I found this to be thought-provoking and I’m glad you posted it. With that in mind, this list of points will skew a bit critical, as I’m more interested to see responses in cases where I disagree.
Diet change comment:
I haven’t seen much general EA advocacy for going veg*n, even from organizations focused on animal welfare (has a single person tried to make this argument on the Forum since the new version was launched?).
Instead, I think that most veg*n people in EA are doing so out of a personal desire to avoid action they see as morally wrong, rather than because they have overinflated estimates of how much good they are accomplishing. I made a poll to test this assumption.
Anecdotally, I basically agree with your numerical argument. I eat a lot of cheese, some other dairy products, and occasionally meat (maybe once or twice a month, mostly when I’m a guest at the house of a non-vegetarian cook, so that they don’t have to worry about accommodating me). But I still eat less meat than I used to (by a factor of at least ten), for a variety of EA-ish reasons:
I feel worse about minor immoral action than I used to.
I’m surrounded by people who have much stronger views about animal suffering than I do and who eat veg*n diets.
I enjoy supporting (read: taste-testing) meat alternatives.
I think there’s a chance that Future Me will someday look back at Past Me with Future Ethics Glasses and be annoyed about the meat I was consuming.
I found this to be thought-provoking and I’m glad you posted it. With that in mind, this list of points will skew a bit critical, as I’m more interested to see responses in cases where I disagree.
Diet change comment:
I haven’t seen much general EA advocacy for going veg*n, even from organizations focused on animal welfare (has a single person tried to make this argument on the Forum since the new version was launched?).
Instead, I think that most veg*n people in EA are doing so out of a personal desire to avoid action they see as morally wrong, rather than because they have overinflated estimates of how much good they are accomplishing. I made a poll to test this assumption.
Anecdotally, I basically agree with your numerical argument. I eat a lot of cheese, some other dairy products, and occasionally meat (maybe once or twice a month, mostly when I’m a guest at the house of a non-vegetarian cook, so that they don’t have to worry about accommodating me). But I still eat less meat than I used to (by a factor of at least ten), for a variety of EA-ish reasons:
I feel worse about minor immoral action than I used to.
I’m surrounded by people who have much stronger views about animal suffering than I do and who eat veg*n diets.
I enjoy supporting (read: taste-testing) meat alternatives.
I think there’s a chance that Future Me will someday look back at Past Me with Future Ethics Glasses and be annoyed about the meat I was consuming.