Our Campaigns and Accomplishments in
In 2025, we continued to fight for animals on all fronts. We stood strong against new subsidies for the fish industry and blocked attempts to postpone the end of the cage age. We launched a new education program and mobilized a new volunteer outreach group. And as we do every year, we kept veganizing the world with Challenge 22 and amplifying the voices of animals in traditional media, on our websites, and on social media.
We scrapped fish industry funding from proposed new policies
At the beginning of the year, we learned that the Ministry of Agriculture was planning to significantly expand the fish farming industry in Israel. The plans included subsidies of tens of millions of dollars for fish farms including the construction of new overcrowded land-based facilities (RAS), as well as offshore caged fish farms. These plans would have caused severe environmental destruction, a squandering of public funds, and immense suffering for the fishes due to extreme overcrowding, a high risk of mass deaths, and more.
The National Food Security Plan is intended to protect the environment, promote sustainability, health, and local plant-based foods, and reduce animal food consumption. Despite this, the Ministry of Agriculture has been under considerable pressure to use the Plan to give financial support to the fish industry.
We responded by forming a broad coalition of animal rights and environmental organizations – and together we fought back. We drafted position papers, published a petition, invited the public to write letters opposing the plan, held meetings with government officials in the Ministries of Agriculture, Environmental Protection, Finance, and Health, and attended all relevant discussions in parliament.
In March, we rolled out a campaign on the issue, which received a lot of engagement on social media and in the press. The campaign fought against the planned investment in the fish industry. But it also raised awareness about fishes – some of the most overlooked and mistreated animals – and paved the way for protests against future plans investing public funds in increased fish farming.
Together, we achieved an important victory for fishes and the environment. The draft National Food Security Plan published for public comment last October did not include funding for the fish industry! To ensure that our victory becomes a reality, we led another campaign in which around 900 activists sent letters of opposition to the original plan. We are keeping a close eye on initiatives by the fish industry and are ready to take action whenever necessary.
We put animal rights issues in the spotlight
We gave animals a voice in the media
This year, we did everything we could to make animals’ voices heard on every possible platform. We organized interviews and segments on radio, TV, and podcasts, as well as articles and opinion pieces in the news. We reached out to major media outlets to amplify the voices of animals in the mainstream media. We shone a light on many issues, including animal suffering during the war, the transportation of farmed animals, and the delay in enforcing regulations to go cage-free.
We put pressure on businesses to go cage-free
We used corporate responsibility measures to urge food companies to stop using eggs from caged hens. This work was part of the ‘Open Wing Alliance’, which unites around 90 organizations around the world. Our members were active in convincing the giant hotel chain Best Western to hugely reduce its use of caged eggs.
At the beginning of the year, we published our first report reviewing the use of caged eggs in the country. The report highlights the many businesses that have made progress and removed caged eggs from their supply chain, as well as the large companies that have chosen to stay in the past.
We also launched our first ambassador project, which saw determined activists rallying to raise funds to free chickens from cruel battery cages. We will continue to work on all fronts – with parliament, with businesses, and in government – until all cages are empty.
Our pilot project put plant-based food on the menu
The pilot of ‘The Winning Dish’, our groundbreaking initiative to increase plant-based offerings in public cafeterias, was a success! The cafeteria at a large school (HaKfar HaYarok) served 3,000 diners a daily buffet with creative, nutritious plant-based dishes representing half of the menu.
A food consultant helped to develop and refine the menu with the kitchen crew. The consultant trained staff in preparing the plant-based dishes and working with new ingredients. A survey found that most diners tried the new dishes and enjoyed them, and the project ran successfully throughout the school year.
To optimize our approach going forward, we’ve teamed up with the Management Faculty at Ben-Gurion University. The university students rated the effectiveness of various tools we used to encourage plant-based choices. We are currently reviewing the pilot and refining future plans to be as effective as possible.
We spoke out for animals
We had a busy year with many grassroots outreach activities. We launched a new activist group in Jerusalem that already has dedicated volunteers reaching out to the public about the exploitation and suffering in the animal-based food industries, and empowering people to choose a more compassionate lifestyle. Our well-established Tel Aviv outreach group is also constantly growing and evolving.
Both groups connected with thousands of people this year, with many of those reporting that they are ready to change their diet. These dedicated activists personally registered more than 500(!) new participants for Challenge 22 in 2025. Outreach and sign-up actions for Challenge 22 were also held at the White Night events in Tel Aviv, the Jerusalem Pride Parade, and others. In addition, we launched a successful pilot with volunteer chefs preparing delicious food for our outreach actions – helping to change people’s minds through their stomachs.
We stood up for animals online
We continued to maintain, improve, and update our dozens of websites in Hebrew, English, Spanish, and Arabic. We focused on bringing interesting, detailed, and current content to our readers, including topics that are rarely covered in Hebrew.
Our websites received over 1.1 million visitors this year. To continue expanding our reach, we are responding to the dramatic changes in the way people now search for and consume content. This year, thousands of people were directed to the Israeli Vegetarian and Vegan site (‘Veg’) from searches using AI-powered tools. The site has also been successful in encouraging over 640 additional people to sign up for Challenge 22.
We posted over a thousand pieces of content on our various social media platforms in 2025, including our new TikTok pages. We reached over 50 million views across our Facebook pages and 10 million views across our Instagram pages. Meanwhile, the engaging videos on our YouTube channel, including the series ‘Vegan Life’ and ‘What’s the Deal With..?’, garnered 56,000 total hours’ watch time!
We advocated for reduced meat consumption in national targets
We promoted the first ever strategies to cut meat consumption as part of national targets to reduce emissions. These targets have been drafted by various government ministries and will soon be submitted to the United Nations. This is a landmark achievement – until this year, no other country had ever included reduced meat consumption in targets to cut emissions.
The Ministry of Health has also added several of our proposals to the Climate Change Action Plan released this year. These include expanding the range of plant-based meals available in hospitals, encouraging consumers to choose them, and educating the public about the benefits of plant-based foods. This pioneering plan has already received detailed coverage from a major media outlet.
Of course, we won’t be content until these recommendations become a reality. Following our collaboration with the Ministry of Health (as well as environmental and health organizations), the Ministry will soon release a series of new publications. These will encourage the public to increase their consumption of beans and legumes and reduce meat consumption, offering simple practical tips on how to do so.
We proved that there is public support for a tax on meat
Most people support a tax on the most environmentally harmful foods, including meat, as long as the money goes toward making plant-based foods more affordable and/or improving conditions for animals in animal agriculture. This is according to a survey we conducted with ‘Life and Environment’ and the Geocartography Institute.
More positive findings revealed by the survey: about 65% of those surveyed are in favor of support for farmers who want to switch to growing plant-based foods. And about 62% support government policies to improve the availability of plant-based foods in public cafeterias.
Approximately 50% of the public supports increasing the percentage of plant-based dishes in restaurants and cafeterias to represent half of the menu, as well as legal restrictions on advertising processed meat products. Just as importantly, only about a quarter of respondents opposed these measures.
These findings paint a clear picture: the public expects the government to adopt significant measures toward plant-based nutrition in order to meet the goals of the National Food Security Plan. We will be at the center of decision-making to drive this issue forward until we see results.
We fought the delay in ending the cage age
The Ministry of Agriculture and the egg industry tried to delay the realization of our historic 2022 achievement: regulations that promised an end to the cage age in the country. These regulations included a ban on the construction of new caged facilities, which is already in effect, and a transition to completely cage-free facilities by 2037.
Under the new regulations, summer 2025 was set to be the deadline for the legal confinement of chickens in the most cramped battery cages. A chicken in one of these cages lives her entire life in an area smaller than an A4 sheet of paper. But the Department of Agriculture and the egg industry cynically exploited the war to try to delay action by 5 to 10 years.
In response, we led a broad public and governmental campaign that included intensive advocacy: appearances before government committees, meetings with members of parliament and government ministry representatives, and the drafting of position papers with other organizations. We also launched a media and social media campaign on the issue. The extensive coverage in mainstream media showed the Ministry of Agriculture that we are not going to let the issue be forgotten.
We called on the public to join the fight, and more than 600 activists took on the challenge and petitioned against the delay. Thanks to our amazing collective efforts, we have shortened the delay to just 3 years. This is an impressive achievement, but it is not enough. So we joined forces with ‘Let the Animals Live’ to appeal to the High Court.
It is important to note that despite this concession to the industry, many chickens have already been released from cages since the regulations were passed. While in 2021 only about 9% of chickens were cage-free, in early 2025 about 20% of chickens are already cage-free!
We nurtured compassion with both new and established lecture programs
We ran and improved our two flagship educational programs: ‘Change Starts On Our Plates’ and ‘Share the World’. We run the hands-on program ‘Change Starts On Our Plates’, covering sustainable plant-based nutrition, with the Life and Environment organization, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Nutrition Department of the Ministry of Health. This year, we updated and redesigned our content and launched a new website. We also refreshed the content of ‘Share the World’, a program that addresses animal rights. The updated program will be available in schools soon.
This year, we also launched a new innovative education program based on new research into effective change, titled ‘What’s Your Story?’ The program focuses on the power of empathy and compassion as significant forces for social change, teaching students that they have the power to make a positive impact on those around them and to change the storyline. Students start by choosing a picture of an animal and learning that every single animal has their own story. Then, they hear powerful stories of individual animals rescued from harm. They walk away feeling a connection to others and a sense of responsibility for themselves, other people, and other animals.
Our programs reached more than 43,000 students and young people in 2025, many of whom participated more than once. We also provided training to approximately 350 educators. We collaborated with the Israeli Campus, an education center offering training and workshops for teachers on topics related to the environment, health, and sustainability. In addition, we held a webinar titled ‘Seasons of Compassion’, featuring activities for Animal Day in schools.
We also kept building our digital presence: we upgraded our ‘Live Act’ website with new content, a fresh new look, and improved accessibility. The site had over 66,000 visits and more than 5,000 downloads of empowering presentations and lesson plans in 2025.
We also developed a new interactive teaching tool (available on ‘Live Act’) that teaches students how to protect animals by making small but significant changes in their everyday lives. We created this tool as part of a project at the Holon Institute of Technology (HIT).
We created a government plan to promote plant-based foods
As part of our ongoing work with government ministries, we managed to influence the new National Food Security Plan, which has now been drafted and released for public comment. The plan, which will soon be approved by the government, now includes many significant measures to encourage the consumption and production of plant-based foods. It also sets an unprecedented national target to reduce beef and chicken consumption by 54%(!) by 2050. Even the recommended amount of fish consumption has been significantly reduced.
The plan now includes several of our proposals. For example, meat consumption will be reduced in after-school programs and kindergartens, the curriculum will be updated, and nutrition classes will be added to teach students about the benefits of a plant-based diet and what practical steps they can take to change their diet. In addition, the government will include plant-based training materials for doctors and chefs. Incentives and support will be given to farmers who switch to growing legumes.
The plan also includes a proposal we pushed for that establishes a new government fund promoting plant-based foods. The fund will support businesses that develop and market plant-based foods and empower companies to reduce their use of animal products. This fund will also provide financial support to farmers switching to farming crops and will power public awareness campaigns on the benefits of a diet based more on plants.
To make these achievements – and those still to come – we used every tool at our disposal: we collaborated with other organizations, met frequently with government ministries, made information more accessible, and were active at all relevant debates. We also organized meetings between both national and international committees developing food security strategies.
We signed up over ¼ million people for Challenge 22
In 2025, more than 250,000 people from dozens of countries registered for our free programs to go vegan, across our three central projects and our Challenge 22 Community project, which works with organizations from 9 countries worldwide. Over 300 dedicated mentors from around the world supported participants on their journey toward a more compassionate future.
This year, we focused on strengthening the Challenge 22 community through events, training, and new collaborations. We built longer-term connections with our participants and gave them extra tools to go and stay vegan. We organized live events for our participants, graduates, mentors, and administrators to share information, support, and motivation, as well as to create new opportunities for community building and celebrating a vegan lifestyle.
Some of our participants join the Challenge more than once to deepen their knowledge and enjoy the friendly, professional support of our wonderful mentors, many of whom are graduates of Challenge 22 themselves.
We are also busy upgrading and improving Challenge 22 content to ensure that all participants around the world get up-to-date, relevant information tailored to their needs. As part of this process, we have already transferred many groups to instant messaging platforms like WhatsApp, and refreshed the international Challenge 22 website with a redesign.
Join us for another year of action transforming the lives of animals, until all are free.
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