Events
2024 Humane Hoax Online Conference
The 5th Annual Humane Hoax Online Conference was on Saturday, February 24, 2024. We heard presentations from experts and activists on informative and interesting aspects of humanewashing and greenwashing. The humane hoax is becoming more prevalent in animal product marketing with small and large scale farming incorporating more misleading labeling on meat, dairy, and eggs. You can now watch the videos to the truth about animal agribuisness’s slick slight of hand touting improvements when the reality is something very different. Click to watch the videos below.
2024 Presentations
Renee King-Sonnen
There’s No Right Way to do the Wrong Thing
Renee King-Sonnen is the Founder and Executive Director of Rowdy Girl Sanctuary that transformed from a cattle ranch to a sanctuary for more than 120 animals—the first documented beef cattle ranch conversion to a 100% vegan sanctuary in history. Rowdy Girl sanctuary is changing the world for farmed animals with programs like the Rancher Advocacy Program (RAP), an educational program that inspires cattle ranchers and animal farms to consider alternatives to animal farming, and Families Choosing Compassion that offers a compassionate alternative to Future Farmers of America and 4-H programs for children. Most recently, Renee has been the subject of a documentary, Rowdy Girl, that had its World Premiere in Toronto at Hot Docs, and the U.S. Premiere at the Hampton Film Festival.
Vasile Stanescu, PhD
Animal Agriculture, Climate Disruption, and Greenwashing
In this presentation, Vasile will explain how greenwashing in animal agriculture has become more common and is utilized by small and large scale animal farming. He will focus in and expose some of the brands that incorporate greenwashing into their marketing including Niman Ranch, Chipotle, Tyson, and others. Vasile will also uncover how animal agriculture is attempting to distort the research on its environmental effects.
Vasile Stanescu is an Associate Professor and Chair of Communication at Mercer University. He received his Ph.D. in the program of Modern Thought and Literature (MTL) at Stanford University. Vasile’s research focuses on greenwashing by animal agribusiness, critiques of humane meat, in vitro meat, and consumerist options for social change. He is the author of numerous publications on the study of animals and the environment including publications in the Journal of American Culture, Rhetoric of Health & Medicine, the American Behavioral Scientist., and Animal Studies Journal. Vasile is also the co-founder of the North American Association for Critical Animal Studies (NAACAS).
Dr. Joanne Kong
Disconnection and Perception in the Humane Hoax
Joanne’s presentation will explore the ways social conditioning has distanced and numbed us from seeing nonhuman animals as unique, beautiful individuals. She will share her own experience growing up in a family where the exploitation and commodification of animals were “disguised” as culinary art.
Dr. Joanne Kong has been praised throughout the world as one of the most compelling advocates for veganism today. She has given presentations at numerous vegan events, summits, and conferences. Joanne has written books and has a TEDx talk called The Power of Plant-Based Eating. Her edited anthology, Vegan Voices: Essays by Inspiring Changemakers, is an ambitious book with over 50 animal advocacy writers, all with different journeys, experiences, and unique forms of activism.
Fireweed
Locavorism and the Humane Hoax - An Ecofeminist Perspective
Ecofeminist writer Fireweed will share some of her lived experience as a longtime rural vegan activist, and how she sees the locavore movement as regressively complicit in propping up the humane myth.
Fireweed (She/Her) identifies as an ecofeminist artist and grassroots activist committed to collective liberation. She is a speaker, published author, former newspaper columnist and pirate radio show co-host. Thanks to a nomination by her peers, dedication to vegan community building, local food security and the vegan organic agriculture movement, Fireweed has been recognized by Oxfam International as a Local Food Hero. She lives with her family as settlers on unceded First Nations' territory in the woods on a small island off the coast of British Columbia.
Thank You to Our Partners
2023 Humane Hoax Online Conference
The Humane Hoax
10:00 am - 10:55 am PT
Hope Bohanec has been active in animal protection and environmental activism for over 30 years and published the book, The Ultimate Betrayal: Is There Happy Meat? She is a nationally recognized leader and speaker in the animal protection movement, executive director of the non-profit Compassionate Living, host of the Hope for the Animals Podcast, and co-founder of the Humane Hoax Project and the Ahimsa Living Project. Over the last three decades, Bohanec has worked for national non-profits such as United Poultry Concerns and In Defense of Animals, organized numerous campaigns and events, and contributed chapters to two anthologies.
Alastor Van Kleeck, Ph.D. is a freelance writer, educator, and community organizer. They spend most of their time working at the Triangle Chickens Advocates sanctuary, which they and their partner founded in 2014, and which inspired them to start The Microsanctuary Movement. Dr. Van Kleeck is co-founder of the Humane Hoax Project and also founded and contributes to the radical vegan blog Striving with Systems.
“Humane Eggs” and “Happy Wings”: A Look Behind the Labels
11:00 am - 11:55 am PT
Karen Davis, Ph.D. is the president and founder of United Poultry Concerns, a non-profit organization that promotes the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl, including a sanctuary for chickens in Virginia. Inducted into the National Animal Rights Hall of Fame for Outstanding Contributions to Animal Liberation, she is the author of Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs: An Inside Look at the Modern Poultry Industry; More Than a Meal: The Turkey in History, Myth, Ritual, and Reality; The Holocaust and the Henmaid’s Tale: A Case for Comparing Atrocities; and other works, including her children’s book A Home for Henny and a vegan cookbook Instead of Chicken, Instead of Turkey: A Poultryless “Poultry” Potpourri. Her latest book is For the Birds: From Exploitation to Liberation, published by Lantern Publishing & Media.
Modern Foodie Culture: A Celebration of Violence
12:00 pm - 12:55 pm PT
Robert C. Jones earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Stanford University. He is currently an associate professor of philosophy at California State University, Dominguez Hills. His research focuses on critical animal studies and animal liberation theory and activism through a variety of projects spanning traditional and novel areas of ethics, social justice, and food ethics. Dr. Jones co-authored Chimpanzee Rights, has published numerous articles and book chapters on animal ethics, and has given talks on animal liberation, speciesism, and human supremacy.
A Pig Called Silver
1:00 - 1:55 pm PT
Ingrid L. Taylor is a writer, veterinarian, and independent scholar who has worked in veterinary clinical practice, public health, and animal protection. She is an award-winning poet, and her writing has appeared in many journals and magazines. Find out more about her work at ingridltaylor.com.
2022 Humane Hoax Online Conference
2022 Presentations
Dismantling Deceptive Marketing Tactics, with Sena Crutchley
Sena will explore language and images that are designed to deceive consumers into believing that items were produced humanely. She will also discuss greenwashing and the ecological impact of “sustainably” labeled animal products.
Sena Crutchley is an associate professor in Communication Sciences and Disorders and a long-time animal rights and environmental activist. She is a founder and the president of Piedmont Area Vegan Educators. Sena serves on her university’s sustainability council, where she shares her expertise in the ethics of food systems. Sena is a frequent speaker for the Peace Advocacy Network and her local Sierra Club, and she is published on the topic of dismantling speciesist language. Sena founded and runs Ruby’s Refuge, a microsanctuary for chickens.
The Psychology of Bad Faith: Effective Altruism and ‘Humane’ Meat Discourse, with John Sanbonmatsu, PhD
John Sanbonmatsu, PhD is an associate professor of philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is the author of The Postmodern Prince: Critical Theory, Left Strategy, and the Making of a New Political Subject, and the editor of the book, Critical Theory and Animal Liberation. A leading critic of cellular or cultivated meat, John created and now curates the CleanMeat-hoax.com website. He is currently at work on a new book, The Omnivore’s Deception: What We Get Wrong about Meat, Animals, and the Nature of Moral Life.
Happy Pigs Make Happy Meat?, with Allison Argo and Bob Comis
Allison Argo and Bob Comis will discuss their views about “humane” meat, as well as Bob’s personal experience as a small-scale pig farmer and the choices he made to change his life. Allison will also share a video excerpt from her film The Last Pig featuring Bob Comis.
Allison Argo’s films have won over 100 awards internationally, including six national Emmys, duPont Columbia, Genesis, Jackson Hole, Banff, and dozens of awards from New York to Japan. Argo is known for her emotionally-charged and deeply personal films – in particular her intimate portraits of abused and endangered animals. The nearly two dozen films she’s produced, directed and written have all been broadcast by PBS and/or National Geographic and have reached audiences worldwide. Her most recent film, The Last Pig, premiered on PBS in 2021 after appearing at 42 film festivals. This award-winning film will soon be available for streaming internationally. Her latest film, The NEW Farm, is still in production. It continues Argo’s mission to provide a voice for those who are not heard– and to deepen understanding and respect for all beings. www.argofilms.com
Bob Comis, the main human character of The Last Pig, will also be joining us. He chronicled his day-to-day life as a pig farmer for over 10 years. In his words, “I raised pigs for slaughter for ten years, until a powerful sense of empathy and compassion propelled me to change the course of my life. I decided to quit pig farming, start a vegetable farm, and become a vegetarian (vegan, in 2015). Today I am able to be fully present, which is very much the opposite of my experience when I farmed pigs, which I did from a distance, divorced from the moment, disconnected from myself.”
The Harm of Humane, Are You Advocating Cruelty?, with Emily Moran Barwick
Are you advocating cruelty in your activism and outreach? The allure of “humane” language and concepts is not limited to non-vegans, vegans are just as vulnerable. Perhaps in trying to make veganism “approachable,” we inadvertently compromise our convictions and soften our ethics. This talk will address the harm of humane in activism, and how to ensure we as activists avoid advocating the very things we are fighting against.
Emily Moran Barwick an animal-liberation activist, educator, writer, artist, and international speaker. After completing her Masters of Fine Arts, Emily founded Bite Size Vegan upon the belief that everyone deserves access to solid, factual information on issues impacting their health, our planet, society, and the lives of other sentient beings. Through bitesizevegan.org, Emily provides free educational videos, essays, eCourses, and resources on all aspects of veganism—helping people go vegan and equipping existing vegans with the tools they need to get active. Communication has never come easily to Emily—an Autistic—but she credits her Autism for her deep and empathetic connection with non-human animals, and believes that by seeing the world differently, she’s better able to help others begin to think differently.
The Humane Hoax: Digging Deeper and Taking Action, with Hope Bohanec
Hope will take us deeper into the complex questions of why consumers are mislead and appeased by the humane hoax. She will then help us to discover how we can take action to expose the humane hoax with our language, tactics, and advocacy.
Hope Bohanec has been active in animal protection and environmental activism for 30 years. She is the editor of the recently released book, The Humane Hoax: Essays Exposing the Myth of Happy Meat, Humane Dairy, and Ethical Eggs, published by Lantern Publishing and Media, and the author of the first book ever written on the subject of the Humane Hoax, The Ultimate Betrayal: Is There Happy Meat?. Hope is the Executive Director of Compassionate Living and the host of the Hope for the Animals Podcast. She co-founded the Humane Hoax Project, the Ahimsa Living Project and has organized hundreds of online and in-person events including the Humane Hoax Online Conference, the Humane Hoax Chicken Webinar, and the Sonoma County VegFest. Over the last three decades, Hope has worked for the national non-profits United Poultry Concerns and In Defense of Animals and contributed chapters to several anthologies.