As animal activists, we do not have  to fear presenting the bare facts. We don't have to try to sensationalize  or exaggerate: the truth is bad enough. Hope Bohanec (conference organizer): So happy to have Emily Moran Barwick. She is an animal-liberation activist, educator, writer, artist, and international speaker.  And after completing her Masters of Fine Arts, Emily founded Bite Size Vegan.  Emily, it's all you. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. It is such  an honor to be a part of this conference. Today I wanted to talk about the importance of language in activism; specifically covering some of the potential pitfalls, distractions, diversions, and counterproductive “traps" that we can fall into as activists. The most dangerous of these are often wrapped in  the guise of making veganism more approachable. In our effort to increase the accessibility of veganism, we may inadvertently compromise our convictions  and soften our ethics—offering gradations of change, or incremental reductions in animal  product consumption, or "humane" alternatives. Now, this is often born from the belief that we must take either a firm—even militant and polarizing—or a soft, conciliatory approach to our outreach. But, this is a this false dichotomy. The real challenge is walking the line of staying firm in our convictions and uncompromising in our message while still helping people lower their guard enough to listen, hear, and make the connection. So, within the vegan movement, a major approach activists take is the social normalization of veganism. What I mean by this is making a vegan lifestyle accessible, affordable, easy—even mainstream. And this is a very logical  tactic, especially when considering that one of the strongest deterrents to going vegan is social  ostracism and rejection from friends and family. I am the last person to decry increasing the  accessibility of veganism—it is something about which I am intensely passionate, and is one of  the foundational aspects of Bite Size Vegan. However, in attempting to “bridge the gap”  and meet the general public where they’re at, there exists the risk of reducing the ethical  imperative of veganism to a socially acceptable lifestyle choice. This is why it’s so vital that we be mindful of our language choices as activist, lest we end up advocating  the very things we are fighting against. So, a very common approach activists take  to provide an "entry point" to veganism is encouraging people to reduce their intake of animal products, like "Meat-Free Mondays." Such an incremental  option is obviously more palatable to non-vegans; it allows them to make a minor change while still providing the emotional benefit of doing something good. But it's equally alluring for us activists. Perhaps we're afraid of coming across as extreme and want to provide a less intimidating suggestion. Perhaps we ourselves  are intimidated to ask for something "so big" as going fully vegan. Perhaps we believe that  any change is better than no change at all. And while it's understandable for  such fears and beliefs to arise, we must take a step back and recognize their  implications. Believing that going fully vegan is too much to ask simply reinforces that very  misconception. Offering gradations of change, in essence, endorses the idea that there are "acceptable" levels of cruelty. When I spoke in Dublin, I met Sandra Higgins,  the founder of Eden Farmed Animal Sanctuary in Ireland, who is also a psychologist. I remember her making the rather apt analogy, saying something along the lines of that if  she had a patient who was beating his wife or children, she would never advise him to try to reduce the frequency of his violence or stop beating his wife and children on Fridays. The message has to be that violence is  always unacceptable and has to be eradicated. When we take this approach of "reductionism,"  we're not only doing a disservice to the animals, but also to the non-vegans. We're deciding for  them that they can't handle the full truth. We're deciding for them that they can't  or won't make the decision to go vegan. This is similar to the way in which the American  Heart Association approached its official dietary recommendations: the DASH diet, which stands  for “Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension." While decades of research have demonstrated that  consuming animal products is "highly significantly associated" with elevated blood pressure, the DASH diet still includes dairy and meat. In his book "How Not to Die" Dr. Michael Greger explains why this is the case, stating: "“The reason that the DASH diet was modeled  explicitly after vegetarian diets but was not meat-free itself might surprise you. The primary design goal of the DASH diet was to explicitly create eating patterns “that would have the blood  pressure lowering benefits of a vegetarian diet yet contain enough animal products to  make them palatable to nonvegetarians.…” [The doctor who chaired the DASH diet  committee] had even shown that the more dairy vegetarians consumed, the higher their blood  pressure appeared to rise. But he figured there was no point in calling for a diet he believed  few would follow. This is a recurring theme in official dietary recommendations. Instead  of simply telling you what the science shows and then letting you make up your own  mind, experts patronize the population by advocating what they think is practical rather  than ideal. By making the decision for you, they undermine those willing to make  even greater changes for optimal health.” In the same way, when we preemptively offer  non-vegans gradations of change rather than the entirety of the truth, we are depriving them of the opportunity—and I believe, the right—to have all of the facts and make a decision for themselves. The same holds true for what I believe to be the most insidious pitfall for activists and non-vegans alike: humane  labels and animal welfare regulations. Humane language and concepts have easily gained  a stronghold by appealing to all sides —for the vegan afraid as coming across as militant,  they provide an approachable suggestion to offer; for activists fighting for animal liberation,  they give the possibility of better conditions, progress towards the ultimate goal;  and certainly for the non-vegan, who now has a way to keep doing what they want to do, but feel good about it. I've been told it can sound odd coming from an animal rights activist, but I find that humane labels and animal  welfare regulations are often detrimental to animals. In fact, the entire concept of  animal welfare is antithetical to animal rights. Welfare regulations are designed to spare  animals any “unnecessary” suffering—the unspoken implication being that some suffering is necessary when it benefits humans. Still, even if animal liberation is the ultimate goal, isn't there value in improving the conditions for those currently  in our systems of exploitation? While this thought process is understandable, we must again  take an honest look at what welfare regulations actually mean for the beings they are designed to protect. A striking example of the true impotence of welfare regulations is the battery cage ban within the European Union. So, in 1999, The Council of the European Union set a directive that banned all “barren battery cages” by 2012. And while media coverage at the time focused on the end of  battery cages in the EU, what the directive actually did was replace barren battery cages  with “enriched" battery cages—meaning "furnished." So yes, hens would now be provided  more space and given furnishings like perches and laying nests—certainly an  improvement over barren cages. However, while media reports extolled that hens  would now each be afforded 750cm², they neglected to clarify that—due to the  new furnishings—only 600cm² would be usable. Now I know it's a lot of numbers, and it's  hard to visualize what that means. So, in the end, that this revolutionary step forward for the rights of laying hens granted them less than a single playing card of additional space. Even more maddening: in 2012, over twelve years after the directive, thirteen Member States  had still failed to comply with the ban. But as the media celebrated the victory for animal welfare, the public ate even more eggs —reassured by their higher standards —and the individuals this entire charade was  supposed to be for remained just as exploited. The execution of the barren battery cage ban  is far from a single failing. In 2001, the EU outlawed gestation crates. If you're unfamiliar,  these are single-sow enclosures constructed of metal bars and hard flooring, in which mother  pigs are confined during their pregnancies. As always, the ban came with ample fine-print  exceptions, and over a decade for implementation. Twelve years later, nine member states  had still failed to comply with the ban. The most amazing thing about all of this is that several of the Member States that failed to  implement the battery cage and/or the gestation crate bans are rated amongst the best  countries in the world for animal welfare. So, as alluring as the idea of better conditions for animals may be, animal welfare legislation is based upon the  presumption that we have a right to use non-human animals for our own purposes. Rather than  condemn the breeding, enslavement, mutilation, and slaughter of sentient beings, welfare  legislation simply codifies precisely how we may breed, enslave, mutilate, and slaughter them. In 2007, the European Union historically declared non-human animals legally sentient—deserving  freedom from hunger, thirst, discomfort, pain, injury, disease, fear, distress and mental suffering. Having recognized their capacity to feel  the same emotions and sensations as we do, the EU proceeded to draft landmark  legislation for their humane treatment. The resulting Council Regulation was—and  is—viewed as a victory for animals. Now, for those of us in countries without regulations, it's natural to think that the systematic  abuse of farmed animals results—at least in large part—from the total lack of oversight. In the United States, for example, there are no  federal laws governing the treatment of animals in our food industry. We do have the Animal Welfare  Act of 1966, but, like so many welfare acts around the world, it excludes animals raised for food—as  do the majority of state anti-cruelty regulations. Many US activists and organizations stress the  need for regulations to end such atrocities as routine mutilations without anesthetic, the aceration (meaning the grinding up) of male chicks in the egg industry, and the blunt-force "euthanasia" of piglets —often pointing to the European Union as a shining example. However, within the EU legislation and supplemental documents, those very same atrocities are not decried, but  codified. So, instead of male baby chicks being ground up alive because there are no regulations  to stop it, they are ground up alive because regulations declare it as the preferred method  for male chick disposal. There are even detailed specifications for blade speed and sharpness  to avoid "gumming up" the works of the machine. We'd like to think that humane regulations  are driven by what's best for the animals. But the animal products industries are—after  all—industries; they are profit-driven. A preliminary report for the European Union's  legislation found that while gassing the estimated "335 million day old male chicks" killed in the  EU annually would cost 1.6/1.7 million Euros, the cost of using "rotating or whirling knives which are mincing the chicks in a split second ...can be considered not to be substantial." So, the decision had nothing to do with what was most humane—it was  simply a matter of what was cheapest. The maceration of baby chicks has been  exposed time and again in undercover footage, which brings me to another pitfall I wanted to address: the presentation of undercover exposes. While I do believe that undercover footage is of vital importance in the fight for animal liberation, we  must be mindful of the framing and presentation. When it comes to undercover exposes, it’s  often what’s not said that’s the most damaging. Every time undercover footage has captured  workers—from one country or another—tossing live baby chicks into a grinder, news outlets  dramatically recount the unbelievable cruelty. And every time, the public is appalled, outraged, and disgusted. And every time, they assume that  it's an isolated incident of extreme cruelty; and they continue to eat eggs, confident  they're not supporting such brutality. The most important message of  all is left unsaid: that this is not a barbaric practice isolated to corrupt,  abusive facilities or industrialized farms; that grinding up live babies is a welfare  regulation; a worldwide "standard practice." The fact that the lines between overt  abuse and standard industry practice are so indistinguishable highlights the absurdity of animal welfarism and human concepts.  In my essay "The Harm of Humane" from the book Vegan Voices, I opened with a specific  example of this from my home state in Iowa. In September 2008, an undercover video  documenting routine abuse at an Iowa pig breeding facility made international news. The  footage and investigators' notes captured workers kicking and beating pregnant pigs with metal  objects, sexually violating them with rods; and they were also shown cutting off  the tails and tearing out the testicles of piglets without anesthetic, and slamming  sick or deformed piglets against the ground, leaving them to die slowly, piled  on top of one another in giant bins. Now, while these acts of cruelty were  exposed by vegan activists, the egregiousness of the abuse rightfully sparked outrage from  meat-eating consumers. And the food company supplied by the farm, Hormel, received over  10,000 calls in two days. In the wire report issued by the Associated Press, they quoted  a Hormel spokesperson who called the abuses "completely unacceptable"; and they also quoted the farmer, who emphasized "We condemn these types of  acts," and called them "completely intolerable, reprehensible" vowing to "investigate and  initiate corrective action immediately." So, anyone reading the report would be left with  the impression that this was an isolated incident of overt cruelty, or—at the very worst—a regular  occurrence isolated to large "factory farms." But amidst the catalogued horrors in this article,  the troubling implication of a single sentence was easily overlooked. So, of course, that's what I focused on. Following the description of the workers'  treatment of piglets, the report stated: "Temple Grandin, a leading animal welfare expert who serves as a consultant to the livestock industry, said that while those are standard industry practices, the treatment of the sows on the video was far from it. 'This is atrocious animal abuse,' Grandin said..." (The Associated Press 2008; emphasis added) To be clear, the treatment of the mother pigs was what Grandin deemed "atrocious animal abuse"; the acts she waved away as "standard industry practices" were the  unanaesthetized mutilation of newborn piglets, and the brutal—and ineffective—slamming of  "defective" piglets against the concrete floor. She was not wrong; not only are these practices  legal, they are government-sanctioned methods within—but not limited to—the United  States, Canada, and the European Union. Within my essay, I implore the reader to ask themself: were you to have watched that video, heard the piercing screams of the  mother pigs and their babies, would you have spotted the difference between the "atrocious  animal abuse" and "standard industry practices"?" When we fail to explain and emphasize that the horrors depicted in these videos are not only legal, but actually  government-sanctioned, humane-legislation-dictated practices, we leave the public with the  impression that this was the result of a few malicious, sociopathic workers or poorly  regulated facilities. Just a few "bad apples. " Far from considering veganism, the public is left thinking that “well, luckily, the perpetrators were exposed and will surely  be punished. Thank goodness the eggs, meat, or dairy that we eat isn't contributing to that kind of abusive behavior.” Invariably, when horrific acts are exposed  to the public, there is a call for stronger regulations and higher welfare standards.  As activists, we can become caught in this self-perpetuating cycle—believing we're fighting  for progress when we're simply running in place. An example of this cycle is the rise of cage-free  eggs. I recently published an article, video and eCourse on cage-free eggs, which you can find  at BiteSizeVegan.org/CageFree. As always happens when I dive into researching a topic—even one I've previously covered—I find so much new information. I've stated in several videos and speeches  that cage-free hens have been shown to have twice the mortality rate of battery caged  hens. This is a seemingly damning inditement of the idea that such humane labels as  "cage-free" are improvements for animals. When I began re-researching this statistic,  I found that it's far more complicated. After coming across a meta-analysis that seemed  to indicate mortality rates have been on the decline worldwide in cage-free systems, such that  the difference between caged and non-caged hens is nearly non-existent, I worried that this worked  against the point I'd been making in the past. Something I find so incredibly important  in my activism, though, is never shying away from new information. Even it if seems like it may go against what I’m aiming to say, it's so important to evaluate and present  what's true. And invariably, once I go deeper into research I find that what may initially seem to be a contradiction, or even something in support of an agricultural practice —the underlying reality of anything within the animal  products industry cannot help but be problematic. So, I'd like to take you through my own journey with researching the question of hen mortality rates in different housing systems—at least in brief. Laying hens were originally moved into  battery cages for a number of reasons, including profit and management-oriented  benefits such as: reduced labor requirements, greater efficiency of space (meaning more birds housed in the same area), and lower feed requirements. However, there  were also perceived benefits to the hens themselves, including: a reduction in disease  transference, injurious pecking, and cannibalism. As demand rose for cage-free systems, multiple  studies found that the mortality rate in non-cage systems was higher than in battery cage systems due to those very issues. Meaning there was an increase in injurious  pecking, cannibalism and disease transference. One of the more comprehensive studies  that I'd quoted in the past found that cage-free hens had 2.5 times higher  mortality rates than battery-caged hens. But, to be clear, that finding was not  isolated to that study or even one country. So, it would seem that cage-free eggs actually  result in more deaths than conventional battery cages. However, in more recent years,  researches have pointed out that the reason for higher mortality rates may not have  anything to do with the housing system per se. Instead, the rates appear more reliably tied to  the genetic strain of hens within the facilities, the experience level of managing  staff, and whether flocks are debeaked. Researchers argue that as producers have become  more familiar with managing non-cage systems, and have started using more "appropriate" breeds,  the mortality rates have been on the decline; and they believe this decline will continue. Now, at first glance, I was worried  I'd been conveying faulty data. That perhaps decline in mortality rates in  non-cage systems was a promising trend in support of such humane labels as "cage-free."  But the more I read, the more I found that, rather than pointing to reasons for hope, the  causes of mortality decline actually highlighted the reality that within the animal products  industries, the solutions are the problems. What I mean by this is that every time  our breeding, confinement, mutilation and slaughter of non-human animals invariably cause  ethical, environmental and health problems, we strive to solve them with different variations of  breeding, confinement, mutilation and slaughter. We continue this cycle over and over again—addressing problems of our own creation with solutions that  will eventually become our next problem—rather than stepping back and questioning  our use of animals in the first place. When hens injure and kill one another due to  their breeding and living conditions—both of which have been imposed upon them—the solution is to cut  off their beaks and further alter their breeding. This has happened before in the reverse.  In Denmark, laying hens were not moved into cages until 1980. At the time, the dominant breed of hens was adapted  specifically for non-cage systems. When moved into cages, their mortality rate increased five times over—the same trend observed when  moving hens bred for battery cages into non-cage environments. The problem isn't really the housing, the label, the stocking density, or whatever we want to point to: the problem is  us and the way in which we relate to these beings. I also want to note that in all the  research I came across about mortality rates not being down to the housing system,  the importance of debeaking hens to reduce injurious and cannibalistic behavior was strongly emphasized. Even if using the "appropriate" breed of hen and having more  experienced management, whether a flock was debeaked or not was often the deciding factor  in mortality rates. Of course, debeaking is a painful mutilation in which a portion of a  bird's sensitive beaks is cut or burned off. I found a statement from Ian J.H. Duncan,  Professor Emeritus and Emeritus Chair in Animal Welfare at the University of Guelph, Canada,  that illustrates this predicament. He said: "If [producers] do not trim beaks, then feather pecking and cannibalism may cause enormous suffering.  If they do trim beaks by conventional methods, the birds will suffer from acute and chronic pain... Chopping off parts of young animals in order to prevent future welfare problems is a very crude solution." And he proposed instead that "likely...the  long-term solution to this problem will be a genetic one..." And while certainly less  objectionable than debeaking on a visceral level, genetic manipulation of sentient beings to  serve our purposes is not only extremely ethically problematic, but—once again—what  got us into this position in the first place. When we as activists push for welfare reform,  higher standards, better regulations —we are participating in this cycle. We are participating  in a system built upon a faulty and unethical premise: that animals are ours to use. That there is a right and acceptable way to use them. That the solution to their suffering is to  further control and manipulate their very beings. So, after covering examples of what not to say in our activism, I wanted to touch on some approaches of  what to say—and how to say it as well as ways to remove common barriers that  arise when speaking with non-vegans. As activists, we must stay focused on the  universal truth underlying any use of sentient beings: that even if we imagine an idealized  small farm, where animals are given ample space outdoors, their every need cared for—there will  still come a time when their life is cut short. Their entire existence is still based upon  an owner-product framework; their value not viewed as inherent, but rather  calculated down to the dollar. One way of effectively cutting to this core  truth for non-vegans is to place it within a familiar emotional framework. We may have them  envision this idealized small farm, but, imagine, in place of the happy farmed animals, a beloved family pet. Would it be acceptable to end their pets life? What if it was guaranteed they wouldn't  feel a thing; that it would be quick and humane? Instantly the unacceptability is clear at a visceral level. From that connection, we can explore with them  what the difference is between a pet and the sentient beings in the food industry?  Do they not also feel pain and fear? We can even give a specific example: when a  mother cow in the dairy industry cries out for her calf—taken from her so she will produce more  milk for humans—is that not a mother grieving? When she is sexually violated yet again  to induce yet another pregnancy and give birth to yet another child who will yet again be taken —how can that not take an emotional and physical toll? There's a reason dairy cows' bodies generally give out around age four to five, despite a natural life span of twenty years or more. Applying such emotionality to non-human animals is often criticized as anthropomorphic —an objection that illustrates the contradiction of humane concepts. Humane regulations are an inherent admission  of animals’ ability to suffer and feel pain. How can we claim that our animals are  healthy and happy—then deny they possess these capacities when asked to see from their perspective? We cannot have it both ways. This is how profoundly illogical our  thinking is when it comes to animals. Knowing better but doing wrong anyway is worse  than having no knowledge. Yet we have the audacity to hold the legislative recognition of non-human  sentience on high as a giant step forward for the rights of animals, as if  systematically exploiting individuals with fully admitted knowledge and comprehension of  their capacity to suffer is something to commend. Highlighting this faulty logic and  focusing on the fundamental truth we’ve all known since childhood—that it's not okay  to hurt others— cuts through all the convoluted justifications and diversions, allowing people to re-connect with their own values. As I stated in the opening of this speech, activists often fall into the trap of offering gradations of change or "humane" alternatives when seeking a more  approachable "entry point" to offer non-vegans. I’ve long believed that one of the main reasons people don’t go vegan is the immense pain and guilt of  accepting our part in horrific atrocities. Confronting the true impact of our choices is  incredibly daunting, so instead we shut down, attack, or throw out any number of the standard objections you’ve no doubt heard countless times: lions, desert islands, what about protein. It’s human nature to raise our guards when we’re  on the defensive—we close off and shut down. And it would seem logical as activists to avoid upsetting our audience in order to keep their receptivity open —however, this is a perfect illustrative example of walking the line. It’s not about making sure not to upset anyone —if they’re grasping the truth, they should be upset!  It’s making sure that the push-back to the truths we reveal are aimed at their rightful sources,  leading to constructive, well-deserved outrage. When we present them with solid factual  information about the industries in an educational setting, we supply a “buffer” of sorts—providing  a target for their outrage other than themselves, thus sidestepping shut-down and channelling their outrage to action. I do want to note that this is not an  attempt to excuse participation in exploitation. When I speak to a non-vegan audience, I always  tell them that they deserve to know the truth about what they're putting in their body—about  what they're feeding their children. They deserve to know how what they eat impacts their  planet. And that they certainly deserve to know what they are paying others to do to animals in their name. Approaching vegan outreach from this perspective  helps defuse the "charge" of defensiveness and resistance. There is no need to pander, sugarcoat, or offer more palatable options. I simply present them with factual evidence, allowing them to evaluate whether they want to continue supporting actions out of line with their values. Another barrier I strive to eliminate in my activism is the issue of trust. There are many reasons non-vegans may dismiss the vegan  message, not the least of which is the messenger. This is why, when I speak with non-vegans, I am sure to present information put forth by their own agricultural industries and governmental  bodies. This not only helps defuse the potential defensive charge of some random vegan telling  them how bad things are, but it also allows me to show that even the proposed ideal —which is of course never met—is absolutely horrifying. This is of particular importance when speaking to audiences in other countries and cross-culturally. When I spoke in Dubin, Ireland, I dove deep into the humane legislation  of both Ireland and the European Union. Now, Ireland is a powerful case  study—it’s essentially the humane concept embodied in country form. Cows graze outside in picturesque fields, lending support to the common refrain that “it’s not like that here.” And by all appearances and accounts, it’s not. Even after some digging, I only found a single undercover video of abuse. However, I didn't want to focus on abuse.  I wanted to focus on the ideal standards. I told the audience, “the facts I’ll present  today are not of my creation —I’ve sourced them from primarily Irish governmental and  industry documents, the European Union," and stated that they didn’t even have to  believe me, as I’d be providing a link to a full transcript of the talk with citations for every  fact, a bibliography and additional resources. This not only provides opportunity for further learning, but also removes the significant potential barrier of requiring someone to trust in me personally  on issues about which they’re already guarded. As animal activists, we do not have to fear presenting the bare facts. We don't have to try to sensationalise or exaggerate: The truth is bad enough. The ideal—the very best we have to offer—is bad enough. And more importantly, we do not need to—and should not— compromise the integrity of our ethics in an effort to  make veganism more approachable. When we do so, we're supporting the very things we are fighting against. We do not have to fear sharing the truth with  others—it's not only vital for the sentient beings we are defending, but it's also the most respectful approach for the non-vegan with whom we're speaking. They deserve to know. And they deserve to make a choice  with all the facts at their disposal. I hope that this has been a helpful exploration  of the importance of language in activism. Thank you so much for having me. I hope you enjoyed hearing my speech from  the Humane Hoax Online Conference. To stay in the loop about new Bite Size Vegan content and updates, remember to subscribe to the newsletter or  follow the Telegram channel for the most reliable notifications. Now go live vegan, and I'll see you soon.