"I think the thing revolves around the control of nature. You know, I mean, you get way back to that. Some people are really uncomfortable around nature existing as it should, and they feel that we need to fix things." - Dr. Chistopher Servheen

Grizzly bears are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. But Republican lawmakers in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming are trying to change that. They are pressing the Biden administration to turn management of grizzly bears back over to the states, which would mean there would be a hunting season for grizzly bears, which would probably look something like what we're doing to wolves in those same states, which is nothing short of a massacre.

Dr. Christoph Servheen spent 35 years, from 1981 until 2016, fighting to bring back grizzly bears. In 1981, they were on their way out. There were only 30 breeding females in the greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Most people thought that there was no way to save them.

But, because of Chris and people like him and because of The Federal Endangered Species Act, a conservation miracle occurred. They brought the bears back, an act that many consider to be one of conservations biggest success stories.

But now, in 2023, because of politicians in the Northern Rockies, the future for grizzly bears could be very bleak.

"…people say, okay, recycle, and then somebody sees you throwing out a little candy wrapper. Nobody's going to point at you say, 'Huh, I saw you threw away a recyclable piece" Right? But if I say I'm vegan and then I eat a slice of halal and halal is made with eggs, somebody will say, 'Oh, it has eggs, you're not really vegan.' And so that's just kind of weird. – Galina Hale

Galina is a professor of economics at UC Santa Cruz. She's also the co-founder and Chief Research Officer of FSI— Food System Innovations, where her husband, David, is CEO. David was on the podcast a couple of weeks ago.

Galina served as a Research Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and as an assistant professor of economics at Yale University. Galina's current research interests focus on attracting mainstream finance to climate solutions, the sustainability of the global food system, and international financial stability, especially with respect to climate risks. Galina has published over 30 articles in leading economics and finance peer-reviewed journals. She serves on multiple editorial boards and presents her work regularly at scholarly and policy meetings worldwide.

Galina is also a long-distance athlete. She's completed multiple marathons, triathlons and the Ironman.

Links:

Speciesunite.com

FSI - https://fsi.org/

Galina Hale - https://sites.google.com/view/galinahale/

"We're already starting to see this happening, like there's a leather tannery in Vietnam called Isa TanTeck, where leather runs through the blood. That's what they specialize at. They came out with their own mycelium material. A leather tannery has come out with their own mycelium material. Are they in it? Are they in it for the passion of saving animals and the vegan kind of philosophies? No, they're in it because they're smart people and they've got good scientists and they've been able to create a new a new product line." – Joey Pringle

Joey Pringle is the founder and co-owner of Veshin Factory, an original equipment and design manufacturer specializing in luxury bags and accessories made from leather alternatives.

They work with brands during product design and manufacturing stages to help them make the switch to next gen materials.

Veshin was founded with the goal of helping brands go animal free, but because of a partnership with Natural Fiber Welding, maker of Mirum, it's fast become a leader in plastic-free manufacturing too.

Currently, Joey lives in Colombia where he is piloting Veshin Factory's second factory.

"And it's true that as much as online makes things much more accessible in so many ways, sometimes it's the feeling and seeing that actually really gets people over the line, because they're like, 'Oh, wow, that feels really… that looks really good. Oh, look at it on me. Oh, you can style it like this as well. And oh, you can go over the shoulder like, yeah…' the touch is really important for consumer goods" – Jessica Kruger

Jessica Kruger is the founder of a vegan handbag company called Shaker. They had a rebrand in June, they were originally founded as LUXTRA in 2018. With the rebrand, came new design and new material.

Shaker's handbags are made with MIRUM® - the first high-end leather alternative that is 100% plastic-free, which is a HUGE deal.

I spent time with Jessica in London and saw Shaker's bags in person. And they are absolutely stunning.

Jessica originally started her journey of building cruelty-free businesses in 2014 when she opened ETHOS – one of London's best loved meat-free restaurants - after her mother volunteered at Farm Sanctuary in California.

speciesunite.com

https://shakerlondon.com/

https://mirum.naturalfiberwelding.com/

"We're the first species that has enough mixture of intelligence and capabilities to actually screw it all up. That is our distinction. You know, there's a lot of species on the planet who are now looking to us to say, 'Well, okay, you're the first to be there. Do you screw it up for everybody or do you figure out how to transcend this?'" David Meyer

David Meyer is co-founder of Food System Innovations, and co-founder and CEO of Humane America Animal Foundation. He has worked in animal advocacy since the '90s. He founded and ran Adopt-a-pet.com for over two decades. He eventually sold it so that he could focus on Food System Innovations, where the mission is to remove animals from our food system.

He has been a vegan for decades and has won NINE world championships in Brazilian jiu jitsu, all on a plant-based diet.

LINKS:

Speciesunite.com

Fsi.org

humaneamerica.org

"Chickens have full color spectrum vision. That means they see the entire spectrum of colors from the infrared to the ultraviolet. The reason that roosters crow when for humans it is still dark outside is because they see the sunrise before we do, because they see infrared light. So, they're up and about in what for them is daylight, when for us it is dark out." – Karen Davis

Karen Davis is the president and founder of United Poultry Concerns. They're an organization that promotes the compassionate and respectful treatment of domesticated birds. They also have a sanctuary for chickens in Virginia.

Karen and I did this interview as a live episode in June. I wanted to talk to Karen about chickens for a couple of reasons, one because they're the most abused land animal on the planet; but also because I wanted to know more about them.

Before this conversation I knew very little about chickens. And Karen knows everything there is to know them. She has been advocating for them, studying them, saving them, and writing about them for decades. Her most recent book is called For the Birds: From Exploitation to Liberation.

Every year, a staggering 70 billion chickens are raised and slaughtered for meat, and around 300 million more are kept for egg production. And every single one of them is an intelligent, sentient individual.

"Somebody told me, when I was a young designer at Mercedes, they said, 'well, it takes like... 20 cows to upholster this sedan.' …Clearly people believe that cows, that the leather, is a byproduct of the food industry, but that's not necessarily true. When you part out the cow, the leather is actually the most valuable component of the cow. - Vicki von Holzhausen

Vicki von Holzhausen is a former car designer who decided to make a vegan leather that could rival animal leather. After much research and many experiments, she and her team developed a sustainable leather alternative. They tested it out as a handbag which then became a luxurious line of vegan handbags and accessories, called von Holzhausen.

But that wasn't enough, because Vicki's bigger mission was and is to remove animal leather from the materials system. So, they headed back into the lab and continued to create more and better leather alternatives. While they were there, von Holzhausen's mission grew even bigger. Yes, they'd continue to develop beautiful and sustainable materials to replace animal leather, but why not replace plastic too?

Earlier this year, the von Holzhausen team announced the introduction of the Liquidplant, the world's first 100% plant-based, high-performance topcoat, making plastic-free materials a reality. Liquidplant can replace plastic topcoats in all kinds of materials, including synthetic leather paper, wood, plastic and fabric, meaning it can and will change the world.

"… when you think about deforestation, the microplastic pollution, if we can start to chip away at eliminating whole areas where leather and plastic polyurethane are being used, then we will make a dramatic impact." - Vicki von Holzhausen

Catalina Lopez is the director of the Aquatic Animal Alliance at the Aquatic Life Institute. They're a nonprofit focused on improving the lives of aquatic animals, specifically in the food system.

I wanted to talk to Catalina about octopuses. This year, we're set to see the world's first octopus factory farm open in the Canary Islands. Just when it seemed humans could not get worse, we decide to farm octopuses? This is a terrible idea for so many reasons, from animal welfare to environmental concerns. It's cruel and it's unethical and it's an enormous step in the wrong direction. We should be shutting down factory farms, not looking for new sentient and intelligent species to torture inside of them.

https://ali.fish/

"Despite all the information that we see promoting dairy [in school], you cannot promote plant-based milk unless you also promote dairy even more. It just goes to show that there's something more to it." – Marielle Williamson

Mariel Williamson recently graduated from high in Los Angeles.

This past spring, while still a student, she was told by her school that she couldn't share information about plant-based milk or be critical of the dairy industry unless she provided pro dairy content as well.

So, Marielle is suing - both the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Unites States Department of Agriculture, for violating her First Amendment right.

Rose Patterson is part of Animal Rising, the animal activist movement that's disrupting animal exploitation all over the UK. Animal Rising used to be called Animal Rebellion, that is until April. And since April, which is only a few months ago, they've exploded - they are everywhere.

They have disrupted horse races and greyhound races, they've broken into labs, they've stolen beagles, they've stolen King Charles's lambs. And they've received a huge amount of press because of their actions.

Much of that press has been TV time, which means that conversations about how we treat animals, not just in the ways mentioned above but in our food system, are taking place all over the media in the UK.

Animal Rising is changing the game for what activism looks like.

Rose and I met a couple of weeks ago in London, where she lives. She and another Animal Rising activist had just tried and failed to go on a trip to the US.