The Vegan Report 2025 Highlights: AI, MAHA, Vegan Nudges, Cultivated Meat | Science of Activism
Jan 21, 2026
Jacob Peacock, a Stanford research scientist studying consumer behavior around alternative proteins. Seth Ariel-Greene, a Stanford-affiliated researcher and newsletter author focused on animal advocacy strategy. They tackle 2025 trends: AI risks versus practical uses, political shifts like MAHA and conservative outreach, cultivated meat’s prospects and limits, and the evidence around vegan nudges and defaults.
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Support Practical Paths To Animal Harm Reduction
- Accept cultivated meat as a pragmatic tool that can greatly reduce harms even if imperfect (e.g., FBS issues).
- Support industry shifts away from problematic inputs while pursuing market access rather than ideological bans.
Empiricism Over Performative Purity
- Movement divisions often reflect expressive politics rather than clear empirical trade-offs.
- Seth and Jacob advocate big-tent empiricism and testing interventions rather than symbolic purity fights.
Use Defaults Where Opt-Out Is Costly
- Use plant-based defaults in constrained settings like conferences and hospitals where opting out is effortful.
- Avoid defaults in everyday restaurants because ease of requesting meat will erode effects at scale.
