ZombieElephant

The most underappreciated advantage is environmental, but not in the way most people think. Because animals are so inefficient, animal agriculture requires a ton of land (estimated more than 25% of all ice free land on Earth). This extensive land usage means that animal agriculture incurs a huge opportunity cost when it comes to carbon dioxide emissions. That is, we're hurting our ability to capture and sequester CO2 by sticking with animal agriculture.

This recent Kurzgesagt video explains this issue well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Hq8eVOMHs

This paper calculates the expected gains if we ween ourselves off animal products: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-00603-4

It's dramatic. Freeing up the land from animal agriculture and revitalizing forests is one of the most tractable ways we have toward achieving the 1.5 C heating limit. We don't need breakthroughs in renewable energy or transportation; we can just use trees if we make space for them.

All that said, I'd still argue the biggest advantage is ethics though!

Thank you!

I've been vegan for around 4 years, and before that, I was vegetarian for about 10 years. I switched to veganism for ethical reasons. I don't like the idea of an animal being harmed for something I can do without. Even though I focus on the technology angle, the concern about animal suffering motivated this project and my career.

Not really sure what the point is. One cow per human for one year is honestly pretty terrible and speaks to the inefficiency I've lamented. A cow-sized bioreactor could feed ~10000 times more people in the same time span. Chapter 4 of After Meat explains this more.

Impossible and Beyond are already pretty solid. And in the long run, alternatives will be even better

Okay sure. What system leads to more animal suffering/death? What do animals in animal agriculture eat? Mostly monoculture crops, right?