That part is interesting, but the author basically concludes in the 1st paragraph that people who take morality seriously are vegetarians. That implies that people who aren't vegetarians don't take morality seriously, doesn't it? Aside from that, another aspect that is ignored is that our actions don't exist in a void. The person I'm paying to not eat meat can see that I'm still eating meat. My family, my friends, my coworkers, etc. all can see that I'm eating meat. This also has consequences as far as influencing the opinions & future behavior of others.
The author basically concludes in the 1st paragraph that people who take morality seriously are vegetarians. That implies that people who aren't vegetarians don't take morality seriously, doesn't it?
Sorry, no? I've noticed that people who take morality seriously are more likely to be vegetarian than the general population, but that's very much not the same thing.
My family, my friends, my coworkers, etc. all can see that I'm eating meat. This also has consequences as far as influencing the opinions & future behavior of others.
But if someone else...
I notice that a large fraction of Effective Altruism people are vegetarian. This makes sense: in general Effective Altruists take moral issues seriously, even when that means changing your lifestyle. I'm not sure it's a good balance, though.
One way to think about this is to convert it into money. How much would I need to be paid to give up eating meat? All animal products? How much money would I need to spend on myself to be about as happy as I would be with less money but continuing to eat animals? I'd probably be willing to go vegetarian for about $500/year, vegan for maybe $2000/year.
It turns out you can probably pay to convince other people to be vegetarian much more cheaply than that. I estimate the cost of a vegetarian-year at $4.29 to $536 while Brian Tomasik estimates $11 with better methodology (which I looked at). This is by placing ads on facebook for a site where people can watch an animial cruelty video and ideally become vegetarian or vegan.
If you would get more than $11/year worth of enjoyment out of continuing to eat meat, why not give $11/year to convince someone else to not eat meat for you? Or give $50/year and be on the safe side?
(While you're giving money, you should probably give it to the organization that you think will do the most good with it, which I think is probably one of GiveWell's top charities. The nice thing about money as opposed to actions is that it's easy to redirect.)
I also posted this on my blog.