Kristie Middleton is  vice president of business development for Rebellyous Foods where she and her team help institutions add more plant-based options to their menus. Kristie’s also the author of MeatLess: Transform the Way You Eat and Live—One Meal at a Time and a long-time animal advocate. 

Rebellyous Foods has created novel manufacturing technology in order to make plant-based chicken more affordable to the masses. Mainly targeting food service providers such as universities and school districts, Kristie, who is Vice president of business development at the venture capital funded company, uses her experience from her days at The Humane Society to ensure that this product is a clean and price comparable product in those markets.

A great episode for those interested in all things plant-based meats and how to scale a company providing this type of product to the masses. 

Relevant links to things mentioned throughout the show:

• Kristie Middleton: MeatLess: Transform the Way You Eat and Live—One Meal at a Time
• In a recent interview with The Food Institute with Christie Lagally 
• 50% of all meals served in Sodexo university settings will be plant-based by 2025
• Request For Proposals for something called Mock2
• Josh Balk episode on our podcast
• AG funder interview re continuous process vs batching
• Podcast: Business for Good (start-ups)
• Food BizWiz by Aly Ball about getting food start-up products into retail
• Rebellyous Foods Hiring

(00:00) START
(04:23) ABOUT REBELLYOUS FOODS
(09:31) PATENTED EQUIPMENT
(16:47) EDUCATING THE CONSUMER
(22:12) A GOOD APPROACH MAKES A DIFFERENCE
(28:24) THE MOCK 2
(34:53) ADVANTAGES TO COMPANIES FOCUSED ON PROFIT
(45:46) OTHER AREAS THAT NEED INNOVATION
(51:38) MOMENTS THAT INSPIRED CAREER CHANGE
(01:02:31) FOCUS ON THE MISSION
(01:06:05) CLOSING QUESTIONS

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Jaya is a seasoned operational executive with a rich history of promoting animal welfare in the food retail sector. As the Co-founder and Chief Program Officer of Global Food Partners, a Singapore-based multinational consulting firm, he helps food and hospitality businesses implement their cage-free egg policies across Asia and reduce the cost of cage-free sourcing.

A fascinating episode as we unpick the many advantages of working collaboratively with the industry to advance animal welfare. We chat about the key challenges to this type of work right now, animal welfare challenges in Asia generally and try to understand some of the key barriers for companies implementing improved animal welfare standards for the animals in their care.

Jaya has an absolute wealth of knowledge and experience in this area so it was a real pleasure to hear about his important work and strategic approach. A great listen.

Relevant links to things mentioned throughout the show:

• Global Food Partners website
• Welfare Matters fellowship
• Ahimsa fellowship in India
• Curious Vedanth podcast
• Asia agribusiness podcast (& newsletter)
  • Global Food Partners Podcast 
• Global Food Partners Newsletter

Chapter Headers:

0:02:38 Why GFP works collaboratively with companies

0:06:10 Market forces and why they matter

0:12:01 Making progress for cage free

0:18:21 Key insights from cage free work in India and Asia

0:20:11 Reputational risk and its limitations in Asia

0:25:59 Forecasting the Asian animal movement

0:31:18 The impact of global welfare commitments on Asian companies

0:36:45 The importance of social proof

0:39:39 Consumers or companies responsibility

0:50:00 Offset credits for cage-free procurement

0:54:51 Cost implications of going cage free

1:08:46 Pushback from other animal advocacy groups

1:12:30 GFP plan for expanding in more countries

1:19:00 Cage free vs broiler commitments in Asia

1:20:22 The need for ecosystems and GFP's work

1:23:02 Career advice for advocates in Asia

1:26:20 Cultivating personal motivation

1:29:24 Closing questions

If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating and review us - we would really appreciate it! Likewise, feel free to share it with anyone who you think might enjoy it. You can send us feedback and guest recommendations via Twitter or email us at [email protected]. Enjoy!

Lauren Mee is the CEO & Co-founder of Animal Advocacy Careers, an organisation that tries to match mission-aligned talent to opportunities that accelerate the end of factory farming.

Lauren offloads all she knows about the hiring landscape right now when it comes to careers in animal advocacy. She talks us through some best practices and common pitfalls in the hiring process as well as her take on some of the more strategic questions when it comes to career progression in this space.

Whether you are not yet working in the movement, a manager looking to hire or a mid-level employee looking to advance to something more senior, there is something for everyone in this episode.

Relevant links to things mentioned throughout the show:

• Animal Advocacy Careers pitch on why AAC is needed (from 2019)
• Charity Evaluation of Animal Advocacy Careers from Charity Entrepreneurship's Research Training Program
• AAC Fundraising skill profile 
• Policy skill profile 
• Sentience Institute podcast 
• AAC website
• AAC ICAPS
• AAC fundraising placement 
• AAC Inclusive hiring process research 
• AAC online course 
• Laila Kassam talk on YouTube
• Giving for Animals Pledge
• Tania Luna books on management
• Management Centre 
• No Rules Rules - The book on how Netflix built an innovative culture
• Managing to change the world 
• New German legislation on animal welfare 
• Animal Ask Meat Tax report 
• Cal Newport – So good they can’t ignore you
• Range - why generalists trump specialists 
• Mindset - Dr Carol Dweck
• By Jack Kornfield - The heart wisdom podcast
• Career advising form - AAC 

If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating and review us - we would really appreciate it! Likewise, feel free to share it with anyone who you think might enjoy it. You can send us feedback and guest recommendations via Twitter or email us at [email protected]. Enjoy!

Aaron Ross has spent over 20 years working for farmed animals. His relentless dedication to this cause has seen him co-found two major organisations, The Humane League and the Open Wing Alliance and train and advise countless others around the world on corporate relations and movement strategy.

In this episode, we talk through an important topic, longevity, and discuss the advantages and pitfalls of this long-term dedication to this long-term fight. Aaron offers practical advice for those wanting to dedicate their career to helping animals and why staying involved over the long-term has immeasurable advantages.

We’ve really enjoyed delving into a topic that touches less on the organisation goals and more on personal experiences of a deep topic so if you or anyone you know would like to come on to talk about a different area in this same vein, please let us know.  

Relevant links to things mentioned throughout the show:

• EAST - Farmed Animal Welfare Group, Taiwan 
• The Humane League Careers
• The Humane League website
• Open Wing Alliance 
• Mark & Paul Engler – This is an Uprising
• Jim Collins book, Good To Great, and Level 5 leadership
• 33 Strategies of War
• Hahrie Han - How organisations develop activists 
• Cal Newport - Deep Work
• Cal Newport - A World Without Email
• Jocko Willink Podcast 
• Jocko Willink - Extreme Ownership
• Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis
• Hypatia
• Amy Odene Corporate Campaign Support 

If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating and review us - we would really appreciate it! Likewise, feel free to share it with anyone who you think might enjoy it. You can send us feedback and guest recommendations via Twitter or email us at [email protected]. Enjoy!

Description: Tomasz Herok recently spent over 5 months working undercover on British factory farms, as part of an investigation by Open Cages, the UK branch of Anima International.

[Trigger warning: graphic descriptions of animals suffering on factory farms throughout the episode]

In this episode we understand the complexities involved in being an undercover investigator, what Tomasz’s role on the farm entailed during his time there and how he personally deals with the trauma presented. We also talk through the campaign that the footage was used for and what Tomasz needed to capture in order for this to be a success. 

An intense but incredibly in-depth look at the role of undercover investigators and what they witness on today's factory farms.

Relevant links to things mentioned throughout the show:

• Tomasz & Open Cages video to share
• Fellow Creatures – Christine Korsgaard
• Unlearning economics – YouTube/podcast
• Tech won’t save us - podcast

If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating and review us - we would really appreciate it! Likewise, feel free to share it with anyone who you think might enjoy it. You can send us feedback and guest recommendations via Twitter or email us at [email protected]. Enjoy!

Simon Newstead, entrepreneur turned impact investor, is a founding co-partner of Better Bite Ventures who back food-tech founders in Asia.

In this episode, we deep dive into the world of alt protein and the different technologies available in the alternative protein space. We look at Asia specifically where Simon’s work is focussed as well as the challenges this industry is facing as a whole. We also quiz Simon on his view on the timelines we should work towards to see this global shift in consumption towards animal-free alternatives. 

Relevant links to things mentioned throughout the show:

• Better Bite Ventures: Website
• 80K podcasts;
  •  Bruce Friedrich, Good Food Institute
  •  Seren Kell, Good Food Institute
• Rethink Welfare Range Estimates
• David Humbird: Scale up economics for cultured meat
• Regulatory approval of cultivated meat in the US
• Good Food Institute
• Impactful Animal Advocacy Slack
• Red to Green podcast 
• The Counter article on the difficulties of cultivated meat
• Jacob Peacock’s research on the price, taste and convenience hypothesis on the EA forum
  • Johannes Ackva’s  comment thread about analogues to environmental technologies 
  • Bruce Friedrich (GFI President) first reply  and second reply 

If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating and review us - we would really appreciate it! Likewise, feel free to share it with anyone who you think might enjoy it. You can send us feedback and guest recommendations via Twitter or email us at [email protected]. Enjoy!

In this episode, we speak to Wanyi Zeng, Executive Director of Welfare Matters, an organisation that is focused on building capacity for the farmed animal advocacy movement in Southeast Asia.  We speak about the findings of Welfare Matters’ detailed and insightful report into the animal agriculture landscape in 6 key Southeast Asian countries, challenges facing the movement in Asia as well as Welfare Matters’ exciting plans to incubate new projects in the Asian farmed animal space.

Links from the episode: 

• Asia Farmed Animal Day conference
• Curious Vedanth podcast 
• Michal Klar - Future Food Now
• Lee Kuan Yew’s book - One man’s view on the world
• Welfare Matters Newsletter
• Welfare Matters Programme Coordinator role, Indonesia (deadline is December 15th!)

If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating and review us - we would really appreciate it! Likewise, feel free to share it with anyone who you think might enjoy it. You can send us feedback and guest recommendations via Twitter or email us at [email protected]. Enjoy!

Stien is the executive director of Animal Charity Evaluators, also known as ACE. Stien, wants to help people help animals and ACE tries to do that by finding and promoting the most effective ways to help animals.

In this episode we speak with Stien Van Der Ploeg who is their fairly newly appointed executive director. We talk through the latest release of the recommendations for this year and go into some detail on why certain charities and their interventions were selected. We talk about why their work is so important, the difficulties in the recommendation process and their developing strategy for the upcoming year.

Relevant links to things mentioned throughout the show:

• Recommended charity fund and matching offer (to Dec 6th)
  • ACE 2023 recommendations
  • ACE Team emails 
• Menu of interventions
  • Intervention scores spreadsheet
  • Menu of outcomes
• Faunalytics review
• Legal Impact for Chickens review
• GWWC evaluation
• ACE Strategy Doc
• Other organisations discussed in the episode
  • Rethink Priorities
  • Scarlet Spark
  • Animal Legal Defense Fund
  • The Mission Motor
  • [Amy’s organisation] User-Friendly: Messaging Workshop
• Lead Together, by Tania Luna
• Podcast: Knowing Animals
  • Knowing Animals: Episode 210: Saving Animals (and Ourselves) with Jeff Sebo (libsyn.com)
  • Knowing Animals: Episode 168: Speaking with animals with Eva Meijer (libsyn.com)

If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating and review us - we would really appreciate it! Likewise, feel free to share it with anyone who you think might enjoy it. You can send us feedback and guest recommendations via Twitter or email us at [email protected]. Enjoy!

Today, we speak with Monica Chen, the Executive Director of New Roots Institute, formerly Factory Farming Awareness Coalition.
 
We speak about several big topics: 

• Theories of change for the animal advocacy movement
• Why collaboration between organisations isn’t always easy,
• The importance of focusing on changing culture and social norms
• The difficulties around management and organisational leadership, as well as some lessons Monica learnt along the way

Monica is an inspiring organisational leader who spends lots of her time thinking about what can benefit the movement as a whole so it was a real pleasure to speak with her about these topics.

Resources from our conversation:

• ACE 2023 Recommended Charities
• New Roots Institute strategy and theory of change
• Washington Post poll on climate solutions
• Naito, Rumi, Jiaying Zhao, and Kai M. Chan. “An Integrative Framework for Transformative Social Change: A Case in Global Wildlife Trade.” - Link
• Forge organizing articles: 
  • Maurice Mitchell: Building resilient organisations
  • How not to dismantle white supremacy
• New Roots Institute website

If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating and review us - we would really appreciate it! Likewise, feel free to share it with anyone who you think might enjoy it. You can send us feedback and guest recommendations via Twitter or email us at [email protected]. Enjoy!

Cameron is the executive director of Wild Animal Initiative, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of animals by accelerating the growth of wild animal welfare science.

In this episode Cameron helps us to understand the vast topic of wild animal suffering. Cameron makes the compelling case for why we should invest resources into understanding how we can reduce wild animal suffering responsibly with data-backed interventions, improving the overall well-being of wild animals.  

We talk through the importance of Wild Animal Initiative’s research in this area, their grant-making arm which is enabling the research field in this area to grow and the future plans for their work. 

Relevant links to things mentioned throughout the show:

• Wild Animal Initiative website 
• Animal Ethics website
• Cricket Science Game and WAI's blog post explaining the project
• WAI blog post: 
  • Core concepts of wild animal welfare suffering 
  • Farmed and wild animal welfare
  • Past interventions future welfare applications
  • House sparrow research
• Join the WAI researcher community 
• Twitter: @forwildanimals
• Heather Browning & Walter Veit: Positive wild animal welfare paper
  • Heather Browning talk on the above paper
• An Immense World by Ed Yong
• Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• WAI Newsletter sign up
• WAI Donate

If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating and review us - we would really appreciate it! Likewise, feel free to share it with anyone who you think might enjoy it. You can send us feedback and guest recommendations via Twitter or email us at [email protected]. Enjoy!