As I am already convinced of the awfulness of factory farming, I wasn't interested in watching a disturbing documentary about it. This post nudges me to actually watch it so I can reference it when discussing animal suffering.
Thanks! I also tried to watch it after first talking with Peter about the paper but I found it very upsetting and it was hard to get anything done for the rest of the day. YMMV.
I wonder how the addition of PBM, TVP, seitan, or even cultivated meats as alternative options would impact the effectiveness of Dominion. Tofu isn't amazingly popular, it has certain stigmas and isn't as close a taste/texture replacement as some others.
Minor point, but your argument as presented isn't strictly valid i.e. the conclusion doesn't necessarily follow from the premises and so someone can accept all premises and plausibly reject the conclusion. You would need a linking premise like "5. If (1-4), then C".
I agree with (4) re: futility objections philosophically, but another point to add is that they are also false empirically. Dr Avi Bitterman has used the data in https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41055-018-00030-4 to model demand threshold exposure for broiler chickens. He found there is a 91.8% chance of triggering the additional supply of 900 chickens over a 75 year period (assuming 30 chickens average per year) and even cutting back to 25% of this still imposes a 46% risk. This of course is in addition to the fact that you are always making it more likely someone else will trigger such an event.
Yes there is an unstated linking premise in the form of "we shouldn't support unethical businesses even a little". to me that's background but I can see why the premise wouldn't pass in a logic class 😃 and yep, Huemer's "Dialogues on Ethical Vegetarianism" makes the same point about thresholds and the elasticity of supply.
Nice article, glad it has been surfaced to me by the algorithm.
I’ve always been skeptical about the effectiveness of common street action interventions and yet felt that it should be possible somehow… so this result is really promising.
I do wonder how it could be scaled beyond study participants.
As I am already convinced of the awfulness of factory farming, I wasn't interested in watching a disturbing documentary about it. This post nudges me to actually watch it so I can reference it when discussing animal suffering.
Also, great blog name!
Thanks! I also tried to watch it after first talking with Peter about the paper but I found it very upsetting and it was hard to get anything done for the rest of the day. YMMV.
I wonder how the addition of PBM, TVP, seitan, or even cultivated meats as alternative options would impact the effectiveness of Dominion. Tofu isn't amazingly popular, it has certain stigmas and isn't as close a taste/texture replacement as some others.
Minor point, but your argument as presented isn't strictly valid i.e. the conclusion doesn't necessarily follow from the premises and so someone can accept all premises and plausibly reject the conclusion. You would need a linking premise like "5. If (1-4), then C".
I agree with (4) re: futility objections philosophically, but another point to add is that they are also false empirically. Dr Avi Bitterman has used the data in https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41055-018-00030-4 to model demand threshold exposure for broiler chickens. He found there is a 91.8% chance of triggering the additional supply of 900 chickens over a 75 year period (assuming 30 chickens average per year) and even cutting back to 25% of this still imposes a 46% risk. This of course is in addition to the fact that you are always making it more likely someone else will trigger such an event.
Yes there is an unstated linking premise in the form of "we shouldn't support unethical businesses even a little". to me that's background but I can see why the premise wouldn't pass in a logic class 😃 and yep, Huemer's "Dialogues on Ethical Vegetarianism" makes the same point about thresholds and the elasticity of supply.
Nice article, glad it has been surfaced to me by the algorithm.
I’ve always been skeptical about the effectiveness of common street action interventions and yet felt that it should be possible somehow… so this result is really promising.
I do wonder how it could be scaled beyond study participants.
Glad you liked it! Kenny Torella at Vox liked the study as well and offers some thoughts here: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/417717/meat-reduction-vegetarian-research