It’s great that you’re doing what you can on this front, despite all the challenges! I don’t have specific nutritional advice, though maybe the writer of the first post you linked would.
You may have already considered this (some of your ideas hinted in this direction), but I think it’s important to focus on suffering intensity, which you could measure in terms of suffering per calorie or suffering per pound of food. Doing so will minimize your overall suffering footprint. My understanding is that the differences in capacity for suffering between large and small animals (such as cows and shrimp) aren’t large enough to outweigh the difference in the number of animals you have to eat to get the same number of calories. Additionally, cows seem to be kept in some of the least awful conditions of any factory-farmed animal.
This website, foodimpacts.org, shows this difference in a useful graphic. It also lets you weight the importance you place on welfare vs. climate impacts (though I would set climate to 0%, it may be helpful for you if you prioritize differently).
Thanks, those are some great resources! I can read the post on insect sentience but the link to the paper throws an error. I’d love to read the definitions they use for their criteria.
It’s great that you’re doing what you can on this front, despite all the challenges! I don’t have specific nutritional advice, though maybe the writer of the first post you linked would.
You may have already considered this (some of your ideas hinted in this direction), but I think it’s important to focus on suffering intensity, which you could measure in terms of suffering per calorie or suffering per pound of food. Doing so will minimize your overall suffering footprint. My understanding is that the differences in capacity for suffering between large and small animals (such as cows and shrimp) aren’t large enough to outweigh the difference in the number of animals you have to eat to get the same number of calories. Additionally, cows seem to be kept in some of the least awful conditions of any factory-farmed animal.
This website, foodimpacts.org, shows this difference in a useful graphic. It also lets you weight the importance you place on welfare vs. climate impacts (though I would set climate to 0%, it may be helpful for you if you prioritize differently).
Brian Tomasic’s How Much Direct Suffering Is Caused by Various Animal Foods? could also be a useful guide, and Meghan Barrett’s work on insect sentience is worth a read if you want to decide whether it’s better to eat insects or other animals.
Thanks, those are some great resources! I can read the post on insect sentience but the link to the paper throws an error. I’d love to read the definitions they use for their criteria.
Just messaged you!