I do often think that increasing everyone's empathy would solve a great deal of problems in the world. Because you can't others when their pain is your own.
I recognize that most people have very limited empathy, though it is something that can curiously expand and shrink depending on emotions and life experience. That said, I know my excessive empathy (according to a couple therapists) is really nothing more than a quirk in brain chemistry.
So many problems are helped by veganism. The nightmare of animal agriculture; destruction of habitats / mass extinction; antibiotic resistance; climate change. Not to mention, but just in my observation even people who go vegan for eg their health / the climate (and so, not the animals) later care more and more about the animals, so perhaps it does increase empathy as well.
I hate thinking about their pain and suffering though, and how it's going on every moment. It's odd to me too how people focus on the slaughterhouses / method of execution while ignoring the many long months of cramped and horrifying existence. (tho that said "humanely-raised" animals are worse for the environment, as they take up more space / use more water and resources.......it's a dilly of a pickle, I tell you)