I've been vegetarian since I was 9 and recently became vegan. Reasons to be vegan - Do farmed animals generally live lives that are more bad than good? - This seems [obvious](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BYaVCc76bk) for factory farming - Even in the best case: Danish, organic, highest welfare label meat - Significantly reduced lifespan - Calf separation within hours or days - Painful slaughtering - Still bred for production; many chicken can't support their own weight because of weak legs - Overall hard to guarantee their lives are good, and the burden of proof seems it should be on those who kill them. - If yes, do the below reasons justify the suffering we cause to animals? Reasons to not be vegan - You are removing a freedom: eating animal products - Taste - Vegan food is great though, and transitioning often forces you to learn tasty recipes - Convenience - Sometimes can't eat what is served - Less options - Health - As long as you're intentional about it, a vegan diet can be among the healthiest diets I can't morally justify treating animals as we do, for the taste and convenience. Having that taste and more convenience doesn't seem enough impactful in making my life better. Purely thinking in impact, you can donate $100/year to [animal welfare charities](https://animalcharityevaluators.org/) and likely offset more animal suffering than if you go vegan. If the benefits you gain from eating animal product is worth more than $100/year, that might justify not being vegan, as you could donate that money and do more good. Then you could take that money and give it to something like [[AI safety]], if you believe that to be more impactful than animal welfare. And if you think you will do more good by keeping your money than donating it to say AI safety, then you might end up not vegan, not donating anything, but actually still more virtuous. There are many objections to this though 1. You might actually gain money from going vegan, rather than losing $100/year+ 2. Not having the cognitive dissonance of eating meat and knowing it's wrong is a great feeling - having consistent values 3. Influencing others to follow a similar path probably does even more good than reducing your own animal product consumption (Why I'm writing this note) 4. Very few people will do more good with their money, than if they donate to AI safety or animal welfare organizations. I, maybe naively, think I'm an exception. But becuase there's so much uncertainty, I'm still vegan and have taken [[The 10% Pledge]] Just being vegan is an easy way to have impact without the uncertainty. Being vegan only most of the time might be the ideal version for some though. Separately, are the lives of those animals ours to take? Should animals have rights? There are also many reasons to be vegan by principle.