Suppose that you believe all of the following statements, which are cruxes for The Nematode Argument.
Springtails and soil nematodes are so numerous such that if they suffer, their suffering is vastly more important than that of humans or farmed animals.
I think the effects on soil animals of food production would still be much larger than those on farmed animals even if the total welfare of soil springtails, mites, and nematodes was exactly 0. I calculate soil ants and termites have 2.91 and 1.16 times as many neurons as shrimp, and “number of neurons”^0.188 explains quite well the welfare ranges in Bob Fischer’s book about comparing welfare across species, which suggests the welfare range of soil ants and termites is similar to that of shrimps. For individual welfare per animal-year proportional to “number of neurons”^0.5 (my preferred way of comparing welfare across species), I estimatethat producing chicken meat changes the welfare of soil ants and termites 218 times as much as it decreases the welfare of chickens, and that producing farmed fish changes the welfare of soil ants and termites 247 times as much as it decrease the welfare of fish. For an exponent of the number of neurons of 0.19 (which explains quite well the welfare ranges in Bob’s book), I get ratios of 3.11 k and 1.35 k.
Thanks for the post!
I think the effects on soil animals of food production would still be much larger than those on farmed animals even if the total welfare of soil springtails, mites, and nematodes was exactly 0. I calculate soil ants and termites have 2.91 and 1.16 times as many neurons as shrimp, and “number of neurons”^0.188 explains quite well the welfare ranges in Bob Fischer’s book about comparing welfare across species, which suggests the welfare range of soil ants and termites is similar to that of shrimps. For individual welfare per animal-year proportional to “number of neurons”^0.5 (my preferred way of comparing welfare across species), I estimate that producing chicken meat changes the welfare of soil ants and termites 218 times as much as it decreases the welfare of chickens, and that producing farmed fish changes the welfare of soil ants and termites 247 times as much as it decrease the welfare of fish. For an exponent of the number of neurons of 0.19 (which explains quite well the welfare ranges in Bob’s book), I get ratios of 3.11 k and 1.35 k.