Research Reports
Dietary Impacts
One of the ways in which advocates try to reduce the suffering of farmed animals is by encouraging people to eat less meat, or become vegetarian or vegan. There are a number of factors that go into the success of such interventions, including the specific animal products that are eaten or avoided and how long dietary changes last. These factors are discussed in detail at the links below.
The Most Numerous Animal Groups and Species - 2022
Animals suffer in various ways, and different problems call for different solutions. To prioritize what problems to focus on, we find it helpful to consider the scale of each problem. Here we discuss one aspect of scale—the number of individuals in various animal groups and species—in more detail.
Farmed Fish Welfare Report - 2020
Farmed fish welfare is plausibly one of the effective animal advocacy community’s priorities because of the current neglectedness of the issue, the likelihood that farmed fish suffering is large in scale, and the potential tractability of interventions to improve farmed fish welfare.
A Systematic Review of Cell-Cultured Meat Acceptance - 2020
This review explores the research that has examined consumer acceptance of cell-cultured meat to date. If cell-cultured meat were to achieve price-competitiveness with conventional animal protein—which at present has yet to occur—there could be a massive decrease in the demand for farmed animal products since cell-cultured meat products seem likely to take over some of the market share of conventional animal protein.
Trends in Meat Production - 2018
Trends in the production of farmed animals can reveal which countries and species need the most focus, and can in particular help determine which species or countries may currently be overlooked. These trends can also be used in the future to help determine progress of the animal advocacy movement.
Allocation of Movement Resources - 2018
How many resources does the animal advocacy movement as a whole put towards influencing public opinion, influencing industry, influencing policy and law, building alliances, and capacity building? Here we look at two overlapping segments of the animal advocacy movement: charities comprehensively reviewed by ACE, and the U.S. farmed animal advocacy movement.
Protests - 2018
Protests are a frequently used intervention in animal advocacy. We estimate that between 40 and 80 animal advocacy protests occur each week in the U.S. alone. Despite their prevalence, the purpose and effects of protests are poorly understood. One common misconception is that protests are intended to change public opinion; in fact, organizers often report that protests are intended to disrupt existing states of affairs in order to spur more systemic change.
When Will There Be Cost-Competitive Cultured Animal Products? - 2017
Advances in fields such as tissue-engineering, bioengineering, and synthetic biology enable a growing number of animal products to be grown in a cell culture rather than via a farmed animal. The grand potential of these cultured animal products to largely displace the demand for farmed animal products influences effective animal advocacy in a number of ways. Some of those ways and other especially relevant details are discussed.
Leafleting - 2017
Our 2017 leafleting intervention report is guided by our recently updated intervention evaluation process, which provides a new framework for using multiple sources of evidence to evaluate an intervention's effectiveness. As such, this report incorporates a variety of methods not used in our previous report, as well as the results of several more recent studies, and reaches quite different conclusions.
Undercover Investigations - 2016
Please note that this report on undercover investigations is archived, as it was written in February, 2016 and is not up to our current standards. Animal advocacy organizations use undercover investigations, sometimes just referred to as investigations, to document animal abuse and raise awareness of various forms of suffering and injustice against animals.
Models of Media Influence on Demand for Animal Products - 2016
Animal advocates often seek to reduce demand for animal products through influencing the public dialogue, but outcomes of these campaigns are hard to measure directly. We discuss two economics studies which model the influence of media coverage on demand for animal products. After summarizing the findings of each study, we discuss the study’s implications for animal advocates.
Online Ads - 2016
Please note that this intervention report on online ads is archived, as it was last updated in August, 2016 and is not up to our current standards. Animal advocacy organizations use online advertisements, sometimes referred to as veg ads or just online ads, to inspire viewers to adopt more animal-friendly behaviors and attitudes.
Corporate Outreach - 2014
Please note that this report on corporate outreach is archived, as it was written in November, 2014 and is not up to our current standards. We use the term corporate outreach to refer to any campaign where an activist or animal advocacy organization seeks to directly influence the behavior of a corporation. Some organizations that do outreach seek to establish professional relationships with corporations in the food industry and use those relationships to help them implement policies that improve animal welfare.