# The small body problem, in 4 charts

> New research says you can cut most of the suffering in your diet without ever going vegetarian.
- Title: The small body problem, in 4 charts · Vox | Shortify
- Summary: New research says you can cut most of the suffering in your diet without ever going vegetarian. Eating fewer small animals, especially shrimp, chicken…
- Keywords: animal welfare, factory farming, food, diet, research, news, culture, small, body, problem, charts, Vox
- Source: Vox — https://vox.com/future-perfect/502524/small-body-problem-animals-factory-farmed
- Author: Kenny Torrella
- Published: 2026-09-11T10:30:00+00:00
- Read time: 2 min
- Topics: animal welfare, factory farming, food, diet, research, news, culture
## Going veg rarely sticks
Kenny Torrella quit meat 20 years ago after learning what factory farming looks like. Most people who try don't last. New research points to an easier option that gets you most of the way there.
## Eat fewer small animals
That's the whole ask. Not zero meat, just less of the meat that comes from the smallest bodies.
## Size changes everything
Cattle are raised in smaller numbers and treated less harshly than farmed fish and chickens. The smaller the animal, the worse the conditions tend to be.
## Half a percent of a cow
A family steak dinner uses maybe 0.5 percent of one cow. That same family can polish off an entire rotisserie chicken in one sitting.
## Someone finally measured it
Chris Bryant of the University of Bath and the research group Faunalytics ran the numbers on how much suffering is packed into each bite of meat or egg.
## A suffering footprint
The climate movement gave people a carbon footprint to reason with. Faunalytics wanted the same tool for animals.

> We felt like there was a gap in terms of thinking about more of a 'suffering footprint'
## How they counted
Using USDA and UN data, they worked out how much edible meat, milk or eggs each animal yields in a lifetime, then converted that into days of farm life and lives slaughtered per pound.
## They counted feeder fish too
Some farmed fish are fed other fish. Those lives got folded into the totals, so the number reflects the animals you never see on the plate.
## Shrimp dwarf everything
The vast majority of diet-driven suffering traces back to one tiny animal. A bite of shrimp scampi does more harm than an entire burger.

> a single bite of your shrimp scampi is far more harmful than devouring an entire burger
## Skip seafood? Then poultry
Plenty of Americans eat little or no seafood. Strip it out of the data and chicken, turkey and eggs become the biggest lever you have.
## Bred to collapse
Meat chickens grow so fast and so large that many struggle to stand or walk. Half of US egg-laying hens spend their whole lives in cages too small to flap a wing.
## Eggs count, no killing needed
Hens get their beak tips seared off without pain relief, then are slaughtered at about 1.5 years when laying slows. Buying fewer eggs, and pasture-raised when you do, helps.
## Pigs and cattle suffer too
Piglets are castrated and teeth-clipped without pain relief, cattle are branded and dehorned. But their suffering is spread across far more bites of bacon and burgers.

> their suffering is spread out across many more bites
## Numbers you can act on
The report isn't peer-reviewed and one economist calls the figures ballpark, not precise. Still, shrinking the problem down to your own plate beats tuning it out entirely.

> If you can stand to think about it long enough, the problem becomes paralyzing
## Key takeaway

Eating fewer small animals, especially shrimp, chicken, turkey and eggs, cuts far more animal suffering per bite than giving up beef.