Picture this: a woman is forcibly impregnated. After she gives birth, she’s violently separated from her child. She’s forced to breastfeed other women’s babies for 10 months. She’s then impregnated again, only to start the vicious cycle over again. Wash, rinse, repeat. Sounds like a dystopian nightmare you might witness during an episode of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” But this is the unfortunate reality for the nearly 300 million dairy cows worldwide, raised to produce 600 million tons of milk each year.
Open Philanthropy Farm Animal Welfare Newsletter
The Promise and Perils of Insect Farming
Insect farming is on the rise. Recent news stories have touted insects as “a six-legged solution to world hunger” (Time), “the next sustainable food revolution” (The Independent), and “the future of food” (NY Times). Insect protein is increasingly promoted alongside plant-based and cultivated meat as a green alternative to conventional meat.
Investors have noticed. In just the last year, French insect farming startups Ynsect and InnovaFeed raised $372M and $165M respectively, more than the whole sector had raised in all prior years combined. The UK’s first industrial-scale insect farm recently secured backing from retailer Tesco, startup incubator Y Combinator, and even the British government.
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Key Points
Theoretical & empirical work on emotional valence is Qualia Research Institute’s core research focus. At a high level, Qualia Research Institute (QRI) works to formulate universal theories of valence
[1], test those theories experimentally, and build non-invasive neurotechnology that reliably produces large positive valence effects.
QRI has formed partnerships to work with clinical data from psychedelic studies at King s College London, Imperial College London, and the National Institute of Mental Health of the Czech Republic.
QRI is collaborating with researchers from Harvard Medical School and the Emergent Phenomenology Research Consortium to analyze electroencephalographic (EEG) data from jhana meditation sessions.