I Am Risen for the Shrimp

The State of Exception is over. The States of Exception have only begun.

I know, I know — I haven’t been blogging for the better part of six months, and it’s been an unparalleled tragedy across these United States of Exception. I hear it’s even worse than all the fish reproduction in the Hudson River.

I may not be able to muster up an excuse, but I owe you all an explanation. I haven’t been blogging because I didn’t want to. On the occasion that something offended me on a visceral level, like Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu’s illegal war of aggression against Iran, I deigned to make a post about it.

Otherwise, I’ve been dedicating myself more or less full time to the very incremental task of nudging U.S. food, agricultural, and wildlife policy in a more humane direction, and doing the handful of things that are more efficient than keeping a Substack at raising my profile among the people who are influential enough to advance my career and help me accomplish more in the future. You might understand that writing an anonymous blog about heterodox foreign policy and dream welfare doesn’t dovetail too nicely with acquiring political influence.

Still, I had to return to Substack for this hallowed day. Last year, after Bentham's Bulldog’s now (in)famous shrimp post helped raise nearly $20,000 for the Shrimp Welfare Project, I christened November 15th “International Shrimp Welfare Day.” Since then, Aidan Alexander, Drew Housman, and the rest of the crew at FarmKind have rebranded it “International Shrimpact Day” and extended it to a full week (November 25th through December 2nd), and recruited a slate of influencers to make it a truly worldwide phenomenon.

Participating bloggers are competing to raise money for the Shrimp Welfare Project. (For the likely minority of readers who aren’t aware, the Shrimp Welfare Project is a highly cost-effective charity that reduces the suffering of farmed shrimp who are raised at high concentrations in poor quality water and slaughtered while still conscious. It may sound weird, but the best evidence we have points toward shrimp feeling pain.) There’s an overall goal to raise $100,000, which is just over 3% of the organization’s 2024 revenue. There’s also a Substack Live debate tomorrow featuring Jeff Sebo, Lyman Stone, and Peter Singer (see here), and another on Sunday with Bentham’s Bulldog, Jeff Maurer, and Josh Szeps (see here).

If you’re already aware of the Shrimp Welfare Project and convinced to donate, please use my promo link to get a 50% match on your donation. The page also gives you a list of all participating bloggers (whose articles I’ll be linking to in another post at the end of the week), and more info about the charity.

As I promised when I announced the contest, I’ll be donating a total of $200 in the name of the blogger who raises the most money, who raises the most relative to their subscriber count, and who makes what I deem to be the most interesting argument for shrimp welfare. Hopefully those are all me, and I’m not above using underhanded tactics like emotional manipulation to make it happen. (By the way, if you don’t want to hurt my feelings after I ended my Substack hiatus just for you, you can go to this link to donate or press the shiny button below this paragraph to put “United States of Exception” at the top of The Shrimpact™ Leaderboard.)

My official contest entry will (hopefully) come soon. Despite having a full year of advance notice, I still haven’t written it yet.