A challenge with promoting animal rights is the common request for people to completely eliminate animal products from their diet, a step too significant for most. This demand can lead to inaction due to the cognitive dissonance experienced by those disturbed by factory farming but unwilling to go vegan. Thus, providing alternative ways for people to contribute can build more support and reduce harm.
Promoting meaningful labeling: When I go to the supermarket, I often see labeling that purports to signify that the animals used in the creation of the product were treated more humanely. I have no idea (a) whether or not the treatment difference they are claiming is actually true (there may be little to no enforcement) or (b) whether the treatment difference they are claiming actually is significant in terms of its welfare effect. This is an area that EAs could enable non-vegans who are sympathetic… enabling them to identify labeling that is meaningful in terms of animal welfare differences.
Promoting off-setting: The farmed animal welfare movement funding is around two to three hundred million dollars globally, if I understand correctly, orders of magnitude less than cause areas like global health and development. I think there are people who agree that it is terrible that we live in a world of mass torture for the creation of animal products, yet are unwilling to give up the products and thus continue contributing to the demand for it. Although it may not be the most rational to tie one’s donation to one’s harmful action, it is a framework that resonates with people due to some intuitions regarding special obligations stemming from harms that one causes. In my mind, we should leverage this intuition and make it easy to: (1) provide a survey to people that establishes their dietary patters; (2) provide a portfolio of effective animal welfare charities that effectively address farmed animal welfare (conservatively calculated to overestimate rather than underestimate),(3) calculate a sum corresponding with the harm caused on an annual basis, and (4) providing an easy means for them to pay it. I understand @Luke Eure is doing some work that may further this project.
Making it simpler for people to engage in the farmed animal welfare movement is crucial. By offering accessible and practical ways to contribute, we can attract more individuals who share our goals, even if to a lesser degree.
Regarding offsetting, I am launching a donation platform for animals next month (as a recent graduate from Charity Entrepreneurship /​ AIM’s incubation program), which has ‘reducetarians’ as one of our target audiences, and we’ve build such an offset calculator. We’ll be trying to generate some earned media coverage at launch about donating as something other than diet change that people who care about fixing factory farming can do. We don’t be saying that people should donate instead of changing their diet, but that if they aren’t willing/​able to reduce their animal consumption right now, there’s still something they can do.
We’ll need all the help we can get spreading the word about the platform and this calculator, so if you’d like to be updated when we launch so you can potentially spread the word, you can sign up to our mailing list at farmkind.giving
Relatedly, I estimated one can neutralise the harm caused to farmed animals by the annual food consumption of a random person donating just 0.269 $ to The Humane League (THL). For most people in high income countries, it is arguably way easier to donate 1 k times as much as this than to go plant-based (of course, not donating nor changing one’s diet is even easier).
A challenge with promoting animal rights is the common request for people to completely eliminate animal products from their diet, a step too significant for most. This demand can lead to inaction due to the cognitive dissonance experienced by those disturbed by factory farming but unwilling to go vegan. Thus, providing alternative ways for people to contribute can build more support and reduce harm.
Promoting meaningful labeling: When I go to the supermarket, I often see labeling that purports to signify that the animals used in the creation of the product were treated more humanely. I have no idea (a) whether or not the treatment difference they are claiming is actually true (there may be little to no enforcement) or (b) whether the treatment difference they are claiming actually is significant in terms of its welfare effect. This is an area that EAs could enable non-vegans who are sympathetic… enabling them to identify labeling that is meaningful in terms of animal welfare differences.
Promoting off-setting: The farmed animal welfare movement funding is around two to three hundred million dollars globally, if I understand correctly, orders of magnitude less than cause areas like global health and development. I think there are people who agree that it is terrible that we live in a world of mass torture for the creation of animal products, yet are unwilling to give up the products and thus continue contributing to the demand for it. Although it may not be the most rational to tie one’s donation to one’s harmful action, it is a framework that resonates with people due to some intuitions regarding special obligations stemming from harms that one causes. In my mind, we should leverage this intuition and make it easy to: (1) provide a survey to people that establishes their dietary patters; (2) provide a portfolio of effective animal welfare charities that effectively address farmed animal welfare (conservatively calculated to overestimate rather than underestimate),(3) calculate a sum corresponding with the harm caused on an annual basis, and (4) providing an easy means for them to pay it. I understand @Luke Eure is doing some work that may further this project.
Making it simpler for people to engage in the farmed animal welfare movement is crucial. By offering accessible and practical ways to contribute, we can attract more individuals who share our goals, even if to a lesser degree.
Regarding offsetting, I am launching a donation platform for animals next month (as a recent graduate from Charity Entrepreneurship /​ AIM’s incubation program), which has ‘reducetarians’ as one of our target audiences, and we’ve build such an offset calculator. We’ll be trying to generate some earned media coverage at launch about donating as something other than diet change that people who care about fixing factory farming can do. We don’t be saying that people should donate instead of changing their diet, but that if they aren’t willing/​able to reduce their animal consumption right now, there’s still something they can do.
We’ll need all the help we can get spreading the word about the platform and this calculator, so if you’d like to be updated when we launch so you can potentially spread the word, you can sign up to our mailing list at farmkind.giving
I joined your mailing list. I will be happy to share what you are doing both personally and through my org!
Nice points, Brad!
Relatedly, I estimated one can neutralise the harm caused to farmed animals by the annual food consumption of a random person donating just 0.269 $ to The Humane League (THL). For most people in high income countries, it is arguably way easier to donate 1 k times as much as this than to go plant-based (of course, not donating nor changing one’s diet is even easier).