Thus, if consumers viewed plant-based meat and cultivated meat as perfect substitutes, cultivated meat would have a net negative effect since plant-based alternatives perform better both environmentally and in terms of animal welfare (albeit marginally for the latter).
“Marginally for the latter”—that still seems like good news for people who care primarily about animal wellbeing. The way I see it, the environment is not that good a thing anyway (wild animal suffering makes it negative according to my values, and even if others care less about it or care more about aesthetic stuff, surely it moves it quite a lot of the way towards being just neutral), plus there are potentially ways to reverse the effect of greenhouse gas emissions. By contrast, you cannot reverse the direct suffering caused in factory farming.
“Marginally for the latter”—that still seems like good news for people who care primarily about animal wellbeing. The way I see it, the environment is not that good a thing anyway (wild animal suffering makes it negative according to my values, and even if others care less about it or care more about aesthetic stuff, surely it moves it quite a lot of the way towards being just neutral), plus there are potentially ways to reverse the effect of greenhouse gas emissions. By contrast, you cannot reverse the direct suffering caused in factory farming.