Summary

Note: Until this profile is updated our most comprehensive coverage of this problem will be this in-depth interview with Open Philanthropy Project Program Officer, Lewis Bollard.

Each year, 50 billion animals are raised and slaughtered in factory farms globally. Over a billion animals live in factory farms at any point of time in the United States. Most experience serious levels of suffering. The problem is neglected relative to its scale — less than $20 million per year is spent trying to solve it.

There are promising paths to improving the conditions of factory farmed animals and for changing attitudes towards farm animals.

Options for working on this problem include: supporting the organizations recommended by Animal Charity Evaluators by taking a high earning job and donating to them or by working at them directly; working at companies developing plant-based alternatives to meat; and advocating for action on the problem as an academic, journalist or politician.

Our overall view Sometimes recommended

This is a pressing problem to work on, but you may be able to have an even bigger impact by working on something else. Scale 13 / 16 We think intense efforts to reduce meat consumption could reduce factory farming in the US by 10-90%. Through the spread of more humane attitudes, this would increase the expected value of the future of humanity by 0.01-0.1%. Neglectedness 6 / 12 Between $10-100 million in annual funding; 1,000 people working on the problem. Solvability 4 / 8 Some plausible ways to make progress, with some expert support.