This does seem like a downside. Is it also a significant downside on the margin? I imagine (and have a little experience suggesting that) most of the logistical costs are in finding any good veg*n options for the event (rather than in scaling an order). That seems to suggest that, even if (say) 70% of veg*ns in the community started eating meat, that would only cut a minority of these costs. So this marginal cost of veg*nism may be smaller than it initially appears.
Yeah, I think this is mostly true, though my experiences have been relatively different in organizing things for the rationality community, which is much closer to 30% vegan/vegetarian, instead of the 90% vegan/vegetarian I am used to in EA spaces, which is at least some evidence that this is still a cost on the margin.
My guess is de-facto that the vegetarians and vegans are still often disappointed with the food options when I organize things for the rationality community, even when I do my best, but 30% having that experience is still very different than 90% having that experience. I do have people reliably complain to me that the food is bad and doesn’t have enough protein (and the caterers seem to never add enough protein, no matter how many times I ask). I think there is also some difference in expectations, where vegetarians and vegans expect an OK to mediocre option at an event that’s not mostly vegetarians and vegans, but do seem to expect something really great if it’s all vegetarian and vegan, though de-facto almost no caterer I found is actually much better when they just provide vegetarian/vegan food.
This does seem like a downside. Is it also a significant downside on the margin? I imagine (and have a little experience suggesting that) most of the logistical costs are in finding any good veg*n options for the event (rather than in scaling an order). That seems to suggest that, even if (say) 70% of veg*ns in the community started eating meat, that would only cut a minority of these costs. So this marginal cost of veg*nism may be smaller than it initially appears.
Yeah, I think this is mostly true, though my experiences have been relatively different in organizing things for the rationality community, which is much closer to 30% vegan/vegetarian, instead of the 90% vegan/vegetarian I am used to in EA spaces, which is at least some evidence that this is still a cost on the margin.
My guess is de-facto that the vegetarians and vegans are still often disappointed with the food options when I organize things for the rationality community, even when I do my best, but 30% having that experience is still very different than 90% having that experience. I do have people reliably complain to me that the food is bad and doesn’t have enough protein (and the caterers seem to never add enough protein, no matter how many times I ask). I think there is also some difference in expectations, where vegetarians and vegans expect an OK to mediocre option at an event that’s not mostly vegetarians and vegans, but do seem to expect something really great if it’s all vegetarian and vegan, though de-facto almost no caterer I found is actually much better when they just provide vegetarian/vegan food.