Species Unite

“…there's this disconnect between our beliefs and our behavior and part of what can be useful for overcoming that is to change the behavior first, which sounds really counterintuitive.”                  - Jo Anderson Jo Anderson is the Research Director at Faunalytics, an organization that empower animal advocates with access to research, analysis, strategies, and messages that maximize their effectiveness to reduce animal suffering. Jo is an advocate for animals and empirical research. For over ten years, Jo has investigated key social psychological issues such as persuasion, judgment, and decision-making, exploring how these concepts can be used to make the world a better place for humans and animals. That is what happens at Faunalytics, they do the research and enable real change.   I learned a lot from Jo – mostly, that research changes the story and so often, reveals that the opposite of what seems obvious is in fact the truth.

“We see 84% of moms in the U S convert to infant formula partially or entirely in that first six months of life before the recommended period of exclusive breastfeeding ends. We see two thirds of moms express extreme shame and guilt and stigma for the way they feed their children. And, we continue to see that the infant formula industry in general has really pillaged and plundered in a lot of ways on parents wanting to do what's best for their child, but really not having better options and having very little innovation to really think about how to better nourish a child.” Michelle Egger Michelle Egger is a food scientist and the CEO and co-founder of BIOMILQ, a woman-owned, science-led, mother-centered startup that is creating human breast milk in a lab, by culturing mammary cells. This has the potential for disrupting the infant formula industry forever; and will give families a more nutritious option for feeding their babies. Michelle founded BIOMILQ with cell biologist Lelia Strickland in January 2020, and soon after they received $3.5 million in funding from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Bill Gates' investment firm. I’m beyond excited that BIOMILQ exists. They are creating a revolutionary product that will one day be on grocery store shelves across the world. It will be a game changer for mothers who struggle with breastfeeding, for the planet and for a whole lot of cows.

“…gazing up to the night sky saying, ‘are we alone?’ …well, wait a minute, look around, there's tons of fascinating life forms. We're so lucky to have all this amazing panoply of life on the planet. I get the question… are there other humanoids out there? Or, are there other conscious beings? But we ought to be pretty grateful for what we have on this planet… there's a lot of amazing creatures and phenomena that we get to enjoy living with, if we can.”  - Jonathan Balcombe Jonathan Balcombe is a biologist with a PhD in ethology, the study of animal behavior. He is the author of four books on the inner lives of animals, including the New York Times bestseller, What a Fish Knows. He has published over 60 scientific papers and book chapters on animal behavior and animal protection. Jonathan has spent his life studying animals, how they think and feel and why they matter. Quite often, he focuses on the ones that most of us tend not to think about very much, like fish and in his newest book, Super Fly, flies – it comes out in May. I thought I knew a little bit about fish, but after reading Jonathan’s book and after this time spent with him, I realized that I knew very little. There are 33,000 species of fish and what many of them are capable of is absolutely mind blowing . For eons, we have categorized species by who we deem worthy and who we don’t. Fish are almost always very near or at the bottom of that list. Clearly, that is because most of us know so little about them. Jonathan knows a lot. If you haven’t read his book, read it. It will astonish you.   Jonathan can most recently be seen in the Netflix documentary, Seaspiracy.

“A friend of mine in Germany is called Dr. Tofu. He was the first who did tofu on a commercial scale, in the eighties. They arrested him… for cooking something suspicious… He was arrested a couple of times. So, when it started in Nigeria and we opened the first vegan restaurant and there were also no vegetarian restaurants, people were saying, that's crazy. Why do you do that? But I knew kind of that time was on our side. - Hakeem Jimo Hakeem Jimo is the co-founder of Veggie Victory, Nigeria’s first plant-based food tech company. Hakeem and his partner, Bola Adeyanju also founded V Café, Nigeria’s first vegan restaurant in 2013. V Café is in Lagos and serves veganized Nigerian culinary delicacies to vegans, meat eaters and everyone in between. A few years after opening the restaurant, Hakeem and Bola began producing VChunks, a seitan-based meat alternative that was created to pair beautifully with most Nigerian cuisine. VChunks are dehydrated so that they can be kept on shelves for months and do not need refrigeration, which is not an option for many in parts of Nigeria. Hakeem is Nigerian-German, was born and raised in Germany and has lived in West Africa for the past 27 years. Before becoming a vegan food and tech entrepreneur, he worked in journalism and public relations.

“We're all just participating in a culture that really isn't of our choice… we just grew up in this culture, but we can start questioning things and just not be afraid to say that we love other animals that they're astounding, and that we care about the environment and we want to be less impactful…  you just have to be willing to say things that maybe other people haven't heard you say yet.” -Carrie P. Freeman Carrie Packwood Freeman is an associate professor of communications at Georgia State University. She's a critical cultural studies media researcher and has published in over 20 scholarly books and journals. She's also the co-author of Animals and Media, a style guideline web resource for media professionals. Animals and Media and In Defense of Animals recently partnered to call for an update to the Associated Press Stylebook’s recommendation on the use of personal pronouns for nonhuman animals, so that animals in news stories would be identified as, "she/her/hers and he/him/his when their sex is known, regardless of species, and the gender-neutral they, or he/she, or his/hers when their sex is unknown." The letter is signed by Jane Goodall as well as 80 other leaders, scholars, and advocates fighting for a better world for animals. Carrie is here to talk about why it's so important that we change the way that we talk about animals in the media, in entertainment and in regular everyday conversation.

We're creating a new system. When you look at it in that way, that's activism in itself. And that's actually fighting against a system that has billions of dollars, that has been spending billions of dollars, and not even asking people what they like to eat. They're not even considering the health. We're in the middle of a pandemic and who gets hit the hardest, black and brown communities with underlying conditions. Those underlying conditions stem from what they're eating. I get to go into these people's apartments, look in their fridge and then look at their medicine cabinet and see all of these drugs that they're taking because of ailments that they got from food. Meanwhile, if they were to change up how they eat, we were able to reintroduce that in a public sense, because with the fridge it’s like we're telling people, listen you deserve to have access to this.” -Power Malu Power Malu and Eloísa Trinidad are the team behind Overthrow Community Fridge, New York City's first plant-based community fridge that sits outside of Overthrow Boxing Club. A community fridge is a form of mutual aid to address food insecurity. They supply food to people who have limited access to fresh groceries, and since the pandemic began, people have even less access – especially to nutritious food. In addition to being a longtime community organizer and activist, Power is also the Director of Community Affairs & Special Events at the Overthrow Boxing Club. Eloísa is the executive director of Chillis on Wheels, a nonprofit that focus on making veganism accessible to communities in need. She’s also the executive director of the Vegan Activist Alliance, a New York organization that fights to end animal exploitation.

“I was doing really well in cardiology. I loved my role. I loved the work I was doing. I'd say except for two or three people, everybody said, ‘this is crazy, why are you giving up a career that is on an upward trajectory and that you're doing really well in?’ The two or three people who heard me, they said, ‘Uma don't look back. If you have even a fraction of the impact of what you're thinking of having, that'll be a million-fold more impactful than what you could do as a cardiologist for the next 30 years in practice.’ Essentially, even if I had continued in practice for the next 30 years I would have probably saved about two or three thousand lives. But if the innovation that we're working on becomes mainstream or even a fraction of mainstream, we're literally talking about trillions of animal lives, but also billions of human lives…”    - Uma Valeti Uma Valeti is a cardiologist, entrepreneur, and the CEO and co-founder of Memphis Meats, the world’s leading clean meat company - meaning they produce meat directly from animal cells. There is no slaughter involved. Uma’s mission is to feed the world’s growing population with meat that is delicious, affordable and sustainable. Memphis Meats has already pioneered the world’s first multi-species cell-based meat platform and made history by unveiling chicken, duck and beef grown directly from animal cells. I think it’s the most exciting thing to happen on the planet in my lifetime. Uma is quite possibly going to go down in history as the man who changed the way the world eats forever. As soon as cell-based meat is regulated, scaled, and available in restaurants and grocery stores (which is coming sooner than you think), the demand to slaughter of billions of animals year after year will diminish and at some point, it will be gone forever.

“I sat down, did some number questing and said, okay, 85% is going to be given away during my lifetime and the rest of thereafter. I sleep much better at nights. I do live comfortably, but there's a limit. I'd rather that money go to save lives.” - Jim Greenbaum Jim Greenbaum is the Founder and Managing Director of The Greenbaum Foundation. After college, Jim entered the workforce with one goal in mind - to make as much money as quickly as possible in order to use those funds to help make the world a better place.   In 1985, Jim founded and became CEO of Access Long Distance. Less than a decade later he made the decision that he would leave the corporate world at the age of 40. Keeping true to the plan, he sold the company in 1999.  Jim has committed to contributing in excess of 85% of his assets to charitable projects ending human and non-human suffering during his lifetime, and the remainder of his estate soon thereafter. The foundation’s assets will also be spent down during his lifetime.  The Greenbaum Foundation focuses funding on effective and efficient projects working to bring about the end of human and non-human suffering in areas of the highest need and where they the most impact. During the early years the foundation focused solely on human rights, but have since shifted their efforts toward non-humans, and toward  moving the world to whole foods plant-based diets and ending factory farming. Their portfolio also includes projects aimed at increasing the awareness, protection and improvement of the lives of all animals. Jim is also an Executive Producer of several documentaries, including “The Game Changers,” “What The Health,” "Cowspiracy," and "Not My Life."    "Being a bystander to suffering is not an option." – Jim Greenbaum

“I usually live day by day. I always live every day like it's going to be the last day. We learned that during the war. We don't know when we're going to die. So, you live every day like it's going to be the last day. That's what I do.” – Helena Husseini Helena Husseini is the vice-president of BETA, Beirut Ethical Treatment for Animals. BETA is the first and largest shelter in Lebanon with 850 dogs, many cats, a few horses, and a couple of monkeys. Helena is also an architect. She has been with BETA since 2006, a few months before the Lebanon War started. As bombs dropped nearby, she drove around in her Jeep saving the injured and abandoned dogs throughout the city. Since then, she has been rescuing animals during the too many crises and catastrophes that have plagued Lebanon, including the 2019 financial collapse, the riots, COVID 19, and the blast that decimated Beirut.   This conversation is really one that's about resilience, about grit, about what it means to show up every day, even when bombs are dropping, when there's no access to money, when people are starving, and no one knows what tomorrow will look like. It's a conversation about what it means to choose the meaningful life.

“…I just remember walking around this room in total shock and then backing into a cage and feeling something touch my shoulder and realizing, ‘Oh my gosh, you know, I’ve come too close,’ and thinking I was going to be hurt. Then, as I turned around [I saw] what had touched me was the bears paw through the bars of the cage. She just had her paw there and was holding it out. And I did something ridiculously stupid. I took her paw, because it was there, reaching out and she just squeezed my fingers. That's all she did. She just rhythmically squeezed my fingers. And I just looked into her eyes and I just knew it was one of those amazing moments that you can hardly describe. Because you just know at that point, everything in your life is going to change. Well, indeed, that’s exactly what happened.” - Jill Robinson Jill Robinson has spent nearly 30 years of her life fighting to end bear bile farming, one of the world’s darkest industries that most people have never heard of. She is widely recognized as the world’s leading authority on bear bile farming and is the founder and CEO of Animals Asia, an organization that has been rescuing bears since 1994 and is devoted to ending the entire bear bile industry. They are one of the few organizations in the world that is close to reaching the goal that they originally set out to achieve.