I've been a vegetarian for over 10 years. My EA insights have made me start questioning if I should start eating meat again, at least occasionally. I'd like to share my thought process and have it challenged!
Thought 1 - Vegetarian diet vs effective charities
There are definitely much more effective ways to impact animal wellfare than being a vegetarian. Giving to the right charity has magnitudes greater impact than me not eating meat. I think everyone in this forum agrees on that, right?
Thought 2 - Just do both...
Can't I just do both? Give to the effective charities and keep a vegetarian diet? Yeah maybe, but then I learned about moral/self-licensing...
If I've got this straight, studies show that if I've done a good deed, I'm less likely to do another one. A vegetarian diet is a good deed (not the most effective, but still a good deed) when it comes to factory farming.
I don't think I'm "above" the self licensing effect just because I know of it. So I'm probably less likely to do as much of the more effective deeds because of being a vegetarian.
Thought 3 - Focus only on what's most effective
EAs pride ourselves on going "all in" on the most effective interventions. Not focusing energy/time on things that also do good, but less effectively.
So that would encourage me to go all in on the right charities and stop the less effective dietary restriction.
Thought 4 - A bit inconvenient
Keeping a vegetarian diet sacrifices some quality of life for me. Not much, but definitely some. Eating out or at friends/family adds a bit of inconvenience. Also, even if I'd likely keep to vegetarian meals most of the time, I miss some non-vegetarian dishes that I found extra tasty.
Thought 5 - The pro-vegetarian argument
The pro-vegetarian argument that resonates most with me is "if you think something is a moral atrocity, you shouldn’t participate in it, even if you offset the effects of your contribution." The deontological argument, well described in the post Some thoughts on vegetarianism and veganism.
But I find it difficult to weigh that against the 4 other ones I listed above.
Keen to read some of your thoughts on this!
There are many more arguments both for and against that I'm not going to enumerate here, but are definitely available elsewhere in the forum. I'll also plug that I agree with Henry's comment - there are grassroots effects that are hard to measure, but my intuition is they have sneakily high EV.
But the main argument for me, and many other vegans (and vegetarians, but I'll just say vegans for brevity) I know, is that at some point, they stop wanting to eat meat. If one truly views it as a chore, it will always be seen as a sacrifice. However, if the notion of eating animal products truly grosses you out, then it's basically easier to be vegan than to eat meat.
I am not trying to deny that animal products can smell or taste great! But at this point, if I were to have a bite of chicken, the first thought for me would be "I am eating this factory farmed chicken that lived a horrible life of abject suffering" and not "hey, this tastes good." It just grosses me out. Perhaps this would be a corollary to your point 5, but at some point, the dedication to the diet becomes more internalized. At that point, points 2 and 3 somewhat fall off, because it's just a baseline lifestyle rather than part of my EA-aligned activities.
(To be clear, I acknowledge that this isn't a universal vegan experience. I don't mean to invalidate longtime committed vegetarians/vegans who don't view meat the same way I do. I just mean to point out that there is potentially some light at the end of the tunnel that makes committing to this diet/lifestyle significantly easier. For me, that was about one year after transitioning from vegetarianism to veganism. Watching Dominion helped lock in any remaining doubts I may have had at the 1.5-2 year mark.)
Yeah good point. I'm not as grossed out by eating meat as many other vegetarians. But I get that it's a good argument for many!