Project summary

Since 2021, Co&xister has been working on helping animal farmers to change path, and not exploit animals anymore. Some of these ex-farmers now speak publicly about their change, and how Co&xister’s help was vital to them, just like Stephane and Valerie Baud, who now own a 100% vegan bakery.

The more ex-farmers speak about their paths, the more current farmers come along to ask for help to change their jobs, and in the end their lives.

Co&xister is located in French-speaking Switzerland, and to this day, we have helped or are currently helping 14 (ex) farmers in Switzerland, and the authorities are beginning to take this movement seriously. In July 2023, we met with the official regional veterinary department, and an agreement is being discussed. In September 2023, the federal government also stated that they will take measures to reduce livestock numbers. 

However, in France, which is our closest neighbor, and where we speak the same language, things are not going that well. Despite their Court of Auditors made a statement that support measures should be taken to reduce livestock, the French government decided to support cattle breeding even more with more subsidies, and made an announcement that animal farming should be promoted in school programs. 

This is why we chose to expand our reconverting activities to France as well. In November 2023, we co-funded a work group called “Terres en transition” with a local NGO, and we already got in touch with a first animal farmer asking for our help to change. 

We think that, to counter the French government’s narrative about supporting the farmers by making them breed more animals, nothing is more powerful than the stories of people who lived this reality, and who could not bear it anymore. 

In 2024, and for the years to come, we are maintaining our base in Switzerland, but we are also expanding our reconversion activities beyond our own borders. 

Finally, Co&xister is also a sanctuary for rescued farm animals. Let’s specify that our application to this grant program is only about our reconversion activities : our sanctuary activities are entirely funded through donations, and thanks to the sponsorship we got with New Roots vegan cheese. 

Because we want to grow and spread our reconversion activities, by helping more farmers change path, by speaking about it in the medias and with elected officials, we need more financial support for this part. 

However, we can say that the sanctuary part is also crucial for the farmers’ reconversion process : when they get in touch with us, they immediately see that we understand them, that we speak the same language because we live the same life (just not with the same purpose). It makes them trust us, and this is something we could never achieve, had we not had the sanctuary. It makes us more efficient, and more knowledgeable.

What are this project's goals and how will you achieve them?

By helping animal farmers to reconvert, we prevent more animals to be born in the system, and contribute to decrease the number of farm animals bred. It also highlight the interesting fact that many animal farmers themselves suffer from their situation, and that they can’t bear to have animals killed. When they see no way out, they continue to do so, but when they see an escape, they are out of it. 

Having these people tell their stories is very powerful, and maybe it is the most powerful change leverage : people who hear these stories from the ex-farmers themselves are always moved, and can’t deny animal suffering anymore, when the person who used to breed animals tells them that they couldn’t bear making animals suffer anymore. Moreover, at some point, the ex-farmers change their eating habits as well, as it makes no sense for them to stop breeding animals but to go on with eating them, or their cheese or eggs. 

So not only do we help reduce livestock (which could result in more importations), we also help raise awareness among people that they should adopt a plant-based diet. 

Here are 5 of our 2023 accomplishments, that we are very proud of :

1. We were invited to give a speech at the French Parliament. 

2. We presented our work at a French political party summer university, which led to a partnership with them. 

3. We were contacted by Vakita, an alternative media created by a very famous French journalist to report our story and our work.

4. This first report with Vakita, led to several follow ups, including our nomination in the Awards ceremony they created to reward the most impactful works they witnessed. 

5. We co-founded Terres en transition, a transnational work group about animal farmers’ reconversion.

With more financial means to grow the team, we could expand our reconversion work even further, and get to the next level.

How will this funding be used?

From 2024 on, we need to grow and expand our reconversion work, and to do so, we need funding to cover our travel expenses, and to hire someone for the administrative management, so that Virginia Markus, the founder has more time to dedicate to helping farmers reconvert and to get media coverage about the NGO's work.

In the medium-term, we would also hire someone to help on the reconversion part, but this would be a project for 2025 or 2026.

Who is on your team and what's your track record on similar projects?

THE TEAM

Virginia Markus is the NGO's founder and president : Apart from being an author and an activist, Virginia is a licensed social worker and has worked for many years with teenagers and young adults facing difficulties. She founded the sanctuary in 2019, rescuing farm animals, with the purpose of showing how we can live a life of peaceful coexistence with these animals, and not of exploitation and domination.

She is also an author and wrote 3 books. In her first book, published in 2017 about the dairy industry, she was already advocating for the farmers' reconversion, but she acknowledges now that she was too cleaving at the time for any farmer to come forward and ask for her help. Now that she lives the same life as the farmers, in the sanctuary, and understands their daily lives, they feel secure to come and ask for her help.

She is the face of the NGO, and represents it in all kind of media coverage, and political events.

You can find all our media coverage here (in French).

These are 3 of our latest media coverage, that we would like to highlight :

• February 2024 : “52 minutes” TV show, on the RTS channel (from 29:00)

• January 2014 : la Terre au Carré radio show, on France Inter channel (from 41:30)

• December 2023 : article on Vakita, investigative French media

Virginia already works with several volunteers and partners on the sanctuary part, but the NGO now need to professionalize its reconversion work and get some administrative support, in order to expand.

Astrid Prévost is in charge of the fundraising : As a nutritionist, Astrid basically came into the NGO by doing a 5-week internship at Co&xister in December 2022, and wrote her dietetics memoir about how reconversion leads ex-animal farmers to change their diets to plant-based, and how these changes, simultaneously professional, psychological and nutritional, have an overall very positive effect on their health and general well-being.

In addition to her studies, Astrid was working part time for a French NGO and developed some skills in lobbying and fundraising.

She is now launching Co&xister's fundraising, as a volunteer, and will be recruited as a fundraising manager from June 2024 on. She will continue to partner with Co&xister, free of charge , on the nutritional part, as during the farmers transition, she offers them free consultations when they are ready to go plant-based and need support and informations.

TRACK RECORD ON SIMILAR PROJECTS

Our reconversion activities are already successful and meet a demand. Moreover, we are following the footsteps of Hof Narr sanctuary in German-speaking Switzerland, who began their transformation activities as soon as 2018, and now have helped 140 animal farmers to transfarm.

Sarah Heiligtag, the NGO’s founder gave a speech at the European Parliament about transfarmation. A partner organization, the French Vegetarian Association, cited her work in an audition they had with national MPs preparing a report about protein consumption and production in France. 

The topic of animal farmers’ reconversion has a huge potential, and what we need is the opportunity to expand it. 

VERBATIMS

Here are some testimonies coming from the people we helped, because they are our best ambassadors with other farmers who are thinking about reconverting : 

“Meeting Virginia was a turning point in our lives. Until then, we were camping on our ideas. Afterwards, everything went very quickly : we were able to place our last cows at the sanctuary, exchange and reorientate ourselves. For us, this conversion was a revelation and I don't regret it for anything. Today Virginia is a sister, a confidant, a person who is part of the family. To the breeders who are hesitating to make a change of direction: take the step of transition, you only stand to gain! “

• Stéphane

“I contacted Co&xister because I felt alone, apart from my family in my approach and unsupported by my community. The road to a new self is long and sometimes misunderstood by those around you. So it's good to have someone to listen to your doubts and fears.

Virginia has the ability to find the right people to talk to and to act very quickly. Within this reconversion process, you feel surrounded and understood, even if sometimes, it pushes you to explore your limits.”

• Nadine  

  "In addition to Virginia's support in our transition, Astrid's nutritional and culinary advice made me realize that I could totally be vegan, which was my wish, and also helped me to own it socially and in public."

• Alexia

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails? (premortem)

Our project is already on track, so our biggest setback would be not getting enough money, and not being able to answer to all the requests we get, from the farmers who want to transfarm, from the medias who want to talk about it, and sometimes from elected officials who want insights about our work.

In this case, it would take us more time to get the idea of farmers' reconversion as a viable solution to the public and to the institutions.

What other funding are you or your project getting?

We get donations from individuals and a sponsorship from New Roots vegan creamery, that cover all our expenses for the animals.

We already hold events and trainings at the sanctuary, which allows us to cover our current expenses for our farmers' reconversion work. Let's specify that all events are 100% vegan, and that we make it very clear, and remind people if necessary, that only consenting animals are to be approached or cuddled, and that nobody (not even children) is allowed to run after them.

We are planning to extend our event offer to corporate committees and institutions, to help with our fundraising, and show more people our philosophy of coexistence. The same rules will apply to all events held at the sanctuary.

We are applying to foundations call for entries, just like now.