
Our Hen House: Vegan & Animal Rights Movement | Stories from the Frontlines of Animal Liberation Industry Panics: New Diseases, Labor Exploitation, and Cattle Market Collapse | Rising Anxieties
The animal agriculture industry’s nightmares are our fuel this week as Mariann dives into the poultry sector’s desperate scramble to combat the mysterious avian metapneumovirus that’s dethroned bird flu as their top concern. Meanwhile, Big Ag’s dystopian push to expand the H-2A visa program threatens to create a permanent underclass of “temporarily permanent” workers with virtually no rights—because nothing says “ethical industry” like needing indentured servitude to stay profitable.
This episode explores:
- How the poultry industry’s new top threat—avian metapneumovirus (AMPV)—is devastating turkey and broiler operations while raising concerns about potential human transmission
- The meat and dairy industries’ alarming push to exploit the H-2A visa program by creating a permanent class of vulnerable workers with few rights and no economic mobility
- Why “improving livability” is the industry’s euphemism for preventing animals from dying before they can be profitably slaughtered
- How the New World Screwworm parasite is causing cattle futures to collapse as it spreads through Mexico toward the US border
- The EU’s postponed decision on plant-based food labeling restrictions and new research showing protein-focused marketing could increase plant-based food uptake by over 100%
We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview.
_____________________________________________
Thank you for listening to the Our Hen House podcast! If you enjoy our podcasts, believe in our mission to effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, find community and solace in our shows and resources, and would like to show your support for vegan indie media, please make a donation today.
Contributions of any amount will go towards our fundraising goal and are hugely appreciated. Our Hen House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so it’s tax-deductible. Thank you for helping us create quality content!
Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcatcher, and don’t forget to leave a 5-star review!
Check out Our Hen House’s other podcasts: The Animal Law Podcast, The Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan Podcast, and the Antiracism in Animal Advocacy Audio Series.
Follow us on social media! You can find Our Hen House on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, or Bluesky.
The Our Hen House theme song is written and performed by Michael Harren.

