we may have to make
difficult ethical choices and decide our priorities between
different goals. If environmental constraints point to
greater intensification of methods of keeping livestock
(Steinfeld et al 2006; Godfray et al 2010) and economic
pressures demand higher productivity that is incompatible
with animal welfare despite a genetic programme for
breeding better welfare, then we may not be able to ‘have
it all’. Our aim in this paper has to be to lay out the
options for maximising the chances that we can have as
many of our goals as possible and to make sure that with
the public concern for food security and global warming,
the welfare of broiler chickens is kept firmly on the
political agenda, either alongside other goals or, if that
proves impossible, as stark choice in front of all of us.