Sentientism 15: "Let's end humanity's war on the rest of the planet" - Better Meat CEO & Hall of Famer Paul Shapiro - Sentientist Conversations
Paul Shapiro https://twitter.com/PaulHShapiro is the author of the national bestseller "Clean Meat": https://cleanmeat.com/. He's also the CEO of The Better Meat Co. https://www.bettermeat.co/, a four-time TEDx speaker, host of the Business for Good Podcast https://www.businessforgoodpodcast.com/ & inductee in the Animal Rights Hall of Fame.
In these Sentientist Conversations, we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?”. Sentientism is "evidence, commitment and compassion for all sentient beings." https://sentientism.info/
Our conversation is also on our YouTube channel - subscribe there too! https://youtu.be/8oupdUTrS18
We discuss:
- Being fellow "sents" (thanks AJ Jacobs!)
- Advocating Sentientism before hearing the term
- Vegetarian then vegan at 13 in 1993 (despite thinking it would lead to death...)
- Carl Lewis as an inspirational vegan
- Volunteering in animal protection as a teenager
- "Trying to end humanity's war on the rest of the planet"
- Founding Compassion over Killing at high-school & taking it national
- https://www.humanesociety.org/
- Paul's "Clean Meat" book - how food tech might do the most good
- Easier to act our way into a new way of thinking than to think our way into a new way of acting. Making unethical practices obselete
- Ending slavery as a lesson in social change
- Founding The Better Meat Co
- Jewish upbringing & identity
- "Even if you question the supernatural they don't kick you out"
- An animal conscious family. Rescue dogs as family members (now Eddie https://www.instagram.com/eddiethepittie.)
- Switching to take the perspective of non-humans + standing up to "frog baseball"
- Compassion as a moral foundation
- Being kicked out of Hebrew class for asking why god would ask for sacrifices
- The rich tradition of animal compassion/veg*nism within Judaism
- Israel as the #2 most vegan country
- Utilitarianism & Peter Singer - "anti suffering & pro happiness"
- Loving kindness meditation
- Aspiring to The Paradoxical Commandments
- Evolution isn't perfectly driven towards truth or rationality
- Groups can socially reward individual faith in fictions. Some delusions can be useful
- Humility at the heart of naturalism & science. Being OK not knowing
- The confidence that can come with ignorance
- Leaving the world a better place
- Not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good
- The ethical inertia of social norms & traditions
- The Honour Code http://appiah.net/books/the-honor-code/
- Animal farming will be condemned by future generations
- Consistent US voting against poor farming practices. Need that codified into law & corporate policy
- Cost reduction pressure worsens farm conditions
- Tech can render exploitative practices obselete (like cars re: horses, kerosene re: whales, pens vs. quills)
- Fast, cheap, easy alternatives likely to reduce more suffering than ethics
- It's hard to condemn a system you're still part of
- The moral argument has already been won re: ending animal farming
- People buy food mainly because of price, taste, convenience (not ethics or env.)
- Business for Good vs. ending capitalism? Purpose and/or profit?