Will the grants made in this new area mostly save people in low income countries? If not, I would be specially worried about the meat-eater problem. I estimated this reduces the cost-effectiveness of GiveWell’s top charities by 8.72 % for the current consumption per capita[1]. However, for the mean global diet, I estimated the badness of the effects on animals to be 4.64 times the goodness of the effects on humans. This suggests saving lives leads to net suffering in the nearterm (relatedly), although I am kind of agnostic with respect to the overall value of saving lives due to other considerations.
Does Open Phil consider effects on animals when launching new areas in the GHW portfolio? Holding constant the effects on humans, I would say interventions mostly improving quality of life (as opposed to extending life), like ones aiming to improve mental health, should be preferred due smaller negative effects on animals.
If Open Phil thinks effects on animals should not be considered when making choices about interventions which aim to help humans, reasoning transparency about the topic would still be appreciated.
Thanks for sharing, James!
Will the grants made in this new area mostly save people in low income countries? If not, I would be specially worried about the meat-eater problem. I estimated this reduces the cost-effectiveness of GiveWell’s top charities by 8.72 % for the current consumption per capita[1]. However, for the mean global diet, I estimated the badness of the effects on animals to be 4.64 times the goodness of the effects on humans. This suggests saving lives leads to net suffering in the nearterm (relatedly), although I am kind of agnostic with respect to the overall value of saving lives due to other considerations.
Does Open Phil consider effects on animals when launching new areas in the GHW portfolio? Holding constant the effects on humans, I would say interventions mostly improving quality of life (as opposed to extending life), like ones aiming to improve mental health, should be preferred due smaller negative effects on animals.
If Open Phil thinks effects on animals should not be considered when making choices about interventions which aim to help humans, reasoning transparency about the topic would still be appreciated.
The consumption per capita of farmed animals will tend to increase as the target countries get richer.