many people can find it motivating, and that is important to think about, but also really doesn’t fit nicely into a harm-reducing framework.
Ya, I guess the value towards harm reduction would be more indirect/instrumental in this case.
I mean, being an onmivore would allow you to choose between more options. Generally having more options very rarely hurts you.
I think this is true of idealized rational agents with fixed preferences, but I’m much less sure about actual people, who are motivated in ways they wouldn’t endorse upon reflection and who aren’t acting optimally impartially even if they think it would be better on reflection if they did.
By going veg, you eliminate or more easily resist the motivation to eat more expensive animal products that could have net impartial opportunity costs. Maybe skipping (expensive) meats hurts you in the moment (because you want meat), but it saves you money to donate to things you think matter more. You’d be less likely to correctly — by reflection on your impartial preferences — skip the meat and save the money if you weren’t veg.
And some people are not even really open to (cheaper) plant-based options like beans and tofu, and that goes away going veg. That was the case for me. My attitude before going veg would have been irrational from an impartial perspective, just considering the $ costs that could be donated instead.
Of course, some people will endorse being inherently partial to themselves upon reflection, so eating animal products might seem fine to them even at greater cost. But the people inclined to cut out animal products by comparing their personal costs to the harms to animals probably wouldn’t end up endorsing their selfish motivation to eat animal products over the harms to animals.
The other side is that a veg*n is more motivated to eat the more expensive plant-based substitutes and go to vegan restaurants, which (in my experience) tend to be more expensive.
I’m not inclined to judge how things will shake out based on idealized models of agents. I really don’t know either way, and it will depend on the person. Cheap veg diets seem cheaper than cheap omni diets, but if people are eating enough plant-based meats, their food costs would probably increase.
Here are prices in Canadian $/kg of protein, for the versions of foods that seemed cheapest per kg of protein from Walmart Canada and Amazon Canada.
And then extra supplements for veg EAs.
For restaurants, as long as you avoid expensive plant-based substitutes and vegan-specific restaurants, I think veg options are usually cheaper. Of course, a veg EA will be tempted by these sometimes, too!
To be clear, I don’t think it’s that important to minimize the cost of your diet. Things like rent, vehicle, travel, and how often you eat out (when it doesn’t help you do more work) are probably more important if you want to save money.
Ya, I guess the value towards harm reduction would be more indirect/instrumental in this case.
I think this is true of idealized rational agents with fixed preferences, but I’m much less sure about actual people, who are motivated in ways they wouldn’t endorse upon reflection and who aren’t acting optimally impartially even if they think it would be better on reflection if they did.
By going veg, you eliminate or more easily resist the motivation to eat more expensive animal products that could have net impartial opportunity costs. Maybe skipping (expensive) meats hurts you in the moment (because you want meat), but it saves you money to donate to things you think matter more. You’d be less likely to correctly — by reflection on your impartial preferences — skip the meat and save the money if you weren’t veg.
And some people are not even really open to (cheaper) plant-based options like beans and tofu, and that goes away going veg. That was the case for me. My attitude before going veg would have been irrational from an impartial perspective, just considering the $ costs that could be donated instead.
Of course, some people will endorse being inherently partial to themselves upon reflection, so eating animal products might seem fine to them even at greater cost. But the people inclined to cut out animal products by comparing their personal costs to the harms to animals probably wouldn’t end up endorsing their selfish motivation to eat animal products over the harms to animals.
The other side is that a veg*n is more motivated to eat the more expensive plant-based substitutes and go to vegan restaurants, which (in my experience) tend to be more expensive.
I’m not inclined to judge how things will shake out based on idealized models of agents. I really don’t know either way, and it will depend on the person. Cheap veg diets seem cheaper than cheap omni diets, but if people are eating enough plant-based meats, their food costs would probably increase.
Here are prices in Canadian $/kg of protein, for the versions of foods that seemed cheapest per kg of protein from Walmart Canada and Amazon Canada.
And then extra supplements for veg EAs.
For restaurants, as long as you avoid expensive plant-based substitutes and vegan-specific restaurants, I think veg options are usually cheaper. Of course, a veg EA will be tempted by these sometimes, too!
To be clear, I don’t think it’s that important to minimize the cost of your diet. Things like rent, vehicle, travel, and how often you eat out (when it doesn’t help you do more work) are probably more important if you want to save money.