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Farmer Trent Loos recently called on High Plains Journal readers to “eat meat,” claiming that our society “loves the cowboy, but they sure hate the cow.” In this opinion piece, he argues that cows represent a symbol of “freedom and independence.”

As someone who advocates for the legal rights of animals and increased regulation of the animal agriculture industry, I ironically agree with the phrasing of Mr. Loos’ philosophy. Our society expresses a deep love for industrial “cowboys,” the producers who are heavily subsidized by taxpayers via a scheme of crop insurance, water rights, and government advertising programs. But animals, whose treatment we hide under the humane-washed phrases like “free range” and “pasture fed,” are hated in practice. These animals are “destroyed,” to use Mr. Loos’ words, as we turn them into products for human consumption.

Imagine being responsible for the life or death of 55,000 dogs and cats every year. As the Animal Services Manager for the City of Los Angeles, the desperate need of these animals and strategies to save them weighed on my mind every day. I was determined to end pet homelessness and the practice of euthanasia, the killing, and disposal of our society’s surplus companion animals.

Today, most cities and towns across the nation share this noble and ambitious goal. Achieving this requires robust community participation, and our cities desperately need the support of an overlooked constituency — landlords.

Found Animals Foundation/Flickr

Business is booming for factory farmers in North Carolina. Across the state, there are some 6,800 hog and poultry operations housing more than 525 million animals. That’s one factory farm every 8 square miles–and 52 chickens, turkeys, and pigs for every single North Carolinian.

525 million is a lot of animals to clean up after, and according to experts from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Waterkeeper Alliance, concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, do a horrendous job at containing the mess.

With its first call for proposals, the Good Food Institute (GFI) made history, awarding $3 million in funding to 14 scientists in plant- and cell-based meat research, the most money ever allocated to an open-access plant-based meat program.

The global non-profit, which focuses on transforming the food system with a team of scientists, entrepreneurs, lawyers, and lobbyists, now embarks on a two-year exploration of critical questions for the future of plant- and cell-based research.

Research and development of new technologies will aid the complex production process. Their goal is simple: make it possible for more people to eat plant- and cell-based meat.

Climate change doesn’t start on an oil field or in a factory or on a farm. It starts with you and me.

The world isn’t as livable as it used to be, that is, if it stands to reason that a livable world is one in which the environment does not envelop our sense of self, where we can still live in homes and step outside to breathe fresh air.

Changing your diet is hard, especially when it comes to meat. But people are doing it, some more successfully than others. What gets people to eat less meat?

It’s not enough to tell people that their choice to eat meat is harming the planet. Across the board, the number of people that cut meat out of there diets only to start eating it again later is high—too high. As many as five in six Americans try and fail to stop eating meat, according to the Humane Research Council.

This week we’re trying something a little different. In place of a book review, we’re sharing the need-to-know on a paradigm-shifting report published earlier this month, Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems (EAT-Lancet Commission 2019) by Prof. Walter Willett, MD, Prof. Johan Rockström, PhD, Brent Loken, PhD, et al.

Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals

Australian documentary filmmaker James Hyams is out to show us what it looks like when the hunters become the hunted. When humans fall victim to their own cruel devices, enslaved on factory farms, who will survive?

The scene is set. But part of the story of this film is that it cannot happen without your help. The musical scoring, the lighting, the special effects, it all costs money. For a film with such a distinct vegan message, a little help could go a long way. The project is approaching 80% of its funding goal. Check it out here on Indiegogo.

The Climate A List recognizes the world’s most sustainable companies every year. Each of the companies on the A List–and it’s worth noting, not everyone passed with flying colors–are committed to environmental stewardship.

According to the Carbon Disclosure Project, which puts out the Climate A List, companies representing more than 50% of the global market cap are developing constructive approaches to climate change, water security, and deforestation. But what about meat?