EA - Working with the Beef Industry for Chicken Welfare by RobertY

Link to original articleWelcome 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: Working with the Beef Industry for Chicken Welfare, published by RobertY on December 18, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum.Historically, the US farmed animal welfare movement has seen itself as working in opposition to the entire animal agriculture industry. In doing so, we may have taken on a larger and more powerful enemy than we need to. I’ll explore an alternative approach of working with parts of the meat industry to mutually push for strong welfare protections in other parts, focusing on chicken and beef.Executive SummarySmall animals account for a vast majority of the suffering in animal agriculture. From a cost-effectiveness standpoint, this has rightly caused the animal advocacy movement to more recently focus on chicken, fish, and invertebrates. Taking this one step further, if most of our focus is only on certain parts of animal agriculture, we may not need to see ourselves in opposition to the entire industry.In particular, I argue that the US beef industry could be a critical ally in the fight for farmed animal welfare. It may seem unlikely that the beef industry would be interested in partnering with animal welfare advocates, but a deeper analysis of the structure of the industry indicates that incentives may be more aligned than they first seem:Chickens don’t have the same welfare protections as cows, which is unfair to beef producers.Chicken is substantially cheaper than beef, partially because producers don’t have to treat chickens as well as cows. Chicken and beef compete for space on the plate, so if the price of chicken goes up, this will likely increase demand for beef.The beef industry is large and complex, with multiple different players whose incentives are not always aligned. The three main pillars of the beef sector are ranchers, feedlot operators, and the big meat packers. The meat packers have interests across chicken, pork, and beef, so will likely oppose animal welfare improvements in any area. However, ranchers and feedlot operators are generally only invested in beef, meaning that welfare improvements in chicken wouldn’t directly affect them.Additionally, I believe that cattle ranchers, who are generally small business owners, often do care about animal welfare. If framed in the right way, they could be inherently interested in seeing farmed animals treated better.Partnering with the beef industry could be useful in building broader coalitions than the animal welfare movement historically has been able to. Additionally, if the goal is to eventually pass stronger federal legislation for poultry welfare, having the beef industry on board could be a critical necessary step.OutlineI) Small animals should dominate farmed animal welfare discussionsII) The incentives of the beef industry are structurally aligned with the animal welfare movementExisting federal laws are unfair to beef producersIncreasing the price of chicken will benefit beef producersBackground on the structure of the beef and chicken industries in the USThe incentives of cattle ranchersThe incentives of feedlot operatorsHow to find common ground with the beef industryIII) How the beef industry might be helpful in the fight for animal welfareBeef industry support may open up the path to federal poultry welfare legislationIV) CounterargumentsHistorical OppositionSustainabilityAbolitionismV) Why I’m focusing on chicken and beefVI) Call to ActionI. Small animals should dominate farmed animal welfare discussionsOne of the most important recent theoretical developments in farmed animal advocacy has been a focus on small animals, mainly chicken, fish, and invertebrates. This was very influenced by EA-style thinking: chickens vastly outnumber other land animals because they’re smaller (In 2022, poultry accounted for 98% of animals slaughtered for the U...