Hi there! I’m sorry that I didn’t sae this earlier (the holiday season has been extremely busy for me!). To answer your question (“how do EA animal advocacy programs differ from typical vegan advocacy organizations’ initiatives?”), there are three main differences (and one minor thing to keep in mind):
EA animal welfare advocacy isn’t necessarily focused on total animal liberation in the immediate term—although animal liberation is absolutely our ultimate goal. Because EA is based on utilitarian ethics (in a nutshell, utilitarianism is the moral claim that the greatest practical good should be done for the greatest number of moral patients [sentient beings]), we believe any improvement to sentient beings’ quality of life is a good thing, and to cause it is a moral imperative. Therefore, EA animal initiatives focus on things like eliminating abusive animal agriculture practices like cages and maceration in egg production, in addition to reducing animal product use worldwide.
EA also has a long-term focus, so our animal initiatives fund technologies that show strong probabilities of reducing animal exploitation in the future (e.g., lab-grown meat and dairy, cellular agriculture more broadly), even if such interventions have little immediate impact.
More broadly, EA animal charities (like all EA programs) focus on evidentiary support. Our initiatives are constantly measured against qualitative and quantitative data to ensure they are meeting their goals—and if they aren’t, they are defunded and scrapped. In many non-EA charities, ineffective programs may be retained simply for sentimental or pecuniary reasons.
This is a minor point, but the majority of EA members / practitioners are vegans or are vegetarian and working toward veganism. Aside from vegan activism itself, there is no other social movement, community, or philosophy in the Western world* that is so pro-vegan and pro-animal as Effective Altruism. That means a lot to me.
*in the East, Jainism and many forms of Buddhism are equally pro-animal and anti-carnism
I hope this answers your questions! I’m not one of those EAs who believes the movement is flawless or without fault, and there are things I wish EA animal welfare would do differently (like placing abolitionism of animal exploitation at the center of its goals), but on the whole I strongly believe EA initiatives do the most good for the animals, when compared to non-EA large-scale vegan programs.
Regardless of what you conclude about EA, thank you for standing up for our marginalized sentient siblings—it means so much. Have a fabulous holiday season! :)
Hi there! I’m sorry that I didn’t sae this earlier (the holiday season has been extremely busy for me!). To answer your question (“how do EA animal advocacy programs differ from typical vegan advocacy organizations’ initiatives?”), there are three main differences (and one minor thing to keep in mind):
EA animal welfare advocacy isn’t necessarily focused on total animal liberation in the immediate term—although animal liberation is absolutely our ultimate goal. Because EA is based on utilitarian ethics (in a nutshell, utilitarianism is the moral claim that the greatest practical good should be done for the greatest number of moral patients [sentient beings]), we believe any improvement to sentient beings’ quality of life is a good thing, and to cause it is a moral imperative. Therefore, EA animal initiatives focus on things like eliminating abusive animal agriculture practices like cages and maceration in egg production, in addition to reducing animal product use worldwide.
EA also has a long-term focus, so our animal initiatives fund technologies that show strong probabilities of reducing animal exploitation in the future (e.g., lab-grown meat and dairy, cellular agriculture more broadly), even if such interventions have little immediate impact.
More broadly, EA animal charities (like all EA programs) focus on evidentiary support. Our initiatives are constantly measured against qualitative and quantitative data to ensure they are meeting their goals—and if they aren’t, they are defunded and scrapped. In many non-EA charities, ineffective programs may be retained simply for sentimental or pecuniary reasons.
This is a minor point, but the majority of EA members / practitioners are vegans or are vegetarian and working toward veganism. Aside from vegan activism itself, there is no other social movement, community, or philosophy in the Western world* that is so pro-vegan and pro-animal as Effective Altruism. That means a lot to me.
*in the East, Jainism and many forms of Buddhism are equally pro-animal and anti-carnism
I hope this answers your questions! I’m not one of those EAs who believes the movement is flawless or without fault, and there are things I wish EA animal welfare would do differently (like placing abolitionism of animal exploitation at the center of its goals), but on the whole I strongly believe EA initiatives do the most good for the animals, when compared to non-EA large-scale vegan programs.
Regardless of what you conclude about EA, thank you for standing up for our marginalized sentient siblings—it means so much. Have a fabulous holiday season! :)