界农场同情组织的数据，在合理的假设下，英国 85% 的动物是工厂化养殖的，根据 Sentience Institute 的数据，美国 99% 的动物是工厂化养殖的。

According to some estimates , the practice of “chick culling” amounts to 40–45 million male chicks killed each year in the UK alone.

据估计，仅在英国，“雏鸡扑杀”做法每年就有 40-4500 万只雄性雏鸡被杀害。

Some countries have banned this practice, but it is still commonplace in most of the world.

一些国家已经禁止这种做法，但它在世界大部分地区仍然很常见。

This is called the small body problem : smaller animals must be killed in greater numbers to produce the same amount of meat as larger animals.

这被称为“小身体问题”：较小的动物必须被杀死更多的数量才能产生与较大动物相同数量的肉。

Cultivated meat is real meat grown from animal cells rather than produced by raising and slaughtering animals.

人造肉是从动物细胞中生长出来的真正的肉，而不是通过饲养和屠宰动物产生的。

Cells are grown in controlled conditions to produce muscle and fat, using the same biological processes that occur inside an animal.

细胞在受控条件下生长，利用与动物体内发生的相同的生物过程来产生肌肉和脂肪。

It has already been used to produce animal foods such as chicken, beef burgers, salmon, and pork fat.

它已被用于生产动物食品，如鸡肉、牛肉汉堡、鲑鱼和猪肉脂肪。

In 2025, the UK started selling pet food made of cultivated chicken meat.

2025年，英国开始销售由养殖鸡肉制成的宠物食品。

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英国和美国对工厂化农业实践的知识和态度：思想和行为可以改变吗？

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Our articles and data visualizations rely on work from many different people and organizations.

我们的文章和数据可视化依赖于许多不同的人和组织的工作。

When citing this article, please also cite the underlying data sources.

引用本文时，请同时注明底层数据来源。

This article can be cited as:

这篇文章可以引用为：

We are a live site and we keep our work maintained.

我们是一个活跃的网站，我们会保持我们的工作。

So our articles are often changed, including the data.

所以我们的文章经常改，包括数据。

You can browse previous versions of this work here.

您可以在此处浏览此作品的先前版本。