“The scale of animal agriculture” by MichaelStJules

I combine various estimates of the number of animals farmed with Rethink Priorities' moral weight estimates (Fischer, 2023) or my own guesses for others based on them in a table, also accessible here with calculations and some notes for some of the figures. I've replaced ranges with my own best guess central estimates. Farmed animals Individual moral weight (Rethink Priorities' Fischer, 2023, and my own guesses for cattle, sheep, goats, brine shrimp nauplii and bivalves) Total moral weight of those alive at any time (billions) Moral weight * number killed per year (billions) Number alive at any time (billions) Number killed per year (billions) Tonnes of animal body harvested per year (millions of tonnes)Sources for animal numbers and tonnagePigs0.5150.50.767350.981.49123Šimčikas, 2020 and Our World in Data (a, b)Cattle (and buffaloes)0.450.80.151111.70.335876Šimčikas, 2020 and Our World in Data (a, b)Sheep and goats0.451.00.513452.21.1417Šimčikas, 2020 and Our World in Data (a, b)Chickens0.3327.924.923.775139Šimčikas, 2020 and Our World in Data (a, b)Fish (excluding wild [...] The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: May 16th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/atm8wE45M6ibC9EWw/the-scale-of-animal-agriculture --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.