One major cause of wild animal suffering is predation.
One argument against intervening in predation is that it may reduce the population sizes of predators and reduce biodiversity, which many moral systems ascribe intrinsic value to.
The EA community is enthusiastic about the potential of cultivated meat to reduce farmed animal suffering, but I think cultivated meat also presents a tractable route to eventually reducing predation without reducing the population sizes of predators and harming biodiversity.
This means that the EA community currently underestimates the expected value of accelerating the development of cultivated meat and we should update to prioritise this area more.
Cultivated meat for wild animal welfare
One major cause of wild animal suffering is predation.
One argument against intervening in predation is that it may reduce the population sizes of predators and reduce biodiversity, which many moral systems ascribe intrinsic value to.
The EA community is enthusiastic about the potential of cultivated meat to reduce farmed animal suffering, but I think cultivated meat also presents a tractable route to eventually reducing predation without reducing the population sizes of predators and harming biodiversity.
This means that the EA community currently underestimates the expected value of accelerating the development of cultivated meat and we should update to prioritise this area more.