Hi Johannes, thanks for raising this! The usage of honey bees and cochineals for human purposes is indeed massive. The primary reasons why this is not a major focus for us are that we haven’t so far found tractable and cost-effective approaches that would help reduce the suffering of those animals in a way that would be more impactful compared to other marginal opportunities we have available. If anyone has identified a promising approach, we’re very happy to learn more from them.
Thanks for writing this insightful piece.
Is there any reason why you haven’t mentioned farmed honeybees or cochineals? At any given time, there are more than a trillion managed honey bees, and the farming of cochineal directly causes 4.6T to 21T additional deaths, primarily of male and female cochineal nymphs, and adult male cochineals.
Hi Johannes, thanks for raising this! The usage of honey bees and cochineals for human purposes is indeed massive. The primary reasons why this is not a major focus for us are that we haven’t so far found tractable and cost-effective approaches that would help reduce the suffering of those animals in a way that would be more impactful compared to other marginal opportunities we have available. If anyone has identified a promising approach, we’re very happy to learn more from them.