I had estimated donating “0.147 $/year” to corporate campaigns for broiler welfare is enough to cancel all suffering caused to farmed animals per person per year (not just that linked to eggs). However, I still think eating predominantly whole-food plan-based makes sense from an altruistic perspective:
It is cheaper in upper-middle-income and high-income countries, so one can make more donations. From Springmann 2021 (see Fig. 1 below), “compared with the cost of current diets, the healthy and sustainable dietary patterns were, depending on the pattern, up to 22–34% lower in cost in upper-middle-income to high-income countries on average (when considering statistical means), but at least 18–29% more expensive in lower-middle-income to low-income countries”.
It is healthier, so one can work more time.
According to the EAT-Lancet Commision, the global adoption of a predominantly plant-based healthy diet, with just 13.6 %[1] (= (153 + 15 + 15 + 62 + 19 + 40 + 36)/2500) of calories coming from animals, would decrease premature deaths of adults by 21.7 %[2] (= (0.19 + 0.224 + 0.236)/3).
BMK=benchmark diets. FLX=flexitarian diets. PSC=pescatarian diets. VEG=vegetarian diets. VGN=vegan diets. Veg=diet variant high in fruits and vegetables. Grn=high-grain diet variant.
Epistemic status: Sitting in a cafe in a country with ~no cage-free eggs staring hungrily at a breakfast menu consisting entirely of egg-based options considering breaking my no-meat-or-caged-eggs diet while KC and the Sunshine Band sing Give It Up over the cafe speakers and wondering if the universe is telling me to give up rationalising eating tasty food or to give up rationalising looking more altruistic.
Nice points, Holly!
I had estimated donating “0.147 $/year” to corporate campaigns for broiler welfare is enough to cancel all suffering caused to farmed animals per person per year (not just that linked to eggs). However, I still think eating predominantly whole-food plan-based makes sense from an altruistic perspective:
It is cheaper in upper-middle-income and high-income countries, so one can make more donations. From Springmann 2021 (see Fig. 1 below), “compared with the cost of current diets, the healthy and sustainable dietary patterns were, depending on the pattern, up to 22–34% lower in cost in upper-middle-income to high-income countries on average (when considering statistical means), but at least 18–29% more expensive in lower-middle-income to low-income countries”.
It is healthier, so one can work more time.
According to the EAT-Lancet Commision, the global adoption of a predominantly plant-based healthy diet, with just 13.6 %[1] (= (153 + 15 + 15 + 62 + 19 + 40 + 36)/2500) of calories coming from animals, would decrease premature deaths of adults by 21.7 %[2] (= (0.19 + 0.224 + 0.236)/3).
BMK=benchmark diets. FLX=flexitarian diets. PSC=pescatarian diets. VEG=vegetarian diets. VGN=vegan diets. Veg=diet variant high in fruits and vegetables. Grn=high-grain diet variant.
Thanks for sharing! I found it funny.
Calculated based on values in Table 1.
Mean of the 3 estimates in Table 3.