Here it sounds like the fund is focused on farmed insects, but the website seems more broadly concerned with arthropods. Will it include other arthropods? Will it include wild arthropods, too?
I think the vast majority of arthropods, by numbers of individuals, are wild mites, springtails and copepods, and it seems important to know more about them, like their possible sentience and moral weights, whether their lives are good or bad, and how they are affected by human activity. I’d guess interventions that affect the numbers of animals used by humans usually affect many times more mites, springtails and/or copepods.
Good question, Michael. Yes, we’re open to funding research on other arthropods. For now, the best way to ensure that there’s a stable field of insect of welfare science seems to be to back work on farmed insect welfare. But as that changes, funding priorities will change too.
Great to see!
Here it sounds like the fund is focused on farmed insects, but the website seems more broadly concerned with arthropods. Will it include other arthropods? Will it include wild arthropods, too?
I think the vast majority of arthropods, by numbers of individuals, are wild mites, springtails and copepods, and it seems important to know more about them, like their possible sentience and moral weights, whether their lives are good or bad, and how they are affected by human activity. I’d guess interventions that affect the numbers of animals used by humans usually affect many times more mites, springtails and/or copepods.
Good question, Michael. Yes, we’re open to funding research on other arthropods. For now, the best way to ensure that there’s a stable field of insect of welfare science seems to be to back work on farmed insect welfare. But as that changes, funding priorities will change too.