A deep dive with Lewis Bollard, who leads Open Philanthropy’s strategy for Farmed Animal Welfare, on the surprising economics of the meat industry.

Why is factory farming so efficient? How can we make the lives of the 23+ billion animals living on factory farms more bearable? How far off are the moonshots (e.g., brainless chickens, cultivated meats, etc.) to end this mass suffering? And why does the meat industry have such a surprising amount of political influence?

For decades, innovation in the meat industry has actually made the conditions for animals worse. Can the next few decades of tech reverse this pattern?

Watch on YouTube; listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Donation match fundraiser

The welfare of animals on factory farms is so systemically neglected that just $1 can help avert 10 years of animal suffering.

After learning more about the outsized opportunities to help, I decided to give $250,000 as a donation match to farmkind.giving/dwarkesh. FarmKind directs your contributions to the most effective charities in this area.

Please consider contributing, even if it’s a small amount. Together, we can double each other's impact and give a total of $500,000.

Bluntly, there are some listeners who are in a position to give much more. Given how neglected this topic is, one such person could singlehandedly change the game for 10s of billions of animals. If you’re considering donating $50k or more, please reach out directly to Lewis and his team by emailing andres@openphilanthropy.org.

Timestamps

(00:00:00) – The astonishing efficiency of factory farming

(00:07:18) – It was a mistake making this about diet

(00:09:54) – Tech that’s sparing 100s of millions of animals/year

(00:16:16) – Brainless chickens and higher welfare breeds

(00:28:21) – $1 can prevent 10 years of animal suffering

(00:37:26) – Situation in China and the developing world

(00:41:41) – How the meat lobby got a lock on Congress

(00:53:23) – Business structure of the meat industry

(00:57:42) – Corporate campaigns are underrated

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Atlas with Shifting Edges – Elizabeth Rush