Celebrate Poland's fur ban, factory farming spotlit in philanthropy, shape AI for animal welfare

Your farmed animal advocacy update for early December 2025

Hi there! 👋 It’s early December—maybe the last stretch of work for some of you before the holidays? While things might feel like they’re winding down, we’re thrilled to share a bunch of updates in this edition! From a major win for animals in Poland to loads of ways to get involved in the movement, whether you’re a student or a seasoned advocate.

The most popular link from Hive Highlights late November 2025 was for the EA Forum’s Donation Election. You can follow the rest of the Giving Season events here.

To kick off today’s Hive Highlights, here are our 3 top picks from across the movement:

From Movement news

• 🐖 Animal Welfare: Poland—Europe’s largest fur producer—enacts a fur-farming ban, effective immediately for new farms and phasing out the rest over 8 years, a shift poised to spare 2–3 million animals each year. Also see this piece by Kenny Torrella.

• 🐖 Animal Welfare: Alliance Magazine publishes a 30-page feature on why philanthropy must tackle factory farming. Read the lead article for free; the full magazine is paywalled, but Global South foundations and organizations can subscribe to access it for free.

From Jobs & Opportunities

• 🔥 Opportunities: Anthropic seeks input on how AI should develop to guide improvements to its models. Take Anthropic’s survey to ensure AI alignment considers animals’ interests and avoids speciesist assumptions.

We appreciate your curiosity about the latest efforts to help more farmed animals around the world. Thank you for reading!

Warmly,
Sofia, Angel, and the Hive team

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How to navigate Hive Highlights

Every two weeks, Hive sends you the latest updates (click to jump):

1. Movement news: Covering 🐖 Animal Welfare, 🥗 Plant-Based Food & Alternative Protein, ⚖️ Policy, Legislation, and Law, 💪🏾 Animal Advocacy Org Updates, and 🎲 Other

2. Jobs & Opportunities: Covering 💼 Jobs, 💡 Skilled volunteering, 🔥 Opportunities, 💰 Funding, and 🤝 Upcoming External Events

3. Resources: Covering 📚 Research, 🎙️ Podcasts, 📙 Books, and 🎥 Videos

4. Hive updates: Covering the latest from our team!

Other ways to read this newsletter: Extensions Jetwriter AI (to summarize posts) or Read Aloud.

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🐖 Animal Welfare

• Emre Kaplan reflects on doubts about whether the vegan identity is useful for building a powerful animal advocacy movement.

• Lever Foundation makes a case for working on the caged broiler chicken issue.

• Toby Tremlett starts a poll on how we should compare interventions focused on wild animals and those focused on farmed animals. We recommend reading the comments section as well.

🥗 Plant-Based Food & Alternative Protein

• Poland’s Ministry of Health pledges to introduce plant-based meals in schools and nurseries.

• The Netherlands becomes the first European Union country to allow public tastings of novel foods produced through fermentation.

• The UK’s Food Standards Agency partners with Food Standards Scotland to publish the country’s first safety guidance for cultivated products.

• Victoria, Australia, invests USD $8M to set up a new research hub and glasshouse to meet the global demand for plant-based proteins.

⚖️ Policy, Legislation, and Law

• The Journal of Animal Rights Law publishes its inaugural Volume 1 (2025) online.

💪 Animal Advocacy Org Updates

• Animal Advocacy Africa shares its 2025 review and priorities for 2025/26.

• Animal Charity Evaluators publishes its 2025 Influenced Giving Reports, which assess how much funding its Recommended Charities and Movement Grantees received specifically because of its work.

• FAST shares why they discontinued the FAST Forum.

• Fish Welfare Initiative shares its 2026 strategy and priorities and its latest funding update.

• International Centre for Animal Rights and Ethics publishes its 2025 progress and 2026 funding needs.

• The Aquaculture Accountability Project is a new organization that holds industrial fish farming accountable and informs consumers and advocates about industry practices.

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💼 Jobs

• UN Policy Manager, ProVeg International. Remote, global. Apply by 12 December.

• Director of Development Operations, The Good Food Institute. Remote, US. Apply by 23 December.

• Campaigner, Plant Based Treaty. Remote, Germany. Apply by 31 December.

• Communications Director, Farm Action. Remote, US. Apply by 2 January, 2026.

• Director of Marketing & Communications, We Animals. Remote, Canada. Apply by 2 January, 2026.

• Director Strategy, Trade & Food System Policy, Food Standards Agency. Belfast, Cardiff, London, or York, UK. Apply by 4 January, 2026.

• Aquaculture Consultant, FAI Farms. Remote, Brazil. Apply by 15 January, 2026.

• Fundraising Operations Manager, ProVeg International. Berlin, or remote in Germany.

• Media Relations Officer, Food & Water Watch. New York City, US.

• Operations Solution Partner, The Good Food Institute APAC. Hybrid, Singapore.

• Philanthropy Coordinator, Food & Water Watch. Washington DC, US.

• Visiting or Research Professor, Aquaculture Law or Policy, Vermont Law and Graduate School. Vermont, US.

Job search tip: Browse Hive’s Jobs and Careers Resources and follow our Slack’s job feed in the #job-posting channel for new positions daily! You can also view the Animal Advocacy Careers, AltProtein.Jobs, Food Impact Careers, and Probably Good job boards.

💡 Job hunting? Also consider skilled volunteering

Volunteering helps you build skills, connections, context, and credentials, all while creating change for farmed animals. For many people, volunteering is a key step towards working professionally in the movement. For others, volunteering is one of several impactful ways to contribute.

Three places to find volunteering opportunities helping farmed animals:

• EA Opportunities Board

• Vegan Hacktivists Playground

• The Hive Slack Community (that’s us!)

🔥 Opportunities

• Activoice is a free AI tool that helps animal advocacy nonprofits run campaigns by generating personalized messages for supporters to reach companies or policymakers. You can watch a demo and discuss with Thomas Graziani at thomas@activoice.org or over a call.

• AVA Summit Canada is a 3-day gathering designed for anyone working to advance meaningful change for farmed animals. Get early bird tickets by 31 December, book your stay before rooms fill up, and apply for a travel award.

• “Enabling Impact: The Animal Advocacy Ops Collective” is a community for operations peers in the farmed animal advocacy. Sign up for its next Peer Groups cohort from January to June 2026 by 29 December.

• Contribute to the movement:

  • Animal Law Focus seeks multiple remote volunteers: Animal Welfare Consultant, Social Media & Digital Content Assistant, Legal Researcher (Latin America), Campaigns Assistant, and Fundraiser.

  • Food System Stewards seeks founding board members to help nonprofits raise funds for farmed animal advocacy and plant-based diet initiatives.

  • Legal Impact for Chickens seeks a remote, US-based litigation intern. Apply by 11 January, 2026.

  • Sentient Futures Summit Bay Area 2026 seeks volunteers.

  • The Arthropoda Foundation seeks volunteers for database building, communications, and grant operations supporting invertebrate welfare research.

• Sentient Futures Summit Bay Area 2026 is a three-day conference exploring the impacts of AI and emerging technology on animals and potentially sentient artificial minds. You can suggest or apply to contribute content or apply for a scholarship.

• Student opportunities:

  • Effective Thesis Accelerator is an 8-week program that guides students from their initial thesis idea to a fully developed, high-impact thesis proposal. Apply by 13 December.

  • Effective Thesis Fellowships are 3-month programs for students who want to work directly on research alongside high-impact partners for their final thesis. Apply here.

  • New Roots Institute Fellowship is an online fellowship for high school and college students to create change on campus and beyond. Apply for the 2026-27 cohort by the priority deadline of 25 February, 2026.

💰 Funding

• The CatchLight Global Fellowship seeks candidates to leverage visual communication’s power for social impact. Fellows receive a $30,000 award, mentoring, and other benefits. Apply by 15 December.

• New Earth Foundation seeks to fund US 501(c)(3) organizations’ “innovative projects that enhance life on our planet and brighten the future, furthering peace.” Apply by 1 February, 2026.

• Escondido Community Foundation invites nonprofits serving residents in Escondido, San Diego, to submit a Letter of Intent for projects that foster meaningful connections between people and animals. Apply by 2 February, 2026.

• Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation accepts year-round applications from early-stage, high-impact ventures that can scale to improve at least 10,000 lives within five years across Africa, Europe, India, and the United States (with select opportunities in Latin America), offering $300,000 and direct support.

Fundraising tip: Hive’s Fundraising Guide includes a database of current opportunities and key resources on how to fundraise.

🤝 Upcoming External Events

• AVA Argentina, 30 January–1 February. Buenos Aires.

• Sentient Futures Summit, 6–8 February. San Francisco.

• EA Global: San Francisco, 13–15 February. San Francisco.

Events tip: View more on the Connect for Animals (CFA) event list, our Conference Database, and this list of upcoming EA conferences in 2025.

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📚 Research

• Animal Charity Evaluators publishes its Research Digests for March to August 2025.

• Faunalytics surveys around 1,000 US adults on their perceptions of standard animal agriculture practices.

• Tiny Beam Fund shares Issue 7 of Beacon, a collection of studies on tackling industrial animal agriculture in developing countries.

🎙️ Podcasts

• Our Hen House:

  • Animals and the Constitution with Michael Dorf

  • Plant-Based Policy Initiatives with Animal Policy Alliance

  • The Hen Report: “Constantly Center the Animals” | Vegan Media, Animal Liberation in Pop Culture, and Effective Advocacy

🎥 Videos

• Recordings from CARE 2025 are now available.

• Watch two debates from FarmKind’s International Shrimpact Week:

  • Jeff Sebo vs Lyman Stone, moderated by Peter Singer

  • Bentham’s Bulldog vs Jeff Maurer, moderated by Josh Szeps

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🎂 A birthday wish for the movement

This week marks my birthday—and my wish is a simple one: that every advocate, no matter where they are, has the support they need to make an impact for animals. We’re making great progress toward our $62,000 goal, and your gift can help us unlock a $31,000 match waiting to double our impact. If you’d like to celebrate with me, please consider supporting Hive’s mission today. 💛

✍️ Fresh from the Hive blog

This edition brings you two new reads: Meet Megan, our Communications Lead, and check out a new Beeyond Buzzwords entry—this time on “Networking”—from our series that unpacks movement terms that can mean different things to different people.

🌐 Highlights from a packed conference weekend

We’re grateful to have connected with so many of you—both familiar faces and new ones—at EA Connect. Across Kevin’s talk and office hour, 3 meetups our team members led, and dozens of 1:1 conversations with (aspiring) advocates, we came away energized by the passion from this community. Here’s a snapshot from the conference weekend that captures just a bit of that spirit!

Thank you for attending the farmed animal welfare meetup at EA Connect!

🌎 Hive Connect - Latin America: Herramientas digitales para potenciar tu activismo

Mark your calendar for Wednesday, 17 December! ​Join us for the first Hive Connect: Latin America, a new virtual event series designed to help farmed animal advocates across the region connect, share knowledge, and strengthen their movement — all in Spanish. ​This opening session will be a virtual workshop exploring how to use digital tools and strategic communication to boost your campaigns. Learn more and RSVP now!

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Thanks for reading our Hive Highlights: early December 2025 edition 🧡 It’s made possible by the incredible work of animal advocates like you.

📰 Submit inclusions for the next edition: deadline is 22 December.

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