How We Win: Achieving Animal Liberation in Our Lifetime

Ep 19: Academic Capture & Greenwashing Animal Agriculture

Read Vasile’s substack [https://substack.com/@winforanimals] on the same topic Referenced in the Episode: Our earlier episode - Bullshit: Greenwashing Animal Agriculture [https://howwewin.squarespace.com/config/pages/6671c77dfc74376a718f2e52] Vasile’s earlier research on academic capture in the U.S. - 'Cowgate:’ Meat Eating and Climate Change Denial [https://www.winforanimals.org/s/Cowgate_Meat_Eating_and_Climate_Change_D.pdf] Fiction book recommendation: Venomous Lumpsucker [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/709614/venomous-lumpsucker-by-ned-beauman/] Join Our Community: Read and watch more of Vasile's research and join our community at winforanimals.org [https://winforanimals.org/]

Ep 18: Response to Bruce Friedrich on the Vegan Report

John Sanbonmatsu [https://www.facebook.com/john.sanbonmatsu?__cft__[0]=AZbhXH60UVdiEIAYe0njBEp6EfN9cXlwI4zOmlo3_nG5aL0BnsE49mOHpfS5aVSGnF_6N5FTXBt5OGEH6WEnT5sNUpC_LQFrMIRzTGecqNkIn4lYteoiH8lovQFtcu4Mq4gHnDPTu29e4SEY8I18s_ZJAerGXaSkg87h4eD3qdWhiN0uU27biMrgvsLgmsjP1Pc&__tn__=-]K-R] and Vasile were mentioned in this recent episode of The Vegan Report (Ep. 109, Feb. 24, 2026). Here is the relevant excerpt and Vasile’s response: The Vegan Report: [B]ecause you even debated some of those outspoken people like John Sanbonmatsu or Vasile Stanescu. In any case, you know, what do you make of that distinction from animal advocates from this technology? How do you explain how they are truly skeptical in the prospects of cultivated meat? Bruce Friedrich: I mean, I think there's a pretty complete overlap between the people who are opposed to improvements in farm animal welfare and the people who are opposed to cultivated meat. And the argument is pretty similar. The argument against welfare reforms is that we are granting the property status of animals and that in doing so, we're setting back veganism. The argument against cultivated meat is that we're granting the idea of animals as consumable and again, setting back animal rights. I think both of those are just transparently bad arguments and I think they both really suggest a kind of remarkable lack of empathy for the animals who are in those conditions. And I really just can't even understand it. From The Vegan Report: The End of Factory Farming!? With Bruce Friedrich | Ep. 109, Feb 24, 2026 Vasile’s response: My concerns about cultivated meat are not about a lack of empathy for animals. It is disappointing to see that characterization. My concerns are structural and political. For example, much of the industry has relied on fetal bovine serum (FBS), derived from the blood of unborn calves, as a growth medium. Even if companies aim to transition away from FBS, it is not yet clear that fully animal-free, scalable alternatives are viable. Some current research explores inputs such as ocular fluid and other animal-derived components. There is also a growing body of peer-reviewed research suggesting that cultivated meat may, depending on production methods and energy inputs, generate green house gas emission even greater than factory farms. Finally, leaders within the industry have openly discussed hybrid products that combine cultivated cells with conventionally farmed animal inputs, positioning this as a pathway to greater profitability and market expansion. That raises serious questions about whether the technology displaces industrial animal agriculture or expands it. I do agree with Bruce on one point: he says he cannot understand the critique. That is an honest statement. There is a genuine strategic divide in the movement about whether technological substitution transforms animal agriculture or simply expands it.  Most importantly: disagreement about strategy is not indifference to animal suffering; that characterization is what has harmed us as a movement for a long time. It is unfortunate he would choose to frame our disagreement in those terms Debate: first half: https://howwewin.squarespace.com/videos/v/66xhzljk9ztd2fcarjhmbnpf2fer4r [https://howwewin.squarespace.com/videos/v/66xhzljk9ztd2fcarjhmbnpf2fer4r] Second half: https://howwewin.squarespace.com/videos/v/l38zdy5c37l2cc8mmn4kbkcxaes6r3 [https://howwewin.squarespace.com/videos/v/l38zdy5c37l2cc8mmn4kbkcxaes6r3] Interview on the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glr3tQRmNFA [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glr3tQRmNFA] Join Our Community Read and watch more of Vasile's research and join our community at winforanimals.org [https://winforanimals.org/]

Ep 17: Combating Misinformation in the Animal Advocacy Movement

References from this Episode Vegetarian/Vegan Statistics For more on how Vasile calculated that 9% ± 3% of Americans are vegetarian or vegan, see Episode 15 (October 13th) and follow the links in those show notes. Government Subsidies for Animal Agriculture Animal agriculture receives massive government support through multiple mechanisms. In addition to propping up prices, subsidies take Americans’ tax money and give it to animal farmers directly, and indirectly by subsidizing animal feed crops much more than fruits and vegetables: Direct Subsidies USDA livestock subsidies top $72B [https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2024/10/usda-livestock-subsidies-top-59-billion] Indirect Subsidies Why Your Salad Costs More than a Burger: The Truth About Government Subsidization of the Meat & Dairy Industries [https://www.newrootsinstitute.org/articles/factory-farming-subsidies] Public Lands Grazing Grazing [https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/public_lands/grazing/#]is subsidized by allowing livestock on public lands at a fraction of market cost. Additional Resources Read about how government cheese works here [https://modernfarmer.com/2022/05/cheese-caves-missouri/] Climate & Energy Discussion Podcast The Climate Pod: The Energy Transition Myth (w/ Jean Baptiste Fressoz) [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-energy-transition-myth-w-jean-baptiste-fressoz/id1469270123?i=1000727655676] Book More and More and More: An All-Consuming History of Energy [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/464145/more-and-more-and-more-by-fressoz-jean-baptiste/9781802067316] by Jean Baptiste Fressoz Join Our Community Read and watch more of Vasile's research and join our community at winforanimals.org [https://winforanimals.org]

Ep 16: More Slaughterhouse Capitalism with James Stanescu

Vasile’s Slaughterhouse Capitalism Essay in Current Affairs: How Industrial Slaughter Became the [https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-industrial-slaughter-became-the-blueprint-for-modern-capitalism]Blueprint [https://How Industrial Slaughter Became the Blueprint for Modern Capitalism] for Modern Capitalism [https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-industrial-slaughter-became-the-blueprint-for-modern-capitalism] Other sources discussed in this Episode: Nature’s Metropolis by [https://wwnorton.com/books/Natures-Metropolis/]William Cronon [https://wwnorton.com/author/CRONONWILLIAM/williamcronon] Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust by [https://www.powells.com/book/eternal-treblinka-our-treatment-of-animals-the-holocaust-9781930051997?srsltid=AfmBOook7NIyKDHiH9j_CyOMY0Oe5w-id0a4AHtMnGvkEyp4PDlS4JOD]Charles Patterson [https://www.powells.com/books/search?query=Charles+Patterson] My Life and Work by Henry Ford and Samuel Crowler [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7213] Beyond Dehumanization: A Post-Humanist Critique of Solitary Confinement by Lisa Guenther [https://philarchive.org/archive/GUEBDA] Mechanization Takes Command by Sigfried Giedion [https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816690435/mechanization-takes-command/] Visions of Social Control by Stanley Cohen [https://archive.org/details/visionsofsocialc0000cohe] Video: Anna Delvey got permission from ICE to do DWS with Ankle Bracelet [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzxnK48unzA] The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegan Critical Theory by Carol J Adams [https://caroljadams.com/spom-the-book] Critical Terms in Animal Studies edited by Lorie Gruen [https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo22991992.html] Beyond Biopolitics: Animal Studies, Factory Farms, and the Advent of Deading Life by James Stanescu [https://phaenex.uwindsor.ca/index.php/phaenex/article/view/4090] Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein [https://naomiklein.org/the-shock-doctrine/] Christchurch Mosque Shootings Wikipedia Page [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christchurch_mosque_shootings] Chatbot Psychosis Wikipeda Page [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatbot_psychosis] Grundrisse by Karl Marx [https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1857/grundrisse/] Read and watch more of Vasile's research and join our community at winforanimals.org [https://winforanimals.org]

Ep 15: How Many of Us Are There, Really?

How many vegetarians and vegans are there?: Vasile’s Substack on this topic [https://substack.com/inbox/post/168797242] And an earlier guest blog post Vasile wrote about the same issue [https://www.criticalanimal.com/2019/07/guest-post-response-to-claim-that-only.html] Pew 2016 [https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2016/12/01/public-views-about-americans-eating-habits-2/] - 9% Gallup 2018 [https://news.gallup.com/poll/238328/snapshot-few-americans-vegetarian-vegan.aspx] - 8% (deceptively saying 5% vegetarian and 3% vegan with the headline describing the number as “few”. Many interpret this to mean that the 3% is part of the 5% (since vegans are necessarily also vegetarian), but it is actually additive. Also note higher numbers in younger age groups Vegetarian Resource Group - How Many Vegetarians and Vegans are There? [https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2022issue4/2022_issue4_how_many.php] What are the lowball figures? Faunalytics [https://faunalytics.org/just-how-many-vegns-are-there-in-the-u-s/] - You can see that they do show growing numbers, but much lower than other sources. This info leads them to recommend less radical tactics, such as “Encourage Change In Many Forms” ie. reducing meat rather than becoming vegan. Defaulting to vegan meals: Science Direct [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666324003751] Read and watch more of Vasile's research and join our community at winforanimals.org [https://winforanimals.org]