80,000 Hours recently updated our problem profile on factory farming, and we now rank it among the most pressing problems in the world. We're sharing the summary of the article here, and there's much more detail at the link. The author, Benjamin Hilton, published the article with us before moving on to a new role outside of 80k back in July, so he may have limited ability to engage with comments. But we welcome feedback and may incorporate it into future updates.

Summary

History is littered with moral mistakes — things that once were common, but we now consider clearly morally wrong, for example: human sacrifice, gladiatorial combat, public executions, witch hunts, and slavery.

In my opinion, there's one clear candidate for the biggest moral mistake that humanity is currently making: factory farming.

The rough argument is:

• There are trillions of farmed animals, making [...]

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

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First published:
October 29th, 2024

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/goTRwb49riDvXGdy8/factory-farming-as-a-pressing-world-problem

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.