Thanks so much Vasco for your work on this! As with MHR in the past, we really appreciate folks doing in-depth analyses like this, and are very appreciative of the interest in our work :)
In the spirit of this weekâs Forum theme, I wanted to provide some more context regarding SWPâs room for more funding.
Our overheads (i.e. salaries, travel/âconferences) and program costs for the India sludge removal work, are currently covered by grants until the end of 2026. Meaning that any additional funds are put towards HSI. (For context, our secured grants do also cover the cost of some stunners, but HSI as a program is still able to absorb more funding).
Each stunner costs us $55k and we ask the producers we work with to commit to stunning a minimum of 120 million shrimps per annum. This results in a cost-effectiveness of ~2,000+ shrimps helped /â $ /â year (i.e. our marginal impact of additional dollars is higher than our historical cost-effectiveness).
Weâre having our annual team retreat (which we call âShrimposiumâ) next week, during which we hope to map out how we can deploy stunners in such a way as to catalyse a tipping point so that pre-slaughter stunning becomes the industry standard.
Weâve had some good indications recently that HSI does contribute to âlocking-inâ industry adoption, with Tesco and Sainsburyâs recently publishing welfare policies, building on similar wins in the past (such as M&S and Albert Heijn).
This has always been the Theory of Change for the HSI project. Although weâre very excited by how cost-effective it is in its own right, ultimately we want to catalyse industry-wide adoptionâdeploying stunners to the early adopters in order to build towards a tipping point that achieves critical mass. In other words, over the next few years we want to take the HSI program from Growth to Scale.
I would be surprised if post-Shrimposium our targets regarding HSI required less funding than our current projections. In other words, though I donât currently have an exact sense of our room for more funding, Iâm confident SWP is in a position to absorb significantly more funding to support our HSI work.
Can I directly ask: Is SWP one of the orgs that has been affected by Good Ventures dropping support for some cause areas? (I couldnât parse all the context previously on a quick skim.)
Iâm not sure how much they funded you previously, or if this is a concern. No worries if you canât or would prefer not to say :)
Hey Angelina! Sureâhappy to answer :) Yes we were affected by the Good Ventures announcement, and our current funding update is actually very similar to that of Wild Animal Initiative, as in:
The Navigation Fund (TNF) plans to fill SWPâs funding gap left by OP, at least through the end of 2026.
Weâre keen on diversifying our funding, so as not to continue relying on a single funder
However we differ in that our budget is smaller than that of WAI, and the majority of it is put toward a single program (HSI)
Wow, go TNF đđ I didnât realize they were bailing out non wild animal welfare orgs as well, thatâs very coolâand must have been a lift. That all makes sense. Congrats, and Iâm wishing you success on the funding diversity front!
Is there any chance HSI may increase the number of shrimp? I guess it would tend to increase costs, and therefore decrease the number of shrimp. I ask because I estimate that moving from ice slurry to electrical stunning only increases welfare by 4.34 % (= 1 â 4.85/â5.07). In this case, since I think farmed shrimp have negative lives (for any slaughter method), an increase of more than 4.34 % in the number of shrimp would make HSI harmful.
Hey Vasco! Interesting question, unfortunately I donât know the answer...
My sense is no, as you say, the intervention increases costs without an increase in productivity for the producers. But ultimately an incentive here is continued market access, which Iâm sure an economist could model whether or not this could lead to an increase in the number of shrimps (over time).
Another point to emphasise thoughâitâs my sense that the intervention should be modelled as electrical stunning replaces air asphyxiation, rather than (perfectly implemented) ice slurry. Ice slurry slaughter is just a very difficult thing to do correctly in practice (and Iâve not seen it happen) - as even if at some point the shrimps are submerged in ice for a short period of time, itâs often not long enough to kill them (~30seconds).
Another point to emphasise thoughâitâs my sense that the intervention should be modelled as electrical stunning replaces air asphyxiation, rather than (perfectly implemented) ice slurry. Ice slurry slaughter is just a very difficult thing to do correctly in practice (and Iâve not seen it happen) - as even if at some point the shrimps are submerged in ice for a short period of time, itâs often not long enough to kill them (~30seconds).
I accounted for badly implemented ice slurry slaughter. I assumed:
All of the shrimps helped transition to electrical stunning, 62.5 % (= 1 â 0.375) from air asphyxiation, and 37.5 % from ice slurry (= 0.75*0.5). I got these fractions assuming 75 % of the targeted producers use some form of ice slurry, half of those implement it properly, and the other half improperly to the point of it being practically equivalent to air asphyxiation. I made these assumptions having in mind Aaronâs comment at the end of this section.
In any case, based on my assumptions, it does not matter whether HSI is harmful for the 37.5 % of the affected shrimp which go from well implemented ice slurry to electrical stunning slaughter. The overall cost-effectiveness is dominated by making 62.5 % of the affected shrimp go from air asphyxiation to electrical stunning slaughter. I estimate 97.3 % (= 0.625*0.0447/â0.0287) of the benefits come from helping shrimp slaughtered via air asphyxiation, and that the increase in welfare for these is 48.6 % (= 1 â 4.85/â9.44), whereas the number of shrimp would very hardly increase by that. So the question of whether the number of shrimp increases is only relevant if a very small fraction of the helped shrimp is slaughtered via air asphyxiation (again, conditional on my assumptions).
Thanks so much Vasco for your work on this! As with MHR in the past, we really appreciate folks doing in-depth analyses like this, and are very appreciative of the interest in our work :)
In the spirit of this weekâs Forum theme, I wanted to provide some more context regarding SWPâs room for more funding.
Our overheads (i.e. salaries, travel/âconferences) and program costs for the India sludge removal work, are currently covered by grants until the end of 2026. Meaning that any additional funds are put towards HSI. (For context, our secured grants do also cover the cost of some stunners, but HSI as a program is still able to absorb more funding).
Each stunner costs us $55k and we ask the producers we work with to commit to stunning a minimum of 120 million shrimps per annum. This results in a cost-effectiveness of ~2,000+ shrimps helped /â $ /â year (i.e. our marginal impact of additional dollars is higher than our historical cost-effectiveness).
Weâre having our annual team retreat (which we call âShrimposiumâ) next week, during which we hope to map out how we can deploy stunners in such a way as to catalyse a tipping point so that pre-slaughter stunning becomes the industry standard.
Weâve had some good indications recently that HSI does contribute to âlocking-inâ industry adoption, with Tesco and Sainsburyâs recently publishing welfare policies, building on similar wins in the past (such as M&S and Albert Heijn).
This has always been the Theory of Change for the HSI project. Although weâre very excited by how cost-effective it is in its own right, ultimately we want to catalyse industry-wide adoptionâdeploying stunners to the early adopters in order to build towards a tipping point that achieves critical mass. In other words, over the next few years we want to take the HSI program from Growth to Scale.
I would be surprised if post-Shrimposium our targets regarding HSI required less funding than our current projections. In other words, though I donât currently have an exact sense of our room for more funding, Iâm confident SWP is in a position to absorb significantly more funding to support our HSI work.
If anyone wants to reach out to me directly, you can contact me at aaron@shrimpwelfareproject.org. You can also donate to SWP through our website, or book a meeting with me via this link.
Can I directly ask: Is SWP one of the orgs that has been affected by Good Ventures dropping support for some cause areas? (I couldnât parse all the context previously on a quick skim.)
Iâm not sure how much they funded you previously, or if this is a concern. No worries if you canât or would prefer not to say :)
Hey Angelina! Sureâhappy to answer :)
Yes we were affected by the Good Ventures announcement, and our current funding update is actually very similar to that of Wild Animal Initiative, as in:
The Navigation Fund (TNF) plans to fill SWPâs funding gap left by OP, at least through the end of 2026.
Weâre keen on diversifying our funding, so as not to continue relying on a single funder
However we differ in that our budget is smaller than that of WAI, and the majority of it is put toward a single program (HSI)
Wow, go TNF đđ I didnât realize they were bailing out non wild animal welfare orgs as well, thatâs very coolâand must have been a lift. That all makes sense. Congrats, and Iâm wishing you success on the funding diversity front!
Thanks for the great context, Aaron!
Is there any chance HSI may increase the number of shrimp? I guess it would tend to increase costs, and therefore decrease the number of shrimp. I ask because I estimate that moving from ice slurry to electrical stunning only increases welfare by 4.34 % (= 1 â 4.85/â5.07). In this case, since I think farmed shrimp have negative lives (for any slaughter method), an increase of more than 4.34 % in the number of shrimp would make HSI harmful.
Hey Vasco! Interesting question, unfortunately I donât know the answer...
My sense is no, as you say, the intervention increases costs without an increase in productivity for the producers. But ultimately an incentive here is continued market access, which Iâm sure an economist could model whether or not this could lead to an increase in the number of shrimps (over time).
Another point to emphasise thoughâitâs my sense that the intervention should be modelled as electrical stunning replaces air asphyxiation, rather than (perfectly implemented) ice slurry. Ice slurry slaughter is just a very difficult thing to do correctly in practice (and Iâve not seen it happen) - as even if at some point the shrimps are submerged in ice for a short period of time, itâs often not long enough to kill them (~30seconds).
Thanks, Aaron.
I accounted for badly implemented ice slurry slaughter. I assumed:
In any case, based on my assumptions, it does not matter whether HSI is harmful for the 37.5 % of the affected shrimp which go from well implemented ice slurry to electrical stunning slaughter. The overall cost-effectiveness is dominated by making 62.5 % of the affected shrimp go from air asphyxiation to electrical stunning slaughter. I estimate 97.3 % (= 0.625*0.0447/â0.0287) of the benefits come from helping shrimp slaughtered via air asphyxiation, and that the increase in welfare for these is 48.6 % (= 1 â 4.85/â9.44), whereas the number of shrimp would very hardly increase by that. So the question of whether the number of shrimp increases is only relevant if a very small fraction of the helped shrimp is slaughtered via air asphyxiation (again, conditional on my assumptions).