The 5th Annual Humane Hoax Online Conference

Introduction: 10:00 am - 10:10 am PT

Host: Hope Bohanec (She/Her) has been active in animal protection and environmental activism for over 30 years. She is the Executive Director of Compassionate Living and the host of the Hope for the Animals Podcast. She co-founded the Humane Hoax Project, the Ahimsa Living Project and has published two books on the subject of humanewashing and greenwashing.

Renee King-Sonnen
10:10 am - 10:40 am PT

There’s No Right Way to do the Wrong Thing

Renee King-Sonnen is the Founder and Executive Director of Rowdy Girl Sanctuary that transformed from a cattle ranch to a sanctuary for more than 120 animals—the first documented beef cattle ranch conversion to a 100% vegan sanctuary in history. Rowdy Girl sanctuary is changing the world for farmed animals with programs like the Rancher Advocacy Program (RAP), an educational program that inspires cattle ranchers and animal farms to consider alternatives to animal farming, and Families Choosing Compassion that offers a compassionate alternative to Future Farmers of America and 4-H programs for children. Most recently, Renee has been the subject of a documentary, Rowdy Girl, that had its World Premiere in Toronto at Hot Docs, and the U.S. Premiere at the Hampton Film Festival.

10:40 - 10:50 am PT: Q & A with Renee

Vasile Stanescu, PhD
10:50 - 11:20 am PT

Animal Agriculture, Climate Disruption, and Greenwashing

In this presentation, Vasile will explain how greenwashing in animal agriculture has become more common and is utilized by small and large scale animal farming. He will focus in and expose some of the brands that incorporate greenwashing into their marketing including Niman Ranch, Chipotle, Tyson, and others. Vasile will also uncover how animal agriculture is attempting to distort the research on its environmental effects.

Vasile Stanescuis an Associate Professor and Chair of Communication at Mercer University. He received his Ph.D. in the program of Modern Thought and Literature (MTL) at Stanford University. Vasile’s research focuses on greenwashing by animal agribusiness, critiques of humane meat, in vitro meat, and consumerist options for social change. He is the author of numerous publications on the study of animals and the environment including publications in the Journal of American Culture, Rhetoric of Health & Medicine, the American Behavioral Scientist., and Animal Studies Journal. Vasile is also the co-founder of the North American Association for Critical Animal Studies (NAACAS).

11:20 - 11:30 am PT: Q & A with Vasile

Dr. Joanne Kong
11:30 - 12:00 pm PT

Disconnection and Perception in the Humane Hoax

Joanne’s presentation will explore the ways social conditioning has distanced and numbed us from seeing nonhuman animals as unique, beautiful individuals. She will share her own experience growing up in a family where the exploitation and commodification of animals were “disguised” as culinary art.

Dr. Joanne Kong has been praised throughout the world as one of the most compelling advocates for veganism today. She has given presentations at numerous vegan events, summits, and conferences. Joanne has written books and has a TEDx talk called The Power of Plant-Based Eating. Her edited anthology, Vegan Voices: Essays by Inspiring Changemakers, is an ambitious book with over 50 animal advocacy writers, all with different journeys, experiences, and unique forms of activism.

12:00 - 12:10 pm PT: Q & A with Joanne

Fireweed
12:10 - 12:40 pm PT

Locavorism and the Humane Hoax - An Ecofeminist Perspective

Ecofeminist writer Fireweed will share some of her lived experience as a longtime rural vegan activist, and how she sees the locavore movement as regressively complicit in propping up the humane myth.

Fireweed (She/Her) identifies as an ecofeminist artist and grassroots activist committed to collective liberation. She is a speaker, published author, former newspaper columnist and pirate radio show co-host. Thanks to a nomination by her peers, dedication to vegan community building, local food security and the vegan organic agriculture movement, Fireweed has been recognized by Oxfam International as a Local Food Hero. She lives with her family as settlers on unceded First Nations' territory in the woods on a small island off the coast of British Columbia.

12:40 - 1:00 pm PT: Q & A with all speakers