Hello! Now that it’s over a week past AVA Summit DC, we are finally rested. Looking back, it was a rewarding experience! We took to the conference halls in our bright orange shirts and focused on connecting with others. If we met — it was great to see you 🧡
If you took a photo at our photobooth, we’ve just posted the album on LinkedIn and the #e-ava-international channel on the Hive Slack. More photos included in the Hive updates section below 👇
Here are a few AVA summaries on LinkedIn that I appreciated:
Monica Chen, ED of New Roots Institute, on what nonprofit Executive Directors candidly think of fundraising
AVA with notes on “How to Empower Youth in the Vegan Movement”
Sofia Balderson’s reflections on her experience
Next week is the AI, Animals, and Digital Minds conference and retreat! The Monday conference will include 12 speakers on a variety of topics, followed by a retreat. We found a nearby venue and are now able to accommodate more attendees! Apply now to attend in person in London or virtually.
Our last conference update for now: the UK Vegan and Animal Rights Conference (VARC) posted their session recordings.
Warmly,
Allison, Sofia, and the Hive team
📌We’ll start by highlighting links we think may be particularly helpful for some advocates:
Faunalytics released an updated Global Animal Slaughter Statistics & Charts using United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO) data.
“Previously, when deciding which animals to include in our charts, we hadn’t considered that ducks would be killed in such great numbers that they would outnumber sheep, pigs, and cows combined. This is an unfortunately apt example of the small-bodied animal problem.”
Not only is the information/data helpful, but the article is written with epistemic humility and reasoning transparency 🧡
Updates on the U.S. Farm Bill
Why its relevant? Last year the animal ag industry pushed to include language that will undo California’s Prop 12 (full article here). They are trying again in this year’s $1.5 trillion funding package.
Status: A couple weeks ago, the House Agriculture Committee released it’s draft of the bill. There are several problematic sections that are not in the interest of animal welfare.
Take action: The Humane League is hosting a related event (Wed 5 June) and actions on their fast action network.
Newsletter table of contents:
Resources (includes research)
Helpful to read this newsletter: Extensions ChatGPT Writer and Read Aloud.
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🌍 Animals and Climate
CDC warns of more U.S. bird flu cases after 2nd human infected by cows
The scale of animal agriculture: Combined estimates of farmed animal numbers with their welfare ranges
World's 1st corporate shrimp welfare campaign by Mercy for Animals
Uncovering illegal working conditions in India’s shrimp farming industry
If you missed The Outlaw Ocean’s whistleblower investigation, its intersectional, highlighting human rights abuses (migrant slavery, poor working conditions) and food safety (illegal levels of antibiotic use, falsifying documents)
Report: Restaurant Report calls out the top 13 corporations with gestation crate confinement their supply chains, Animal Equality
⚖️ Policy, Legislation, and Law
Are Lawsuits Against Big Meat the Next Path to Climate Justice?
Investigation shows the influence of lobbyists claiming to represent EU farmers
Cost-effectiveness estimates of eradicating screwworm through policy advocacy
The screwworm is the cause of significant wild and farmed animal suffering in South America. The post proposes an advocacy campaign to coordinate governments and agricultural interest groups to implement a gene drive release program.
🥗 Plant-Based Food & Cultivated Protein
Report: The World Bank’s Recipe for a Livable Planet (and GFI’s summary of key messages on alt proteins)
Report summary: Plant-Based Foods Association (PBFA)’s 2023 State of the Marketplace
Report summary: The Food Service Playbook for Promoting Sustainable Food Choices. The World Resources Institute (WRI)’s 57 strategies to help foodservice operators nudge diners.
💪 Animal Advocacy Org Updates
Animal welfare in the United States: Opportunities for impact, Animal Ask
Note: These numbers do not include farmed insects
Costs and Implications of the EU European Chicken Commitment
Crafting a Winning Story: looking at the messaging behind Ireland’s Together for Yes campaign
Farmállatvédelem (Farm Animal Protection) is a new organization in Hungary working on cage-free and fish welfare corporate campaigns
How a small UK town became the 1st in Europe to endorse the Plant Based Treaty
Vote for Animals campaign, run by Eurogroup for Animals and its members, asks candidates to take a pledge committing to do more for better protection of all animals at EU level.
500+ candidate MEPs pledged to do more to protect animals if elected to the European Parliament
Sign the pledge to send 10 asks to candidates
Report: Open Wing Alliance Global Cage-Free Fulfillment Report (available in both English and Español)
“89% of cage-free egg commitments with deadlines of 2023 or earlier have been fulfilled”
🎲 Other
Reflections on Peter Singer, Richard Chappell
Recent news about the intersection of AI & Animals (lots of relevant articles!)
Looking for the 📚 Latest research?
We’d added it to the top of the Resources section.
💼 Jobs:
Assistant on the People and Operations team, Sinergia Animal.
CEO Co-Founder, Meat-Like.
Corporate Engagement Content Specialist, Good Food Institute. Deadline is 19 June.
Development Coordinator, The Humane League. Deadline is 3 June.
Head of Programmes, FOUR PAWS.
Plant-based advocacy specialist, Humane Society International/UK. Deadline is 20 June.
Program Officer, Sustainable Protein, Bezos Earth Fund.
Regenerative Farming Corporate Partnerships Manager, Compassion in World Farming. Deadline is 21 June.
Talent and Recruitment Manager (or Director), Ambitious Impact / Charity Entrepreneurship. Deadline is 14 June.
Plus, the Animal Advocacy Careers, Tälist, Alt Protein Careers, and Probably Good job boards. Book a 1:1 career coaching call with Animal Advocacy Careers.
🔥 Opportunities
Animal Ask is accepting applications for 2 different services, their Ask Prioritization Program and Ask Consultation Program. Deadline is 3 June.
Animal Farm Animal Day (AFAD) conference in Hanoi, Viet Nam
Speaker applications are due 15 July.
Travel Award Scholarship applications are due 31 July.
Early bird registration price is available until 30 June.
Aquatic Life Institute is looking for a Social Media Volunteer!
Connect for Animals is looking for volunteers, both a team lead and to help with social media
New Roots Institute’s Leadership Academy is an 8-week educational fellowship for high school and college students. Apply by 5 June.
Rethink Priorities is accepting applications for Board Members. Deadline is 9 June.
Scarlet Spark offers free workshops for nonprofit leaders: Strategic Thinking on 4 June and Prioritization skills on 2 July.
Tälist is looking for a graphic designer for product marketing purposes.
💰 Funding
Tiny Beam Fund’s Fueling Advocates Initiative (FAI) Grants deadline is 2 July.
Thrive Grant and ProVeg Grants applications are dues 1 June.
Upstream Policies are looking for people based in Delaware. They don't have to be an animal advocates — only needed for small action to support strategic legislative work (e.g. short public comment, a letter, meeting). Please email victoria@upstreampolicies.org.
📚 Research:
ACE’s April Empirical Research in Farmed Animal Advocacy newsletter
A System-Focused Approach To Industrial Food Animal Production
Effect of a default portion-size reduction on meat consumption and diner satisfaction.
The “One Health” approach to reducing animal ag’s climate footprint
📕Books or other
Effective Altruism and the Human Mind: The Clash Between Impact and Intuition
Available to read online for free or for purchase as a paperback.
Animal Ethics has recently launched Senti, an Ethical AI assistant designed to answer questions related to animal ethics, wild animal suffering, and longtermism.
New website winforanimals.org has a bunch of papers and talks on greenwashing and humanewashing in animal agriculture, and solidarity among vegans and other social justice movements.
🎁 Media
Podcasts
Asia for Animals: Insights from policy advocacy in Latin America and what we can learn for Asia
How I Learned to Love Shrimp: 10 Years Since Veganuary: Co-founders Matthew and Jane reflecting on the past and envisioning the future
Sentientism: “Reductionism is well-named. It reduces what you can do.” – Michael Levin
Videos (use YouTube video summarizer to get key takeaways!)
Hive at AVA
Wow, what a fantastic 4 days at AVA! Here are a series of photos that do a good job explaining what our conference experience entailed: lots of meetups, connections, and strengthening relationships in the animal advocacy movements
(Captions underneath are for photos in the order left-to-right)
The Hive team photo — thank you SO much to our reliable volunteers Ethan, David, Bret, James, Cornelius, and Diane.
We had a photobooth at our vendor stall! Photos have been posted on LinkedIn and the Hive Slack #e-ava-international channel.
The Networking for Introverts and Extroverts meetup had ~75 people attend! The energy was vibrant and we’ve received great feedback on our modified format.
Members from AI & Animals coalition, hosted on the Hive Slack, met up in person
Sharon Núñez & Sofia Balderson co-hosted a stoicism meetup
The post-AVA Revolutionists Night event was attended by a good mix of DC locals and AVA attendees!
The fundraising community’s upcoming event, Better Storytelling, will take place on Tuesday, 11 June. It will be a group discussion and brainstorming session on using storytelling in digital communications. RSVP to attend.
🎉 Upcoming external events
National Animal Rights Day (NARD), 2 June.
Joint collaboration with Animal Save Movement, Anonymous for the Voiceless, and We The Free in 50+ countries around the world.
AI, Animals and Digital Minds Conference & Retreat, 3–5 June. London, UK.
AfA Connect. Theme is “Insurmountable Challenges: Aiming for Solutions". 5–6 June. Virtual.
Aquatic Life Conference. 9–10 September. Virtual.
View more on the Connect for Animals (CFA)’s event list and Animal Rights Calendar.
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