By Jen Bravo, Guest Contributor

In part one of our Tech Trends That Are Changing the World for Animals–for the Better!, we shared some exciting technology trends that are benefiting animals—including innovations around the future of protein—hint: it’s cruelty-free!—and how virtual entertainment and immersive experiences are changing how we will relate to animals, learn about them, and be entertained by them.

In this post, we’ll talk about ending animal testing—finally!—and how drones and artificial intelligence are revolutionizing anti-poaching and conservation efforts.

Trend #3: Ending Animal Testing

Many of us have been fighting the practice of animal testing for decades. We’ve lobbied to change regulations (here, here, and here), rescued animals from laboratories, and educated our friends and family about buying cruelty-free products. The day is coming, however, when it’s cheaper and more efficient for companies to switch completely to new non-animal testing methods. Over the past few years, the development of human organs “on-a-chip” have begun to revolutionize disease modeling and drug development at an astonishing rate. At the same time, it’s revealing animal testing as the archaic and inaccurate practice that it is.

The Wyss Institute at Harvard University has “engineered microchips that recapitulate the microarchitecture and functions of living human organs, including the lung, intestine, kidney, skin, bone marrow, and blood-brain barrier. These microchips, called ‘organs-on-chips,’ offer a potential alternative to traditional animal testing.” By testing on replicas of human organs, rather than animals with a different physiology, researchers will increase the accuracy of their results, while reducing costs. The Wyss Institute isn’t the only one. Many companies are working through FDA approval processes and continuing to refine their innovations. And it gets better—companies like Emulate are finding ways to emulate the entire human body, opening doors for an improved understanding of how diseases, medicines, and our environment affect us, all without testing on any animals.

If you’re interested in learning more about these new technologies, IndieBio, a San Francisco-based biotech accelerator, will be highlighting Scaled Biolabs, a startup that is “accelerating biologic, gene, and cell therapies using smart microfluidic chips.” You can view IndieBio’s most recent Demo Day—February 9, 2017—here, which features Scaled Biolabs.

Trend #4: Drones and Artificial Intelligence

No, this trend isn’t about SkyNet, and the Terminator isn’t coming for you (as far as I know). But if you’re an elephant or rhino poacher, a drone might be. Using drones to fight poaching isn’t new, but they’ve been highly effective, and that effectiveness will continue to improve with the use of smart systems and artificial intelligence. The Black Mambas—the celebrated majority-women anti-poaching unit in South Africa—are using drones to protect rhinos, and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is using drones to patrol marine reserves in the Gulf of California. Legendary Captain Paul Watson of Sea Shephard has outfitted all of his ships with drones, arguing that advanced technology is the best way to combat poaching (see the link for “DIY drones” below). And Air Shepherd is using predictive algorithms, originally developed to locate improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to predict where poachers will be located, then sending drones to patrol those areas. Artificial intelligence allows drones to recognize what’s important, saving precious bandwidth, and alerting rangers only when their help is needed. One example is the philanthropic arm of the Dutch company Birds.ai, which provides “intelligent eyes in the sky” to rangers protecting rhinos from poaching.

As predictive modeling and artificial intelligence improve, and as hardware costs of the drones themselves come down—and crafty rangers are able to DIY drones for one-tenth the cost!—our ability to stop poaching before it starts will continue to improve.

We all know that technology moves fast, but these “exponential” technologies—technologies that are improving in performance and decreasing in cost along an exponential curve—can surprise us with the speed at which they take off. So if 2017 has gotten you down, just think that these technologies are getting better and better, and cheaper and cheaper, at an exponential rate. The days of factory farming, zoos and animal shows, animal testing, and poaching are coming to an end…faster than we think.

By Taylor Radig, Campaigns Manager

A few months ago, Vegan Outreach launched a petition asking leading pizza chain California Pizza Kitchen (CPK), to follow the dairy-free trend in pizza and add a vegan cheese option to their menu. Despite thousands of signatures from eager customers wanting to support this option, CPK has remained silent on their future menu additions.

We want to continue to have CPK hear from their vegan and non-dairy customers—letting them know that this option would be successful!

Here are three easy steps you can take to make this happen:

Call your local California Pizza Kitchen

When you call, ask to speak with the restaurant manager. Tell them how excited you would be if CPK added a vegan cheese pizza to their menu!

Show them on social media

Tag #CaliforniaPizzaKitchen and #CPK to make sure your voice is heard.

Share the Petition

Sign the petition at Veganoutreach.org/CPK and make an even greater impact by sharing the petition on Facebook and Twitter!

Together, we can make this vegan cheese pizza happen! Thank you in advance for your help!

By Victor Flores, Greater New Mexico Community Engagement and Events Coordinator

In February, the Alamogordo Health and Wellness Fair invited my family to participate in their annual health fair at New Mexico State University Alamogordo in Alamogordo, NM. After learning that the vendors and speakers needed to bring their own lunch, we saw a perfect opportunity to “wow” them with a vegan meal. Even though it required food for 100 people, we accepted the challenge!

There’s a vegan-friendly restaurant in nearby El Paso, TX, named Eloise that makes its own seitan that is absolutely delicious. We ordered 100 of their El Graco seitan wraps as the main entrée and rounded out the meal with veggie chips, apple braid strudel for dessert, and water infused with strawberry, kiwi, lime, and orange.

Besides having a booth set up with tons of information on the benefits of plant-based nutrition, we had an area to give out information to the vendors and speakers we fed. We intentionally set up a table in a separate area so they wouldn’t be distracted with the noise. When the speakers and vendors came to pick up their food, we made sure that everyone who got a seitan wrap also took a Vegan Outreach pamphlet. We also posted a menu so everyone knew what they’d be eating. Most were excited to try the wrap, while others were skeptical.

After all the meals and pamphlets were handed out, I took a stroll around the entire fair to visit with the vendors while they were eating. I’m not exaggerating when I say that everyone was blown away! Some couldn’t believe the meal was vegan. Many swore the seitan had to be some type of meat since the flavor and texture were so delicious. I didn’t come across a single person who didn’t like the meal.

Many of the vendors and speakers came to our booth after lunch to request more information and vegan recipes. Several asked for our contact information to see if we could possibly do cooking classes and other community activities These groups varied from local health organizations to an organization that mentors juveniles in the juvenile detention system.

If you’re trying to create more vegans in your community, keep your eyes open for opportunities like this. Vegfests are fun but we’re often preaching to the choir. Look for health fairs and festivals at local schools. Offer them free vegan food and then sit back and watch lives change!

By Lori Stultz, Communications Manager

The surge of incredibly strong, fast, and talented vegan athletes is one of my favorite parts about this movement. The types of athletes vary widely, and it’s inspirational to hear vegan athletes talk about their concern for animals and the environment, and the ways in which they take care of their own bodies.

I’ve never paid attention to the sport of weightlifting, but it definitely caught my eye when I heard about Clarence Kennedy, an Irish weightlifter who lifts weights—a lot of them—fueled by, you guessed it, plants! I watched a few of his YouTube videos and read multiple interviews online, and I was immediately impressed.

I reached out to Clarence to ask if we could do a brief interview. The interviews I read prior to making contact discussed a lot of the specifics of his weightlifting, but I was curious about a few other things—like why he chose this sport and why he decided to go vegan. I was also interested about how his weightlifting community responded to his transition to a plant-based lifestyle.

This is seriously an interview you don’t want to miss out on! And for that athlete in your family who thinks it’s impossible to be athletic without eating meat, forward them this blog post! I think Clarence’s compassion and overall balanced approach to veganism will make them rethink what it means to be a vegan athlete.

Lori Stultz: What got you interested in weightlifting?

Clarence Kennedy: About 10 years ago I got into a sport called tricking, which is basically an underground sport that combines elements from gymnastics and martial arts.

After tricking for a while, I wanted to increase the height and power of tricks. I read that athletes incorporate the Olympic lifts and its variations to increase power and speed (this is the oldest footage I could find of myself doing Olympic weightlifting). So, I started adding lifting into my training and I enjoyed them so much that I got hooked and I slowly stopped tricking, although I still do it from time to time.

Lori: Do you lift professionally or is it something you do as a hobby?

Clarence: Weightlifting for me is purely a hobby. Before, I had wanted to become a professional athlete, but my goals have changed in recent years and the reason is quite complicated. In the future, I might release a video explaining why.

Lori: What sparked your interest in changing your eating patterns to one that is now completely plant-based?

Clarence: The reason I switched was purely for ethical reasons. It had nothing to do with weightlifting. From a young age, I was aware of the hypocrisy of people claiming to be against animal cruelty, yet those same people would consume animal products. It just became normalized for me and it was something I purposely ignored until I came across a few YouTube videos from TheVeganAtheist, ThinkAboutThis, Unnatural Vegan, and other channels. After watching a lot of YouTube videos and reading the articles about veganism, I realized there was absolutely no good argument against veganism and I slowly changed what I was eating.

Lori: How has the lifting community of other weightlifters responded?

Clarence: Surprising well. I expected to get a lot of hate for the vegan food video I uploaded online recently, but it seems a lot of people were actually willing to try changing their eating habits too. Quite a few people liked the fact that I didn’t criticize meat eaters.

Lori: What’s your favorite go-to meal?

Clarence: Probably just cereal with fruits and seeds, because it’s simple to prepare!

Lori: If you had to offer one piece of advice to someone who’s interested in going vegan, whether they’re athletic or not, what would it be?

Clarence: I would definitely say research a lot on how to eat healthy when living a vegan lifestyle. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of pseudoscience in the vegan community. A simple rule is to avoid getting information from people advocating juice cleanses, raw vegan diets, not taking supplements, and people exaggerating the health benefits of a veganism (I’ve seen some vegans claim veganism can cure Crohn’s disease). Most of the information I got on plant-based eating is from VeganHealth.org. It’s the only website that really explains the common pitfalls of going vegan and backs up the information with science.

Another thing I would say to someone is that they should continue to educate themselves on why they should be vegan. It’s extremely easy to fall back into the culture you were born into, especially since 99% of people around you—depending on where you live—are meat eaters and tell you eating meat is normal.

Lori: Thank you so much for taking the time to answer a few of my questions, Clarence. You’re certainly an inspiration in the growing number of athletes who are moving toward to a vegan lifestyle.

By Alex Bury, Organizational Development Consultant

Before you read this blog, please take a moment and center yourself with this important video showing popcorn popping in slow motion. Thank you.

Many years ago, I met a woman named Dinali Abeysekera. She and I briefly worked together, but she soon went on to all sorts of amazing life things—like helping people after natural disasters and starting awesome new businesses. Apparently fundraising with me wasn’t exciting enough, and I got used to the slight feeling of envy every time I saw her Facebook posts about her various accomplishments.

About six months ago the envy turned to all-out, bright green jealousy because now she’s making popcorn! Dinali and her husband started a brand new, all-vegan, gourmet and organic popcorn company called Luminous Organics.

This is an interesting coincidence because I share something similar with my husband—VO’s Jack Norris—a love for popcorn. When Jack and I go to the movies we mostly go for the popcorn. And when one of us brings a bag of popcorn home, we try to hide it so the bag lasts longer. It never works. Jack likes Earth Balance and YaYa’s Herb & Garden Vegetable, and I usually get SkinnyPop or BoomChickaPop. All great options, but my new favorite is definitely Luminous Organics’ Turmeric Black Pepper!

Dinali sent me a bag of each of her four popcorn flavors and all four bags were gone in a couple of days. They’re absolutely delicious! The Turmeric Black Pepper has an extra punch to it, and I loved the delicate sweetness of the Cacao and Maple flavors.

I highly recommend you order a box of all four flavors before your next all-night Battlestar Galactica marathon, birthday party, road trip, or staycation. You can buy Dinali’s popcorn in Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island, NY, and they ship quickly to everyone else.

Don’t sit on this—go get yourself some Luminous Popcorn now. It’s going to bring so much popping love into your life.

By Jen Bravo, Guest Contributor

Many of us just couldn’t wait for 2016 to be over, and now 2017 is off to a rocky start as well. What better way to cheer ourselves up than to take a peek at some technology trends that are revolutionizing the world for animals?

Trend #1: The Future of Protein

Imagine a world in which factory farming no longer exists, and we can feed the world high-quality protein with minimal inputs of energy, water, fertilizer, and no antibiotics! A world in which the suffering and environmental destruction inherent in factory farming is a thing of the past. This world is not as far off as you might think, thanks to advancements in cellular agriculture.

Over the past few years, innovators have been leveraging tissue engineering, synthetic biology, bioengineering, and materials science to grow or replicate factory farmed products—such as meat and dairy—in a laboratory setting. You may have heard of the Impossible Burger, Hungry Planet’s Range-Free™ burger, and Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger—which is now supported by an investment from Tyson Foods—and these are just the beginning!

New Harvest is accelerating the development of “milk without cows, eggs without hens, and beef without cows,” and the Good Food Institute is supporting early-stage and established companies to develop and market “clean meat” and plant-based proteins.

There are a number of start-ups, ranging from Memphis Meats, a San Francisco-based company growing meat from animal cells, to SuperMeat, which just completed a successful Indiegogo campaign in September 2016 and is focusing on a cultured chicken product.

Perfect Day Foods—which produces cow’s milk using yeast—are pushing the envelope at the forefront of the animal-free food revolution.

The good news is that as these technologies improve and demand increases, costs will come down, making these animal-free choices the frugal and environmentally-sustainable choice as well.

Trend #2: Virtual Entertainment & Immersive Experiences

Technology won’t just change how we eat—it will change how we relate to animals, learn about them, and are entertained by them. You may remember 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes? It was lauded by animal advocates for being the first live-action film to not only tell the story from the point of view of a sentient, non-human animal, but to use only computer-generated images to do so. Well, 2011 seems like forever ago, considering what we can now do using virtual reality (VR).

Imagine swimming with dolphins, experiencing the Great Migration across the plains of the Serengeti, or spending time with a family of mountain gorillas, all without exploiting living animals. Imagine classes of students experiencing coral reefs or rain forests, full of vibrant plants and animals, rather than a zoo or aquarium with captive animals.

VR will revolutionize how we educate children about the natural world, enabling them to immerse themselves in ecosystems without damaging them. And VR will enable those who would never otherwise be able to travel the globe to experience these animals in an immersive way.

VR will also enable even greater education about the plight of animals trapped in our modern food system. Animal Equality’s VR iAnimal brings people inside factory farms—and we believe that’s just the beginning. As Forbes contributor Ross Gerber wrote last month, virtual reality, “will make an exponentially larger imprint on society, transcending gaming and having the potential to touch on everything from education, sports, entertainment, and medicine. The obstacle right now is the price.…”

But as with so many technologies that were prohibitively expensive in their first few years, VR hardware will come down in price and its easily scalable content will soon become ubiquitous.

Next week, in part two, we’ll talk about ending animal testing and how drones and artificial intelligence are revolutionizing anti-poaching and conservation efforts. So be sure to stay tuned!

By Jen Bravo, Guest Contributor

This post is the first in a series on the history of women in the animal protection movement, gender and animal advocacy, and stories of the women striving today to make the world a better place for animals.

Animal advocacy has a long and complex history—a history in which women have played a central and integral role as writers, speakers, organizers, and activists. An intersectional history in which feminism and animal advocacy go hand in hand, along with other progressive social causes.

As the foot soldiers of modern animal advocacy, it’s empowering for women to understand our history and embrace the legacies of the women who came before us. In that spirit, this post shares the stories of just three women who embody courage and dedication, and forged a path for animals in the 1800s and very early 1900s where none existed.

Women and Animal Advocacy in the 1800s

Frances Power Cobbe and Anna Kingsford are two names every animal advocate should know.

Frances Power Cobbe

Frances Power Cobbe was a women’s suffrage and anti-vivisection advocate who founded the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) in 1875 and the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) in 1898—two animal protection groups that are still around today (BUAV is now Cruelty Free International). Both organizations were firmly rooted in the early social justice movements of the 1800s, which included women’s suffrage, property rights for women, and opposition to vivisection (that is, the use of living animals in experiments).

Frances began her career as a writer, publishing articles on women’s property rights, domestic abuse against women, and the economic dependency of women on men in Victorian England. In 1863, as a writer for the London Daily News, she witnessed animal experiments and became a staunch opponent of vivisection. Her strident anti-vivisection work led directly to the passage of the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1876, which was intended to regulate vivisection by requiring physiologists to obtain licenses and for the animals used to be anesthetized. Frances and the NAVS claimed the Act was weak, and in fact, the number of vivisections rose following its enactment.

Anna Kingsford

Anna Kingsford met Frances Cobbe in London in 1872 when Frances published an article on anti-vivisection in The Lady’s Own Paper—a weekly magazine that covered social reform issues—which Anna owned and edited. Anna quickly became an anti-vivisection advocate, and decided to study medicine so that she could advocate for animals from a place of expertise.

The study of medicine at this time relied heavily on experiments on animals, mostly dogs and mostly without anesthetic. Anna attended medical school in Paris, completing her degree in just six years, and doing so without experimenting on any animals. Her final thesis for medical school was a paper on the benefits of becoming a vegetarian, which was later published as a book titled The Perfect Way in Diet in 1881. She became an active speaker and advocate for a vegetarian diet and in opposition to all animal experimentation.

Anna exhibited extreme courage in attending medical school at this time, during which she had to witness many experiments conducted on living dogs without anesthetic. She said, “I have found my Hell here in the Faculté de Médecine of Paris.” And she bore the additional burden of being an unwelcome woman in a field dominated by men, experiencing harassment and neglect from her teachers.

Anna persevered, as she knew that her experiences would help her be a better advocate for animals. Unfortunately, Anna developed a serious illness and died at the age of 41, before she could fully realize her life’s work for animals.

The Very Early 1900s

The very early 1900s in Britain and the United States were characterized by a continuation of the anti-vivisection movement—building upon the work of Frances, Anna, and others, as well as the movements for women’s suffrage, peace, and other social reforms. One woman stands out in this period for her courage and tenacity. The British-Swedish powerhouse Lizzy Lind af Hageby.

Lizzy began her career as a writer and lecturer in opposition to child labor and prostitution, in support of women’s liberation, and later in her life in support of animal rights. She was an activist and organizer at a time when women were expected to stay at home. She trained in medicine at the London School of Medicine for Women so she could become a better anti-vivisection advocate.

In 1913, Lizzy represented herself in a libel trial—related to animal advocacy—at a time when women were not allowed to become attorneys. The Nation reported that her representation in the trial was a “brilliant piece of advocacy…though it was entirely conducted by a woman.” Following the trial, a British Colonel spoke about the importance of women in animal advocacy, stating, “The day that women get the vote will be the day on which the death-knell of vivisection will be sounded.” Unfortunately, he turned out to be wrong about that.

The connection between women’s rights and anti-vivisection was particularly strong during this period. The U.S. academic Coral Magnolia Lansbury argued in her book The Old Brown Dog: Women, Workers, and Vivisection in Edwardian England (1985), that the imagery of vivisection—of animals bound and abused—was particularly powerful for women—a symbolic reminder of the treatment of women as objects.

A Legacy of Action

Throughout the 20th century, women continued to be at the forefront in animal advocacy—founding animal rights organizations, exploring the relationships between humans and nonhuman animals, and challenging the status quo that treats living, sentient beings as objects.

In our next piece in this series, we’ll highlight some of the amazing work done by women for animals in the 20th century—a century full of progress—and how that work informs the efforts of the women striving today to change the world for animals.

Editor’s Note: We recognize that the women featured in this post are all white. This is due to many factors, including but not limited to who authors history. In our next installment of Women in Animal Advocacy, we will feature some of the many women of color who have been critical to advancing animal rights throughout the years!

By Taylor Radig, Campaigns Manager

Vegan eating has gained a significant amount of traction within the restaurant industry—sparking mega chains like Chipotle, Wendy’s, Burger King, Ben & Jerry’s, Starbucks, and countless others to add plant-based options for their diners. Among all the food industries, the pizza world seems to be the quickest in listening to customer demands.

Here are our top five picks for pizza chains that are now offering vegan options—yes, all of them have vegan cheese.

And be sure to check out these restaurants’ websites to see if there are locations near you!

Pie Five

Pie Five is known for specializing in handcrafted personal pizzas prepared in less than five minutes. In 2015, Pie Five listened to their customers and rolled out Daiya vegan cheese to each one of their over 90 locations in the U.S. This is a top pick for fast dairy-free deliciousness on the go!

MOD Pizza

This family-friendly chain became a hero in 2015 when they added vegan cheese to all of their locations after significant demand from their customers. Since then, MOD Pizza has grown to over 200 locations.

They also carry two vegan sauce selections—a BBQ sauce and a garlic rub.

Mellow Mushroom

Mellow Mushroom, an Atlanta-based chain, introduced a “vegan favorites” menu in 2015, featuring calzones, pretzels, and even tempeh and tofu add-ons for pizza. With over 190 locations across the U.S., this is a bucket list favorite you don’t want to miss out on!

Check out their vegan favorites menu here.

Pieology

In the midst of a large expansion in 2015, Pieology added Daiya cheese to a large portion of their West Coast locations. Recognized the same year as America’s fastest growing chain, we think this says a lot about the importance of adding dairy-free vegan options!

Their house red, BBQ, and olive oil sauce bases are all vegan. The standard crust isn’t vegan, so make sure to ask for the gluten-free one!

PizzaRev

If you’re looking for something a bit meatier, look no further! This national chain not only offers Daiya cheese, but a flavorful meat-free sausage topping you’ll love.

Choose from PizzaRev’s original or gluten-free crust and toss on their organic tomato, spicy-sweet BBQ, or olive oil sauce base!

Pi Pizzeria

This popular pizza chain not only offers vegan cheese, but also italian sausage crumbles from Hungry Planet at their DC and St. Louis locations—a Vegan Outreach favorite! When you visit, create your own pizza with your choice of a thin crust or deep dish style*, tomato sauce, and any of their gourmet vegetable toppings. Their fast casual setting makes it the perfect place to take your veg-curious friends and family.

You can find Pi Pizzerias in the DC Metro Area, Cincinnati, and St. Louis!

*Pi Pizzeria butters their deep dish pans with butter and requires a 6 hour advance notice for all vegan deep dish pizzas to ensure the dough proofs properly.

California Pizza Kitchen—Show the world some vegan love!

Vegan Outreach recently launched a petition asking California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) to follow the consumer trend and offer a vegan cheese pizza. Not only would adding this vegan cheese option bring them more business, but as one of the largest pizza companies in the U.S., it would further show the public how delicious vegan eating is. Customer feedback really does matter, so please sign the petition to let California Pizza Kitchen know the world is ready for a cheesy CPK vegan pizza!