Everything we consume has feeling, has energy. Studies have shown that plants indeed do have feeling as well. Reverence for life and spirit - in ANY form it chooses to take- I believe is the point being made here.

:"Feelings, whether of compassion or irritation, should be welcomed, recognized, and treated on an absolutely equal basis; because both are ourselves. The tangerine I am eating is me. The mustard greens I am planting are me. I plant with all my heart and mind. I clean this teapot with the kind of attention I would have were I giving the baby Buddha or Jesus a bath. Nothing should be treated more carefully than anything else. In mindfulness, compassion, irritation, mustard green plant, and teapot are all sacred." ~~Thich Nhat Hanh

There is nothing wholesale or abusive about how the animals in the article are kept. I fail to see how the above applies here.

"The man who fears no truths has nothing to fear from lies." ~~ Sir Francis Bacon