If he’s right, then even if we hold the total consumption of animal protein constant, it’d be good to shift consumption towards beef (or pork), and away from chicken (or farmed fish).
Working with beef producers to improve regulations around chicken welfare—and presumably raise the price of chicken—would probably lead people to reduce some chicken meals with beef meals (e.g. “this chicken burger is expensive… I’ll have a beef burger instead”). This could be another important mechanism for reducing total harm—in addition to reducing average suffering per chicken meal, and somewhat reducing total meat consumption.
(I’m only considering animal welfare here. An all-things-considered take would factor in environmental issues, public health, and so on…)
Brian Tomasik (2018) claims that pork, beef and meat cause far less animal suffering per meal than farmed fish, eggs, and chicken.
If he’s right, then even if we hold the total consumption of animal protein constant, it’d be good to shift consumption towards beef (or pork), and away from chicken (or farmed fish).
Working with beef producers to improve regulations around chicken welfare—and presumably raise the price of chicken—would probably lead people to reduce some chicken meals with beef meals (e.g. “this chicken burger is expensive… I’ll have a beef burger instead”). This could be another important mechanism for reducing total harm—in addition to reducing average suffering per chicken meal, and somewhat reducing total meat consumption.
(I’m only considering animal welfare here. An all-things-considered take would factor in environmental issues, public health, and so on…)
Here are the 2022 numbers from faunalitics that broadly agree: https://faunalytics.org/animal-product-impact-scales/