This is a really interesting article. Thank you for writing it. I hope it’s true that farmed animal welfare will one day be net positive. I fear that the treatment of farmed animals seems to be getting worse, rather than better, over the course of human history. But I hope I’m wrong. Or maybe it’ll be a boomerang-shaped change, where the treatment of animals is currently getting worse, but things are about to do a 180 and start moving in the other direction? I hope we EAs can make that happen.
I think total animal welfare is currently decreasing because factory-farming is increasing in low and middle income countries due to population and economic growth. However, I believe animal welfare per person is already increasing in countries where welfare reforms have been successful, and I expect these to eventually spread globally. Air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions also dramatically increased since the industrial revolution, started by going down in high income countries, and I expect they will eventually go down globally.
In any case, even if positive factory-farming was inevitable (some time in the future), getting there faster would still be super valuable!
This is a really interesting article. Thank you for writing it. I hope it’s true that farmed animal welfare will one day be net positive. I fear that the treatment of farmed animals seems to be getting worse, rather than better, over the course of human history. But I hope I’m wrong. Or maybe it’ll be a boomerang-shaped change, where the treatment of animals is currently getting worse, but things are about to do a 180 and start moving in the other direction? I hope we EAs can make that happen.
Thanks, Alene!
I think total animal welfare is currently decreasing because factory-farming is increasing in low and middle income countries due to population and economic growth. However, I believe animal welfare per person is already increasing in countries where welfare reforms have been successful, and I expect these to eventually spread globally. Air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions also dramatically increased since the industrial revolution, started by going down in high income countries, and I expect they will eventually go down globally.
In any case, even if positive factory-farming was inevitable (some time in the future), getting there faster would still be super valuable!