“40 hot takes” by LewisBollard

Note: This post was crossposted from the Coefficient Giving Farm Animal Welfare Research Newsletter by the Forum team, with the author's permission. The author may not see or respond to comments on this post.

Subtitle: On vegan advocacy, effective altruism, and FIFA

I turn 40 today. Here are some hot takes.

On factory farming

1. Our biggest challenge is salience. If factory farming led the evening news, it wouldn’t last long. This low salience is self-reinforcing: even people who care deeply about it seldom bring it up. Yuval Noah Harari thinks “the treatment of domesticated animals in industrial farms is perhaps the worst crime in history” — and almost never talks about it.

2. Our main opponent isn't the meat industry; it's inertia. If battery cages and gestation crates had always been illegal, the industry could never have gotten them legalized. Defending the status quo is just far easier than changing it.

3. The meat industry isn't the omnipotent Bond villain some activists imagine, forever scheming to win the grand battle over the future of meat. It's a bunch of middle managers in Tyson fleeces in a business park in Springdale, Arkansas, trying to hit their Q3 targets.

4. [...]

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Outline:

(00:32) On factory farming

(01:54) The future of farming

(03:59) Welfare reforms

(05:27) Unsolicited dietary advice

(06:45) Vegan advocacy

(07:51) Wild animal welfare

(08:25) Effective altruism

(09:49) Inside baseball

(11:08) On strategy

(12:23) Causes for optimism

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First published:
October 5th, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/c5Qcf8gcbFFHCfZNC/40-hot-takes

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.