“Animal farming impacts soil nematodes, mites, and springtails hugely more than directly affected animals?” by Vasco Grilo🔸

Side note. You can give me feedback here (anonymously or not).

Summary

• I estimate animal farming:
  • Decreases the living time of (wild) soil nematodes, mites, and springtails hugely more than it increases that of directly affected animals.
  • Increases the welfare of soil nematodes, mites, and springtails hugely more than it changes that of directly affected animals.
• My best guess is that those soil animals have negative lives, so I think decreasing their animal-years by increasing land use is beneficial.
• I believe broadly advocating for decreasing the consumption of animal-based foods tends to be harmful. I predict it decreases cropland due to predominantly resulting in the replacement of poultry and pig meat, and beef with plant-based foods. In agreement with this, I estimated School Plates in 2023, and Veganuary in 2024 harmed soil nematodes, mites, and springtails 5.42 k and 3.58 k times as much as they benefited directly affected animals.
• I recommend donating [...]

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Outline:

(00:20) Summary

(02:20) Impact of animal farming on the living time of animals

(05:13) Impact of animal farming on the welfare of animals

(09:31) Increasing animal farming increases animal welfare?

(11:00) My recommendations

(12:17) Eating plant-based still makes sense to me

(14:26) Acknowledgements

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First published:
June 28th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/J62ZWBJyAtWqSr4eH/animal-farming-impacts-soil-nematodes-mites-and-springtails

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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