The animal rights extremist conference landscape has changed significantly following the COVID-19 pandemic, with several events remaining virtual-only and others, such as the Animal Rights National Conference, remaining on hiatus completely. As the Animal Agriculture Alliance works to monitor these conferences to stay on top of extremist tactics and strategies, we’ve had to add a few new ones to the list to keep an eye on.

Most notably for this year was the Animal and Vegan Advocacy Summit which just wrapped up over the weekend.

On its website, the AVA Summit is billed as part of a “conference series for the animal and vegan advocacy movement, bringing advocates together from around the world who are focusing on systemic change and working on various tactics, strategies, and approaches toward one shared vision: removing animals from our food system and other human use.”

The first such Summit was held last fall in Washington, D.C., and according to organizers had over 500 attendees. This year’s edition was in Los Angeles and had an estimated 750 activists in attendance.

Given the attendance growth and speaker lineup — which this year featured leaders from Direct Action Everywhere, Animal Equality, Good Food Institute, Mercy for Animals, Animal Outlook (formerly Compassion Over Killing), The Humane League, Farm Forward, The Accountability Board, HSUS and In Defense of Animals — it sounds like this conference might be taking the place of the former Animal Rights National Conference as the biggest gathering of extremist groups. The agenda included sessions focused on “winning animal freedom,” using climate arguments in animal rights activism, using AI in activism, advocating for policy (including a deep dive on Prop 12), advancing “protections” for aquatic animals, building relationships with other movements and promoting alternative proteins.

Some of the main takeaways from the conference for the animal agriculture and meat community include:

Many activist groups such as the Good Food Institute, Climax Foods and ProVeg are pushing toward an “agricultural revolution” by pushing alternative meat products to consumers. They believe alternative meat products will impact their movement and drive “positive” change.
Multiple speakers repeated claims that animal agriculture is a money-driven industry composed of corporations (with several large integrators mentioned by name repeatedly) which “exploit” animal suffering.
Speakers motivated attendees by highlighting some of their recent “victories,” including a rise in vegan celebrities and increase in restaurants offering plant-based alternatives.
Sessions focused on empowering students and the next generation of veganism to help lead the movement to put an end to “animal suffering.” Some groups discussed their plans to create chapters at every university to get more students involved.
Speakers strategized different ways to use climate change and environmental concerns to their advantage, refencing the climate as “a new reason to not eat animals” that “can’t be ignored.”
Several sessions focused on legislation including a look at “how Prop 12 won in the courts” and a discussion on working against the EATS act. In one session, a “playbook” on how to make allies and influence policy in support of animal rights and veganism was shared with attendees.
Activism for aquatic species played a large role at the Summit, from shrimp welfare to larger scale aquatic farms. There were multiple sessions on abolishing aquatic farming.

While it’s easy to dismiss these conferences as extremist echo chambers, we believe it is important to keep an eye on them so we can anticipate where we might see increases in activism going forward. We’ll keep the AVA Summit on our radar and keep you informed of what you need to know to safeguard your business.

New conference features discussions on extremism targeting animal ag

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