Eating meat → narrower moral circle not sufficiently valuing the welfare of artificial sentience and/or wild animals → existential risks (mostly suffering risks)
Animals and longtermism (although not specifically about your own diet):
I think there are also psychological effects of eating meat that might cause people to not give animals the moral weight they would think they deserve upon careful reflection.
See also my 2018 EAG talk on shaping the long-term future through antispeciest legislative initiatives. Most of the relevant discussion starts at 8:40.
While I at the time thought the dominant beneficial effect would be through AGI alignment, I now think that we should think of these interventions as improving the value alignment of humanity and our descendents in general.
And cf. my and Jeff Sebo’s paper on the indirect effects of eating meat and farming animals on human moral psychology and its importance for consequentialists:
In general, I’m with Michael in thinking that we should expect the dominant beneficial effects of vegetarianism and abolitionist efforts against animal agriculture to be their effects on human morality, which can positively shape the long-term future by better aligning the values of our descendents (and therefore their behavior) with our own values.
To summarize:
Eating meat → narrower moral circle not sufficiently valuing the welfare of artificial sentience and/or wild animals → existential risks (mostly suffering risks)
Animals and longtermism (although not specifically about your own diet):
Why I prioritize moral circle expansion over artificial intelligence alignment by Jacy Reese
Should Longtermists Mostly Think About Animals? by Abraham Rowe
Why I’m focusing on invertebrate sentience by Max Carpendale
Why Digital Sentience is Relevant to Animal Activists by Brian Tomasik for Animal Charity Evaluators
The Relevance of Wild Animal Suffering by Tobias Baumann
Arguments for and against moral advocacy by Tobias Baumann
Will Space Colonization Multiply Wild-Animal Suffering? by Brian Tomasik
Risks of Astronomical Future Suffering by Brian Tomasik
Long-term vs. short-term focus by Sentience Institute
Comparing diet to charity (often older charity cost-effectiveness estimates):
Four practices where EAs ought to course-correct by kbog
Don’t sweat diet? by Gregory Lewis
Vegetarianism for Meat-Eaters by Scott Alexander
When should an Effective Altruist be vegetarian? by Katja Grace
Revenge of the Meat People! by Rob Bensinger
Animal charities and interventions, with newer estimates:
See Animal Charity Evaluator’s comprehensive reviews on their top charities.
Corporate campaigns affect 9 to 120 years of chicken life per dollar spent by Saulius Šimčikas for Rethink Priorities
Corporate Campaigns for Animal Welfare by Marinella Capriati for Founders Pledge
Charity Entrepreneurship’s reports on corporate campaigns
See also the comments.
I think there are also psychological effects of eating meat that might cause people to not give animals the moral weight they would think they deserve upon careful reflection.
See also my 2018 EAG talk on shaping the long-term future through antispeciest legislative initiatives. Most of the relevant discussion starts at 8:40.
https://youtu.be/0RznIFm_Ee4
While I at the time thought the dominant beneficial effect would be through AGI alignment, I now think that we should think of these interventions as improving the value alignment of humanity and our descendents in general.
And cf. my and Jeff Sebo’s paper on the indirect effects of eating meat and farming animals on human moral psychology and its importance for consequentialists:
jeffsebodotnet.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/consequentialism-and-nonhuman-animals-penultimate.pdf
In general, I’m with Michael in thinking that we should expect the dominant beneficial effects of vegetarianism and abolitionist efforts against animal agriculture to be their effects on human morality, which can positively shape the long-term future by better aligning the values of our descendents (and therefore their behavior) with our own values.