If you missed the 2019 Humane Summit, you're in luck! You can still access the presentations by visiting the Humane Education Coalition's YouTube page and clicking here. 

Yay for humane education! I hope you enjoy my presentation! 

Why we choose not to ride elephants, go to zoos, or swim with dolphins...

As parents and educators, how can we collectively start the discussion with youth about animal equality and the impact that our choices can have? In this session, Abby Power will talk about how we can use humane education tools to introduce topics such as speciesism, systems thinking, cognitive dissonance, and critical thinking in order to engage our children to find solutions and make systematic change. As educators or parents, let’s give children the tools to be the next generation of changemakers.

*Tip: It's best heard with either headphones or by unplugging any external speakers. 

Super Bowl Sunday. For over 100 million people, it's a day filled with food, football and watching those highly anticipated commercials (Otterson & Otterson, 2018). 

For a cool $5.25 million, you too could have a 30-second slot on CBS to hock your product (Bruton, 2019). With that amount of money, I can only imagine the meetings that take place to ensure their company gets the greatest bang for their buck. 

But what happens when companies change their strategy? More and more people are becoming aware of the hold advertisements have on us. We can see through their manipulation, so much so, that it's causing advertisers to come up with a new game plan. And that new game plan is to show that they are socially conscious. 
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So what do people need right now? Hope, acceptance and goodness. And this is exactly how companies are changing their message. 

​Here are a couple of examples: 

When a company is socially aware and wants to help save the world, doesn't it make you want to go out and save the world with them? And because you believe in their message, you're going to want to buy their product. A truck load of wood from 84 Lumber? Yes, please! Just drop it right over there next to the boxes of Always pads, please. Yay me for being a conscious consumer! 

But is there any danger in this? It seems harmless, right? Well, we have to remember that under capitalism, the system is set up to reward profit. This makes it vital that we all do our due diligence to research the companies we support. Are they really aligning their actions with their message? 

We have to ask the following questions:
How does this product or service impact the environment?
How does this product or service impact people? 
Does this product or service help or hurt animal protection efforts? 

Let's take a look at this "feel good" commercial and see what we can uncover. 

(Jones, "Toll House | Bake the World a Better Place", 2017)

This Nestlé Toll House commercial wants to "Bake the World a Better Place." Yes! We can all do that! Get me to the store so I can pick up a pack of the pre-cut Nestlé Toll House cookie dough packs and we'll be well on our way to save the leopards. 

Before we hope in the car, let's stop and think about those three questions that I just mentioned:

How does this product or service impact the environment?
How does this product or service impact people? 
Does this product or service help or hurt animal protection efforts? 

When doing more research into Nestlé here is what I found: 

Well, their website sure makes it look like they are an Eco-minded, sustainable, people-centered company. Great! Get my car keys! 

​Not so fast. Our research shouldn't stop there. We should never take the company's word for it. And you'll see why. 

Out of the world's entire water supply only 3% of Earth's water is fresh water. 97% of the water on this planet is undrinkable. However, out of the 3% we can drink, much of it is polluted and beyond human use (Bozzo, 2013). So what is the connection with Nestlé (Nestlé Toll House's parent)?  
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We all know what is STILL happening in Flint, Michigan with the water crisis.  But did you know that a Nestlé has a bottling facility located just 2 hours a way? 

According to an article by The Guardian, 

"Despite having endured lead-laden tap water for years, Flint pays some of the highest water rates in the US. Several residents cited bills upwards of $200 per month for tap water they refuse to touch.

But just two hours away, in the tiny town of Evart, creeks lined by wildflowers run with clear water. The town is so small, the fairground, McDonald’s, high school and church are all within a block. But in a town of only 1,503 people, there are a dozen wells pumping water from the underground aquifer. This is where the beverage giant Nestlé pumps almost 100,000 times what an average Michigan resident uses into plastic bottles that are sold all over the midwest for around $1.

To use this natural resource, Nestlé pays $200 per year.

Now, Nestlé wants more Michigan water. In a recent permit application, the company asked to pump 210m gallons per year from Evart, a 60% increase, and for no more than it pays today...the company pays nothing for the 150 gallons per minute it already pumps from the ground in central Michigan. The $200 per year is just an administration fee."

To sum it up, Nestlé is paying virtually nothing for the water that they take from Michigan, selling it back to the community for over $1 a bottle while the residents in some areas (especially Flint) have some of the highest water bills. Roughly half of all residents in Flint are in poverty, the highest poverty rate in the United States (Adams, 2017). This is a human rights AND environmental issue, people! 

I won't even go into the waste and pollution that is caused by the plastic bottled beverages that is produced by Nestlé. 

​Moving on and back to buying cookies to save the leopards. There are many issues with this one but I'll touch on just two. 

Those chocolate chips in your cookie, may not be as wholesome as you think they are. Ghana and the Ivory Coast in West Africa provide 60% of the world’s cocoa. Several thousands of young children, some reported as young as 5 years old, go missing every year where they are forced to work on cocoa plantations. They are given machetes to harvest the cocoa pods and carry large sacks on their backs all day long. Children sustain many injuries and are often beaten if they are not able to keep up. They live in horrific spaces and do not have access to adequate meals (BBC One, 2011). Hershey’s, Mars, and Nestlé are just a sample of companies that source their cocoa from this part of Africa (Food Empowerment Project, "Child Labor and Slavery in the Chocolate Industry").

While Nestlé is working towards their own Cocoa Plan to combat child labor and trafficking, we can applaud their efforts but we must keep scrutinizing them to ensure that they keep up their end of the bargain.  

Tip: If you are at the store and thinking about what chocolate to buy, please consider purchasing Certified Fair Trade chocolate. 

Here is a great website that lists what chocolates you should be looking for:
http://www.foodispower.org/chocolate-list/

Lastly, one of the major reasons that the leopards and so many other animals are becoming endangered is due to deforestation. What is causing deforestation? Animal agriculture and also the sourcing of palm fruit for the production of palm oil. 

Animal agriculture uses 30 percent of the earth’s entire land surface. It is the largest driver of deforestation in every Amazon country, accounting for 80 percent of current deforestation rates. An acre or more of rainforest is destroyed every second largely due to clearing the land to graze animals and grow their feed (Matthews, 2006). 

P.S If everyone went plant-based, global land use for farming would drop 75 percent (Poore & Nemecek, 2018). 

Let's look at the ingredients in Nestlé Toll House Cookie Dough to see what's inside.  Highlighted are the animal and palm products (not including the potential animal products in the "natural flavoring":  

ENRICHED WHEAT FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID) , SUGAR, NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® SEMI -SWEET CHOCOLATE MORSELS (SUGAR, CHOCOLATE, MILKFAT, COCOA BUTTER, SOY LECITHIN, NATURAL FLAVORS), SHORTENING (PALM OIL, HIGH OLEIC CANOLA OIL, BETA CAROTENE [COLOR] ) , WATER, 2% OR LESS OF EGGS, MOLASSES, SALT, BAKING SODA (CONTAINS SOY LECITHIN) , NATURAL FLAVOR, VANILLA EXTRACT. 
​(Nestlé, "NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Refrigerated Chocolate Chip Cookie Bar Dough")

So there we have it. That package of Nestlé Toll House Cookies is not going to save the leopards and may actually harm them instead.  (And I doubt that any of the profits will go towards their conservation). 

​Are we prepared for these emotionally engaging commercials that are ready to pull at our heart strings making us think that if only we buy their product, we too can be changemakers? These companies just got savvy and they may have a lot of power behind them...but what we have are the facts. Let's use them like armor to fend off misinformation! 

We all have blind spots when it comes to advertising…
What are yours? What are mine?

Sincerely, 
Abby