I disagree a bit with a few of the weighted values but the one that stands out to me is a 1 out of 5 for pure market competition in terms of scale.
When looking back at other areas where animal products have been decimated, going from 90%+ of the market to less than 10%, it's generally been because of innovation and market competition. You can see this with the fur industry since the 1800's, whaling, and horses being used for transport/manufacturing.
There is room for more approaches now but I'd be surprised if this wasn't a key factor in ending factory farming.
(yeah - a lot of the values I assigned were pretty off-the-cuff. For you, or anyone who disagrees, I'd be super curious what weights you assign and how your spreadsheet shakes out!)
But yeah, I forgot to consider the history of whaling and horsepower, both are great examples of pure market competition! Thanks for the comment.
I would rank the top 3 as pure market competition, inside lobbying and institutional food services, but I'm a bit fuzzy on recent progress depending on whether you mean more the last 5 or last 15 years.
I can't help but think that today we should give special attention to interventions that can help lower resistance or backlash - so many of the interventions you list might work better. Not exactly sure how to do that though :)
Really great piece! Agree that telling people to go vegan seems like a dead end at the moment.
On political/legal change: I agree this is a very promising area (and, I would think, the ultimate end goal). But in the short-term, I also worry it carries tremendous risk. Campaigns for pro-animal legislation risk anti-animal backlash in ways that non-political change dont - people (correctly?) tend to see legislative change as someone else as forcing their beliefs on the general population. Litigation to establish good precedent risks establishing bad precedent; judges tend to be (small c) conservative. I don’t think these are a reasons to never attempt political/legal change, but I do think they’re things that people in this area will have to seriously consider.
On meat alternatives: I’m more optimistic on the ability of cultivated meat to compete with traditional meat. (I can much more easily imagine persuading my family to eat a cultivated Turkey than a plant-based one!) I don’t have a good sense for how far away the tech on this is - I hear people saying everything from it’s never coming to a breakthrough is imminent.
I really agree with the: "Ultimately this is an ecosystem" section. No single tactic will drive the change we need.
To flag some snippets of evidence you don't cover:
On newsmaking type actions: at least in the UK groups like PETA have been doing PR stunt type campaigning for decades and I don't see much impact of that (or of other times factory farming issues have got the news). Some extra reason for skepticism there.
On ethical substitutes there have certainly been some success that are benefiting animals (that area not meat): fake fur, margarine, alt milks. Some extra reason for optimism there.
Good article, but the words 'Chick culling is on the decline because there’s technology to check the sex of eggs before the chicks hatch' brings me chills. Nothing is reformed at all by such advances: it is made more efficient. This isn't progress: it is refinement of the system by which an animal becomes no more than 'product'.
I disagree a bit with a few of the weighted values but the one that stands out to me is a 1 out of 5 for pure market competition in terms of scale.
When looking back at other areas where animal products have been decimated, going from 90%+ of the market to less than 10%, it's generally been because of innovation and market competition. You can see this with the fur industry since the 1800's, whaling, and horses being used for transport/manufacturing.
There is room for more approaches now but I'd be surprised if this wasn't a key factor in ending factory farming.
(yeah - a lot of the values I assigned were pretty off-the-cuff. For you, or anyone who disagrees, I'd be super curious what weights you assign and how your spreadsheet shakes out!)
But yeah, I forgot to consider the history of whaling and horsepower, both are great examples of pure market competition! Thanks for the comment.
I would rank the top 3 as pure market competition, inside lobbying and institutional food services, but I'm a bit fuzzy on recent progress depending on whether you mean more the last 5 or last 15 years.
Pure Market Competition 5 3 5 25.5
Institutional Foodservice 3 3 3 11.8
Policy: Inside Lobbying 2 2 4 9.5
Vegan Advocacy 1 2 4 6.7
thanks for this extensive piece.
I can't help but think that today we should give special attention to interventions that can help lower resistance or backlash - so many of the interventions you list might work better. Not exactly sure how to do that though :)
Really great piece! Agree that telling people to go vegan seems like a dead end at the moment.
On political/legal change: I agree this is a very promising area (and, I would think, the ultimate end goal). But in the short-term, I also worry it carries tremendous risk. Campaigns for pro-animal legislation risk anti-animal backlash in ways that non-political change dont - people (correctly?) tend to see legislative change as someone else as forcing their beliefs on the general population. Litigation to establish good precedent risks establishing bad precedent; judges tend to be (small c) conservative. I don’t think these are a reasons to never attempt political/legal change, but I do think they’re things that people in this area will have to seriously consider.
On meat alternatives: I’m more optimistic on the ability of cultivated meat to compete with traditional meat. (I can much more easily imagine persuading my family to eat a cultivated Turkey than a plant-based one!) I don’t have a good sense for how far away the tech on this is - I hear people saying everything from it’s never coming to a breakthrough is imminent.
Great post. Thank you Lincoln.
I really agree with the: "Ultimately this is an ecosystem" section. No single tactic will drive the change we need.
To flag some snippets of evidence you don't cover:
On newsmaking type actions: at least in the UK groups like PETA have been doing PR stunt type campaigning for decades and I don't see much impact of that (or of other times factory farming issues have got the news). Some extra reason for skepticism there.
On ethical substitutes there have certainly been some success that are benefiting animals (that area not meat): fake fur, margarine, alt milks. Some extra reason for optimism there.
Good article, but the words 'Chick culling is on the decline because there’s technology to check the sex of eggs before the chicks hatch' brings me chills. Nothing is reformed at all by such advances: it is made more efficient. This isn't progress: it is refinement of the system by which an animal becomes no more than 'product'.