Edited in response to comments.
How could I isolate a bet on veganism?
(Assume that most of my wealth is already invested passively in diversified index funds and that for alpha with a different percentage I want to express a well-researched view that is not based in idealism or a whim.)
"US Vegan Climate Index" exists, but this is mainly just a "US Large Cap Index" (which includes Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, AT&T, etc) minus certain companies that were found to be "engaged in animal exploitation, defense, human rights abuses, fossil fuels extraction and energy production, and other environmentally damaging activities."
What I'm envisioning for the vegan hedge would be to:
Buy (go "long" on) a diversified basket of companies that are likely to appreciate in value as the vegan movement thrives
"Sell short" a basket of companies that are irresponsible (e.g. abusive of animals)
This way, the isolated "bet" of the fund would just be that veganism thrives.
(I don't want its positions to have exposure to the performance of the general US stock market since I already have index funds for that.)
It would aim to minimize risk exposure such that its performance would be a reflection only of "how well are vegan assets doing compared to non-vegan assets" rather than movements in beta markets as a whole. (If the basket of vegan assets decreases in value, it STILL makes money as long as non-vegan assets decreased in value even MORE.)
The two main challenges I see are:
How to identify which assets to include and exclude (although maybe I could just use the list from US Vegan Climate Index and create the diff)
What amounts of each asset to buy. Base it on market cap or what?
Where could I go to get help with this?