What is AVA?
AVA, the Animal and vegan Advocacy Summit, is an annual conference for vegan advocates and animal rights campaigners. It brings together the world’s most influential advocates. The conference focuses on systemic change and lets participants work with various tactics, strategies, and approaches towards one common vision: ending animal use in our food system and beyond.
I'm sitting in a massive conference hall at a hotel just outside Washington DC.. On stage stands Peter Singer, the philosopher behind Animal Liberation, speaking about victories in the animal rights movement since the book was published in 1975. Just before Singer took the stage, he was introduced by Ryuji Chua, Surge Activism the video producer who a few months ago sat in front of Trevor Noah and was interviewed about speciesism on The Daily Show.In the front rows, I spot Dr. Melanie Joy, author of countless books on our relationship with animals and the creator who coined the term carnism.Nearby sits Dr. Michael Greger, author of How Not to Die and founder of nutritionfacts.org.Looking around the packed hall, I see countless individuals doing groundbreaking work for animals, including; Genesis Butler,, Seb Alex,, Tobias Leenaert,, Esther Salomon,, Almira Tanner, and Naijha Wright-Brown.I'm surrounded by thousands of people all burning and working for the same goal: Complete animal liberation. This is what it's like to be at the Animal and vegan Advocacy Summit,one of the world's largest animal rights conferences.
At the end of October, I was lucky enough to be sent on a trip to Washington DC to attend the AVA summit on behalf of Dyrenes Alliance - four days packed with presentations, workshops, networking, and some activism.
"There is not going to be one way of reaching animal liberation - there will be thousands!"
Highlights
I've thought a lot about how to best summarize the vast amount of impressions, knowledge, and inspiration I took in at the conference. I’ve decided the best way to share it with you is by highlighting some of the top experiences. Here are 5 things that inspired me most at the conference.
Best Workshop
Movement Strategy with Esther Salomon from Animal Think Tank..
The conference’s very first activity was this workshop, which made a strong impression on me.
What made me choose this workshop as the best was its deeply inspiring start. After a brief introduction of Animal Think Tank, a speech was given about non-human animals—a reminder of why we fight and who we fight for. After the speech, we observed a minute of silence.
Starting the workshop this way was powerful and motivating, and I even got a copy of the speech to take home so we can do something similar at DA in the future.
Afterward, we were introduced to various tools to consider when planning tactics, campaigns, and milestones in our fight for complete animal liberation.
Best Keynote
Making Animal Liberation a Reality with Leah Garces from Mercy for Animals.
Friday morning featured the first keynote, filled with inspiring words from Leah Garces, CEO of Mercy for Animals.The speech opened with: “There is not going to be one way of reaching animal liberation - there will be thousands!”.
She presented 5 key areas she believes the movement must improve to make animal liberation a reality.
Value people:
To be a strong movement, we must ensure as many activists as possible can make a living fighting for animals. This means fair pay and good working conditions. For those we cannot employ, we must do everything we can to educate, value, and empower them in other ways.
Expand who leads and is a part of the movement:
We must work to make the movement more diverse and inclusive. In other words: ensure it's not just white, cis, straight men leading the movement.
Build solidarity with non-animal-rights allies:
We must better collaborate in solidarity with other social justice movements (e.g., climate, anti-racist, and LGBTQIA+ rights movements). Genuine allyship creates allies.
Raise issue salience:
We must change the dominant societal narrative that it's acceptable to treat animals as we do. Awareness of animals' horrific conditions must become normalized.
Be bold:
We must stop doing things that don't work and not be afraid to try new, untested approaches.
Most inspiring organization
Apex Advocacy is a nonprofit animal rights organization developing grassroots activism and campaigns to empower BIPOC communities to defend animal rights, while raising awareness of how the animal industry disproportionately harms BIPOC. They run the No Backyard Slaughter campaign targeting “backyard slaughterhouses” in predominantly BIPOC neighborhoods. BIPOC communities face disproportionate industry harm but often lack resources to fight this cruelty locally.
Apex Advocacy also created the website blackveganeverything.com
The site offers a wide selection of Black-owned vegan businesses. These aren't just vegan food businesses—they include a variety of consciously vegan enterprises.
I highly recommend checking the site when you need something new. There's a huge lack of funding for BIPOC, including in the animal rights movement, so this is a great opportunity to put your money where it really matters. Most businesses are currently US-based, but many offer international shipping. You can also suggest Black-owned vegan businesses outside the US to be added.
Most inspiring initiative
Afro vegan Society's National Afro-vegan Conference Virtual Summit 2022.
Afro-vegan Society is a US nonprofit whose mission is to provide resources and support to help marginalized communities adopt a vegan lifestyle.
Part of their support is the annual virtual conference: National Afro-vegan Conference Virtual Summit 2022. Organized by African American veganers, it aims to increase inclusion of marginalized groups in the vegan movement.
The conference addresses barriers in vulnerable areas that make plant-based living difficult and strengthens efforts to include veganism (and its benefits) in the major cultural shift we're experiencing.
It takes place this Saturday, is free and open to all.
You can register here.
Most inspiring activist
Genesis Butler,
If you don't already know her, I strongly recommend following her! Genesis is just 15 years old, an animal rights and climate activist who also fights broadly for social justice. She gained major attention for promoting veganism as essential to solving the climate crisis during her 2017 Tedx tale. She founded her own global climate organization, Youth Climate Save,focused on the climate impacts of animal agriculture.
She is also the founder of Genesis for Animals., a nonprofit that raises funds for animal sanctuaries worldwide. She has won numerous awards for her activism and was featured in the Marvel Hero Project. What impresses me most personally is that at just 6 years old, she independently became vegan and inspired her entire family to follow her lead. Oh, and she’s related to Cesar Chavez.
There was so much inspiration at the AVA conference that I could easily write 20 pages about it, but I’ll stop here. If you want to read about the speakers and organizations that participated in the conference, you can do soon the conference website.
If you ever get the chance to attend these kinds of events, whether in person or online, my advice is simply do it! It’s deeply motivating to be surrounded by people all fighting for a better future—a future where animals are free from human exploitation and oppression.
I believe we will get there one day, and as Sharon Núñez from Animal Equality said in her keynote: “We are one movement, making history.”
Bonus info
Lastly, I want to share a highly relevant bonus recommendation. At the conference, I met Steven Rouk, founder of Connect for Animals. Connect for Animals is a brand-new platform (still in its early stages) aiming to unite animal rights advocates worldwide. They already offer an amazing newsletter with twice-weekly updates on events relevant to animal rights activists. Physical events are mainly in the US and Canada for now, but there are plenty of online events listed—and the goal is to go global. I'm already thrilled to be subscribed, and I highly recommend you all do the same right here..
