JamesÖz

Karma: 5,270

Currently grantmaking in animal advocacy, at Mobius. I was previously doing social movement and protest-related research at Social Change Lab, an EA-aligned research organisation I’ve founded.

Previously, I completed the 2021 Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program. Before that, I was the Director & Strategy lead at Animal Rebellion + in the Strategy team at Extinction Rebellion UK, working on movement building for animal advocacy and climate change.

My blog (often EA related content)

Feel free to reach out on james.ozden [at] hotmail.com or see a bit more about me here

JamesÖz 13 Nov 2024 12:34 UTC
6 points
1 ∶ 0
in reply to: PabloAMC 🔸’s comment on: Announcing our 2024 Charity Recommendations
Yes they do some but the Research Grants Program is on the order of $2-6M and GFI’s overall budget is around $42M, so only about 10% of their budget goes towards direct research. I would say a much bigger focus of their work is corporate, investor and policymaker engagement.

JamesÖz 13 Nov 2024 9:09 UTC
7 points
4 ∶ 0
in reply to: PabloAMC 🔸’s comment on: Announcing our 2024 Charity Recommendations
FWIW I would consider GFI as doing outreach and advocacy, just applied to the area of alternative proteins.

JamesÖz 12 Nov 2024 4:05 UTC
2 points
1 ∶ 0
on: 2024 Animal Advocacy Strategy Forum: Event summary and survey results
Very interesting—thanks for the write-up! Any chance you could share the following information on what these five projects actually are? Feel free to DM if imporant to keep private.
“As a result, five projects to address key challenges faced by the movement were launched, four of which were active as of September 2024 (one was on hold).”

JamesÖz 8 Nov 2024 18:42 UTC
76 points
9 ∶ 3
on: Bad omens for US farmed animal policy work?
There are also reasons why this might be the most animal-friendly US administration ever:
- Tulsi Gabbard, involved with Trump’s transition team, is an ethical vegan/vegetarian
- RFK Jr, also involved in Trump’s transition team, hates Big Ag and factory farming, and might end up in the USDA.
- Vivek Ramaswamy is getting more and more interested in animal welfare
- (more tenuous) JD Vance’s wife is vegetarian and he’s spoken positively about vegetarianism.
- Sid Miller, tipped to be head of the USDA, is outspoken against the EATS Act, even writing an op-ed on why we should uphold things like Prop 12 and Question 2.
Basically, this is a great example of the importance of working in a bipartisan way. If the animal movement had been more focused on building political allies on both sides of the aisle, this could actually be some of the best opportunity to pass anti-factory farming legislation.

JamesÖz 7 Nov 2024 17:34 UTC
8 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Advisors for Smaller Major Donors?
I work as a grantmaker for a larger donor but as part of my role, I offer pro-bono advising to people giving $50k+ to animal welfare. If anyone is interested in this, feel free to message me via the Forum and happy to help!

(I’ve also advised donors giving $2-10M so feel free to reach out if you want to give at higher amounts too.)

JamesÖz 24 Oct 2024 4:52 UTC
15 points
1 ∶ 0
in reply to: Toby_Ord’s comment on: The default trajectory for animal welfare means vastly more suffering
Thanks for the kind words Toby! Yes, sadly the trends are not particularly positive at all.
There actually is some useful OWID data on hens and sadly it’s not particularly positive on a global level (they estimate at least 3 billion in cages but I’ve heard this is likely an under-estimate and it’s closer to 4-5 billion).
That said, there is certainly progress in the US and Western Europe, covered in this Vox article. The US cage-free percentage is around 42% now and I believe all cage-free progress across US and Europe equates to around 300 million hens out of cages relative to a couple of decades ago—a huge victory for animals and the animal advocacy movement as you note.
In terms of the Kuznets curve, that’s definitely interesting and I agree it’s worth considering if there is some element of progress in economically developed countries which will hopefully be matched as other countries develop. I think this is fairly clear for things like getting rid of some of the worst farming practices e.g. battery cages or gestation crates for pigs which has seen considerable success across the US and Europe. However, it’s less clear on the meat consumption side of things as only Germany has seen a notable decline in meat consumption in the past 30 or 40 years (although we have seen a levelling off in the US and Europe which is some positive sign). That said, there is more chicken being eaten in most of these countries which likely means more animals farmed and killed overall. As such, I’m not convinced we have signs of a Kuznets curve for total animal suffering as it’s quite likely the improvements we’ve made in outlawing some of the worst practices like battery cages are offset by increased chicken consumption.

JamesÖz 16 Oct 2024 23:15 UTC
2 points
0 ∶ 1
in reply to: RobertM’s comment on: The default trajectory for animal welfare means vastly more suffering
Not necessarily as severe as hitting a wall for the next few decades but in brief:
- I don’t think agriculture is one industry that will be transformed that rapidly (e.g. on the order of months or years) due to AI, mainly because:
  - There are lots of traditions and cultural things around food so I don’t imagine people will want to dramatically change how they eat over the next decade or two
  - Agriculture involves human feedback loops (e.g. consumers trying products and giving feedback) which makes it hard to accelerate exponentially with AI progress (unlike predicting protein folding via AI or writing code)
- Any advancements in AI are likely to benefit the animal agriculture industry just as much, if not more, as animal advocates
  - Given the animal ag industry is orders of magnitude richer than us, I assume they will have more capacity to try to integrate AI into their work e.g. intensifying factory farming (see this blog for more info). This further locks in the trends mentioned above
  - We will use AI for alt protein innovation but again, this has long feedback loops due to needing human taste tests and product development, so I just don’t think we’ll get dramatically better products that quickly

The default trajectory for animal welfare means vastly more suffering

JamesÖz11 Oct 2024 5:51 UTC

270 points

16 comments5 min readEA link

JamesÖz 3 Oct 2024 12:47 UTC
15 points
1 ∶ 0
on: Egregious Cruelty: Humboldt Farm Sued for Putting Salt in Cows’ Eyes, Starving Cattle
Dumb question incoming: how come you’re doing a lawsuit focused on cows? My impression was that Legal Impact for Chickens is focused on…chickens?

Announcing the Strategic Animal Funding Circle!

JamesÖz29 Aug 2024 11:35 UTC

93 points

0 comments2 min readEA link

Job opportunities with new Labour MPs

JamesÖz8 Jul 2024 11:55 UTC

73 points

0 comments1 min readEA link

JamesÖz 28 Jun 2024 17:01 UTC
2 points
1 ∶ 0
in reply to: Marietheres Reinke’s comment on: Megaprojects for animals
Fixed! Thanks for flagging this

JamesÖz 27 Jun 2024 21:25 UTC
4 points
1 ∶ 1
in reply to: jackva’s comment on: “Denmark will be first to impose CO2 tax on farms, government says”
Can you unpack your thinking on the complentarities of AP chicken and beef a bit more? My hunch is that the cost differential between beef and chicken is relatively pretty big e.g. the cheapest chicken costs around £2.5/kg and the cheapest mince is £5/kg (see photo and data below from Hannah Ritchie) so the former is just extremely hard to compete with. As such, I think it’s very plausible/likely that we’ll get price parity alternative proteins for the cheapest beef but maybe not with the cheapest chicken, in contrast to your comment.
Additionally, there are effects like:
- Companies are much more likely to try to compete with beef as price parity is more plausible, so there’s more innovation, talent and competition there, which makes the likelihood of reaching price parity higher.
- Innovations that help beef won’t necessarily spillover into improving chicken products (e.g. mince is much easier to make than whole-cut chicken, there is no need for the iron/heme taste in chicken, etc.)
So overall I’m not convinced that the carbon tax is net good for animals as the complementarities between chicken and beef don’t seem that great. Curious to hear more though on your thoughts on this.

JamesÖz 17 Jun 2024 22:29 UTC
31 points
8 ∶ 2
in reply to: Owen Cotton-Barratt’s comment on: [Linkpost] An update from Good Ventures
This isn’t true for any of the other sub-focus areas that will be exited though, which I thought was strange. Given that nothing other than digital minds work was listed, how would any potential donors or people who know potential donors know about OP exiting things like invertebrates or wild animal welfare?

(I’m basing those sub-focus areas on the comments in this thread because of exactly this problem—I’m unclear if there’s more being exited or if those two are definitely part of it)

JamesÖz 4 Jun 2024 16:55 UTC
26 points
3 ∶ 0
on: I bet Greg Colbourn 10 k€ that AI will not kill us all by the end of 2027
Just flagging that I, and others I know, would also be happy to take folks up on the animal welfare side of this trade if AI-concerned folks are interested! Reach out if so (and happy to discuss basically all amounts above $1,000).

JamesÖz 21 May 2024 16:51 UTC
2 points
0 ∶ 0
in reply to: ClimateDoc’s comment on: Announcing UK Voters for Animals!
Have you seen them on our website here?

Announcing UK Voters for Animals!

eleanor mcaree14 May 2024 23:07 UTC

132 points

8 comments1 min readEA link

JamesÖz 6 May 2024 21:39 UTC
6 points
0 ∶ 0
on: JamesOz’s Shortform
Mobius (the Bay Area-based family foundation where I work) is exploring new ways to remove animals from the food system. We’re looking for a part-time Program Manager to help get more talented people who are knowledgable about farmed animal welfare and/or alternative proteins into US government roles. This entrepreneurial generalist would pilot a 3-6 month program to support promising students and early graduates with applying to and securing entry-level Congressional roles. We think success here could significantly improve thoughtful policymaking on farmed animal welfare and/or alternative proteins. You can see more about the role here.
Key details on the role:
- Application deadline: Tuesday 28th of May, at 23:59pm PT. Apply here.
- Contract: 15-20 hours per week for 3-6 months, with the possibility of extending.
- Location: Remote in the US.
- Salary: $29-38 per hour (equivalent to approx. $60,000-$80,000/year) depending on experience. For exceptional candidates, we’re happy to discuss higher compensation. This would be a contractor role, with no additional benefits.
Please share with potentially interested people!

JamesÖz 5 May 2024 14:25 UTC
20 points
3 ∶ 0
on: AMA: Lewis Bollard, Program Director of Farm Animal Welfare at OpenPhil
What’s a view you hold most EA-minded animal advocates would disagree with?

JamesÖz 4 May 2024 15:58 UTC
6 points
1 ∶ 0
on: AMA: Lewis Bollard, Program Director of Farm Animal Welfare at OpenPhil
In your view, what are some of the biggest challenges facing the farmed animal movement today and what is Open Phil doing about them?

JamesÖz

The de­fault tra­jec­tory for an­i­mal welfare means vastly more suffering

An­nounc­ing the Strate­gic An­i­mal Fund­ing Cir­cle!

Job op­por­tu­ni­ties with new Labour MPs

An­nounc­ing UK Vot­ers for An­i­mals!

The default trajectory for animal welfare means vastly more suffering

Announcing the Strategic Animal Funding Circle!

Job opportunities with new Labour MPs

Announcing UK Voters for Animals!