Rowdy Girl Sanctuary is helping farmers go plant-based
Renee King-Sonnen: Farmers and ranchers are always getting bailed-out. They need incentives to get out of animal agriculture. If not for the ethics, for the environment.
JESSICA WAKEMAN: Renee King-Sonnen is the founder of the Texas-based non-profit Rowdy Girl Sanctuary, formerly known as Sonnen Ranch… Renee founded Rowdy Girl Sanctuary in 2015. She tells LIVEKINDLY it’s the first documented beef cattle ranch conversion in the U.S. “Our story started the conversation for farm transition,” she explains. After marrying her husband, Renee moved to the 96-acre ranch in 2009. She subsequently fell in love with the animals. However, she says watching the animals being sent to the sale barn “haunted” her.
“I began to have feelings for the animals that I eat,” she says. “I saw babies being born. And I saw families being ripped apart when my husband would send them to the sale barn. The mamas cried for days. And this went on for years until it broke me.” “I always considered myself a compassionate person that believed in non-violence,” she continues. “But it wasn’t until I was met face to face with animals that I ate, that I actually saw them as somebodies”…
Renee says she went vegan in 2014—all thanks to a 2-month-old calf named Rowdy Girl. “I had nobody screaming at me. I had no vegan activist waving the flag. My vegan activist was a little calf named Rowdy Girl,” she explains. “And Rowdy Girl is the reason why there’s a Rowdy Girl Sanctuary. And I don’t really know where Rowdy Girl begins and I end.” She then began to educate herself about veganism and how to be an advocate for animals. After starting a Facebook page called “Vegan Journal of a Rancher’s Wife,” she says she finally confronted her husband…
Renee and Tommy eventually agreed to her buying all of the animals herself. So, in January 2015, she started a campaign on Indiegogo to raise the funds. She also held a fundraiser at the ranch. She was able to raise $36,000 and bought her husband’s 29 cows. “We raised plenty. We raised the money we needed so I could buy the cows. And that’s the day Tommy went vegan,” she explains… With a desire to help more farmers transition away from animal agriculture, Renee founded the support system Rancher Advocacy Program (RAP) in 2018.
Since then, she’s been working to help ranchers embrace plant-based crops instead… In lieu of animal agriculture, RAP works to help farmers embrace plant-based crops. Cindy says she and her husband plan to build a greenhouse to grow micronutrient-rich foods like broccoli and radishes… Renee wants to help farmers transition to plant-based agriculture not just in the U.S., but around the world. In November, RAP held its first summit, which was attended by more than 500 people from 18 different countries…
Renee says her ability to connect with ranchers has aided in RAP’s success. “I go into the back door of their consciousness. And I have conversations with them that they have never been able to have out loud with anyone because it’s taboo. It’s taboo to talk about your feelings for animals that you eat if you’re a cattle rancher. If you’re sending animals to slaughter, you can’t have feelings for them. Even though you do, you can’t say it out loud,” she explains…
But in order for farms to convert on a larger scale, Renee says the government must get involved. “We must get lobbyists in Congress legislating on our behalf. All these animal-ag subsidies are in the billions of dollars to help farmers and ranchers whenever there are floods, whenever there’s fires, whatever,” she explains. “All these farmers and ranchers are always getting bailed out. They need some incentive to get out of animal agriculture — if not for the ethics, for the environment”. SOURCE…
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