Leah Garcés

From 2003 to 2010, Garcés served as director of campaigns and programmes at World Animal Protection in London. Her work took her around the globe, campaigning against bullfighting in Spain, protecting dolphins taken from Fiji to perform in Mexico, and fighting bear-bile farming in Asia.

From 2001 to 2003, Garcés served as international campaign manager for Compassion in World Farming.[5] She returned to the organization in 2011, founding its U.S. chapter, Compassion in World Farming USA.

Garcés became known for her work with whistleblowing chicken farmers. In 2014, New York Times[6] journalist Nicholas Kristof broke the story of her collaboration with North Carolina chicken farmer Craig Watts—a contractor for Perdue Farms—who opened his barns to Garcés to film the poor animal welfare conditions. Shortly after, the story was covered by WIRED,[7] Vice,[8] the Washington Post,[9] Business Insider,[10] Salon,[11] and others and was the subject of a documentary film by Fusion TV.[12] Less than two years later, Perdue Farms[13] committed to higher animal welfare standards.

In 2016, Garcés collaborated with Mike Weaver, at the time a contract chicken farmer for Pilgrim’s Pride, for another exposé in the New York Times[14] by Kristof revealing diseased and injured chickens.

While at Compassion in World Farming USA, Garcés also influenced Chipotle,[15] Trader Joe’s,[16] Panera Bread,[17] and other food companies to improve animal welfare standards in their supply chains.

Garcés became president of Mercy For Animals[18] in October 2018.

Active in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Latin America, India, and Hong Kong, Mercy For Animals works to "construct a compassionate food system by reducing suffering and ending exploitation of animals for food."[19] Mercy For Animals campaigns[20] for stronger laws and higher animal welfare standards in the food industry, conducts undercover investigations at intensive animal farming operations and slaughter plants, and works with K–12 schools to serve more plant-based meals.

The organization has worked with numerous celebrities to expose animal cruelty and promote plant-based eating, including Joaquin Phoenix,[21] Bob Barker,[22] Candice Bergen,[23] Daniella Monet,[24] Sarah Jeffery, Felipe Neto,[25] and Eugenio Derbez.[26]

In Garces’s first year as president, Mercy For Animals helped move more than 50 food brands[27] to adopt stronger animal welfare standards; released two undercover investigations[28] into Mexico’s meat industry,[29] one investigation[30] into the U.S. pork industry, and several drone investigations[31] of intensive animal farming operations in numerous countries; partnered with the state of Belo Horizonte in Brazil to serve more plant-based meals in schools, affecting 200,000[32] students; and helped pass Proposition 12[33] in California, which will phase out the sale and production of pork, eggs, and veal from intensively confined animals.

In November 2019, the organization launched the Transfarmation Project,[34] which helps farmers switch from raising animals to growing plants.

Garcés’s book, Grilled: Turning Adversaries into Allies to Change the Chicken Industry,[35] was published on September 3, 2019, by Bloomsbury USA. In the book,[36] Garcés details her efforts to reduce animal suffering in the chicken industry by working with whistleblowing chicken farmers to expose inhumane conditions and with large meat and food companies to set higher animal welfare standards.

Grilled was endorsed[37] by Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey, New York Times bestselling author A.J. Jacobs, Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario, Big Chicken author and journalist Maryn McKenna, actress and author Joanna Lumley, and Dr. Bronner’s CEO David Bronner. The book received positive coverage in Vox,[38] Civil Eats,[39] The Ezra Klein Show,[40] OZY,[41] and Women You Should Know.[42]