Fighting Factory Farming

BOAA is calling on U.C. Berkeley to end all commercial relationships with concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), more commonly known as factory farms, and to reform its dining halls so that plant-based options are the default option for students and animal products are available only upon request. BOAA also demands that U.C. Berkeley replace any animal products in its dining halls with cultivated (“lab-grown”) alternatives once they are on the market.

Protecting Insects

BOAA is partnering with the Society for the Protection of Insects (SPI) in the fight against insect farming, an emerging industry that threatens consumers and wildlife with disease and pollution. Commonly farmed insects include crickets, mealworms, and black soldier fly larvae. Crowded, unsanitary conditions on insect farms are a breeding ground for disease, and if insects are able to escape their farms, they may harm vulnerable wildlife like the rusty-patched bumblebee. To reach out to the Society for the Protection of Insects, go to their website: http://protectinsects.org

Ending Classroom Dissections

BOAA demands that U.C. Berkeley end all classroom dissections for undergraduate students. Classroom dissections are wasteful, costly, and unnecessary. They discourage students with moral or religious differences from entering the biomedical field and have been shown to be less effective than alternative methods of instruction. Most importantly, unnecessary dissections like those offered in introductory biology classes at Cal fly in the face of science’s sworn responsibility to animals: to reduce and refine their use and replace them with alternatives when possible.