Op de Britse internetsite Wired.co.uk valt te lezen wat Ford voor ogen heeft.
” This would involve removing the cerebral cortex of the chicken to inhibit its sensory perceptions so that it could be produced in more densely packed conditions without the associated distress. The brain stem for the chicken would be kept intact so that the homeostatic functions continue to operate, allowing it to grow."

Ford streeft met zijn Headless Chicken twee doelen na: een oplossing vinden voor de toenemende vraag naar vlees, met name van kip, en het welzijn van gangbare kippen verbeteren door ze onbewust te maken van de werkelijkheid van hun bestaan.

After this “desensitization,” the chickens could then be stacked into huge urban farms with around 1,000 chickens hooked up to large vertical frames — a little like the network of pods the humans are connected to in The Matrix. The feet of the chickens would also be removed in order to pack more in. There could be dozens of these frames in the vertical farming system, which Ford refers to as the Centre for Unconscious Farming. Food, water and air would be delivered via a network of tubes and excrement would be removed in the same way. This technique could achieve a density of around 11.7 chickens per cubic meter instead of the current 3.2 chickens achieved in broiler houses.

Ford vindt dat zijn methode - een lobotomie en huisvestingssysteem zoals in de bekende film The Matrix - een aanzienlijke verbetering betekent voor het welzijn van de plofkippen. En uiteindelijk zullen consumenten zelf bepalen of zijn argumenten hout snijden of niet.

He added: “There are numerous differences between the current dominant production systems and the one I am proposing, but the fundamental difference is the removal of suffering. Whether what I am proposing is an appropriate means to achieve the removal of suffering is open to interpretation. In reality this should be decided at the level of the individual consumer, at the counter, handing over their money and ‘voting’ for their system of preference.”

Wat zal zwaarder wegen voor de consument: hersenloze hightech of deplorabele plof?

Fotocredits: André Ford