Free-range eggs and chicken have been gaining popularity for a while. The practices involved in producing and raising them are considered more humane. The market for humane meat has been growing slowly but steadily. Reports suggest that a majority of the country eats eggs, chicken, or meat. Shouldn’t we care about how the animals that reach our plates are raised and killed? It’s not a question with easy answers.

Today, consumers are becoming more aware of the conditions in which the eggs and meat they consume are produced. They are making a conscious choice to seek out spaces that treat these animals well before they become a means of our sustenance.

Should meat and fish eaters be willing to pay a premium to ensure the animals that we consume – or whose products we consume – are treated as ethically and humanely as possible? How big is this market? How fast is it growing? How should we think about it? Or should we take the lazy route and laugh it off as an oxymoron?

Episode 33 of Two by Two, hosted by Rohin Dharmakumar and Praveen Gopal Krishnan, aimed to find an answer and explain how it makes sense.

And they were joined by four wonderful guests for the discussion.

Our first guest is Dineshkumar Shanmugam, the co-founder and CEO of Earthy Origins, a Tamil Nadu-based farm-to-table startup that grows, raises, and sells organic food products and ethically raised chickens and free-range eggs.

Our second guest is Sandeep Reddy, the CEO of India Animal Fund, a nonprofit that brings together a diverse mix of leaders from the corporate and animal welfare sectors to take a strategic look at ending all forms of animal harm. They believe that doing the most good means minimising the suffering of the most vulnerable, that is, animals. 

Our third guest is K Vijay, the Bengaluru-based founder of another meat startup, Meatright.

Our final guest is Shan Kadavil, co-founder and CEO of Freshtohome, one of the leading online sellers of meat and fish in India. We’ve interviewed Shan for First Principles, The Ken’s leadership podcast. His clarity of thought around setting up and scaling an online meat business in India was amazing. You should listen to it if you haven’t.

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Additional reading:

Famine, affluence and morality – https://rintintin.colorado.edu/~vancecd/phil308/Singer2.pdf

Food, a question of ethics – 5 principles of ethical eating – https://kindredmedia.org/2007/09/food-a-question-of-ethics-5-principles-of-ethical-eating/

Animals and choices – https://the-ken.com/newsletter/first-principles/animals-and-choices/

How many Indians eat meat? – https://www.thehindu.com/data/data-how-many-indians-eat-meat/article65299234.ece

Additional listening:

Shan Kadavil of Freshtohome on selling fish, building moats, encouraging bottom-up “shots on goal”, and being honest with boards – https://the-ken.com/podcasts/first-principles/shan-kadavil-fresh-to-home/

Peter Singer – The ethics of what we eat – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHzwqf_JkrA

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Help us find interesting women guests by filling out this survey – https://theken.typeform.com/to/KH0EOLGo

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This episode of Two by Two was researched and produced by Hari Krishna. Rajiv CN, our resident sound engineer, mixed and mastered this episode.

If you liked this episode of Two by Two, please share it with your friends and family who would be interested in listening to the episode. And if you have more thoughts on the discussion, we’d love to hear your arguments as well. You can write to us at [email protected].