A few years ago, spending on animal welfare reforms in EA was so limited that running rigorous, informative studies to reduce the movement’s uncertainty might have cost more than the movement’s spending on the campaigns themselves. But as you mention, now that the funding bottleneck might be easing, such studies would inform much larger amounts of spending, and the expected value of information looks much higher. It thus seems like a very good time to raise an issue that would have been much harder to make progress on in the past (though as Lewis Bollard’s comment notes, the challenge is still daunting).
I found the post well-written and balanced, and the discussion in the comments mostly helpful. Strongly upvoted.
A few years ago, spending on animal welfare reforms in EA was so limited that running rigorous, informative studies to reduce the movement’s uncertainty might have cost more than the movement’s spending on the campaigns themselves. But as you mention, now that the funding bottleneck might be easing, such studies would inform much larger amounts of spending, and the expected value of information looks much higher. It thus seems like a very good time to raise an issue that would have been much harder to make progress on in the past (though as Lewis Bollard’s comment notes, the challenge is still daunting).
I found the post well-written and balanced, and the discussion in the comments mostly helpful. Strongly upvoted.