With the French branch of Anima International, we also made similar estimates to evaluate our work with school and university canteens in France. We plan to make a post about this analysis. The results made us decide to look for more effective interventions.
A few points about your post:
We used a similar methodology as you. In particular, we didn’t estimate the number of animals lives saved, but the number of days of suffering averted (as you did). See our recent post: Fighting animal suffering: beyond the number of animals killed
in France, the breakdown of different types of animal products is different in canteens than in households (relatively less chicken meat is eaten in canteens than in households for instance). It may also be the case in the UK, which would decrease or increase the cost-effectiveness, depending of which types of meat are over-represented in canteens
even if we advocated mainly for plant-based meals in France, often our partners implemented vegetarian meals, which often contained eggs. Since egg meals (particularly coming from caged hens) cause a lot of suffering (approximately as much as in chicken meals), it signifcantly lowered our effectiveness. So it would be worth checking in your analysis that the meals were shifted to 100% plant-based ones
all this discussion doesn’t take into account the long-term effects of having children eating more plant-based when they are young. We tried to review the scientific litterature about such effects, but we concluded that it hasn’t been studied enough to support continuing this program.
With the French branch of Anima International, we also made similar estimates to evaluate our work with school and university canteens in France. We plan to make a post about this analysis.
Nice that you plan to publish your results.
even if we advocated mainly for plant-based meals in France, often our partners implemented vegetarian meals, which often contained eggs. Since egg meals (particularly coming from caged hens) cause a lot of suffering (approximately as much as in chicken meals), it signifcantly lowered our effectiveness. So it would be worth checking in your analysis that the meals were shifted to 100% plant-based ones
Right. I assumed all additional meat-free meals to be plant-based for simplicity (as I noted in the post), but the potential presence of eggs means I have overestimated the cost-effectiveness of School Plates. I have just asked Sarah whether she know the fraction of meat-free meals which are plant-based. For now I have updated the analysis assuming a fraction of 2⁄3.
I have just asked Sarah whether she know the fraction of meat-free meals which are plant-based. For now I have updated the analysis assuming a fraction of 2⁄3.
Jimmy Pierson, director of ProVeg UK, clarified meat-free meals are not plant-based “because of a small amount of dairy cheese. It’s very rarely, if ever, a result of eggs in the meal”. Having this in mind, for simplicity, I now assume meat-free meals are as good as plant-based ones.
With the French branch of Anima International, we also made similar estimates to evaluate our work with school and university canteens in France. We plan to make a post about this analysis. The results made us decide to look for more effective interventions.
A few points about your post:
We used a similar methodology as you. In particular, we didn’t estimate the number of animals lives saved, but the number of days of suffering averted (as you did). See our recent post: Fighting animal suffering: beyond the number of animals killed
in France, the breakdown of different types of animal products is different in canteens than in households (relatively less chicken meat is eaten in canteens than in households for instance). It may also be the case in the UK, which would decrease or increase the cost-effectiveness, depending of which types of meat are over-represented in canteens
even if we advocated mainly for plant-based meals in France, often our partners implemented vegetarian meals, which often contained eggs. Since egg meals (particularly coming from caged hens) cause a lot of suffering (approximately as much as in chicken meals), it signifcantly lowered our effectiveness. So it would be worth checking in your analysis that the meals were shifted to 100% plant-based ones
all this discussion doesn’t take into account the long-term effects of having children eating more plant-based when they are young. We tried to review the scientific litterature about such effects, but we concluded that it hasn’t been studied enough to support continuing this program.
Thanks for sharing, Keyvan! Strongly upvoted.
Nice that you plan to publish your results.
Right. I assumed all additional meat-free meals to be plant-based for simplicity (as I noted in the post), but the potential presence of eggs means I have overestimated the cost-effectiveness of School Plates. I have just asked Sarah whether she know the fraction of meat-free meals which are plant-based. For now I have updated the analysis assuming a fraction of 2⁄3.
Jimmy Pierson, director of ProVeg UK, clarified meat-free meals are not plant-based “because of a small amount of dairy cheese. It’s very rarely, if ever, a result of eggs in the meal”. Having this in mind, for simplicity, I now assume meat-free meals are as good as plant-based ones.