The Nonlinear Library EA - A year of wins for farmed animals by Vasco Grilo
Dec 24, 2023
06:33
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: A year of wins for farmed animals, published by Vasco Grilo on December 24, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.
This is a crosspost for A year of wins for farmed animals, published by Lewis Bollard on 14 December 2023 in Open Philanthropy farm animal welfare research newsletter.
It's been a tough year for farmed animals. The European Union
shelved the world's most ambitious farm animal welfare reform proposal, plant-based meat sales
sagged, and the media
panned cultivated meat while Italy
banned it. But advocates for factory farmed animals still won major gains - here are ten of the biggest:
1. Wins for the winged. Advocates won
130 new corporate pledges to eliminate cages for hens or the worst abuses of broiler chickens. This progress has now expanded well beyond the West: recent wins include cage-free pledges from the largest Asian restaurant
company and the largest Indonesian
retailer. That's mostly thanks to the work of the 100+ member groups of the
Open Wing Alliance, who now campaign across 67 countries. We estimate that, if fully implemented, pledges secured to date will reduce the suffering of about 800 million layer hens and broiler chickens alive at any time.
2. Cages canceled. A fair question has long been whether these pledges will be implemented. So far, they mostly have been:
1,157 corporate pledges are now fully implemented, 89% of the pledges that came due by last year. As a result,
39% of American hens,
60% of European hens, and
80% of British hens are now cage-free, up from just
6%,
41%, and
48% respectively a decade ago. There's still a lot more work to do to hold companies accountable to their pledges. But globally 220 million more animals are already out of cages thanks to this work.
3. Pigs Supreme. The US Supreme Court
upheld California's Proposition 12, which bans the sale of eggs, pork, and veal from caged animals and their offspring. This ruling also protects seven other similar state laws. Once fully implemented, these laws will collectively require about 700,000 pigs and 80 million hens be raised cage-free. Advocates are now fighting a
last-ditch effort by pork producers to overturn the Court's ruling, and have already mustered the support of over
210 members of Congress for our side.
4. Plant-based policies. Denmark
unveiled the world's first state action plan to promote plant-based eating, including plans to promote plant-based foods in schools and support innovation in alternative proteins. South Korea
said it would soon unveil one too. The European Parliament
called for an EU-wide "action plan for increased EU plant-based protein production and consumption."
5. Meaty milestones. For the first time, the COP28 climate summit
served mostly vegetarian meals. The UN Environment Program
released the first-ever UN report on the potential of alternative proteins. New data showed that only
20% of Germans now eat meat every day, down from 34% eight years ago.
Half of all US restaurants now offer a plant-based alternative, up from a third five years ago.
6. Cultured policymakers. US regulators
approved the nation's first sales of cultivated meat. Japan's Prime Minister
pledged support for the nation's cellular agriculture industry. Germany
pledged 38M to promote alternative proteins, while
Catalonia (Spain),
Israel, and
the UK funded more research. Alternative proteins have now attracted over a
billion dollars in public funding committed to research and infrastructure globally.
7. Alternative aspirations. Major German retailer Lidl
pledged to double the share of its range of proteins that are plant-based by 2030. The second largest Dutch retailer, Jumbo, set a goal for
60% of its protein sales to be plant-based by the same year. Both began their efforts by slashing the price of their own plant-based brands to parity with meat. So too did German...
This is a crosspost for A year of wins for farmed animals, published by Lewis Bollard on 14 December 2023 in Open Philanthropy farm animal welfare research newsletter.
It's been a tough year for farmed animals. The European Union
shelved the world's most ambitious farm animal welfare reform proposal, plant-based meat sales
sagged, and the media
panned cultivated meat while Italy
banned it. But advocates for factory farmed animals still won major gains - here are ten of the biggest:
1. Wins for the winged. Advocates won
130 new corporate pledges to eliminate cages for hens or the worst abuses of broiler chickens. This progress has now expanded well beyond the West: recent wins include cage-free pledges from the largest Asian restaurant
company and the largest Indonesian
retailer. That's mostly thanks to the work of the 100+ member groups of the
Open Wing Alliance, who now campaign across 67 countries. We estimate that, if fully implemented, pledges secured to date will reduce the suffering of about 800 million layer hens and broiler chickens alive at any time.
2. Cages canceled. A fair question has long been whether these pledges will be implemented. So far, they mostly have been:
1,157 corporate pledges are now fully implemented, 89% of the pledges that came due by last year. As a result,
39% of American hens,
60% of European hens, and
80% of British hens are now cage-free, up from just
6%,
41%, and
48% respectively a decade ago. There's still a lot more work to do to hold companies accountable to their pledges. But globally 220 million more animals are already out of cages thanks to this work.
3. Pigs Supreme. The US Supreme Court
upheld California's Proposition 12, which bans the sale of eggs, pork, and veal from caged animals and their offspring. This ruling also protects seven other similar state laws. Once fully implemented, these laws will collectively require about 700,000 pigs and 80 million hens be raised cage-free. Advocates are now fighting a
last-ditch effort by pork producers to overturn the Court's ruling, and have already mustered the support of over
210 members of Congress for our side.
4. Plant-based policies. Denmark
unveiled the world's first state action plan to promote plant-based eating, including plans to promote plant-based foods in schools and support innovation in alternative proteins. South Korea
said it would soon unveil one too. The European Parliament
called for an EU-wide "action plan for increased EU plant-based protein production and consumption."
5. Meaty milestones. For the first time, the COP28 climate summit
served mostly vegetarian meals. The UN Environment Program
released the first-ever UN report on the potential of alternative proteins. New data showed that only
20% of Germans now eat meat every day, down from 34% eight years ago.
Half of all US restaurants now offer a plant-based alternative, up from a third five years ago.
6. Cultured policymakers. US regulators
approved the nation's first sales of cultivated meat. Japan's Prime Minister
pledged support for the nation's cellular agriculture industry. Germany
pledged 38M to promote alternative proteins, while
Catalonia (Spain),
Israel, and
the UK funded more research. Alternative proteins have now attracted over a
billion dollars in public funding committed to research and infrastructure globally.
7. Alternative aspirations. Major German retailer Lidl
pledged to double the share of its range of proteins that are plant-based by 2030. The second largest Dutch retailer, Jumbo, set a goal for
60% of its protein sales to be plant-based by the same year. Both began their efforts by slashing the price of their own plant-based brands to parity with meat. So too did German...