Yeah, different values lead to different conclusions.<p>If married to proper waste management, a chicken factory -- with chickens packed into tiny little boxes, egg production per calorie maximized, chickens discarded the moment their egg production drops, bred to mature as rapidly as possible -- is <i>probably</i> to most environmentally friendly way to produce eggs.  You minimize land and energy use and human labor as well (humans have environmental costs, after all).<p>On the other hand, if you care about <i>animals</i> more than the <i>environment</i>, it&#x27;s probably the worst possible way to raise chickens for egg production.  Instead you want to maximize chicken happiness, you probably want small flocks free-ranging in a safe pasture-land, with chickens allowed to live out their dotage after the egg production has waned.  This, of course, will require far more land and other inputs.  You&#x27;ll even have higher transportation costs, since you&#x27;ll need to accumulate eggs over a larger area.<p>So would you rather have a chicken factory, a hundred acres of corn, and a thousand acres of wilderness, or 1100 acres of happy chicken pastures?