Regardless, it is great to see more realisation and communication around this topic. Most people just do not make any mental association between “food” and “animal suffering”. One day this will all appear utterly barbaric, the way slavery appears barbaric to us today even though some highly reputed figures throughout history owned slaves.
The more communication we have around animal consciousness and suffering, the faster that will happen.
The best kind of communication may well be the kind that is not “accusatory”—just informative. Let people think about it for themselves rather than telling them what to think.
Ultimately, maybe the best hope for ending animal suffering is alternative protein, and it is shocking how little money and effort is committed to this, given that it’s also critical for climate, for hunger-reduction, for resilience. Alternative protein offers the potential to tell people “here is a cheaper, healthier, tastier, climate-friendlier… alternative to meat, which also avoids animal suffering.”
There are thousands of people who would jump on that statement and say it’s unrealistic, but it’s absolutely not. It’s just that we’re not treating it like the emergency that it is, we’re not putting the same resources into it that we’re putting into making more powerful iphones. We could choose to.
Is it random that this appeared in the New York Times yesterday, or are the two related?
How Do We Know What Animals Are Really Feeling? - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Regardless, it is great to see more realisation and communication around this topic. Most people just do not make any mental association between “food” and “animal suffering”. One day this will all appear utterly barbaric, the way slavery appears barbaric to us today even though some highly reputed figures throughout history owned slaves.
The more communication we have around animal consciousness and suffering, the faster that will happen.
The best kind of communication may well be the kind that is not “accusatory”—just informative. Let people think about it for themselves rather than telling them what to think.
Ultimately, maybe the best hope for ending animal suffering is alternative protein, and it is shocking how little money and effort is committed to this, given that it’s also critical for climate, for hunger-reduction, for resilience. Alternative protein offers the potential to tell people “here is a cheaper, healthier, tastier, climate-friendlier… alternative to meat, which also avoids animal suffering.”
There are thousands of people who would jump on that statement and say it’s unrealistic, but it’s absolutely not. It’s just that we’re not treating it like the emergency that it is, we’re not putting the same resources into it that we’re putting into making more powerful iphones. We could choose to.