Harvard’s Animal Law Clinic Is Closing, Chicks Are Still Being Ground Up, and the Meat Industry Is Panicking. Just Another Week. | Rising Anxieties

Or at least that's the way I like to look at it because there's so much to worry about right now. I, I, you know, I can find things to worry about in almost any situation, but right now it's really not a lift. Um, alright. This is very disturbing news and I don't know what's going on here. This is from, uh, the, um, the Harvard Crimson. HLS, that's Harvard Law School, to Close Animal Law Clinic after 20 26, 27 school year setting low interest despite full enrollment. I mean, just think about that headline. It's right in the headline, that's basically the story.

Alright, so they're, they're saying, you know, this is, this hasn't, it's not a success, it's gonna close, uh, that the students aren't interested. And yet there is a fully enrolled, uh, student list with a wait list for next year. And so the spokesperson for Harvard Law School, this guy Scott Young, said, no other clinics will be impacted. Well, you know, who cares? Like, so what's going on? Uh, since its creation in 2019, student enrollment in the animal law clinic has never reached levels necessary to support its continuation.

Uh, well it's funded and students wanna take it. So like, what are we talking about here? It points out that the clinic, which, you know, of course we're familiar with and I've interviewed people from it on the Animal Law Podcast a number of times, and it allows students to work in litigation and policy projects involving farmed animals, wildlife and animals used in research.

It's work spans issues including federal regulatory enforcement, farm worker advocacy and access to plant-based diets. Do you, uh, do you sense that there's something going on here? 'cause I kind of do next year's clinic is expected to run at full capacity across both semesters with a wait list. Demand has grown in recent years, including among advanced clinicians who are students who return after additional semesters of the clinic after completing it once.

So those are people who really are into it and they're like... Harvard is no longer interested in educating them. Um, Young, this guy, the spokesperson for Harvard Law School, declined to comment on enrollment for next year's clinic. Well, if that's the whole reason you're closing it, why would you not comment on it?

Uh, this is a lot of quotes in here, including from Akber Khan, who of course, has worked on the podcast, um, the Animal Law Podcast. Uh, and he says, "There's a big picture moral loss to losing an animal law clinic at a flagship legal institution like Harvard Law School." That is the truth. And, you know, that could be what's going on. Um, also described it as a bait-and-switch because it's the reason for some people going to, going to Harvard Law School. This is really, uh, really, really disturbing. Really disturbing. Um. And it, it's hard to believe there isn't something else going on.

Alright, another, another topic. You know, I hate to do these articles, but we have to keep in mind, and I'm gonna give you reasons to keep in mind that this is just what they want everybody to think. And it's not that there's not truth in it. I'm talking about the decline in, in, uh, the, the plant-based, um, purchases.

Lab grown dairy draws state scrutiny. Well, alright, this is about lab grown, but the, the decline in, in, in interest in alternatives. Alright. This is from Meating Place, uh, by Jack Hubbard. South Dakota became the eighth state to ban lab grown meat this spring. Well, what a shocker, South Dakota... drawing media attention... what somebody in South Dakota wrote about it? As lawmakers engaged in protected negotiation with the governor's office, ultimately setting on a five year moratorium. I wonder who was on which side there.

Um, by comparison, Mississippi's new law banning lab grown dairy, the first in the nation, flew somewhat under the radar. Uh, so this is apparently their new thing. Uh, there is lab grown dairy. Of course, most, most dairy alternatives are plant-based. And, um, and, uh, this is about lab grown dairy. Um, just like with lab grown meat, it says there are no long-term health studies of lab grown dairy.

Well, it hasn't been in effect, it hasn't existed for a long time. So like, how are you gonna have long-term health studies when it's not in existence? Uh, this fact has driven states to err on the side of caution. Yeah, no shit. How about err on the side of the industry? Um, and prohibit lab grown meat, at least temporarily, while the science catches up.

The preemptive strike on lab-grown dairy is a change from the reactive stance of the past years. Now we get to the real story. As related to me by an industry veteran, when plant-based milk first started appearing, it's some 25 years ago, dairy men, that's what they call themselves.

I'm a dairy man... dairy men didn't take the threat seriously. Fast forward to a few years ago, and plant-based milk had conquered 15% of total sales. Yeah, this is, this is actually the real problem, isn't it? Dairy was a cautionary tale. When plant-based meat products started hitting the shelves in 2019, you can either educate consumers early or risk being replaced.

And that's exactly what's going on. That is exactly what's going on. It's this huge PR push to, uh, keep these products from getting any more of a foothold. 'Cause they saw what happened with the milk. Are you going to any, any, uh, supermarket in the country? And I've been in a supermarket in, uh, you know, small towns in Texas and there's plenty of plant-based milk on the shelves. Um, and a long time ago, that was in time in Texas in years.

Uh, alright, so that's what's going on. Unfortunately, I'm not gonna say it's not succeeding at all. Make no mistake. He says, with billions of dollars invested in meat alternatives and lab grown animal protein, and an intensive public relations campaign to convince decision makers that this kind of food is the future, these products are not going away.

Yeah, Jack, they're not. They're not. And talk about intensive public relations campaigns. Uh, you're doing a few yourselves. There are strong ideological and business interests that wanna make livestock farming a thing of the past. Like, you know, the people who want the planet to survive? I don't know.

And they see lab grown manufacturing as the technology to replace it. Because it is. 'Cause it is. As with many things in life, there are two options, he says, Play offense or play defense. And as usual, they're being as offensive as they possibly can. Get what I did there?

Alright. Another article. Same, same shit. I'm sorry. You know it got me down too. I'm kind of in a mood. Um, but, uh, I think I mentioned that already. I'll mention it regularly throughout the, throughout the recording. This is from, uh, I don't know what it's from. Curdled Dreams and Faded Sizzle. It's from Hordes Dairyman. Um, all right. They're talking about, um, how, how, um, the meats, like Beyond Meat, once a $14 billion enterprise, the plant-based company has tumbled nearly, by nearly triple digits in the last five years. Yeah, we know. We know. Well, I know. And you know, but...

and they're, they're expecting the same thing as true of Impossible, though they don't have the figures 'cause it's not a public held company. I don't know whether it's true or not. A similar trend it says would be expected as the ultra processed food stigma has hit this sector. Yeah, I wonder how that got this word ultra processed, which has no clear meaning and can be attached to some foods that are good for you and some foods that are really bad for you, and...

Plant-based beverages have also fallen victim to rapidly falling sales. I had not heard this, but according to this article, plant-based, um, alternative beverages, I assume they mean milks, um, are, are doing poorly. I, I had not heard that. Sorry if you hadn't either, to ruin your day a little further.

The complexity of ingredient labels has frequently been identified as the culprit in waning consumer interest. Yeah. Identified by you people. Like you, like, uh, I'm not gonna deny it. They've been quite successful there. But you know, you know, maybe the tide is starting to turn because they can't win this forever.

Uh, all right. I'm, I'm done with that topic, you'll be glad to hear. Uh, alright. This is from, um, wattpoultry.com. In ovo sexing technology not ready for US egg industry. Alright. We've been told this for years and years and years, that this practice that they do, which is one, one of the most hideous practices in a hideous industry. Killing all the male chicks of egg laying hen breeds, um, because, you know, they're not worth anything.

So that's all the film that you constantly see of them being like suffocated or ground up. And this is, um, this article is saying that, um, the solution of in ovo sexing technology, IE figuring out whether it's a male or female, well before the egg is hatched, it's just, you know, it's just not good enough, according to him.

The available systems are now being promoted as a quote solution for what is called the male layer chick problem. It's called that because that's what it is. Like it's not a tricky name. Um, the males, which have no economic value are, get this, euthanized... euthanized... either using carbon dioxide or maceration. Euthanized!

Like I know I go on and on about the use of the term euthanasia, uh, in the industry. But this one, this one is just beyond. Maceration, grind, grinding them up alive because you don't, because you bred them and you, you don't want them, uh, is is euthanasia. Unbelievable.

Don't ever, please don't ever use that word in this context. It drives me crazy. Alright. It's, it's an important word.

To avoid inflict, then he goes into this whole thing... to avoid inflicting pain on embryos in-ova, in-ovo sexing system needs to be able to separate the males from the females early in incubation. And apparently there's debate about that. When do they first feel pain?

Some studies say seven days, some say day 13. Um, another says day 15. So as long as we don't know what, like what'll we do? I don't know. I guess like nothing. That seems to be like the conclusion here. Um, because, uh, you don't wanna adopt a system and then have to like, uh, you know, find out that it's not good enough and have to adopt a different one.

You know, maybe you should just get rid of the whole thing because it's all like, uh, disgusting. Current in ovo sexing systems require the embryos to be incubated for several days. They started out, he points out, by hoping that, um, they could just, they didn't have to start incubation. They could tell which were the male.

Which were gonna be males just from a fertilized egg, but apparently they can't. There has to be some incubation. So, um, the current ones require them to be incubated for several days, I don't think he says how long, perhaps long enough for the embryos to be able to experience pain and only the number of hatchers and equipment for chick handling can be reduced.

Um, and this will raise the price of, um, producing a pullet, that's, you know, a, a hen that's going to be an egg layer by a dollar and 76 cents. And, you know. And around one penny per shell egg produced. Well, you wouldn't wanna waste that. You wouldn't, you wouldn't wanna say goodbye to that kind of money. Um, and he compares it, the whole problem to enriched cages that, that, uh, when they're used, when there started out being this fight against, um, battery cages, some producers adopted enriched cages, um, because they were, they were, um... they thought this would be good enough to get past the activists.

And it wasn't, you know, everybody went for cage-free. They wanted cage-free production, not enriched, uh, cages. In Europe, they went for enriched cages. But, uh, so somehow that means that you shouldn't do anything because the thing you do might, if you do like the minimum thing, it might not be good enough, and then you would have to do something else instead if they had to...

This is so cynical! It's, it's almost unbelievable. He concludes by saying, if I were an US egg producer, I would look at current in-ovo sexing technologies, which are only effective after seven or more days of incubation as a non-starter. Welfare activists have a history of increasing demands and moving the goalpost.

They don't move the goalpost. The goalpost is veganism. The goalpost is stop. The, it's the industry that tries to come up with a, with a solution that's just, just barely good enough to get by. Egg producers need to be relatively certain that any new expensive technology it adopts, whether for in-ovo sexing, housing, or anything else, needs to be a long-term solution to a pressing problem and not just a short-term public relations bandaid.

Well, I have the long-term solution for you that will, that will bless forever, and that no animal welfare activist will ever complain about. Going vegan.

This one's this. The last one's gross. Well, I have two more. And the last is, the last is a little different. It's a little, it's hopeful. Farmer Ivy book gives kids an accurate tale of poultry production. It's really kind of interesting. This is from Watt Poultry. Um, it's about this... The Chicken Farmers of Saskatchewan, which is an organization, has put resources behind a new children's book that gives kids an accurate depiction of chicken production. Like, does it really? That would be some book. Um, it has this little picture of this little, uh, blonde woman with holding a chicken and holding a chick in her other, and smiling.

Um, it's delightful, according to this article. And, uh, then it goes on and out about the people who did it. But then it gives a summary of the book. While most children's books that feature animals tend to humanize them, this book does not. It lays out right away that these birds are raised by Ivy for a purpose.

The... humanize them is, that's a word that's, there's a lot of words in here that are carrying a lot of weight. Humanize them. They tend, don't tend to humanize them. They tend, they tend to talk about that they're real animals who have real feelings. That's not just for humans. And then the counter is that they're raised for a purpose. Well, you can be human and be raised for a purpose. Like there's no, there's no counterpoint there. Like it, it should say, it lays out right away that these birds have no feelings whatsoever 'cause that's like more, more the counterpoint to, to what he means by humanizing them.

Anyway, I'm sorry, I'm, I'm perseverating. Um, the second sentence of the book reads, Have you ever wondered where the delicious chicken your family buys at the grocery store comes from? Interesting question for a child. Uh, yeah, like I bet they haven't. Um, and then explains that all chickens... so apparently it does tell children that chicken is actually chickens... uh, are raised on farms.

Okay. In ways that children can understand, another phrase that is carrying a lot here. In ways that children can understand, it shows how farmers, such as Ivy, care for and care about their chickens, providing them with fresh bedding, clean and quality water and feed, and making sure the temperatures of the barns are comfortable and the chickens are provided with appropriate levels of light at the appropriate times.

Oh, great. Yeah. Okay. I'm sure it's a very accurate picture of these chicken's lives. Um, and the final page of the book includes a chicken recipe. I just wanna vomit it. I really do. Oh my god. Uh, so the, the people from this Saskatchewan chicken thing, um, said, we're not interested in selling these books or making money.

They're not interested in making money at all. This is to teach kids and families. This is a nonprofit book that chicken farmers are hoping to put into as many hands as we possibly can. I don't know, like how stupid are children? That's the question. That's the question. They're counting on them being really, really stupid.

Uh, all right. I promised at the end I would do something better. And I just saw this video this morning after I had, after I had looked at all these articles, it was in kind of a nasty mood. Um, by nasty, I mean, I wasn't being nasty, it was a nasty place to be. I mean, I might have been being nasty too, but there's nobody here, um, other than the dog and the cats, I would never be nasty to them.

Five reasons for vegans to be optimistic in 2026. This is a video on YouTube by Chris Bryant. We love Chris Bryant here at Our Hen House. He's of course been on the podcast. Uh, the, his YouTube channel is Chris Bryant, PhD. And um, it's good, it's good.

It's, it's UK based, but he is talking worldwide really, and there's a lot of good stuff in here, and it's gonna make you feel better. So I highly suggest you watch that after listening to me, after I got you down. Well, I'm, I try to frame things in a way that won't get you down, but I don't think I always succeed.

I think that's it. I think that's everything I've got. Thank you for being here today for Rising Anxieties. And thanks for tuning into all of our podcasts. Subscribe, like, and comment on your favorite podcatcher or YouTube. We'll be back Thursday with The Hen Report and Friday with the interview. So be here or be queer. Or both!