Youth Vegan Advocacy Panel · China Vegan Summit 2022
The MANG China Vegan Summit is China's first virtual conference dedicated to connecting and empowering vegan advocates inside and outside of China. Learn more about the 2022 summit, or see the full speaker list here.
Discussion Panel: Youth Vegan Advocacy
Online (Zoom) · Saturday, December 3
10:00-11:30 am (Beijing Standard Time)
Hear youth vegan advocates share their stories and compare visions for the future
Today's youth are inheriting a world threatened by the social and environmental consequences of industrial animal agriculture. As the world's future leaders, how do young people see these problems, and what are they doing to drive change? We've invited 11 student vegan advocates from Harvard University in the US and several universities in China to share their stories and discuss their visions of the future in a cross-cultural online discussion:
How can youth advocate for animals and promote veganism?
How are students promoting veganism on campus in China and the US?
How did these young vegan advocates begin their journeys, and what do they plan to do next?
How can we use behavior science to advocate for animals and promote veganism?
Agenda
10:00 · Moderator opening remarks
10:05 · Harvard students introduce themselves & their projects
10:30 · Chinese students introduce themselves & their projects
11:00 · Topic discussion and audience Q&A
11:30 · Finish
The speakers
Representing perspectives from China and around the world, our 11 speakers have had many different experiences, but they all share one thing in common: a desire to make the world a kinder, healthier, and greener place by advocating for animals and promoting veganism.
Sparsha Saha
Lecturer, Harvard University Department of Government
Sparsha Saha is the only (empirical) political scientist who studies meat politics. Her research is broadly situated in the field of political behavior. She uses experiments to understand how voters respond to political attention on meat, animal rights, and related issue areas. Her work has been featured in Political Behavior, Journal of Social and Political Psychology, and Frontiers in Nutrition (accepted). She has been covered by the New York Times, Fortune, Fast Company, Yahoo Finance, and the Harvard Gazette, among others.
Camille Freedman
Co-founder and co-president, Harvard Plant Futures
Camille is a sophomore at Harvard University concentrating in Chemical & Physical Biology. She is the co-founder and co-president of Harvard Plant Futures. As a vegan of five years, she is passionate about how plant-based food systems can address issues related to public health, environmental sustainability, and food security. One of her goals is to raise awareness about the benefits of plant-based diets for planetary and human health, especially on Harvard's campus, and to accelerate Harvard's transition towards a plant-based future. Camille is also an undergraduate researcher of structural biology in the Gaudet lab.
Navin Durbhakula
Co-founder and co-president, Harvard Plant Futures
Navin is a second year student at Harvard University. He is the co-founder and co-president of Harvard Plant Futures and the Plant Powered Youth Steering Committee. He also leads the Food Emissions Reduction Project for the Council of Student Sustainability Leaders. As part of his work, Navin recently testified in front of the USDA on expanding plant-based options in school meals, worked on passing the first bill in US history to advocate for plant-based food, and was invited to attend the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, speaking on the importance of building sustainable food systems.
Lena Ashooh
Co-founder, Harvard College Animal Advocates
Lena Ashooh is a second-year undergraduate student at Harvard College, studying animal behavior and cognition and moral philosophy. She is interested in the role of ethology (and science more broadly) in understanding our obligations to other animals, particularly in how animals perceive the world, how they view themselves and their relation to others, and what things are important to them. She is co-founder and co-president of Harvard College Animal Advocates, Harvard College's only animal activism organization, which organizes animal activism campaigns, speaking events, and social events.
Zavier Chavez
Co-founder, Harvard College Animal Advocates
Zavier is a current student at Harvard University, where he studies Philosophy and Environmental Science. He is passionate about animal welfare/ethics and helping to develop the future food space of alternative protein, especially fermented and cultivated meats. Along with Lena Ashooh, he is also a co-president and founder of the Harvard College Animal Advocates, a Harvard club that seeks to promote animal welfare, animal activism, and vegan awareness on campus.
Huiyu Ouyang 欧阳惠雨
Food Policy Officer, CBCGDF Good Food Fund; Youth Outreach Ambassador, Act4Food Act4Change
As Food Policy Officer at the Good Food Fund, Huiyu leads the WET Market Project and the UNFSS-AT2 China Action Hub. In 2019, he was the Secretary-General of the 11th International Youth Summit on Energy and Climate Change (IYSECC-XI) organized by China Youth Climate Action Network (CYCAN). While earning his master's degree in urban planning from Tsinghua University, he was the president of the Tsinghua University Student Vegetarian Association, where he successfully campaigned to open a vegetarian food stall in the student canteen and initiated a research project on sustainable campus food policy at the university.
Jiao Wang 王娇
Social media editor, Nanchang Small Animal Protection Association
Jiao became an animal advocate, environmentalist, and vegan in high school. She loves animals and nature, and she believes that going vegan is the most effective way that ordinary people can take action against environmental destruction and climate change. A current student at Donghua University of Technology, she promotes veganism on campus and by hosting activities and talking to students about the benefits of going vegan. She blogs about veganism, animal protection, and animal adoption on the Nanchang Small Animal Protection Association's WeChat official account.
Kaicong You 尤恺聪
President, Tsinghua University Student Food Literacy Association
Originally from Malaysia, Kaicong came to China to study at Tsinghua University, where he became president of the Tsinghua University Vegetarian Association and led the transformation of the organization. Kaicong is committed to promoting sustainability in school cafeterias by increasing the proportion of plant-based foods in the cafeteria and making the school infrastructure, management, and culture more environmentally friendly. Kaicong currently leads a research project investigating successful campus sustainability case studies from foreign universities and shares findings with Chinese universities to inform improvements to their campus catering policies and operations.
Qing Ji 季庆
Co-founder, Sustainable Sprout Day
Qing is one of the founders of Sustainable Sprout Day, an ecological practice community. He directed the "Sprout Stall" exhibition and event at Guangdong's Times Museum. Through public exhibitions, food workshops, and roundtable discussions, Qing strives to present the diversity and vitality of plant-based food to the public from a local Asian perspective.
Baowei Chen 陈保维
Co-founder, Sustainable Sprout Day
Baowei is one of the founders of Sustainable Sprout Day, an ecological practice community. He planned and executed a number of community events promoting plant-based food, including the 9th anniversary vegetarian banquet at Mustard Seed House in Quanzhou and the "Sprout Stall" event at Guangdong's Times Museum. He is currently studying in Europe, and his research interests include indigenous Asian vegetarian traditions and critical animal studies.
Shuman Liu 刘抒曼
PhD Candidate, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
As a master's student in Hong Kong, Shuman began learning about the social and environmental impacts of modern meat-centric diets, eventually inspiring her to become vegan and promote vegan lifestyles in China and around the world. She is currently pursuing a PhD in anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, researching Chinese Buddhist vegetarianism. In her free time, she blogs about vegan food and lifestyles on RED and WeChat.
Watch the discussion and ask questions during Q&A
This panel will be in both Chinese and English, with simultaneous translation provided by professional conference interpreters. To watch the discussion live and ask questions during the Q&A session, you can register below to join via Zoom. We’ll send you an email confirmation with the invitation link.
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