Hi there,
To wrap up all our work on the AI, Animals, and Digital Minds 2024 conference, here are the last few AI & Animals-related updates:
- shared a logistical retrospective
The previously-private AI & Animals Coalition (#s-ai-coalition) channel is now public. (If you’re not yet a member of the Hive Slack, you can join here.)
Moving forward, a lot of the AI, animals, and digital minds content will be distributed through the new AI for Animals newsletter — if interested in this work, please subscribe to stay updated:
Huge appreciation to community member
for taking initiative in launch this newsletter! We found his first edition to be a helpful introduction to this developing field.Both the conference and newsletter started as AI & Animals Coalition ideas. It’s exciting to see them realize results, so we encourage anyone who may want to participate by joining the Slack group (or you can reply to this email.)
Besides this, the Hive team has been working hard on improvements to different Slack feeds — including a job board and forum bot. Learn more below.
Warmly,
Allison (and the Hive team🧡)
Newsletter table of contents:
Helpful to read this newsletter: Extensions ChatGPT Writer and Read Aloud.
🩷If you get value from our newsletter or Slack, please consider supporting us so that we can keep providing these services for free.
🌍 Animals and Climate
Bird flu outbreak and USDA’s failure to prioritize prevention, Farm Forward
Elephants have names — and they use them with each other. Could this be used as evidence for establishing legal personhood?
Hungarian insect ingredient startup has constructed new black soldier fly facility
Report: The Pigs’ Asks has been developed by Eurogroup for Animals and its member organizations to define high welfare standards for pigs in Europe.
Report: The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2024, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
⚖️ Policy, Legislation, and Law
Complaint filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against the largest meat company in the world, JBS for misleading marketing
Thailand proposes labelling ban on plant-based meat and cheese
🥗 Plant-Based Food & Cultivated Protein
Highlights from the Plant Based Treaty Playbook on Senior Care Homes
German Nutrition Society revises stance on plant-based “health-promoting” diets
Spanish seafood firms & consumer unions accuse plant-based seafood companies of deceptive labelling
The case for investing billions in lab-grown meat, based off this report: Public Financing for Agricultural Decarbonization and Abundance
Report: Plant-based eating in China: attitudes and opportunities
Summary says that “98% of Chinese consumers will eat more plant-based foods once they have been informed of the benefits, particularly to their health, of living on a plant-based diet“
💪 Animal Advocacy Org Updates
New org: Arthropoda Foundation, an org to help fund important insect welfare science (announcement)
Fish Welfare Initiative update on their Alliance For Responsible Aquaculture program: adjusted visit frequency, measurement system, and tentative oxygen findings.
Landscape analysis of wild animal welfare and 3 preconditions for helping wild animals at scale
On loud activism, Bryant Research
🎲 Other
Compass Group, the world’s largest foodservice company, has publicly committed to buying credits (Impact Incentives) to fulfill their cage-free commitment wherever they cannot source physical eggs by the end of 2025.
Recent news about the intersection of AI & Animals (lots of relevant articles!)
💼 Jobs:
✨NEW: The #06-jobs-posting channel in the Hive Slack will now automatically post new job listings daily!
Many roles, including Assistant to Global Directors and Events and Digital Co-ordinator (Chicken Industry), Compassion in World Farming. Deadline is 7 July.
Communications Manager and Development Manager, ProVeg. Both based in the UK.
Research, Event, Advocacy, and Writing Internship, Food Tank. Deadline is 20 July.
Partnerships Lead and Social Media Coordinator, AVA International. Deadline is 15 July.
Partnerships and Programme Specialist, Animal Advocacy Careers.
For more job listings, view the Animal Advocacy Careers, Tälist, Alt Protein Careers, and Probably Good job boards.
🔥 Opportunities
Bertha Foundation’s Fellowship is accepting application for activists and investigative journalists. The goal will be to explore farming and climate crisis. Deadline is 12 July.
Farmed Animal Welfare Incubator (FAWI) is still accepting applications for individuals who are ready to start new farmed animal welfare orgs in SE Asia.
Leadership, Equity, and Action for our Food System (LEAFS) Fellowship is accepting applications for early- to mid-career professionals in the Greater Chicago area. This is a project by Mercy for Animals. Deadline is 15 July.
Plant-Based Universities (PBU) Summer Camps are taking place in Germany & England this August. They will be 3-night trainings for students or advocates interested in starting/joining PBU campaigns.
Scarlet Spark is offering a Feedback Skills workshop this July, the 1st workshop in their People Skills for Animal People (PSAP) On Demand series!
They also offer free workshops for nonprofit leaders: Prioritization skills on 2 July, and Inclusion skills on 6 August.
Travel grant applications are open for Encuentro por los Animales. Deadline is 5 July.
Vegan Camp Out UK is offering 25% off to activists for their event on 26–29 July. Use discount code dont25.
💰 Funding
Food System Research Fund (FSRF) is inviting applications for our 2024 Request for Proposals. Deadline is 1 September.
📚 Research:
Mapping antimicrobial resistance In middle- and low-income regions
They found that parts of China, central Asia, northern Brazil and India, and Chile were hotspots for E. Coli resistance, while NE China was a hotspot for Salmonella. The researchers mapped “priority antimicrobials” for surveillance.
Validating markers of oxidative stress as wild animal welfare indicators
Quantifying and prioritizing shrimp welfare threats
“The average farmed shrimp spends 154 hours in disabling-equivalent pain.”
“The highest-ranking threats are chronic issues that affect most farmed shrimp. The top three are high stocking density, high un-ionized ammonia, and low dissolved oxygen.”
Survey on Peruvian food and attitudes towards farm animal welfare in Peru
📕Books or other
🎁 Media
Podcasts
How I Learned to Love Shrimp: Leah Garcés and Sharon Núñez: Timeless lessons from 40+ years of animal advocacy
Our Hen House:
Sentientism: Zoe Weil, co-founder of the Institute for Humane Education
Videos (use YouTube video summarizer to get key takeaways!)
Dansk Vegetarisk Forening (Vegetarian Society of Denmark):
EA Global London 2024 conference sessions related to farmed animal welfare
Combining interventions for maximum impact, Mahi Klosterhalfen
Turning the tide for decapod crustacean welfare, Claire Howard
Welfare and moral patienthood, Jeff Sebo, Daniela Waldhorn, & Patrick Butlin
When to shut down, Sarah Eustis-Guthrie, Weronika Zurek, & Kyle Fish
Hive Slack updates
We’ve been focusing on several improvements in our Hive Slack!
Expanded our job board bot: New jobs on relevant boards (Animal Advocacy Careers, 80,000 Hours, Probably Good, Vegan Mainstream, Veganjobs) are now automatically posted in Slack daily in #06-jobs-posting to help you find the latest opportunities in one place.
EA/FAST Forum bot: To help you stay updated, our latest automation will relay new EA and FAST Forum posts to #news-updates channel! If you want a continuous feed of posts as soon as they are up, you can also join the newly public #x-fast-forum-feed or #x-ea-forum-feed channels.
New channels: Recently added non-default channels include #s-media-strategies, #x-memes, #e-care. New channels #r-español are #r-français are for conversations in other languages.
These updates are all a result of default channel microsurveys and member feedback. If you’re not yet a Hive Slack member, you can signup here to join.
📆 Hive events
Hive Community Conversation take place weekly in rotating time zones to accommodate a global reach. Here are upcoming events:
26 June, 12pm PDT/8pm BST
3 July, 11am EDT/3pm UTC
10 July, 11am UTC/4:30pm IST
17 July, 9am CEST/5pm AEST
24 July, 12pm PDT/8pm BST
The fundraising community’s upcoming event, Prospecting / Finding New Donors, will take place on Tuesday, 9 July. RSVP to attend.
🎉 Upcoming external events
UFAW International Animal Welfare Conference, 10–11 July. Portugal.
Taking Action for Animals, 19–22 July. Washington, DC.
Vegan Camp Out UK, 26–29 July. UK.
Aquatic Life Conference, 9–10 September. Virtual.
Conference on Animal Rights in Europe (CARE), 12–15 September. Hybrid online and Poland.
Fauna Connections: Using Data to Help Animals, 19 September. Virtual.
Encuentro por los Animales, 4–6 October. Ciudad de México.
Asia Farm Animal Day (AFAD), 9–11 October. Viet Nam.
Reducetarian Summit, 25–27 October. Texas USA.
View more on the Connect for Animals (CFA)’s event list and Animal Rights Calendar.
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