If you want to know where animal rights activism is headed next, one of the best places to look and listen isn’t on social media or in the newspaper, it’s at conferences where activists are gathering to share ideas, debate strategies, and plan future campaigns.
This awareness of upcoming tactics and trends has remained incredibly important as producers, processors and food companies ask a common question: What’s the next issue we should be preparing for?
Earlier this year, two major conferences - the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s (ALDF) Animal Law Symposium and the Animal & Vegan Advocacy (AVA) Summit - offered a glimpse into how animal rights organizations are evolving their approach to challenging modern animal agriculture.
While each event had a different focus, they reinforced one clear message: today’s activist movement extends well beyond protests and demonstrations. These groups are putting more emphasis on coordinated legal actions, corporate pressure campaigns, strategic communications, and novel investigation tactics to influence businesses, policymakers, and public opinion.
Litigation Remains a Long-Term Strategy
Held virtually in May, the ALDF Animal Law Symposium brought together attorneys, researchers and advocates to discuss legal strategies impacting animal agriculture.
Sessions explored how changes in federal court decisions and administrative law could shape future litigation involving livestock production and agricultural regulations. Speakers also emphasized that successful lawsuits rely on much more than legal arguments. Research, expert testimony, investigations, and compelling public narratives were all described as essential pieces of a successful legal strategy. One speaker claimed that “investigations are important and valuable to advocacy work” and that “most people don’t want their meat to come from factory farms,” as activists target agriculture, they are working to build up that narrative - with the advice from another speaker to be “patient and be persistent… don’t take no for an answer.”
The takeaway was straightforward: litigation continues to be viewed as one of the animal rights movement’s most effective tools for advancing its objectives.
Pressure Beyond the Farm Gate
Just weeks later, activists gathered again in Toronto for the 2026 Animal & Vegan Advocacy (AVA) Summit, hosted by ProVeg International. The event received more than $1.6 million in conference support from Coefficient Giving, formerly known as the Open Philanthropy Project, a philanthropic organization that heavily supports the animal rights community.
Much of the discussion was focused on the future of the animal rights movement – including some disagreement in strategy when it comes to a long-term approach. Some speakers argued that the right path was in incremental animal housing reform, referencing current campaigns focused on cage-free eggs – attempting to strengthen relationships with food companies by allowing them to make small steps toward achieving a set goal. Others disagreed completely, with “total abolition” thought to be the only way to move forward in these types of campaigns. While opinions differed on strategy, there was broad agreement on the movement’s long-term goal of fundamentally “transforming,” or eliminating, modern animal agriculture.
The conference also highlighted how corporate campaigns continue to evolve. Rather than focusing solely on company leadership, speakers encouraged activists to map an organization’s entire network, calling it their “ecosystem.” This included board members, investors, suppliers, customers, and business partners (even family members) to identify multiple pressure points for the organization and the individuals leading it. Understanding a company’s relationships was repeatedly described as critical to designing effective campaigns. Messaging around animal welfare, sustainability and food system transparency also remained a central focus, with speakers discussing ways to challenge industry communications and influence consumer perceptions.
The takeaway was equally clear: activist campaigns are becoming more strategic, coordinated and sophisticated, with increasing emphasis on influencing companies, supply chains and public opinion from multiple angles.
What This Means for Pork Producers
Neither conference so far this year introduced entirely new tactics. Instead, they demonstrated how animal rights activist organizations continue refining and coordinating existing strategies. Legal challenges, corporate engagement, media campaigns, undercover investigations and strategic communications are increasingly being used together rather than independently. Activist groups are also becoming more sophisticated in identifying indirect ways to influence companies, supply chains, and customers.
For pork producers, this reinforces the importance of maintaining strong relationships throughout the supply chain, documenting animal care practices, communicating transparently and staying informed about emerging activist narratives before they gain momentum. No one can predict exactly what the next campaign will target. But monitoring these discussions provides valuable insight into how future issues may develop—and gives the industry more time to prepare thoughtful, science-based responses.
At the Animal Agriculture Alliance, we monitor these conversations year-round to help our members stay ahead of emerging activist strategies. Our Member Resource Center includes detailed conference recaps, details on emerging trends, and resources designed to help producers and agribusinesses anticipate challenges before they reach the headlines.
