Hide table of contents
Comment Permalink
RowdyK1y2
0
0

My name is Rowdy, and I am truly honored to work alongside all of you. I am the senior manager of educational outreach at New Roots Institute. New Roots Institute is a nonprofit empowering the next generation with knowledge and training to end factory farming. 

I am just a simple dude with a simple dream -- to end factory farming. I am from the great state of Ohio, the birthplace of aviation. Before New Roots, I worked for several environmental nonprofits. When I discovered the realities of animal ag and all the harm it causes, I knew I wanted to dedicate my life to dismantling this system. I am thrilled to work with you incredible humans to bring it tumbling down :mechanical_arm:

Reply
See in context
by David van Beveren
Jan 17 20241 min read 10

3

FAST Community
Frontpage

Hello and welcome! Feel free to introduce yourself in this thread or ask any questions if you're feeling puzzled about something.[1]

Get started on the FAST Forum

1. Introduce yourself

Feel free to discuss your journey into animal advocacy below, describe your work, or talk about any other passions you have. Consider also adding these details to your profile by clicking  your profile icon at the top right and choosing "User profile".

Important: Please note that these forums, your profile, and the content you post is public and accessible by anyone on the internet. Keep sensitive information private. 

2. Ask and answer questions

Don't hesitate to post any questions you have in this thread! You're also welcome to respond to or discuss others' queries. If your question is more complex or detailed, consider creating a separate post for it.

3. Dive in and participate!

Check out the posts on the homepage and join in the discussion! For shorter thoughts, share a "Quick take," or use a full post for more detailed and developed content.

Thank you!

We're so excited to have you with us. Don't forget to check out our resources, and keep an eye out for new posts as the forum begins to find its feet. Thanks!

  1. ^

    This post draws inspiration from and adopts the delightful format used by Lizka in her "open thread" posts on the EAForum. Thank you Lizka!

3

1
0

Reactions

1
0
Comments10


Sorted by
New & upvoted
Click to highlight new comments since: Today at 7:04 PM
ulazarosa1y5
0
0

Great idea to start this forum! I like that it resembles EA Forum so much, as we're already familiar with the functionality :) Congrats.

Reply
RachelM1y4
0
0

Hi all, I'm Rachel Mason, independent researcher in food systems, agriculture, and animals. I've been horrified by factory farming for a very long time, but I only recently re-oriented my career towards doing something about it. I like to work through complex, interdisciplinary problems and help others understand them as well. I'm gradually figuring out how I can put those skills to use within the movement, and I'm looking forward to the inspiration and connections I'm sure I'll get from this forum.

Reply
Emmanuel Marquez1y4
1
0

Hello! 

I'm Emmanuel Marquez, Grants Program Coordinator at ProVeg International. 

I'm an organizational development professional with a decade of experience and a strong background in behavioral sciences. My professional journey has been primarily within the nonprofit sector, particularly in the vegan and animal rights movement. I have led and coordinated outreach activities across Mexico, the USA, and South America.

Something that genuinely excites me is the opportunity to build and develop groups. I had the chance to build teams in Mexico for two organizations from the ground up, which has given me a deep appreciation for the value of capacity building and self-improvement. My passion for behavioral economics has also driven my commitment to enhancing organizational effectiveness.

I'm constantly creating spaces to contribute with my expertise and enthusiasm for positive change and collaborating to achieve shared goals. My mantra is “Let's make a meaningful impact together.”

Reply
Nicoll Peracha1y3
0
0

Hi everyone, I'm Nicoll Peracha, co-founder of The Mission Motor. Great to see this forum and very happy to be part of it!

The Mission Motor is a global organization that provides free support to vegan and animal advocacy organizations to set up and improve the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning of their interventions. Hopefully, through this, we contribute to knowing better and better what interventions are effective, why, where, and how.

I've worked in nonprofit since 1996. Started with a focus on humans (e.g. Doctors Without Borders) and switched to animals in 2015/2016 (e.g. ProVeg). I started The Mission Motor in 2022, hoping to increase my total impact by providing capacity-building support to multiple organizations. 

When I realized how little we know about whether our interventions have the desired effects, with the help of the Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program I switched to supporting MEL of organizations.

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions re MEL, or join our monthly peer-support meetings via the Impactful Animal Advocacy Slack channel.

Reply
RowdyK1y2
0
0

My name is Rowdy, and I am truly honored to work alongside all of you. I am the senior manager of educational outreach at New Roots Institute. New Roots Institute is a nonprofit empowering the next generation with knowledge and training to end factory farming. 

I am just a simple dude with a simple dream -- to end factory farming. I am from the great state of Ohio, the birthplace of aviation. Before New Roots, I worked for several environmental nonprofits. When I discovered the realities of animal ag and all the harm it causes, I knew I wanted to dedicate my life to dismantling this system. I am thrilled to work with you incredible humans to bring it tumbling down :mechanical_arm:

Reply
Ronen Bar1y2
0
0

Hi everyone,

I am Ronen Bar, executive director of Sentient (sentientworld.org), a meta non-profit in the investigative space, developing tools to help animal rights activists, e.g., we customized and used small cellular camouflaged cameras put on the backs of animals during their last day alive (1-min video). I have been an activist for the last 15 years, and also worked as an investigative journalist. 

I am very interested in the connection between language and thought, and happy to connect for anything that can help animals 🐄🙂

Reply
Aylam Orian1y2
0
0

Hi everyone, Aylam here, founder and director of Our Planet. Theirs Too., the nonprofit behind the NARD (National Animal Rights Day) events around the world. 

I'm looking forward to E-meeting you all here, and to achieving great things together, for the animals! 

 

Aylam

Our Planet. Theirs Too.

Reply
allisona1y2
0
0

Thanks for setting this up, I'm excited to start using the FAST Forum more :) Quick question: Is anyone else struggling to see what is linked? The hex color for links #1c563e is hard for me to distinguish from the #212121 text. However some links are #458E2E (I think after being clicked?) and those are much more obvious to me!

Reply
allisona1y2
0
0

It looks like this was fixed, so whoever did it -- thank you!!

Reply
TracyVeganuary1y1
0
0

Hi everyone, I'm Tracy, Operations Manager at Veganuary. I've been with Veganuary since 2021, and it's truly incredible to work for a charity that is so aligned with your values and has such a big impact.

I'm also a trained wildlife rehabilitator, and look forward to licensing being introduced in England, as it has been in Scotland. When possible, I still work to rescue and rehome commercial egg-laying hens, and sometimes other animals, since I have a lot of connections.

I'm interested in animal law, human behaviour science, and all things animal advocacy/EA. As I'm usually quite time poor, the FAST emails and forum will be invaluable for knowledge sharing and keeping informed of developments as they happen. Thanks!

Reply
Curated and popular this week
 · 5d ago · 1m read
 · 
Hey Everyone,  Posting this to share some notes from CattleCon 2025. The notes cover the talks from the event on sustainability, healthy diets and key policy issues for the industry. Hopefully they should be interesting to anyone working on those areas. Some Context: CattleCon is the annual meeting of National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), the event includes presentations from NCBA staff, educational talks, a trade show and meetings of Beef Checkoff committees.  The NCBA is a marketing organisation and trade association founded in 1898. Its mission is: “To serve the cattle and beef industry by improving the business climate, growing beef demand, and increasing the world’s access to U.S. beef.”  According to 990s the NCBA's annual budget is around $55 million with the majority of its revenue coming from the Beef Checkoff. The notes are here: https://drive.proton.me/urls/8ENZ5T6KZ4#2onjMymrt6jN  If you have any questions about the report please get in touch. 
 · 1d ago · 1m read
 · 
We're so excited to share the expansion of our partnership with Sodexo USA—extending their plant-based patient meals program to all U.S. hospitals under their management. On top of the 131 Sodexo hospital accounts already serving plant-forward patient menus, 200 more are set to transition this year, with 400 adopting the program by 2026. This collaboration builds on the remarkable success of Greener by Default and Sodexo’s program with NYC Health + Hospitals, which launched in 2022 and resulted in half of all eligible patients opting for plant-based menu items—cutting the health system’s carbon emissions by over one-third in just its first year.  Preliminary data from a participating hospital indicates the promising potential impact of the expansion: if just 10% of the 290,000 meals Sodexo serves to patients per day shift from meat-based to plant-based, the company could transition over 10 million meals per year. “The continued success of patient menus that position plant-based options as the default demonstrates how small, cost-effective shifts can have an outsized impact, while still preserving freedom of choice for diners and ensuring their access to nutritious, sustainable foods that don’t compromise on taste,” said Katie Cantrell, CEO and Co-Founder of Greener by Default. “We look forward to our ongoing work with Sodexo, and to building more partnerships with forward-thinking healthcare institutions that want to make a difference for their patients and the planet.” 🌱 Read the full release: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250407391456/en/Greener-by-Default-Announces-Expanded-Partnership-With-Sodexo-to-Offer-Plant-Based-Meals-at-400-U.S.-Hospitals 
 · 4d ago · 1m read
 · 
Hello FAST!  I am glad to inform that the cruise line company Viking Line has decided to adopt the European Chicken Commitment (ECC). This decision follows a long dialogue with Project 1882 and encompasses all of the company's operations in Sweden, Finland, and Estonia. This makes Viking Line the latest cruise line company to commit to the ECC following discussions with Project 1882. They join Finnlines, Stena Line, and Destination Gotland in this initiative. Project 1882 is now focusing on the remaining ferry companies in the Baltic Sea, such as Tallink Silja and TT-Line. Approximately 6 million people travel with Viking Line each year.  Read more here: Viking Line says no to Frankenchickens | Project 1882
Ronen Bar
 · 6d ago · 10m read
 · 
"Part one of our challenge is to solve the technical alignment problem, and that’s what everybody focuses on, but part two is: to whose values do you align the system once you’re capable of doing that, and that may turn out to be an even harder problem", Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO (Link).  In this post, I argue that: 1. "To whose values do you align the system" is a critically neglected space I termed “Moral Alignment.” Only a few organizations work for non-humans in this field, with a total budget of 4-5 million USD (not accounting for academic work). The scale of this space couldn’t be any bigger - the intersection between the most revolutionary technology ever and all sentient beings. While tractability remains uncertain, there is some promising positive evidence (See “The Tractability Open Question” section). 2. Given the first point, our movement must attract more resources, talent, and funding to address it. The goal is to value align AI with caring about all sentient beings: humans, animals, and potential future digital minds. In other words, I argue we should invest much more in promoting a sentient-centric AI. The problem What is Moral Alignment? AI alignment focuses on ensuring AI systems act according to human intentions, emphasizing controllability and corrigibility (adaptability to changing human preferences). However, traditional alignment often ignores the ethical implications for all sentient beings. Moral Alignment, as part of the broader AI alignment and AI safety spaces, is a field focused on the values we aim to instill in AI. I argue that our goal should be to ensure AI is a positive force for all sentient beings. Currently, as far as I know, no overarching organization, terms, or community unifies Moral Alignment (MA) as a field with a clear umbrella identity. While specific groups focus individually on animals, humans, or digital minds, such as AI for Animals, which does excellent community-building work around AI and animal welfare while
 · 3d ago · 11m read
 · 
Our Mission: To build a multidisciplinary field around using technology—especially AI—to improve the lives of nonhumans now and in the future.  Overview Background This hybrid conference had nearly 550 participants and took place March 1-2, 2025 at UC Berkeley. It was organized by AI for Animals for $74k by volunteer core organizers Constance Li, Sankalpa Ghose, and Santeri Tani.  This conference has evolved since 2023: * The 1st conference mainly consisted of philosophers and was a single track lecture/panel. * The 2nd conference put all lectures on one day and followed it with 2 days of interactive unconference sessions happening in parallel and a week of in-person co-working. * This 3rd conference had a week of related satellite events, free shared accommodations for 50+ attendees, 2 days of parallel lectures/panels/unconferences, 80 unique sessions, of which 32 are available on Youtube, Swapcard to enable 1:1 connections, and a Slack community to continue conversations year round. We have been quickly expanding this conference in order to prepare those that are working toward the reduction of nonhuman suffering to adapt to the drastic and rapid changes that AI will bring.  Luckily, it seems like it has been working!  This year, many animal advocacy organizations attended (mostly smaller and younger ones) as well as newly formed groups focused on digital minds and funders who spanned both of these spaces. We also had more diversity of speakers and attendees which included economists, AI researchers, investors, tech companies, journalists, animal welfare researchers, and more. This was done through strategic targeted outreach and a bigger team of volunteers.  Outcomes On our feedback survey, which had 85 total responses (mainly from in-person attendees), people reported an average of 7 new connections (defined as someone they would feel comfortable reaching out to for a favor like reviewing a blog post) and of those new connections, an average of 3
Alex Romijn
 · 5d ago · 1m read
 · 
More information:  https://www.dutchnews.nl/2025/04/dolfinarium-is-making-clownsof-animals-in-shows-agency-claims/ More (in dutch): https://www.dolfinariumvrij.nl/maar-liefst-20-overtredingen-van-de-vergunning/  At 20 points the Dolphinarium in Harderwijk is in breach of the law. They have to stop or change their shows under pressure from paying fines.  We, dutch animal rights organisation Bite BAck, got a lot of media attention today.  All the big media and newspapers had an article about. We got a lot of interviews too.  A lot of companies already stopped with offering discount tickets for the Dolphinarium. We think this news will add more companies to the list.  www.biteback.nl https://www.biteback.nl  
Recent opportunities
1
Empowering the Next Generation to End Factory Farming: Campaigns Specialist
Operations@NewRootsInstitute
· 4h ago · 3m read
0
0
1
Empowering the Next Generation to End Factory Farming: Manager of Leadership Development
Operations@NewRootsInstitute
· 5h ago · 3m read
0
0
2
Director, UK - Veganuary vacancy
TracyVeganuary
· 4d ago · 1m read
0
0
View more