Factory farming

Abstract

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 scale of the potential problem so large that it’s hard to intuitively grasp. The vast majority (we estimate 97.5%) of farmed animals are in factory farms. The conditions in these farms are far worse than most people realise. Even if nonhuman animals don’t morally matter as much as humans, there’s good evidence that they are conscious and that they feel pain — and, as a result, the poor conditions in factory farms are likely causing animals to experience severe suffering. What’s more, we think that this problem is highly neglected and that there are clear ways to make progress — which makes factory farming a highly pressing problem overall.