Animal Rights
Rachel Black of The Humane League on Corporate Cage-Free Campaigns and Avoiding Activist Burnout | Ep 004 | SoFlo Vegans Podcast
The Humane League's National Volunteer Coordinator Rachel Black joins Sean to break down how the organization's corporate campaigns pushed giants like Walmart, Starbucks, and Burger King toward better treatment of farmed animals, plus her advice for staying a "happy activist" for the long haul.
Topics Covered
- The Humane League's utilitarian mission: reducing the largest amount of animal suffering as efficiently as possible
- Cage-free egg campaign wins with Walmart, Starbucks, Costco, Aramark, and Sodexo
- The organization's pivot to broiler (meat chicken) welfare campaigns, including wins with Burger King and Panera Bread, with McDonald's as the next target
- How to get involved through imnotlovingit.com without needing to be a full-time activist
- Rachel's advice for avoiding burnout: find the specific form of activism that fits your personality instead of forcing yourself into leafleting or confrontation
- Why inclusivity, not confrontation, is core to The Humane League's approach to first-time activists at protests
In the News This Episode
- The FDA granted "generally recognized as safe" status to Impossible Foods' heme ingredient after it had voluntarily conducted rat studies (a decision that split opinion in the vegan community)
- The Impossible Burger expanded to roughly 2,500 points of distribution, including White Castle, Applebee's, and Air New Zealand flights
- A Faunalytics-style report noted 17% of the US population aged 15-70 were consuming plant-based products like nutritional yeast
- Dairy Herd reported 338 Wisconsin dairy farms had ceased operations that year, with Dean Foods taking a majority stake in plant-based Flax Milk brand Good Karma Foods
- Global milk consumption had declined 22% between 2006 and 2016, per a Cargill-commissioned report
- US cold storage meat stockpiles neared record highs (25.2 billion pounds) despite tariff-driven export declines
- A Cambodian restaurant that formerly served dog meat, Sabae Vegalicious, reopened as a fully vegan eatery after animal rights organization Animal Hope and Wellness Foundation financed the conversion
- Beyond Meat achieved non-GMO certification across its product line and opened a 26,000-square-foot "Manhattan Beach Project" innovation center
- UK meat-alternative brand Quorn invested $9 million into R&D to compete with Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods
About the Guest
Rachel Black is the National Volunteer Coordinator for The Humane League, an animal protection nonprofit focused on corporate welfare campaigns for farmed animals.
On this episode
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