This book is the first collection of essays that critically engage with the philosophy and politics of Effective Altruism. The volume brings together diverse responses from activists and scholars, inviting a nuanced set of perspectives on the Effective Altruism movement

This report from Compassion in World Farming argues that the traditional selective breeding of livestock has led to great suffering for farmed animals, and that gene editing technologies are likely to exacerbate these welfare issues. It describes how traditional breeding has resulted in chickens that grow so quickly they suffer from leg disorders and heart disease, dairy cows that produce so much milk they experience lameness, mastitis and metabolic disorders, and turkeys that are so large they have joint deformations and cannot mate naturally. The report argues that gene editing should only be used in exceptional circumstances where (a) there is no negative impact on animal health and welfare, (b) no less intrusive methods are available and (c) it does not facilitate industrial livestock systems.

This book, aimed at a non-specialist audience, discusses our relationships with animals, how they feel from the animals' perspectives and how we can improve them. It considers the future of humane, sustainable agriculture.

This report from the Nuffield Council on Bioethics examines the social and ethical issues that could arise from applying genome editing to farmed animals. While genome editing could help address some food systems challenges, for example by giving animals greater resistance to some diseases, it also may lead to less attention being paid to animal welfare.

Local authorities in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the COVID-19 virus is thought to have originally started spreading to humans, have announced a ban on eating wild animals along with a ban on hunting wild animals except for scientific research or population regulation. The city will also buy out wild animal breeders. 

This report from environmental NGO Friends of the Earth US outlines the health, environmental, ethical and consumer concerns associated with research into genetically engineered livestock. It notes that gene editing can lead to unintended effects, such as unintended modification of portions of DNA, enlarged tongues in rabbits, extra vertebrae in pigs, and novel proteins produced in error (which could result in allergic reactions).

This article in the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) journal examines NGOs’ opposition to agricultural biotechnologies. It finds that opposition to genome editing cannot be dismissed as being solely emotional or dogmatic, as is often asserted by the scientific molecular biology community (see for example this 2016 letter by 107 Nobel Laureates calling NGO action against GM a "crime against humanity”). Instead, opposition to genome editing among research participants was rooted in three areas of scepticism around the framing of food security problems and the proposed solutions.

This book on farm animal welfare, edited by Nicky Amos and Rory Sullivan, explores animal welfare in the context of the corporate world. It analyses the key barriers to companies adopting higher standards of farm animal welfare, and offers a series of practical recommendations for those aiming to raise farm animal welfare standards across the food industry.

The Sustainable Intensification Network (SIRN) has published a report based on a workshop they co-organised in Kenya in March 2017. The purpose of the workshop was to help inform potential future funding opportunities from the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) for collaborative research between UK and African scientists, with the objectives of: