In this episode, I speak with Jacy Reese, co-founder of the Sentience Institute. 

EXCLUSIVE OFFER: Get 15% off all Four Sigmatic products, including their popular Mushroom Coffee Elixirs, Mushroom Hot Cacaos, and Mushroom Matcha! Shop at: foursigmatic.com/eatfortheplanet.

Listen Now

About Jacy Reese

Jacy Reese is the Research Director of Sentience Institute, a nonprofit think tank researching how social movements succeed in expanding humanity’s moral circle using the perspective of effective altruism. He is currently writing a book, The End of Animal Farming (November 2018), that illuminates humanity’s transition to an animal-free food system.

Why You Should Listen

In this episode, we go deep into some really important issues that I haven’t previously discussed on this podcast, but are all tied to our food system and the future of food

Here’s what we covered:

• Whether there are technologies being developed, especially genetic engineering tech in animal farming that may prove to be a hindrance to the adoption of clean meat and plant-based proteins
• What is the role of farm animal advocates when large-scale farming of animals goes away?
• How to select the best animal charities to donate to. How can people who want to donate their money to charities evaluate the best organizations to support that will most effectively use their money
• We also get into some amazing research his non-profit has done which found 50 percent of Americans want to ban slaughterhouses.
• As well as the work he’s doing to expand societies moral circle and what’s the best way to message it to bring about social change. Lastly, we get into how to prepare society for a future with artificial intelligence

Through his work with the Sentience Institute, Jacy has come to the conclusion that we are already on a path towards ending animal farming, and as hard as that may be to believe, once you listen to this episode, you’ll understand why he is probably right.

People/Companies/Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Sentience Institute 
• The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker
• Clean meat
• GuideStar
• Charity Navigator
• Animal Charity Evaluators
• Good Food Institute
• Memphis Meats
• Pat Brown, Impossible Foods
• Survey of US Attitudes Towards Animal Farming and Animal-Free Food October 2017
• CRISPR

#EatForThePlanet With Nil Zacharias Podcast Links

• Check out all episodes of the podcast here
• Follow Nil on Twitter @nilzach