Reforming the food system, starting in the Global South.

What they do

Sinergia Animal’s work is shaping the future of farming for the better in parts of the world where factory farming is growing fastest.

Across the world, both factory farming and meat eating are growing fastest in ‘the global south’—broadly Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania (except Australia and New Zealand). However, almost all of the work to tackle factory farming happens in the USA and Europe.

That’s why Sinergia Animal’s work is so important. They put pressure on big organizations in these parts of the world to make lasting changes in the food system for the sake of animals and the planet, pushing companies to boycott products made with factory farming’s worst practices.

Their focus on this region is particularly valuable because reform efforts are less mature there, and lower labor costs offer the possibility of helping more animals per dollar donated than in the US or Europe.

Volunteers coordinated by Sinergia Animal protest the use of battery cages for chickens in the egg production industry in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

How they do it

Sinergia secures welfare improvements for millions of animals by working with volunteers to pressure major food companies through public protests and online campaigns. They conduct undercover investigations to expose mistreatment and hold businesses accountable. Afraid that this animal abuse will hurt their brand, businesses have an incentive to improve their practices.

Their campaigns have successfully secured many corporate commitments to end some of the most inhumane industry practices, such as confining hens and mother pigs to tiny cages and the mutilation of piglets through tail docking and castration without anesthetic.

Through their Nourishing Tomorrow program, which encourages institutions like schools and universities to switch to plant-based meals at least once a week, they have successfully helped many public and private institutions reduce their animal and environmental impact.

They have also put pressure on development organizations, such as the World Bank and European Bank, to stop investing in factory farming so that the future of the food system isn’t tied to this most destructive of industries.

Photo from Gabriela Penela (We Animals Media)

Sinergian Animal’s main programs are:
1. Reducing suffering in the egg industry
Sinergia campaigns against the confinement of hens in battery cages, pressuring corporations to phase out this system. After securing enough corporate commitments in a country, they lobby the government to ban battery cages entirely. This program operates in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Peru, Indonesia, and Thailand.
2. Corporate welfare commitments for pigs in Brazil
Sinergia works with corporations in Brazil, the world’s fourth-largest pork producer, to eliminate practices like extended confinement of mother pigs in gestation crates and piglet mutilations without anesthesia. They collaborate with pork producers, supermarkets, restaurant chains, and food manufacturers to ban these practices.
3. Nourishing Tomorrow (Institutional Meat Reduction)
This program engages public and private institutions in Argentina, Colombia, Indonesia, and Thailand to reduce animal product consumption by 20-40%. They work with universities, government bodies, and prisons to offer more plant-based options, implement vegetarian menu days, and provide information about the health and environmental impacts of different food choices.
4. Research and Investigations
Sinergia conducts undercover investigations in factory farms and fisheries to expose abuse through media and social media coverage. They also produce academic research and collaborate with market research companies to conduct surveys.
5. Financial Institutions
This program influences financial institutions to stop investing in companies with low welfare standards, incentivize plant-based alternatives and higher-welfare systems, and divest from factory farming. It includes targeting development banks through a coalition of NGOs and ranking commercial banks’ animal welfare policies via a dedicated website.
6. Influencing Public Opinion
Sinergia works to shift public opinion on the food system by spreading information about current practices and opportunities for change. They use news media, influencer partnerships, and social media to reach audiences in all the countries where they operate.
According to an impact audit of Sinergia’s between January 2021 and June 2022, they achieved the following milestones in this period:
- Secured seven corporate pig welfare commitments in Brazil at the incredibly low cost of ~$11,000 each.
- Obtained 24 laying hen welfare commitments at about ~$12,500 each.
- Secured institutional meat reduction commitments covering ~370k meals per year. If these commitments are kept for just five years, that means less than 7c per meal
- Released four undercover investigations, helping people learn about the conditions on factory farms ~8 million times

Why support them

Sinergia Animal is working to fix factory farming in regions where more than three-quarters of animals are farmed each year, but which receive only a small fraction of the resources aimed at fixing factory farming.
They’re making a big difference in the lives of many animals affected by factory farming, and doing it with a surprisingly small budget.
Sinergia comes highly recommended by experts, having been endorsed by Animal Charity Evaluators for the past six years. You can explore their detailed evaluation here.

Donate to Sinergia Animal