Hi Matthew. Thanks for crossposting this. I am sharing below the comment I left on the original post.
Hi Matthew. Nice post.
I estimate going to the protest is worth donating a few hundreds to dollars to the Shrimp Welfare Project (SWP). For 30 billion insects raised per year (you say “This single farm, Protix, raises tens of billions of farmed insects”), your assumption that “Protix’s continued operation will lead to an extra 300 billion farmed insects” implies each person increases by 0.01 pp the probability of 10 years of counterfactual impact. Maybe 3 years is more accurate considering the rest of the industry could increase their production to offset the loss of Protix. Even then, each person would save 3 M insects (= 30*10^6*3/10). I estimate SWP’s Humane Slaughter Initiative (HSI) helps 15 k shrimps per $ (https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/EbQysXxofbSqkbAiT/cost-effectiveness-of-shrimp-welfare-project-s-humane). Say saving 1 insect from Protix is as beneficial as HSI helping 1 shrimp, and that donations to SWP are roughly as cost-effective as HSI has been. In this case, going to the protest would be as beneficial as donating 200 $ (= 3*10^6/(15*10^3)) to SWP.
Given the above, going to the protest may still be worth it for people close by, but it is not obvious. For no financial cost, and a time cost of 20 $/h, it would have to take less than 10 h (= 200⁄20). On the other hand, there may be significant indirect benefits from going to the protest. In particular, connecting with people who care about neglected animals.
Hi Matthew. Thanks for crossposting this. I am sharing below the comment I left on the original post.