Transforming the Food System Means Changing How We Treat Animals

Two weeks back I had the pleasure to be one of the speakers at the Animal Politics World Conference in Amsterdam. I was interviewed on stage by a brilliant journalist Sophie Cavany about my view on the future of the food system (You can view the recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXlY0B-QnqU&t=15510s) This conversation inspired me to share how I imagine our future.?

When I think of us 20 years to 30 years from now, two scenarios come to mind. In the first, nothing has changed, and humans still kill billions of animals every year for food. But in the second, far-more-hopeful scenario, we don’t, and our main source of protein is plant-based, sustainable, and ethically produced. At LIVEKINDLY Collective, we’re doing everything in our power to ensure that the first scenario isn’t a reality.?

If the global food system carries on as it is now for the next few decades, the consequences will be devastating for our planet. The livestock industry is responsible for 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gases, and 80 percent of tropical deforestation is caused by agriculture. And of course, there’s the impact on animals, which will be nothing short of horrific.

According to Compassion in World Farming, around 70 billion farm animals are produced for food every year (and two in three of those are reared in intensive factory farm systems). Without taking into account the rising population and higher demand for protein, as it stands, between now and 2041, around 1.4 trillion farm animals will have been produced for food.

That’s 1.4 trillion lives brought into the world, just be taken out of it again to end up on our plates. Considering we have other ways of producing tasty, nutritious, sustainable plant-based protein, this figure is beyond unacceptable, it’s atrocious. So why do we do it? Many of us often eat animal-derived meat not because we are bad people, but because we see our fried chicken wings as separate from the bird in the coop.

At LIVEKINDLY Collective, not only are we producing alternative protein products that taste and look like meat without suffering, but we also want to help people make the connection between the cute animals we see on farms and the ones on our plates. To help people question the current norm. That’s why we have teamed up with Dutch cartoonist Toon van Driel to launch Kind Heroes, a cartoon series that follows the lives of lovable animals — including Ernie the pig, Rock Chick the chicken, and Dolphy Surround? — as they attempt to escape their fate in the slaughterhouse or the fishing trawler. While the message is serious, the series aims to be fun, loveable, creative, and above all, educational.

As global business leaders with a purpose, I see it as our duty to share what we know, to educate. For us at the Collective, doing so goes hand and hand with our mission of making food production sustainable. And personally, I don’t want our children to grow up in a world where it’s normal to kill billions of animals. I believe this cartoon series will connect with young people, open their eyes to a new way of doing things, and help them see that plant-based, animal-free eating can become the new norm.