Thanks Saulius—I think this is really interesting info.
However, I feel that this be misleading in that it overstates the case for vegetarianism over clean meat R&D, because what one is really interested in is meat or animal product elasticity. In other words, poultry elasticity understates the counterfactual where reduction of poultry supply due to someone’s vegetarianism increases the supply of other animal products.
I don’t quite understand this comment. I don’t think there was any discussion here about vegetarianism vs. clean meat R&D. Maybe you should clarify if it’s important :)
I was trying to make a point about the comparative effectiveness of two popular kinds of interventions in animal welfare: animal product reduction advocacy (e.g. leafletting, corporate campaigns etc.) vs. clean meat R&D.
The effectiveness of animal product reduction advocacy relies more heavily on the elasticity.
Poultry elasticity might be higher than the—harder to measure, more meaningful—animal product elasticity. For instance, reduction in demand for poultry might lower the price of feed further down in the supply chain—reducing the price and thus increasing the demand of other animal products.
Thus, using poultry elasticity as a parameter when evaluating animal product reduction advocacy interventions overstates its effectiveness (relative to clean meat R&D).
Thanks Saulius—I think this is really interesting info.
However, I feel that this be misleading in that it overstates the case for vegetarianism over clean meat R&D, because what one is really interested in is meat or animal product elasticity. In other words, poultry elasticity understates the counterfactual where reduction of poultry supply due to someone’s vegetarianism increases the supply of other animal products.
I don’t quite understand this comment. I don’t think there was any discussion here about vegetarianism vs. clean meat R&D. Maybe you should clarify if it’s important :)
Sorry I was being unclear.
I was trying to make a point about the comparative effectiveness of two popular kinds of interventions in animal welfare: animal product reduction advocacy (e.g. leafletting, corporate campaigns etc.) vs. clean meat R&D.
The effectiveness of animal product reduction advocacy relies more heavily on the elasticity.
Poultry elasticity might be higher than the—harder to measure, more meaningful—animal product elasticity. For instance, reduction in demand for poultry might lower the price of feed further down in the supply chain—reducing the price and thus increasing the demand of other animal products.
Thus, using poultry elasticity as a parameter when evaluating animal product reduction advocacy interventions overstates its effectiveness (relative to clean meat R&D).