I think pressing a button to make everyone (ethically) vegan would be a much more robust way to end factory farming (and all forms of animal exploitation) than pressing a button to get cultivated meat on supermarket shelves at a competitive price point.
If everyone is ethically vegan: the social/cultural pressure to remain vegan is much stronger –> ex-veganism is heavily stigmatised –> far fewer ex-vegans –> not enough demand for factory farming to survive or return
Even before that, presumably factory farming would be undermined from every angle: lawmakers would ban it, employees would quit/strike, consumers would boycott
As far as I know, cultivated meat faces a number of cultural barriers
Clearly it’s much much harder to make everyone vegan than to get affordable cultivated meat on supermarket shelves! That’s one reason why I think cultivated meat is currently a more powerful tool at our disposal than vegan outreach for helping animals.
But I want the vegan outreachers to continue doing their work. One reason is I think that veganism is, deontologically, a moral obligation; another is that I think veganism is a costly signal that binds the animal movement together, which can serve to keep advocates motivated.
I think pressing a button to make everyone (ethically) vegan would be a much more robust way to end factory farming (and all forms of animal exploitation) than pressing a button to get cultivated meat on supermarket shelves at a competitive price point.
If everyone is ethically vegan: the social/cultural pressure to remain vegan is much stronger –> ex-veganism is heavily stigmatised –> far fewer ex-vegans –> not enough demand for factory farming to survive or return
Even before that, presumably factory farming would be undermined from every angle: lawmakers would ban it, employees would quit/strike, consumers would boycott
As far as I know, cultivated meat faces a number of cultural barriers
Clearly it’s much much harder to make everyone vegan than to get affordable cultivated meat on supermarket shelves! That’s one reason why I think cultivated meat is currently a more powerful tool at our disposal than vegan outreach for helping animals.
But I want the vegan outreachers to continue doing their work. One reason is I think that veganism is, deontologically, a moral obligation; another is that I think veganism is a costly signal that binds the animal movement together, which can serve to keep advocates motivated.
Ok, you’ve convinced me on the theoretical button-pushing. In reality those aren’t the options we’re presented with.