A post re-examining the suffering impact of veganism in countries with good average livestock welfare in many product categories. New Zealand, for instance, has grass-fed cows as a norm, egg hens are usually required to have decent amounts of space and won’t appear to be especially stressed, and the main supermarket chain Countdown just switched to providing mostly “free farmed” pork (birthing sows seem entirely free, but pigs destined for market are moved to barns that are only limitedly free) (excludes non store brand of pork-based products, but the store brand bacon looks pretty good quality so it might be popular enough).
I get the impression that we’re unlikely to receive this kind of analysis through most channels promoting animal welfare. They might not want to tell you about the good parts. I tend to encounter a lot of copenhagen ethics and consent arguments (which can’t be addressed by improving conditions no matter how much you improve them, which is a bit of a reduction to absurdity of consent arguments).
It may help to draw attention to good policies, focus attention on the worst offenders, and occasionally improve EA nutrition? Promoting animal welfare within the industry is likely to accelerate incremental change from within. Stockpeople who are doing especially well in limiting animal suffering will tend to be proud of their way of doing things and to want to promote it to legislators for both moral and economic reasons.
Having resources like this may also help for being able to come across as balanced and informed when discussing local animal welfare.
Regarding “change from within”, I have since found confirmation from the excellent growth economist Mushtaq Kahn https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/mushtaq-khan-institutional-economics/ people within an industry are generally the best at policing others in the industry, they have the most energy for it, they know how to measure adherence, and they often have inside access. Without them, policing corruption often fails to happen.
A post re-examining the suffering impact of veganism in countries with good average livestock welfare in many product categories. New Zealand, for instance, has grass-fed cows as a norm, egg hens are usually required to have decent amounts of space and won’t appear to be especially stressed, and the main supermarket chain Countdown just switched to providing mostly “free farmed” pork (birthing sows seem entirely free, but pigs destined for market are moved to barns that are only limitedly free) (excludes non store brand of pork-based products, but the store brand bacon looks pretty good quality so it might be popular enough).
I get the impression that we’re unlikely to receive this kind of analysis through most channels promoting animal welfare. They might not want to tell you about the good parts. I tend to encounter a lot of copenhagen ethics and consent arguments (which can’t be addressed by improving conditions no matter how much you improve them, which is a bit of a reduction to absurdity of consent arguments).
It may help to draw attention to good policies, focus attention on the worst offenders, and occasionally improve EA nutrition? Promoting animal welfare within the industry is likely to accelerate incremental change from within. Stockpeople who are doing especially well in limiting animal suffering will tend to be proud of their way of doing things and to want to promote it to legislators for both moral and economic reasons.
Having resources like this may also help for being able to come across as balanced and informed when discussing local animal welfare.
Regarding “change from within”, I have since found confirmation from the excellent growth economist Mushtaq Kahn https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/mushtaq-khan-institutional-economics/ people within an industry are generally the best at policing others in the industry, they have the most energy for it, they know how to measure adherence, and they often have inside access. Without them, policing corruption often fails to happen.