How I Learned to Love Shrimp Neil Dullaghan on the importance of influencing EU policy and other important research topics
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Sep 6, 2023 Neil Dullaghan, Senior Research Manager at Rethink Priorities, discusses his EU policy research and impactful projects. Topics include neglected animals like shrimp, the landscape of animal advocacy, phasing out cages in the EU, tangible impact of research, balancing theory and implementation in politics, evaluating grants, changing opinions through media, and book/podcast recommendations.
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Prioritise Core Wins Over Perfection
- Expect and prepare to compromise in policy processes to secure passage of the most important provisions.
- Prioritise protecting high-impact elements even if other measures are watered down.
Research Sparked Shrimp Advocacy
- Rethink Priorities' invertebrate sentience work helped trigger charity entrepreneurship and the Shrimp Welfare Project.
- That research nudged funders and groups to start targeted efforts on shrimp and insects.
Small Producer Interventions Can Scale
- Practical producer outreach — e.g., buying stunners for shrimp — shows tractable interventions can reduce suffering even in neglected sectors.
- Early field wins indicate scalable opportunities across shrimp-producing countries.