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Meat-eater problem

TagLast edit: 21 Mar 2024 16:06 UTC by Vasco Grilo

The meat-eater problem (sometimes called the poor meat-eater problem) is the concern that some interventions aimed at helping humans might increase animal product consumption and as a result increase farmed animal suffering, e.g. by increasing real income or human population.

History

The meat-eater problem appears to have been first explicitly described in a Felicifia post from 2009.[1]

Further details

Saving human lives, and making humans more prosperous, seem to be obviously good in terms of direct effects. However, humans consume animal products, and these animal products may cause considerable animal suffering. Therefore, improving human lives may lead to negative effects that outweigh the direct positive effects. This “meat-eater problem” suggests that working on global poverty may be less effective than is commonly assumed.

Although it is very difficult to quantify these effects, one estimate suggests that each additional $1,000 per year for a relatively poor individual may cause between 1 and 190 days of animal suffering, though the estimate should not be taken literally.[2] Some have argued that the problem is less significant by claiming that animals have net positive lives, or by arguing that the effect on consumption is relatively small.[3]

Further reading

Plant, Michael (2022) The Meat Eater Problem, Journal of Controversial Ideas

Holness-Tofts, Alex (2020) Poor meat eater problem, Effective Altruism Forum, July 10.

Shulman, Carl (2015) Comment on “What is the expected effect of poverty alleviation efforts on existential risk?”, Effective Altruism Forum, October 2.

Related entries

cause prioritization | cultivated meat | dietary change | economic growth | farmed animal welfare

  1. ^

    Östman, Jesper (2009) The poor meat eater problem, Felicifia, October 26.

  2. ^

    Bogosian, Kyle (2015) Quantifying the impact of economic growth on meat consumption, Effective Altruism Forum, December 22.

  3. ^

    Weathers, Scott (2016) The meat eater problem: developing an EA response, Effective Altruism Forum, February 29.

Helping an­i­mals or sav­ing hu­man lives in high in­come coun­tries is ar­guably bet­ter than sav­ing hu­man lives in low in­come coun­tries?

Vasco Grilo21 Mar 2024 9:05 UTC
11 points
8 comments12 min readEA link

Net global welfare may be nega­tive and declining

kyle_fish26 Sep 2023 18:49 UTC
281 points
48 comments8 min readEA link

Meat con­sump­tion and pro­duc­tion in de­vel­op­ing coun­tries: who bucks the trend?

Animal Ask25 Sep 2023 4:28 UTC
91 points
4 comments36 min readEA link

The harm cas­cade: why helping oth­ers is so hard

Stijn27 Jul 2023 13:54 UTC
42 points
1 comment13 min readEA link

[Question] Does im­prov­ing global health cause meat-eater prob­lem?

jackchang11026 Jul 2023 21:05 UTC
5 points
1 comment1 min readEA link

The Meat Eater Problem

Vasco Grilo17 Jun 2023 6:52 UTC
50 points
1 comment7 min readEA link
(journalofcontroversialideas.org)

Pri­ori­tis­ing an­i­mal welfare over global health and de­vel­op­ment?

Vasco Grilo13 May 2023 9:03 UTC
107 points
46 comments18 min readEA link

[Question] What is the im­pact of an­i­mal agri­cul­ture on wild an­i­mal suffer­ing?

Oscar Delaney12 Feb 2023 8:02 UTC
27 points
2 comments1 min readEA link

Longter­mism and An­i­mal Farm­ing Trajectories

MichaelDello27 Dec 2022 0:58 UTC
51 points
8 comments17 min readEA link
(www.sentienceinstitute.org)

Are poul­try birds re­ally im­por­tant? Yes...

Vasco Grilo19 Jun 2022 18:24 UTC
13 points
2 comments1 min readEA link

Com­par­i­son be­tween the he­do­nic util­ity of hu­man life and poul­try liv­ing time

Vasco Grilo8 Jun 2022 7:52 UTC
47 points
28 comments8 min readEA link

Bulk­ing in­for­ma­tion ad­di­tion­al­ities in global de­vel­op­ment for medium-term lo­cal prosperity

brb24311 Apr 2022 17:52 UTC
4 points
0 comments4 min readEA link

[Question] EA to­wards hu­mans = effec­tive vi­o­lence to­wards farm an­i­mals?

Nicolas_Feil3 Dec 2020 17:22 UTC
7 points
6 comments1 min readEA link

Hedg­ing against deep and moral uncertainty

MichaelStJules12 Sep 2020 23:44 UTC
83 points
13 comments9 min readEA link

Poor meat eater problem

Alex HT10 Jul 2020 8:13 UTC
24 points
1 comment1 min readEA link

Con­se­quences of an­i­mal product con­sump­tion (com­bined model)

kbog15 Jun 2019 14:46 UTC
20 points
10 comments2 min readEA link

Rea­sons to eat meat

kbog21 Apr 2019 20:37 UTC
42 points
43 comments3 min readEA link

kbog did an oop­sie! (new meat eater prob­lem num­bers)

kbog15 Feb 2019 15:17 UTC
26 points
8 comments2 min readEA link

Causal Net­work Model III: Findings

Alex_Barry22 Nov 2017 15:43 UTC
7 points
3 comments9 min readEA link

The Poor Meat In­vestor Problem

zdgroff21 Apr 2016 21:17 UTC
11 points
14 comments3 min readEA link

Quan­tify­ing the Im­pact of Eco­nomic Growth on Meat Consumption

kbog22 Dec 2015 11:30 UTC
24 points
37 comments4 min readEA link