It is pretty hard to offset a human life, as estimates from givewell suggest a cost per marginal life saved in the thousands of dollars.
Lark’s point (I imagine) is something like this. If you think ACE’s figures are about right, the direct harm of eating meat can be offset fairly cheaply, so better a carnivore giving a few dollars a year to THL than a vegetarian giving nothing. You might say this is a false dilemma, but in reality people are imperfect, and often try and allocate their limited altruistic resources as effectively as possible. If they find refraining from meat to be much more difficult than giving a few dollars (or earning a few more dollars to give away) it seem better all-things-considered they keep eating meat and give money.
So the harm of EA venues eating meat is primarily symbolic, as I don’t think animal advocates would be happy if EA venues kept serving meat but gave $100 or whatever to THL, despite this being enough to offset the direct harm. In public facing events, fair enough (although I’m tempted to suggest that offsets etc. might be a good ‘EA message’), yet this seems unclear in non-front-facing events.
It is pretty hard to offset a human life, as estimates from givewell suggest a cost per marginal life saved in the thousands of dollars.
Lark’s point (I imagine) is something like this. If you think ACE’s figures are about right, the direct harm of eating meat can be offset fairly cheaply, so better a carnivore giving a few dollars a year to THL than a vegetarian giving nothing. You might say this is a false dilemma, but in reality people are imperfect, and often try and allocate their limited altruistic resources as effectively as possible. If they find refraining from meat to be much more difficult than giving a few dollars (or earning a few more dollars to give away) it seem better all-things-considered they keep eating meat and give money.
So the harm of EA venues eating meat is primarily symbolic, as I don’t think animal advocates would be happy if EA venues kept serving meat but gave $100 or whatever to THL, despite this being enough to offset the direct harm. In public facing events, fair enough (although I’m tempted to suggest that offsets etc. might be a good ‘EA message’), yet this seems unclear in non-front-facing events.
That seems basically right, but different from what Lark actually said.