Hi!
I'm based in Dublin and I'm a regular attendee of Effective Altruism meetups here. I recently graduated with a bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering from Trinity College Dublin. I'm now doing a Master's in Economics and Data Analytics in UCD, which I am due to complete in 2025.
For the foreseeable future I am focused on maximising career capital, and I will most likely work in the private sector for a while. Eventually I would love to influence government policy, by working for government directly or for a relevant think tank.
Longtermism, global development and psychedelics are the topics which are closest to my heart.
Hey everyone! First time poster here, but long time advocate for effective altruism.
I've been vegan for a couple of years now, mostly to mitigate animal suffering. Recently I've been wondering how a vegetarian diet would compare in terms of suffering caused. Of course I presume veganism would be better, but by how much?
With this in mind I'm wondering is there any resources that attempt to quantify how much suffering is caused by buying various animal products? For example dairy cows produce about 40,000 litres of milk in their lifetime, which can be used to make about 4000kg of cheese. With this in mind one could consider how much suffering a dairy cow endures in their lifetime and then quantify how much suffering they are responsible for each time they purchase a kilo of cheese.
My calculations are of course very imprecise and probably quite flawed, but I'm curious if anyone else has taken a more robust attempt at comparing the suffering caused by various animal products? I realize this may be hard since suffering is hard to quantify.
https://thehumaneleague.org/article/how-much-milk-does-a-cow-produce
Ajay Agrawal. He researches the potential economic impact of AI and is one of the authors of Power and Prediction, which offers a unique and surprisingly simple perspective on this subject.
If you enjoyed the Micheal Webb episode, then I think you would enjoy this interview too.