Hi Astrid! Thanks for the proposal; it definitely falls within our mission of advancing animal welfare, and I expect we'd be happy to facilitate donations to your work. However, it doesn't seem like this project is a good fit for EA Community Choice as it doesn't principally serve folks in EA, so I've removed it from that round for now.
4
Help animal farmers' change jobs, to not exploit animals anymore
Not fundedGrant
$0raised
Project summary
Diet change is not only about food. A big part of it is about changing our mindsets.
We do this by helping animal farmers to reconvert, and stop exploiting animals.
We are based in Switzerland, where we have helped or are currently helping 15 (ex) farmers, and the local authorities are beginning to take us seriously.
However, in France, our closest neighbor, 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.
To counter this government’s decisions, nothing is more powerful than the stories of people who lived this reality, and who could not bear it anymore.
This is why we expand our reconverting program to France, and we just launched the French branch.
In order to support the expansion of our reconversion program, we are professionalizing our NGO and we need support.
What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?
The outcomes we aim to achieve are to :
Increase the number of animal farmers reconversions.
Spread the information wider with the general public, the farmers, and the politicians in Switzerland and in France.
Collaborate with stakeholders on a policy level, for animal farmers reconversions to be considered as a tangible solution to the agriculture crisis, to help the animals, and to implement eco-friendly food policies.
Here are some impact measurement of our project :
Direct impact for the animals
It is mostly dairy farmers who seek help to reconvert, because they work closely with the animals and know them (contrary to industrial pig or chicken farmers), and because they directly see the effect of cutting the calves from their mothers).
In average, dairy farmers own :
Average between France and Switzerland is roughly 45 cows at a time per farmer.
We already helped, or are currently helping 15 animal farmers to reconvert.
Average lifespan of dairy cows = 10 years
1 calf per year
First calving at 28 months, meaning 2 years and 4 months
→ 8 calves per cow during her lifetime
Farm with 45 dairy cows = 45 x 8 = 360 animals saved because they were never born + 45 cows with the assumption of replacing all the cows in sanctuaries
→ 405 animals saved per farmer who transitions.
→ x 15 farmers transitioning = 6,075 animals saved.
Indirect impact : cultural change
Cultural change is our end goal : our pathway of change is designed to outline a strategic and actionable plan to shift human perspectives on animals, fostering a deeper recognition of their sentience, emotions, and intrinsic value.
By helping animal farmers to change jobs and lifestyle, and when they tell their stories, it enlightens practical and down-to-earth solutions to help the animals and the farmers all at once, and it shows its feasibility, when most people would have thought that it was impossible to implement such a shift.
Measuring cultural change is a complex process because culture encompasses values, beliefs, behaviors, and social norms, which evolve gradually. However, there are several approaches and methodologies that researchers, organizations, and sociologists use to assess cultural change.
With the work we are doing, here are the ones that are relevant :
media analysis
behavioral data
cultural narratives and stories
And here are the impact measurement about cultural change that we can share :
Meat production and consumption slighlty decreased in Switzerland in 2023. This is the result of many efforts and different strategies, but we know that a shift in the "storytelling" around meat and dairy fully plays a part in it ;
Our social media coverage on instagram jumped from 3,9K followers in 2022 to 19,5K in 2024 organically only, with no paid content ;
Our work on animal farmers' reconversions was covered by big social media accounts, such as L214 NGO, wich is internationally known among the animals rights movement, or Vakita, an eco-friendly independent media with 590K followers, which broadens our reach further than people who are already in the animals' rights movement ;
We also have a very good mainstream media coverage, including about 22 media appearances in 2023, and already 20 since the beginning of 2024 ;
Here are our measurable SMART objectives for the year to come :
Quarter I :
-Getting leads with French departmental Chambers of Agriculture and Swiss official vet services (ongoing for the Swiss part)
Quarter II :
Holding a meeting at the sanctuary in Switzerland for NGOs and politicians to present our work and political strategies, and how we can work out together.
Quarter III :
- Reaching out to governmental sectors (for the French speaking cantons) such as veterinarian references that have to deal with farmers being forbidden to keep their animals, to provide information around reconversion and develop partnerships.
- Organizing 3 meetings/events with French Chambers of Agriculture.
Quarter IV :
Host an event with former animal farmers, politicians and the public to raise awareness and answer strategic questions about reconversion.
Obviously, there will also be a number of reconversions going on throughout the year, but please note that we cannot make any commitment about numbers on this part, because each farmer’s story and needs is unique.
Our reconversion work will appear in our mid-term and final reports, but we cannot list them as SMART objectives.
How will this funding be used?
The funding will be used on :
Salaries
Travel expenses Switzerland <--> France
The 5,000$ we ask for here doesn't cover up the whole years project, because we plan to cofund it through several means detailed below (in the "What other fundings are you getting?" section).
One year part-time salary + travel expenses is about 30,000$. We ask for 1/6 of our total need in this Manifund round because we know that the funding is limited and there are several awesome projects which we hope will be funded as well.
Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?
Our board members are :
Virginia Markus, founder and president
Virginia worked in a vet clinic in Qatar for a year, and then became a social worker for teenagers and young adults at odds. After having been a spokesperson for ethical veganism since 2017, she founded Co&xister’s association in 2018, with the idea of not only rescuing animals, but also to educate humans about how to coexist peacefully with other species.
She is the author of 3 books, and was speaking of supporting animal farmers’ reconversions as soon as 2017, in her first book. She was able to put this idea into practice in 2021, when Stéphane Baud, a first animal farmer, came to her to stop his activity.
Stéphane Baud, secretary
Stéphane was the first animal farmer to go into a reconversion with Co&xister, he obviously became vegan along the way, as a logical step, and he is committed to bringing other animal farmers to reconvert, as a way to honor the memory of the animals he sent to slaughter in his past life. He is an outstanding spokesperson for our reconversion program.
Athénaïs Python, treasurer :
A PR journalist and active in numerous animal rights organizations such as LSCV, Athénaïs joined the Co&xister committee as treasurer. After meeting Virginia Markus by helping her with video editing for her investigations in slaughterhouses and farms between 2016 and 2017, they both continued to campaign together in various demonstrations in Switzerland and France.
Our team members are :
Astrid Prévost, development officer :
After a 10-year-military career, she became involved professionally in animal advocacy through numerous associative projects, notably with the French Vegetarian Association, where she was head of the School Plates and Policy programs, as well as in charge of fundraising.
After volunteering with us on a regular basis for 1 year and a half, and completing an internship at our organization, she became our first paid staff member to help us with fundraising and partnerships.
Cornel Markus, administrative assistant and merchandizing manager :
Now retired, Cornel, Virginia Markus's father, supports the work of the association by handling certain administrative tasks, including sending donation receipts. Additionally, he is responsible for managing orders from our online shop and the merchandising stock.
After a career in car sales and having always been very sensitive to animal welfare, he now contributes to our association with his specialized skills.
What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?
As our program is already ongoing and successful, a failure wouldn't mean that the project doesn't work out, but that we couldn't expand it like we wanted to.
The most probable causes would be :
a lack of funds, forcing us to stop having a development officer, and the founder going back on working alone on the farmers' reconversions ;
a sudden big opposition from the meat and dairy lobbies. This is not impossible but highly improbable on a big scale (although some opposition is perceptible), because our approach is non-confrontational, and we have current and former animal farmers on our side, including Stéphane on our board, which gives us credit and legitimity.
What other funding are you or your project getting?
We got a grant from L214 endowment fund
We are working on putting up partnerships with vegan businesses, or 1% for the planet business partners.
Even if you don't fund us through Manifund, but if you like our program, please consider putting us in touch with businesses that could be interested in leveling up their social and environmental responsibility policy, by giving to NGOs.