FAN Club Profile, Louise Hazan, May 2009
Louise Hazan
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Name: Louise Hazan
When were you involved in People & Planet? I was the Go Green campaign intern for P&P in 2005-2006, and I’ve been a dedicated P&P Fan Club member ever since.
What are you doing now? How did you get there? I’m now a Local Activism Coordinator for Friends of the Earth. At the moment, I’m working on our new Food Chain campaign to revolutionise the way meat and dairy is produced in the UK. Few people realise that the meat and dairy industry causes more climate-changing emissions than all transport put together. A hidden chain stretches from UK factory farms to the rainforests of South America where huge soy plantations are wiping out forests to feed our animals. My job is to figure out creative ways for our activist network to raise public awareness and bring about the political change we need to support good food, thriving farms and a healthy planet. In my spare time, I’m still an active campaigner with my local Friends of the Earth group, and I coordinate the Young Friends of the Earth network, which is part of a growing European youth environmental movement.
What inspired you to start campaigning? I was volunteering in Cameroon on a project to protect the rainforest from overharvesting and illegal logging in an area where much of it had already been destroyed by huge palm oil plantations. It was an exciting project working with local people, but it made me realise that the way to have the biggest impact on deforestation is by tackling the root causes of the problem — ie. the rich world’s overconsumption of resources. I headed back to the UK to start campaigning with P&P!
What impact has being involved with P&P had on you? It’s taught me everything I know about campaigning! The internship left me with skills and knowledge that I use every day in my current role. Although I left P&P a few years ago, I still feel like a part of the network and have made amazing friends that will last for life.
Describe your biggest success as part of P&P? I guess it would have to be coming up with the Green League. In its early days it was just an off-the-wall idea for injecting a new spirit of competition and momentum back into the Go Green campaign. It’s been amazing to see it develop over the last couple of years into such a powerful campaigning tool, which is really helping students to push the education sector forward.
What do you think is the most pressing issue in the UK today? Deforestation - forests are the world’s lungs and without them we have no chance of stopping climate change. If current trends continue, 40 per cent of the Amazon will be lost to soy farming and cattle ranching by 2050. We need a radical new vision of farming that feeds people without ripping up the rainforest. Find out how you can fix the Food Chain.
What are your ambitions for the future? World domination, mwa-ha-ha!
