9 minute read
Though She Be but Little, She is Fierce: the (Founding) Roar of the Female Eco Activist
the (Founding) Roar of the Female Eco Activist
When women rise, the world rises with them.
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- How Many Elephants
In the name of wildlife conservation and biodiversity, the week of June 23rd to 30th marked World Female Rangers Week. Launched last year by anti-poaching group How Many Elephants, the campaign’s inaugural focus was on female rangers, predominantly in Africa. The purpose of the celebratory week is to shine a spotlight on those incredibly strong – in all senses of the word – women who educate others and act as role models to girls and younger women: in what is a traditionally male position (with only 11% of that workforce not a man), these females protect some of the most endangered species on the planet.
Elephants, of course, are one of the central symbols of the horrors of poaching and the endangerment of a species to the point of risk of extinction (together with rhinoceroses). The illegal ivory trade, as well as the market for bushmeat, have led to a “human-elephant conflict” which has left only 415,000 elephants on the entirety of the African continent.
It is estimated that roughly 96 elephants are currently killed each and every day. That’s an annual poaching rate of 35,000 elephants. So it is that organisations like How Many Elephants exist, seeking to safeguard one of Nature’s wisest mammals. This is done visually, incorporating the data into design; not the graphic atrocities one sees with other animal-protection groups, but in a visual way that impacts by communicating the sheer scale of the problem.
Founded in 2013 by – you guessed it – a woman, namely Holly Budge, How Many Elephants’ designs can be necklaces (handcrafted by Budge herself) made from vegetable ivory or brass to represent poachers’ bullets (often cut from the same material), but also other artworks. All put forth in some way the daily count of elephant deaths (and there are only 96 different pieces in Budge’s collection).
Yet, Budge is more than an artist with a concept. A conservationist herself, Budge is also known as a world-class adventurer, having scaled Mount Everest and been the first female to skydive off it. She’s also patrolled the front line with female rangers in Zimbabwe, Kenya, and South Africa. There are few who could be more suited to the promotion and protection of both biodiversity and gender diversity in conservation. Ecofeminism, of course, began in the 1960s and 1970s, evolving from out of Second Wave feminism in an amalgamation of philosophy and politics, environmentalism and art. It is only more recently that science has begun to intermingle with all that, too. Indeed, Just Natural Health & Beauty last autumn looked at powerful, animalloving women working in STEM, bringing a green-thinking energy to their laboratories, seen most clearly in the latest explosion of progress in the alt-meat and cell ag sector. And that influence over the younger generation that How Many Elephants is lauding is gaining ground.
The Vegetarian Times in its “20 Under 20” list of youth climate activists late last year, mentioned the biggest movers and shakers in their first two decades of life who are endeavouring to save Planet Earth before it’s too late. Among them were 14-year old Genesis Butler, who went vegan at the tender age of six and has advocated for animals ever since, becoming the youngest ever person to deliver a TEDx talk. Also included was Jamie Margolin, author of YA nonfiction title Youth To Power: Your Voice and How to Use It, whose international youth climate justice movement marched on Washington, D.C. in 2018. With Instagram and TikTok users no doubt familiar with the names Maija Elizabeth (@SustainablyMaija) or Gaia Ratazzi (@ ssustainably_), it is Bella Lack who compares most closely with Holly Budge’s path, though: the 18-year-old is youth ambassador for the Born Free Foundation and Save the Asian Elephants, as well as youth director of Reserva. Indeed, only Joe Brindle, founder of Teach for the Future, was listed, a sole male mention amidst the otherwise female-dominated list. This was perhaps on the basis of having taken a draft Climate Emergency Education Act to Parliament for action, which also saw him featured on the Sunday Times Green Power List.
Women, then, are in an ever more powerful position; they are finally being heard, but listened to not just for themselves, but on the wider platform of environmental, of planetary issues. To this end, the Vegan Women Summit (VMS) was formed, the events and media organisation seeking to build “a global community of strong and ambitious femaleidentifying change makers”. Founded by Jennifer Stojkovic, the concept was sparked by the inequalities she had faced in the food tech industry, but VMS seeks diversity in fashion and beauty, as well. Its aim is to “increase representation of women founders, women investors, women in positions of leadership”, believing that “the longer we leave the talent and expertise of woman on the table, the longer we leave animals on the table”. Hear, hear.
A Seafood Summer:
There’s something about summer which tends to draw people to the coast. The sun beating down combined with the salty air and sound of the surf draw our interests out to sea – not simply in terms of a refreshing dip beneath the waves, but gastronomically also, it seems. So ensues the tussle of conscience: knowing what we do about animal sentience (not solely the reserve of mammals), aware as we are of the environmental impact of industrial fishing practices, apart from medically being unable to be wholly plant-based, how could we possibly justify any decision to dine on fish or seafood?
Well, apparently one can still do so sustainably (despite what Seaspiracy might have reported). The Marine Conservation Society recently released an updated Good Fish Guide, providing information on the environmental impact of around 130 different types of fish and seafood, all based on the species and how it is caught or farmed. The traffic-light colour-coded Guide is a resource to assist consumers in making the responsible choice, while still protecting the sea and its marine wildlife: green means as good as possible, while red means eating that species is a promotion of overfishing, habitat damage, or other “unsustainable practices”.
In the UK, 80% of the seafood eaten comes from just five species: cod, haddock, salmon, tuna, and prawns. As with crop monoculture, this is not sustainable. Re-diversifying the fish and seafood one decides to eat this summer (if you can no longer resist) should still take into consideration those ethics firmly held the rest of the year. Therefore, far better a swap for each of these, respectively, would be: hake, sardines, mussels, farmed trout, and plaice. All should be as locally sourced as possible.
Thus, sustainably, you could follow NHS guidelines and consume fish twice a week; thus, you could appease the siren call of the ocean and satisfy your craving. But it might be wise to refrain from watching an eco-doc for a little while afterwards, perhaps…
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Meat Me Halfway
If there was ever a film that vindicated flexitarians, Meat Me Halfway is it. Addressing the issue of the sense or otherwise in the global population going vegan, the documentary coproduced by Brian Kateman (leader of the Reducetarian movement) and actress Madelaine Petsch suggests as alternative a reduction in meat consumption in order for human diets to become much more sustainable.
All so far so omnivorously obvious, yet omnivores themselves laugh at the notion (and vegans take offence). However, Reducetarianism posits that, by minimising how often meat is eaten, factory farming practices can be eradicated. Indeed, a study published in the journal Science in 2018 found that the elimination of both meat and dairy from a person’s diet reduces (low and behold) their carbon footprint by almost 73%.
Essentially, then, Meat Me Halfway takes issue with the “all-or-nothing” mindset and offers instead of a blackand-white approach a very attractive shade of grey for those struggling to fully shift to veganism; it takes away the guilt, a sense of shame in falling off the plant-based waggon that one is failing this planet we hold so very dear.
The film’s target audience is global, but its purpose is inspired by the statistic that the average American consumes in excess of 200lbs of meat each and every year. That’s a horrifying amount, not just as regards individual intake, but in the total annual weight of meat eaten by the entire population of the United States alone… No wonder we’ve reached critical point with industrial agriculture, with 9 billion land animals solely on US soil (if you can call it that) and 70 billion globally suffering in factory farms.
Kateman also considers vegetarians and even vegans to be reducetarians, with vegans reducing animal products to zero. He doesn’t see any cause for concern in an individual eating a few pounds of meat per year and doesn’t like resultant terms for “lapses” from one’s dietary goals (such as “lazy vegetarian” or “cheating vegan”). Instead, he wants to switch that thinking around and laud what inroads one does make into living as plant-based as possible. After all, there’s a considerable evolutionary history to overcome that has placed meat at the centre of humans’ thinking (at least, until recently). Perceived (and passé) social norms aside, Kateman devotes a large portion of the film to plant-based alternative products, praising the opportunity they give die-hard (oh, the irony) meat-lovers to retain “meaty” dietary satisfaction. Certainly, Vegconomist reported at the start of this year that Pilgrim’s Food Masters (owner of Richmond sausages) predicts a growth of 74% in plant-based products, after a survey revealed 43.7% of its customers “now describe themselves as flexitarian”. Kateman’s excitement over cellular agriculture, or lab-grown meat, is palpable. However, he warns that the long-term success of all these products in bringing more people over to a meat-free way of living will be dependent on affordability.
Meat Me Halfway, then, suggests an alternative path towards any chance of Wells’ “modern utopia”, wherein our moral obligation to, yes, reduce the suffering of other beings, no matter how sentient of otherwise, takes precedence: if, en masse, we reduce our meat consumption, gradually – perhaps tricklingly slowly – we will reach the point where we see those terrible conveyor belt slaughterhouses firmly shut.
