New Insights into Animal Agriculture

Report by Virginia Bell, Founder of

Catholic Action for Animals

A Webinar, presented by Catholic Action for Animals and hosted by the Animal Interfaith Alliance, in collaboration with the Diocese of Salford, the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, Climate Healers, Born Vegan and In Defense of Animals, took place on Thursday 21st March 2024. The recording is above.

Barbara Gardner from Animal Interfaith Alliance  welcomed everyone and introduced the Speakers. Barbara is the founder and Chief Executive of the Animal Interfaith Alliance. 

The first to speak was Bishop John Arnold, the lead bishop on environmental matters in the UK. He opened the webinar by reminding us of the urgent importance of prayer, discussion and action by every one of us, to tackle the environmental crises.

He was followed by Sailesh Rao, who spoke on the planetary harm of animal agriculture, which he claims is responsible for at least 87% of greenhouse gas emissions annually, in addition to being the leading cause of species extinctions, ocean dead zones and myriad other environmental ills.

Next was Sarina Farb, who spoke on the environmental and health benefits of a plant-based diet. Sarina focuses on empowering individuals to think critically, to see past corporate propaganda, and to live ethically. 

Then Lisa Levinson from In Defense of Animals presented and spoke on the short video made by Dr Jane Goodall, on the subject of the folly of offering animals as gifts for poor people overseas. In the video, Jane urges aid charities to end animal gifting programmes, which hurt gift recipients by burdening them with more mouths to feed in areas where food and water are often scarce, and by undermining sustainable development.

Daniel Mascarenhas SJ, a Jesuit from the US spoke on the Biblical imperative for caring for animal rights, a concept found in the Old Testament narratives that describe laws for animal welfare. https://www.vegancatholic.org/

Next to speak was Maureen Villanueva, who presented the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, an initiative of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development that equips institutions, communities, and families to take practical steps towards total sustainability in the spirit of integral ecology.

Last was Virginia Bell from Catholic Action for Animals, who summed up with the question “How can we take what we have learned to our parish, diocese and community?”
 
FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE SPEAKERS

BISHOP JOHN ARNOLD Bishop John is the Bishop of Salford, a member of the Bishops’ Conference for England and Wales Department for International Affairs, and is Bishops’ Conference spokesperson on the Environment. Inspired by Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si’, which calls on “every person living on this planet” to care for our shared earth, Bishop John spends much of his time encouraging consciousness about the environmental crises among Catholics in the UK, inspiring them to make practical responses to deal with the crises. He leads the Guardians of Creation initiative in Salford Diocese, which offers guidance and resources to help the Catholic Church tackle the environmental crises, and he has transformed his home, Wardley Hall, into the Laudato Si’ Centre.

Barbara Gardner was awarded the RSPCA’s Queen Victoria Silver Medal for long & meritorious service for animal welfare.  She has been the Editor of Catholic Concern for Animals’ magazine The Ark and Animal Interfaith Alliance’s magazine Animal Spirit. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.
 
In this webinar, shared through the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, we are proud to present SAILESH RAO Dr Sailesh Rao is the Founder and Executive Director of Climate Healers, a non-profit organisation dedicated towards healing the Earth’s climate. He is an environmentalist by occupation and systems engineer by profession. He invented the protocol for transforming early analog internet connections to more robust digital connections, while accelerating their speed ten-fold. 

SARINA FARB is a vegan educator, TEDx speaker, and lecturer on ethical and sustainable living. As a former science teacher and lifelong vegan, Sarina’s projects include creating content for her Born Vegan platform, hosting the Science is Gray Podcast, co-founding and leading the annual International Vegan Earth Day March, and touring the country in her vegan van giving lectures and workshops on ethical and sustainable living.

DR. JANE GOODALL  produced a video for our colleagues in the Interfaith Vegan Coalition, which Lisa Levinson showed. Jane is a world-famous Ethologist and Conservationist and campaigns for the environment. 

LISA LEVINSON is the Campaigns Director for In Defense of Animals, an international animal protection non-profit organisation with 250,000 supporters worldwide. Lisa founded Vegan Spirituality to explore veganism as a spiritual practice, and co-founded the Interfaith Vegan Coalition to provide resources for faith-based vegan advocacy.

DANIEL MASCARENHAS SJ is a Jesuit scholastic working on his Masters of Divinity degree at Boston College. As part of his formation towards the priesthood, he has worked with people with intellectual disabilities at L’Arche, taught Math and Theology to high school students, and studied philosophy at Saint Louis University.

MAUREEN VILLANUEVA is part of the Laudato Si´ Movement Team as the Engagement Manager for Special Projects and provides support in the Laudato Si Action Platform to individuals and institutions.
The Platform synthesises knowledge from all walks of life and all corners of the earth, creating a shared community of people developing bold and active responses to the ecological crisis with urgent and ambitious changes in how we live. By enrolling, participants are invited to create a Laudato Si ´ Plan to make progress within the seven Laudato Si ́ Goals as a profound act of care in response to our global environmental crisis.

VIRGINIA BELL  is the founder of Catholic Action for Animals and has campaigned for decades to bring the natural environment and the treatment of animals into the conscious life of the Catholic Church, both at a local parish level and with the Church at large. She is part of the Laudato Si’ Animators’ Network in the UK.
 
 
QUOTES
“We are a generation that is facing great challenges but also many opportunities. In environmental concerns, we have so much evidence of climate change events that are affecting all continents and the oceans, destroying biodiversity, disrupting agriculture, and warming our world to a point where irreparable damage will soon be done. But, at the same time, we have the knowledge and the means to repair the damage and secure our common home for future generations. Many of the necessary changes lie in establishing a healthy balance in agricultural methods, reducing our consumption of meat, making more productive use of agricultural land and avoiding any further deforestation. This webinar for Catholics on animal agriculture will provide sound reasoning on what needs to be done with urgency if we are to care responsibly for our common home and our brothers and sisters in our global family.” Bishop John Arnold
 
“I’m excited to be speaking at the Webinar on animal rights from a faith perspective hosted by Catholic Action for Animals. It is thrilling that the mainstream faith community has taken up this urgent cause so that we can effect a grassroots transformation from a climate heating civilization founded on animal agriculture to a climate healing civilization founded on vegan ethics” Sailesh Rao 
 
“The time is more pressing than ever that we as individuals all consider how our daily food choices and actions impact the environment and planet we share, as well as the other beings we share this planet with. If we have a choice, and one choice causes suffering and death to innocent beings, and the other choices allows us to live happier and healthier lives without harming others, we cannot justify continuing to kill and eat animals for what are essentially selfish reason. We must all learn the power of veganism and plant-based diets to heal ourselves, our relationship with nature, and our broken relationship with the animals we share this world with. When we begin to align our daily actions with our professed values of peace and justice, only then can we begin to transform the world to one with peace and dignity for all beings” Sarina Farb
 
“In Defense of Animals’ Interfaith Vegan Coalition is honored to speak against the insidious practice of animal gifting. We enlisted Dr. Jane Goodall to join our efforts in collaboration with the Animal Save Movement to replace animal gifts that promote animal suffering and exacerbate negative climate impacts with sustainable plant-based gifts that are an essential part of the climate solution.” Lisa Levinson
 
“I wonder what St. Francis of Assisi would think about our treatment of animals” Virginia Bell 
 
“In the beginning, when God created and declared everything good, God gave humans plants to eat. At the end of time, when God’s peaceable kingdom will reign, humans and animals will live peacefully with each other as prophesied by Isaiah. And in the present, when Jesus has inaugurated God’s kingdom on earth, we are invited to be kind and compassionate to all, loving our neighbor as ourselves.  Knowing God’s plans through Scripture, and loving God through our faith make certain claims on our lifestyle. Consequently, we can reflect on how our lives honor God’s hopes for humans and creation” Daniel Mascarenhas SJ

“Let us reflect on our shared responsibility towards creation, especially for those most vulnerable. Our faith calls us to action for a sustainable and compassionate world “hearing both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” LS 49. Through the Laudato Si´ Action Platform, we can integrate a plan toward this purpose, joining a global community in the care of creation” Maureen Villanueva