Tagarchief: veganism
The extreme cost-effectiveness of cell-based meat R&D
Updated October 2020: improved calculations. In previous articles, I argued that supporting research and development of cell-based meat technologies could be perhaps the most important strategy to protect animal rights and improve animal welfare (with a possible exception of research … Lees verder
Veganmodernism: the end of veganism?
For an online presentation, see here. Just like the environmental movement gave birth to ecomodernism, the vegan movement can give birth to veganmodernism. Ecomodernism focuses on technological innovations (e.g. clean energy, genetically modified organisms,…) to decrease our environmental impact, rather … Lees verder
Asymmetric altruism
In effective altruism, we have to prioritize the most effective ways to do good. But there are different notions of altruism that influence our prioritization. Altruism has to do with helping others. But the tricky question becomes: helping who exactly? … Lees verder
The neglected double climate benefits of vegan diets
It is clear that veganism is one of the most effective personal consumption choices to reduce our carbon footprint. A vegan diet reduces the yearly greenhouse gas emissions of an average person in a high-income country with close to 1 … Lees verder
Probability estimate for wild animal welfare prioritization
In this article I calculate my subjective probability estimate that the problem of wild animal suffering is the most important cause area in effective altruism. I will use a Fermi estimate to calculate lower and upper bounds of the probability … Lees verder
Why your neighbor cares more about animal rights than you think
Recently, I listened to a very interesting episode of the You Are Not So Smart podcast, about pluralistic ignorance: a group conformity effect where a majority of the population privately rejects a norm, but publicly accepts that norm because they … Lees verder
About insect welfare and how to improve it
Recently, Rethink Priorities (a project of Rethink Charity) did an impressive review of our state of knowledge about invertebrate sentience. Considering the fact that 99,9998% of all animals are invertebrates[1], it is crucial to know whether they are sentient and … Lees verder
Speciesism, arbitrariness and moral illusions
In this article I present several topics related to the moral philosophy of animal rights: Defining moral illusions: persistent intuitive moral judgments that violate our strongest and deepest moral values. Detecting moral illusions: looking for unwanted arbitrariness (picking an element … Lees verder
Is a vegan diet optimal for our health and the environment?
There is a scientific consensus that our high consumption of animal products, especially meat, is bad for our health and the environment. The studies are abundant (see here and here). Almost no-one is denying that our consumption of animal products … Lees verder
