We spoke with Alex Wolfe, from the Humane League. Their mission is to end the abuse of animals raised for food. She believes an issue with activism is that often how successful it seems is subjective and that we need data and science to know what works. They pressure companies to adhere to specific regulations. 9 billion land animals are raised for meat and because 90% of those animals are chickens, it makes sense for the organization to focus on chicken welfare policies. Also, chickens are not protected by the humane slaughter act.

They target college campuses because the purchasing tends to come from factory farms known to commit a lot of abuse, including slaughtering caged hens and college students are very open-minded and will speak up for change on their campuses. It was a cage-free campaign. Then they started targeting the actual factory farms. They also worked for a regulation in California which didn’t allow pig farmers to use a gestation cage. It took 4 years to go into effect and is in effect now.

The work is challenging. They want to improve animal welfare incrementally. They’re dealing with wealthy, powerful companies and the status quo. The way to reverse global warming is to stop eating meat or at least eat less of it. Some people still believe the myth they have to eat meat because they need a lot of protein. So they’re pressing companies, trying to create legislation and regulations, and make public the harms and abuse suffered by the animals. She shared how slaughterhouse workers are often immigrants and these workplaces are intentionally put into marginalized communities in which these workers can be utilized for low pay. These workers get severe psychological damage because they are faced with killing every day which isn’t normal.

She shared that she doesn’t believe in shaming people about eating meat. She does try to inspire people by giving them information and asking them questions. If it means some people end up eating less meat, that’s great. Any direction towards a more plant-based diet is helpful. She said, “Perfection is the enemy of good” which I take to mean that we should start where ever we are and do what we can.

She recommended we watch Genesis Butler’s Ted Talk which points to the link between climate change and animal agriculture. She was the youngest person ever to give a Ted Talk. She also recommended FFAC (Factory Farming Awareness Coalition) and we shared we’d interviewed someone from there.

Finally, she talked about how important it is to understand the intersections of racial justice, labor justice, the environment, and animal agriculture. These intersections are a way we can reach people we wouldn’t otherwise reach.

I really appreciated meeting and talking with Alex Wolfe. She was so open and generous, sharing with us the work the Humane League is doing, but also some of her own experiences. It is inspiring to know there are people working for animal justice and environmental justice in so many different ways.

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I listened to an interesting lecture by Christopher Sebastian McJetters which he gave at the Vevolution Festival. He is a writer journalist, researcher and activist who teaches a class at Columbia University called “POP: Power, Oppression, and Privilege”. He focuses on how human relationships with other animals shape our attitudes about racial and political identity.

He talks about veganism as a liberation movement instead of just a diet or way of eating. He was inspired by black feminist theory and Bell Hooks’ writing and applies it to animal rights.

He talked about how all throughout history in America, our white supremacist culture has decided who is human and who is not so that being human is a political identity. When black people weren’t considered human they were exploited and experimented on. It was a time when anyone who wasn’t white, cisgender, male and wealthy wasn’t considered a person.

He talked about the brand of KFC who looks like an old white man dressed as a plantation owner who is selling “dead and dismembered bodies that have been fried”. He wonders how that image is an American icon and how we as a society allow the racist image to continue.

He talks about how the people who work in slaughterhouses tend to be people of color who live in economically depressed areas and that it’s privileged and classist to assume they should be able to do something else especially if there isn’t other work in the community. He shared that in Canada they couldn’t find people who wanted to work in their slaughterhouses so they hired Syrian Refugees. He used this as an example of the intersection of racism and animal violence.

He explained how our society generally accepts hunting but not poaching because people of color are usually poachers in economically depressed places and hunters are usually white and male but really they’re the same thing. They are both killing animals.

He ended his talk by saying our liberation is bound up with that of every other being on the planet.

I appreciated hearing about another way to think about animal rights. Most people just talk about veganism but he talks about liberation.

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On February 16, Lucas Supan and I met with Vidisha Rai, an Educational Coordinator from Factory Farming Awareness Coalition (FFAC).

She lives in California and talked about how when she was in college she began reducing her plastic consumption and when she learned about the impact of meat on climate, she was surprised because she hadn’t heard about this. She then heard someone from FFAC talk at her friend’s college and became really interested in learning more.

She said that we as humans tend to see ourselves as superior. We have pets but we see fish, pigs and cows as consumable products. Companies want us to believe meat is necessary and natural so we buy them. They don’t want us to look closer. The big agricultural lobby has done such an amazing job at lobbying our politicians to support factory farms. They are exempt from the Clean Air Act and from cleaning up their waste.

When asked what we can do to stop the cycle, she said our government should stop giving 63% of ag subsidies to the meat and dairy industries. Meat and dairy are only so cheap for customers because of the subsidies. This is why it’s cheaper to buy a burger than it is to buy a salad. Fruits and vegetable producers receive less than 1% of the subsidies. The other thing we need to do is keep educating people about how this food system is operating and eat more plant-based. She also talked about how meat and dairy is tied with American national identity and the image of American farmers. Also, pharmaceutical is making money off people getting sick from eating unhealthily.

She shared about people taking small steps towards a more plant-based diet being a sensible approach. even if people can’t become vegetarian or vegan, they can take small steps. They can try a vegan burger, order a pizza without pepperoni, or even just buy meat or dairy products from the farmers market so they aren’t supporting factory farms.

It was really interesting to hear more about this organization’s approach and the work they’re doing with reaching out and educating people of all ages about this issue.

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On February 9, we met with Joel Remland, who has been on a vegan diet since he was a freshman in college.

Joel told us about the economic system set up to support the meat and dairy industry. The government pays farmers to produce the meat and dairy. Joel doesn’t think the industry needs the help. He also talked about how the workers were getting sick. In the effort to help factory farms, the government is distorting the situation making meat and dairy very cheap. People wonder why milk is so expensive nowadays but really it’s just closer to the actual cost.

Joel has hope because so many more people are becoming vegetarian and vegan. But Joel also says he’s really careful not to try to convince people too strongly to become vegan. He knows there are people who do public protests but doesn’t think communicating rage and shaming them works well.

Joel recommends watching Seaspiracy and Cowspiracy. He says they are stories about doing your research and find out the information about how factory farms cause global warming. But he says people don’t really like to change their habits so even if the information is out there it doesn’t mean people want to know about it especially when it comes to what people eat.

Small farmers are being driven out of business by the factory farms. Besides the ethical consideration hamburgers for example include meat from maybe 100 cows which puts consumers more at risk of food-born illness.

Diet is one of the main drivers of climate change and diet is something we could all address. Veganism is really catching on and that’s hopeful.

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On Jan 21, my group presented about our social justice project to the class. I felt confident because me and my group member did lots of research and learned about a bunch of sources that contribute to global warming. One of the things that I shared in the presentation was the impact of methane from factory farms. I also talked about how over fishing impacts global warming as well. Lucas Supan, my group member talked about green house gasses and renewable and nonrenewable energy sources.

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