"We may think that we're just eating our dinner tonight, but when you multiply it by all of that food every day, every day of the year, everyone in the country, everybody in the world, it's a tremendous production. Just to give you a sense, in the US, we slaughter about 18,000 animals every minute for food just in the United States." - Peter Lehner  Agriculture and our food system are responsible for about a third of greenhouse gas emissions. Yet the food system gets left out of too many climate conversations and the industry is rarely held accountable. I asked Peter Lehner to come on the show and explain what agriculture's role is in climate, and how and why they are so often left off the hook. Peter is one of the leading experts on the impact of agriculture and climate change. He directs Earth Justice's Sustainable Food and Farming program, developing litigation, administrative and legislative strategies to promote a more just and environmentally sound agriculture system and to reduce health, environmental and climate harms from the production of our food. He is also the author of farming for Our Future The Science, Law and Policy of Climate Neutral Agriculture. He also teaches at Columbia and Yale Law schools. Please listen and share.

<description>&lt;p&gt;"We may think that we're just eating our dinner tonight, but when you multiply it by all of that food every day, every day of the year, everyone in the country, everybody in the world, it's a tremendous production. Just to give you a sense, in the US, we slaughter about 18,000 animals every minute for food just in the United States." - Peter Lehner &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;Agriculture and our food system are responsible for about a third of greenhouse gas emissions. Yet the food system gets left out of too many climate conversations and the industry is rarely held accountable.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;I asked Peter Lehner to come on the show and explain what agriculture's role is in climate, and how and why they are so often left off the hook. Peter is one of the leading experts on the impact of agriculture and climate change. He directs Earth Justice's Sustainable Food and Farming program, developing litigation, administrative and legislative strategies to promote a more just and environmentally sound agriculture system and to reduce health, environmental and climate harms from the production of our food. He is also the author of farming for Our Future The Science, Law and Policy of Climate Neutral Agriculture. He also teaches at Columbia and Yale Law schools.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;Please listen and share.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;</description>

"We may think that we're just eating our dinner tonight, but when you multiply it by all of that food every day, every day of the year, everyone in the country, everybody in the world, it's a tremendous production. Just to give you a sense, in the US,...

Peter Lehner: Cows, Corn and Crap

"Why do we need large carnivores? Obviously as a scientist, I like talk about the biological roles that they play and the ecological roles, but I will drift and say that I think they're important for spirit and sort of human health more broadly, whether that be mental health, spiritual health, whatever, that sense of wildness that they bring to a landscape, that they force you to listen when you're in the woods, that you hear sticks break around you, that you hear what the birds are doing so that you know whether there's something coming around the next bend. These are all, in my opinion, truly enriching moments and necessary for human spirit and really for human health." - Mark Elbroch    Mark: [00:12:23] These are all, in my opinion, truly enriching moments and necessary for human spirit and [00:12:30] really for human health   Mark Elbroch is an ecologist and author, storyteller and the director of the Puma Program for <a href="https://panthera.org/">Panthera</a>, the global wild cat conservation organization.   Mark has been on the <a href="https://www.speciesunite.com/podcast/mark-elbroch">podcast before</a> to talk about cougars, but something has changed since the last time he was on. For years, many people in the scientific community, and this is backed by research, have claimed that cougars would return to their historic range in the eastern US in the next 10 to 20 years.   But there's a new study from Panthera that says that this is not true, that they won’t make it to the East Coast even by 2100, which means, if we want cougars in the east we're going to have to help them.   This is a big deal because we do want cougars in the east. Large predators make fragile ecosystems strong. Mountain lions<a href= "https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/mam.12281" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> interact with nearly 500 other species</a> and their reintroduction could lead to<a href= "https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecog.06098'" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> healthier forests</a>, less zoonotic disease, and many other benefits.    Let’s bring cougars home!

<description>&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 12pt;"&gt;&lt;span style= "line-height: 115%;"&gt;"Why do we need large carnivores? O&lt;/span&gt;bviously as a scientist, I like talk about the biological roles that they play and the ecological roles, but I will drift and say that I think they're important for spirit and sort of human health more broadly, whether that be mental health, spiritual health, whatever, that sense of wildness that they bring to a landscape, that they force you to listen when you're in the woods, that you hear sticks break around you, that you hear what the birds are doing so that you know whether there's something coming around the next bend. These are all, in my opinion, truly enriching moments and necessary for human spirit and really for human health." - Mark Elbroch &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;Mark: [00:12:23] These are all, in my opinion, truly enriching moments and necessary for human spirit and [00:12:30] really for human health&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt;Mark Elbroch is an ecologist and author, storyteller and the director of the Puma Program for &lt;a href="https://panthera.org/"&gt;Panthera&lt;/a&gt;, the global wild cat conservation organization.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt;Mark has been on the &lt;a href="https://www.speciesunite.com/podcast/mark-elbroch"&gt;podcast before&lt;/a&gt; to talk about cougars, but something has changed since the last time he was on. For years, many people in the scientific community, and this is backed by research, have claimed that cougars would return to their historic range in the eastern US in the next 10 to 20 years.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt;But there's a new study from Panthera that says that this is not true, that they won’t make it to the East Coast even by 2100, which means, if we want cougars in the east we're going to have to help them.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt;This is a big deal because we do want cougars in the east. Large predators make fragile ecosystems &lt;span style= "color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"&gt;strong. Mountain lions&lt;a href= "https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/mam.12281" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;span style= "color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"&gt; interact with nearly 500 other species&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and their reintroduction could lead to&lt;a href= "https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecog.06098'" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;span style= "color: black; mso-themecolor: text1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"&gt; healthier forests&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, less zoonotic disease, and many other benefits. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"&gt; Let’s bring cougars home!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>

"Why do we need large carnivores? Obviously as a scientist, I like talk about the biological roles that they play and the ecological roles, but I will drift and say that I think they're important for spirit and sort of human health more broadly,...

Mark Elbroch: If We Want Mountain Lions the East, We'll Have to Bring Them

“And so I've been doing this for about 40 years, and I still don’t get tired of seeing parrots. I see a parrot or I see a bird and I go, I belong. There is such beauty in the world. Oh my gosh. It's like everything is okay for a minute you're intrigued, you're curious, you're seeing beauty, you're seeing flight. But at the same time, you've trained yourself to hold the tragedy because there aren't nearly as many as there used to be and there's all kinds of complex threats against them, and there's little we can do. So you see a wild parrot that is also the internal conversation, they're in trouble, it's not like it was or it should be or could be. So that's what it's like to see a parrot is to see the beautiful and the tragic.” – Rev. Dr. LoraKim Joyner   I only learned recently that parrots are the most endangered group of birds on the planet. As with so many other species, our tendency to take and take is what is driving parrots toward extinction. We've been stealing them from the wild for 60 years to live these pitiful lives in cages, in people's kitchens. That, combined with habitat loss and climate change is pushing these spectacular birds to the brink of extinction. This conversation is with Rev. Dr. LoraKim Joyner, a wildlife veterinarian, a conservationist, a Unitarian minister, and co-founder of One Earth Conservation. LoraKim has spent the last 40 years in Latin and South America, working with communities to save their parrots – by building their capacity to transform poachers into protectors.  One Earth Conservation grows conservationists of all ages by empowering and standing in solidarity and resistance with the people of the Americas. They have projects in Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Guyana, Paraguay, and Suriname.   <a href= "https://www.oneearthconservation.org/">To learn more: https://www.oneearthconservation.org/</a>

<description>&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt;“And so I've been doing this for about 40 years, and I still don’t get tired of seeing parrots. I see a parrot or I see a bird and I go, I belong. There is such beauty in the world. Oh my gosh. It's like everything is okay for a minute you're intrigued, you're curious, you're seeing beauty, you're seeing flight. But at the same time, you've trained yourself to hold the tragedy because there aren't nearly as many as there used to be and there's all kinds of complex threats against them, and there's little we can do. So you see a wild parrot that is also the internal conversation, they're in trouble, it's not like it was or it should be or could be. So that's what it's like to see a parrot is to see the beautiful and the tragic.” – Rev. Dr. LoraKim Joyner&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt;I only learned recently that parrots are the most endangered group of birds on the planet. As with so many other species, our tendency to take and take is what is driving parrots toward extinction. We've been stealing them from the wild for 60 years to live these pitiful lives in cages, in people's kitchens. That, combined with habitat loss and climate change is pushing these spectacular birds to the brink of extinction.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt;This conversation is with Rev. Dr. LoraKim Joyner, a wildlife veterinarian, a conservationist, a Unitarian minister, and co-founder of One Earth Conservation. LoraKim has spent the last 40 years in Latin and South America, working with communities to save their parrots – by building their capacity to transform poachers into protectors. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt;One Earth Conservation grows conservationists of all ages by empowering and standing in solidarity and resistance with the people of the Americas. They have projects in Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Guyana, Paraguay, and Suriname.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt;&lt;a href= "https://www.oneearthconservation.org/"&gt;To learn more: https://www.oneearthconservation.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt; &lt;/p&gt;</description>

“And so I've been doing this for about 40 years, and I still don’t get tired of seeing parrots. I see a parrot or I see a bird and I go, I belong. There is such beauty in the world. Oh my gosh. It's like everything is okay for a minute you're...

Rev. Dr. LoraKim Joyner: The Parrot Crisis

“In terms of specialized AI within these industries. They're years and years ahead of where the animal movement currently is. Factory farms are increasingly using AI as well to do things like predicting the growth rate of chickens so that they can set the environmental variables up perfectly to exploit these animals as efficiently as possible.” – Sam Tucker   Sam Tucker is the founder of <a href= "https://www.openpaws.ai/">Open Paws</a>, a nonprofit aimed at creating ethically aligned AI systems and he’s the creator of <a href="https://veg3.ai/">Veg 3</a>, an AI chatbot promoting animal rights.   Sam’s expertise in AI development and animal protection provides both a practical and theoretical understanding of how to create technologies that benefit all species.   I asked Sam to come on the show because I want to understand how we, Species Unite and other organizations like us can be using AI to be way more effective.

<description>&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Calibri',sans-serif; color: black; background: white;"&gt; “In terms of specialized AI within these industries. They're years and years ahead of where the animal movement currently is. Factory farms are increasingly using AI as well to do things like predicting the growth rate of chickens so that they can set the environmental variables up perfectly to exploit these animals as efficiently as possible.” – Sam Tucker&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Calibri',sans-serif; color: black; background: white;"&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Calibri',sans-serif; color: black; background: white;"&gt; Sam Tucker is the founder of &lt;a href= "https://www.openpaws.ai/"&gt;Open Paws&lt;/a&gt;, a nonprofit aimed at creating ethically aligned AI systems and he’s the creator of &lt;a href="https://veg3.ai/"&gt;Veg 3&lt;/a&gt;, an AI chatbot promoting animal rights.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Calibri',sans-serif; color: black; background: white;"&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Calibri',sans-serif; color: black; background: white;"&gt; Sam’s expertise in AI development and animal protection provides both a practical and theoretical understanding of how to create technologies that benefit all species.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Calibri',sans-serif; color: black; background: white;"&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Calibri',sans-serif; color: black; background: white;"&gt; I asked Sam to come on the show because I want to understand how we, Species Unite and other organizations like us can be using AI to be way more effective.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>

“In terms of specialized AI within these industries. They're years and years ahead of where the animal movement currently is. Factory farms are increasingly using AI as well to do things like predicting the growth rate of chickens so that they can...

Sam Tucker: AI and the Future for Animals

“We enacted what's called the Beagle Freedom Project Bill. Basically, what it said was, if you're a facility that tests on dogs and cats, when the testing is over, you are mandated to release those animals to give them a second chance at life to a 501C3 charity like Beagle Freedom Project or any other type of facility like that, like a rescue facility. You wouldn't believe how hard that was to pass.” – Shannon Keith   The story sounds like a dream: hundreds of animals used for research and testing are now free and the former prison that they were forced to call home has been torn down to become a safe and loving animal sanctuary.  This conversation was done as a live interview a few weeks ago. It's with me and Shannon Keith, the president and founder of the <a href= "https://bfp.org/">Beagle Freedom Project</a>. I invited her on to discuss the shutdown of a massive dog and cat testing laboratory in Nowata, Oklahoma. Not only did the Beagle Freedom Project and Shannon shut down this laboratory, but they rescued all of the dogs and cats that were being tested on there, and they took over the laboratory and it's grounds and are in the process of transforming it into a 30-acre sanctuary called <a href= "https://bfp.org/freedom-fields/">Freedom Fields</a>.   The closure of this laboratory ends one-third of the toxic flea and tick testing industry in the United States, sparing the lives of thousands of dogs and cats. Beagle Freedom Project is the world’s leading organization for rescuing and rehoming animals used in experimental research. Since 2010, they have liberated thousands of animals while working to end their abuse through education, advocacy, and legislation. We talk about the shutdown, the rescue of hundreds of animals that were being tested on, and the magic of transforming a dark and terrifying animal research lab into a beautiful sanctuary. And, we discuss not only how to help these former research animals, but also the more than one hundred million still being used for testing and research in the United States.

<description>&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt;“We enacted what's called the Beagle Freedom Project Bill. Basically, what it said was, if you're a facility that tests on dogs and cats, when the testing is over, you are mandated to release those animals to give them a second chance at life to a 501C3 charity like Beagle Freedom Project or any other type of facility like that, like a rescue facility. You wouldn't believe how hard that was to pass.” – Shannon Keith&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt;The story sounds like a dream: hundreds of animals used for research and testing are now free and the former prison that they were forced to call home has been torn down to become a safe and loving animal sanctuary. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt;This conversation was done as a live interview a few weeks ago. It's with me and Shannon Keith, the president and founder of the &lt;a href= "https://bfp.org/"&gt;Beagle Freedom Project&lt;/a&gt;. I invited her on to discuss the shutdown of a massive dog and cat testing laboratory in Nowata, Oklahoma. Not only did the Beagle Freedom Project and Shannon shut down this laboratory, but they rescued all of the dogs and cats that were being tested on there, and they took over the laboratory and it's grounds and are in the process of transforming it into a 30-acre sanctuary &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt;called &lt;a href= "https://bfp.org/freedom-fields/"&gt;Freedom Fields&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;span style= "mso-spacerun: yes;"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt;The closure of this laboratory &lt;strong&gt;ends one-third of the toxic flea and tick testing industry in the United States, sparing the lives of thousands of dogs and cats.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt;Beagle Freedom Project is the world’s leading organization for rescuing and rehoming animals used in experimental research. Since 2010, they have liberated thousands of animals while working to end their abuse through education, advocacy, and legislation.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style= "font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"&gt;We talk about the shutdown, the rescue of hundreds of animals that were being tested on, and the magic of transforming a dark and terrifying animal research lab into a beautiful sanctuary. And, we discuss not only how to help these former research animals, but also the more than one hundred million still being used for testing and research in the United States.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt; &lt;/p&gt;</description>

“We enacted what's called the Beagle Freedom Project Bill. Basically, what it said was, if you're a facility that tests on dogs and cats, when the testing is over, you are mandated to release those animals to give them a second chance at life to a...

Shannon Keith: Freedom Fields

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