Every year tens of billions of animals are raised in terrible conditions in factory farms before being killed for human consumption. Despite the enormous scale of suffering this causes, the issue is largely neglected: every year, only about $290 million is spent tackling the problem globally (for comparison, annual climate change philanthropy is estimated to be $8–12 billion).

Since 2015, Lewis Bollard has led Open Philanthropy’s programme on farmed animal welfare, where he has conducted extensive research into the best ways to end animal suffering in factory farms as soon as possible. 

He might be the single best person in the world to introduce the problem of factory farming.

This episode first broadcast on The 80,000 Hours Podcast feed on April 18, 2024. Some related episodes include:

• #91 – Lewis Bollard on big wins against factory farming and how they happened
• #8 – Lewis Bollard on ending factory farming as soon as possible
• #167 – Seren Kell on the research gaps holding back alternative proteins from mass adoption
• #99 – Leah Garcés on turning adversaries into allies to change the chicken industry
• #182 – Bob Fischer on comparing the welfare of humans, chickens, pigs, octopuses, bees, and more
• #26 – Marie Gibbons on how exactly clean meat is created & the advances needed to get it in every supermarket
• #20 – Bruce Friedrich on inventing outstanding meat substitutes to end speciesism & factory farming
• #14 – Sharon Nunez & Jose Valle on going undercover to expose animal abuse

Series produced by Keiran Harris.

Most animals are hunted by predators, and constantly have to remain vigilant lest they be killed, and perhaps experience the terror of being eaten alive. Resource competition often leads to chronic hunger or starvation. Their diseases and injuries are never treated. In winter wild animals freeze to death and in droughts they die of heat or thirst.

There are fewer than 20 people in the world dedicating their lives to researching these problems.

But according to Persis Eskander, if we sum up the negative experiences of all wild animals, their sheer number – trillions to quintillions, depending on which you count – could make the scale of the problem larger than most other near-term concerns. 

We chose Persis to introduce the problem of wild animal suffering.

This episode first broadcast on the regular 80,000 Hours Podcast feed on April 15, 2019. Some related episodes include:

#91 – Lewis Bollard on big wins against factory farming and how they happened
#99 – Leah Garcés on turning adversaries into allies to change the chicken industry
#26 – Marie Gibbons on how exactly clean meat is created & the advances needed to get it in every supermarket
#20 – Bruce Friedrich on inventing outstanding meat substitutes to end speciesism & factory farming
#14 – Sharon Nunez & Jose Valle on going undercover to expose animal abuse

Series produced by Keiran Harris.