The evidence for plant-based diets reducing animal suffering is strong. Understanding the welfare arithmetic of dietary choices helps people make more impactful decisions.
The welfare case for reducing animal product consumption is strong but nuanced. Each meal contributes to demand signals that, aggregated across millions of consumers, shape what is produced and how. Reducing consumption of high-welfare-impact products - feedlot beef, factory-farmed chicken, and intensive pork - has greater direct welfare impact per unit than reducing consumption of grass-fed beef or higher-welfare eggs. Complete elimination of animal products has the largest welfare impact but is not accessible to all. Partial shifts toward plant-based diets by large numbers of people can achieve greater aggregate welfare improvement than complete veganism by a small minority.