I notice that one of the UK grants for alernative proteins which you cite says, “Cultured meat, insect-based proteins and proteins made by fermentation” (my emphasis). I find this quite concerning.
I didn’t previously realise the term “alternative proteins” includes insects. Has this always been the case? Is the definition contested or is a different term needed?
From the NAPIC website, they include Entocycle, “a world-leading provider of insect farming technology”, as one of their partners (though this may not be representative). Interestingly Entocycle do have two pages on insect welfare.
Mill’s point that happiness might derive from having intrinsic goals other than happiness is interesting; I do find it hard to imagine having this feeling though:
I personally am quite confident I would experience “a great joy and happiness” if some reform happened e.g. factory farming ended at this moment, and I find it hard to imagine this not being the case. But as you suggest, this may be more likely to occur at a certain “development point” I’ve not reached yet unlike Mill.
Nor has it ever been the case for me that “My conception of my own happiness was entirely identified with this object [of being a reformer of the world]”. Though I do often wish, on a meta-cognitive level, that my happiness (which seems like almost the same thing as my “conception of my own happiness”) was much further in that direction, because then I would work much harder on doing good, even if burnout like this becomes a bit more of a risk.