How I Learned to Love Shrimp

We interviewed Amanda Hungerford, Farm Animal Welfare Program Officer at Open Philanthropy. Open Philanthropy is one of the largest funders of farmed animal welfare, giving tens of millions of dollars each year. 

We spoke to Amanda about common misconceptions about Open Philanthropy's grantmaking, challenges with corporate campaigns, strategies that Amanda is excited about, and much more. 

This was a really exciting episode for us to record so we hope you enjoy it too!

With thanks to Tom Felbar (Ambedo Media) for amazing video and audio editing!

Note: My (James') views here are my personal opinions and don't represent those of Coefficient Giving.

If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating and review us - it means a lot to us!

We are celebrating our 10th podcast episode - Yay! To celebrate, we interviewed Andrés Jiménez Zorrilla from the Shrimp Welfare Initiative who inspired the name of our podcast, How I Learned to Love Shrimp. 

Shrimp Welfare Project is the only organisation solely dedicated to improving the lives of shrimp. In this episode we talk about the case for working on shrimp, the current scale of and practices within shrimp farming, as well as what Shrimp Welfare Project have learned over the past 2 years.

Thanks to all of our listeners so far and we look forward to the next 10!
 

Some resources that were mentioned in this report:

• Charity Entrepreneurship: Shrimp Welfare Report
• Shrimp Welfare Project: Shrimp Welfare Report
• Shrimp Welfare Project: India Assessment Report
• LinkedIn: Shrimp fact of the week
• Benjamin Lorr: The Secret Life of Groceries
• Melinda French-Gates: The Moment of Lift
• Job Postings for Shrimp Welfare Project
• Link to Donate to the Shrimp Welfare Project

With thanks to Tom Felbar (Ambedo Media) for amazing video and audio editing!

Note: My (James') views here are my personal opinions and don't represent those of Coefficient Giving.

If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating and review us - it means a lot to us!

In this episode, we speak to Nikunj Sharma, the CEO of Mercy for Animals India. We spoke about:

• The work of Mercy for Animals in India, and their victories so far
• The considerations for animal advocacy organisations, like Mercy for Animals, to expand into new countries rather and how this trades off with the existence of local organisations. 
• The specific cultural context for animal advocacy work in India

A few of the resources mentioned in our conversation:

• MFA India wins on gestation crates
• PBFIA India report on increasing plant-based consumption within India – 67% people eating plant-based products citing animal welfare benefits 
• Jay Shetty Podcast
• No Rules Rules: Netflix and the culture of reinvention
• Can’t hurt me by David Goggins
• MFA India website 
• Nikunj’s Linkedin

With thanks to Tom Felbar (Ambedo Media) for amazing video and audio editing!

Note: My (James') views here are my personal opinions and don't represent those of Coefficient Giving.

If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating and review us - it means a lot to us!

Carolina is the ​​founder and Executive Director of Sinergia Animal, an Animal Charity Evaluators’ StandOut charity working in nine countries of The Global South.

Carolina has twenty years of experience in advocacy, fundraising, strategic planning, management, and campaigning. Before founding Sinergia, she worked in more than thirty countries as an investigative journalist for various animal welfare, environmental and social justice organisations.

In this episode Carolina talks us through the growth of Sinergia, their current programmes and the importance of diversifying tactics across the movement. 

Relevant links to things mentioned throughout the show:

• Sinergia Animal’s Website
  • Financial Institutions Campaign
  • Meat Reduction Campaign
  • Job Board
  • Donate to Sinergia Animal
• Brazil Bans Live Cattle Exports article
• Managing to change the world - Alison Green, Jerry Hauser
• Self Compassion - Dr Kristen Neff

With thanks to Tom Felbar (Ambedo Media) for amazing video and audio editing!

Note: My (James') views here are my personal opinions and don't represent those of Coefficient Giving.

If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating and review us - it means a lot to us!

karol is the Content Director for Faunalytics who are dedicated to helping animal advocates improve the effectiveness and impact of their work through research and data. 

In this episode karol - a long-time animal advocate with a background in media, filmmaking, and investigative work - talks through Faunalytics most interesting research, and his responsibility for curating the research in the Faunalytics Research Library and some handy tips for digesting and communicating data to a wide audience.

Relevant links to things mentioned throughout the show:

• Research Library
• Original Studies
• Research Prioritization
• Faunalytics 2014 study on vegetarians regressions
• 2023 version on vegetarian regression (Three Parts: I, II, III)
• Other 2023 reports
  • Work on subsidies
  • Welfare Reforms
  • Much more here
• China report?
• SCL SHAC research 
• Faunalytics new piece on invertebrates

With thanks to Tom Felbar (Ambedo Media) for amazing video and audio editing!

Note: My (James') views here are my personal opinions and don't represent those of Coefficient Giving.

If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating and review us - it means a lot to us!

Emre Kaplan is the Executive Director at Farmed Animal Protection Association in Turkey, the first farmed animal focussed charity in Turkey. 

In this episode, we talk through their organisation starting up, scaling and the lessons learnt along the way. We chat about their approach to activism in Turkey and the challenges they face working on these topics in this region.

Emre addresses many lessons we can learn from his experience starting to work on cage-free in this area and the importance of having the movements support as their work progresses. 

Relevant links to things mentioned throughout the show:

• Farmed Animal Protection Association website
• Animal Ask website for contact on the chick culling research
• 80,000 Hours article – Ways people trying to do good can actually do harm
• Building digital power - Karen Nilson
• Managing to change the world - Alison Green, Jerry Hauser
• Grilled by Leah Garces
• Brazil Bans Live Cattle Exports article 

With thanks to Tom Felbar (Ambedo Media) for amazing video and audio editing!

Note: My (James') views here are my personal opinions and don't represent those of Coefficient Giving.

If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating and review us - it means a lot to us!

Edie is the Managing Director and a Solicitor at Advocates for Animals, the first UK law firm dedicated to animal protection.

In this episode, we chat to Edie about representing The Humane League UK in the up and coming court case challenging DEFRA. The judicial review case will see Advocates for Animals argue that fast-growing chicken breeds are illegal under current animal welfare laws. We also talk through their enforcement work with Animal Equality, another first-of-its-kind case in the UK. 

Edie talks to us about how using the law to protect animals is a neglected area of work and why she wants to see more advocates utilising this tool as an effective tool for animal advocacy.

Relevant links to things mentioned throughout the show:

• Advocates for Animals website
• Animal Law Foundation website
• Enforcement problem report in collaboration with Animal Equality
• The Humane League’s legal battle against DEFRA
• Guardian article on THL’s legal case against DEFRA

With thanks to Tom Felbar (Ambedo Media) for amazing video and audio editing!

Note: My (James') views here are my personal opinions and don't represent those of Coefficient Giving.

If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating and review us - it means a lot to us!

Eva is a co-founder and Operations Lead of Pax Fauna, a nonprofit that seeks to revitalize the grassroots animal advocacy movement through conducting original research on messaging, strategy, and culture. 

In this episode, we discuss Pax Fauna’s 18-month narrative research project where they conducted over 100 hours of interviews with 200 meat-eating Americans, along with analysing hundreds of academic papers and running their own large-scale public opinion polling.  

In addition, we also speak about the importance of work to shift societal norms,  Eva’s experience within Direct Action Everywhere and Pax Fauna’s upcoming work on ballot initiatives.

Relevant links to things mentioned throughout the show:

• Pax Fauna's narrative research
• Pax Fauna's two-part blog on "Welfare vs Abolitionism" is obsolete - Part 1 and Part 2
• An overview (by Pax Fauna) on Direct Action Everywhere's recent acquittal of animal rights activists who rescued pigs (see also coverage in The Intercept).
• A Vox article on another open-rescue acquittal, who rescued factory-farmed chickens from Foster Farms.

With thanks to Tom Felbar (Ambedo Media) for amazing video and audio editing!

Note: My (James') views here are my personal opinions and don't represent those of Coefficient Giving.

If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating and review us - it means a lot to us!

Silvano Lieger is the Co-Managing Director of Sentience, a political animal rights and animal welfare organisation based in Switzerland. In September 2022, they ran a nationwide ballot initiative where all citizens of Switzerland could vote on one of the most important questions for animals: Should we ban factory farming?

In this episode, we discuss the results of the ballot initiative, how these large-scale campaigns might lead to crucial shifts in how society thinks about animals, the nuts and bolts of running a campaign on this scale as well as the importance of working in coalitions.

With thanks to Tom Felbar (Ambedo Media) for amazing video and audio editing!

Note: My (James') views here are my personal opinions and don't represent those of Coefficient Giving.

If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating and review us - it means a lot to us!

David Coman-Hidy is former President of The Humane League, one of the largest farm animal advocacy organisations in the world. He now works as a Partner at Sharpen Strategy working to coach animal advocacy organisations.

In this episode, we discuss the age-old debate facing animal advocates: Should we pursue incremental approaches to improve welfare or should we only advocate for the total abolition of animal exploitation. Additionally, David also shares some approaches he would like to see more of within the animal advocacy movement, as well as what we could learn from other social movements. 

With thanks to Tom Felbar (Ambedo Media) for amazing video and audio editing!

Note: My (James') views here are my personal opinions and don't represent those of Coefficient Giving.

If you enjoy the show, please leave a rating and review us - it means a lot to us!