So your proposed alternative is we keep raising these animals, but euthanize them when they get to some age / fall sick?

No, the alternative is to not to keep breeding farm animals in the billions, which is a major cause for natural habitat loss [0].

Instead have more R&D into creating meat like substances that doesn't require to kill an animal and doesn't require such a huge carbon footprint - and we are getting there slowly.

And that's the mission of Ethan Brown (Beyond Meat founder) - he said you won't be able to change the culture of meat eating, but if you offer people something that's as good or better and cheaper then people will switch.

Again, the main question really is why inflict pain and kill an animal if you don't need to?

We are not hunter gatherers anymore.

The above comment excludes people who still need to eat meat to survive.

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[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUMGBwgGYWw&t=100s

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/05/natur...