1) I think freegan consumption actually would be very different. You’re not paying for the torture and killing. Knowing that would make it far less salient I would think. Plus, the whole reason it harms camaraderie is that we don’t believe it’s Pareto-improving since the norm of offsetting seems less sticky.
2) I don’t really think belief in animal consciousness shows that people are thinking rationally. It’s a pretty low and trivial bar.
Regarding the offsetting norm, do you have evidence that offsets have traveled further than avoiding carbon-intensive technology? I know many people who bike, use public transit, live in an urban area, etc. much of which is to some degree driven by the carbon emissions of cars. I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head who uses offsets.
It would be great—and far preferable in my view—for Whole Foods to do this offset system instead of ‘humane’ meat (someone should propose this to them actually), but I would definitely prefer that they stop selling meat entirely. I can’t imagine the offsets option would have as strong a normative effect as that.
I was thinking of ‘green power’ purchase programs and airline offsets as well as things like carbon-neutral data centers using credits. And contrasting that to boycotts rather than marginal reductions. [There’s also a huge involuntary credit market, of course, which is more clearly larger than the voluntary responses but isn’t directly comparable].
I can’t imagine the offsets option would have as strong a normative effect as that.
There is a normative effect of doing offsets in getting others to do offsets. If each player doing offsets has more effect than each player changing its own production/consumption, then that can be a win. And the offset charities presumably have normative effects. Would Whole Foods going back to being vegetarian do more than $20MM or $100MM to the most effective animal charities?
Yes, I can’t imagine an effective animal charity doing as much good as Whole Foods going back to being vegetarian.
Regarding the normative effects of offsets charities, I think the cost effectiveness figures are far too optimistic here (the most reasonable ones apply to corporate outreach, which I think has the smallest spillovers). I don’t see a case for the effectiveness of a donation outweighing the increased contagiousness of a dietary norm.
1) I think freegan consumption actually would be very different. You’re not paying for the torture and killing. Knowing that would make it far less salient I would think. Plus, the whole reason it harms camaraderie is that we don’t believe it’s Pareto-improving since the norm of offsetting seems less sticky.
2) I don’t really think belief in animal consciousness shows that people are thinking rationally. It’s a pretty low and trivial bar.
Regarding the offsetting norm, do you have evidence that offsets have traveled further than avoiding carbon-intensive technology? I know many people who bike, use public transit, live in an urban area, etc. much of which is to some degree driven by the carbon emissions of cars. I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head who uses offsets.
It would be great—and far preferable in my view—for Whole Foods to do this offset system instead of ‘humane’ meat (someone should propose this to them actually), but I would definitely prefer that they stop selling meat entirely. I can’t imagine the offsets option would have as strong a normative effect as that.
I was thinking of ‘green power’ purchase programs and airline offsets as well as things like carbon-neutral data centers using credits. And contrasting that to boycotts rather than marginal reductions. [There’s also a huge involuntary credit market, of course, which is more clearly larger than the voluntary responses but isn’t directly comparable].
There is a normative effect of doing offsets in getting others to do offsets. If each player doing offsets has more effect than each player changing its own production/consumption, then that can be a win. And the offset charities presumably have normative effects. Would Whole Foods going back to being vegetarian do more than $20MM or $100MM to the most effective animal charities?
Yes, I can’t imagine an effective animal charity doing as much good as Whole Foods going back to being vegetarian.
Regarding the normative effects of offsets charities, I think the cost effectiveness figures are far too optimistic here (the most reasonable ones apply to corporate outreach, which I think has the smallest spillovers). I don’t see a case for the effectiveness of a donation outweighing the increased contagiousness of a dietary norm.
How much do you think it costs to get 3 people to adopt the dietary norm (with associated follow-on effects)?
And what do you think of the prospects for things like meat substitute R&D, cultured meat/eggs or this chicken-sexing technology?