28 Oct The Planet B Chronicles: 55. Heroes Of Our Movement
“The peace map is drawn on the menu” – Philip Wollen.
Dear Climate Healers,
All social justice issues are connected. It’s just one fight for justice and we are all in this together around food, clothing, shelter, and even our purpose as a species.
Speciesism, Colonialism, Racism, Ableism, Patriarchy, and Capitalism, to name a few, are intricately interconnected systems of harm, causing our Planetary PolyCrisis and accelerating the Sixth Great Mass Extinction that is already well underway. The root cause is Planet A, the Operating System of human civilization focused on endless economic growth, maximizing resource extraction, while externalizing costs as much as possible from the dominant class to the oppressed class.
This is good news, because the obvious solution is to install in parallel, Planet B, an alternate Operating System for human civilization focused on world peace and planetary health, prioritizing sufficiency over growth, true cost accounting and zero animal exploitation. Humanity can then transition from Planet A to Planet B as rapidly as possible.
As Tom Friedman of the NY Times said,
“The only way forward is that we, as a species, are going to have to learn to detribalize, depolarize and detoxify ourselves at a speed, scope and scale we had never, ever, even contemplated.”
THE MILLION VEGAN GRANDMOTHERS GATHERING
The injustice and systemic oppression in our world have rarely felt more visible, and the need for ethical leadership, real awareness, and radical compassion has never been higher.
As humanity stands at a major crossroads, it is clear that one of the biggest keys to creating a truly compassionate world is rethinking how we treat animals in the industrial food system. In this enormous shift, transforming the dairy industry might just be the crucial first domino that needs to fall so a fully vegan world can follow.
For us, this is simply not about changing what we eat. It is about how we see one another, how we respond to suffering, and whether we are willing to extend the love we feel for our own families to the mothers, babies, and other beings with whom we share this Earth.
As grandmothers, elders, and compassionate allies, we have an opportunity to help shape a future rooted in kindness, justice, and respect for all life. Recently, we had the absolute honor of interviewing two incredible ethical leaders on the Million Vegan Grandmothers Podcast: Philip Wollen and Miyoko Schinner.
We want to share these conversations with you because their work offers us inspiration, courage, and a glimpse of what becomes possible when we allow our values to guide our lives.
PHILIP WOLLEN: RADICAL GENEROSITY IN ACTION
Philip Wollen used to operate at the top levels of global finance as Vice-President of Citibank and General Manager at Citicorp. Decades ago, before turning 40, he made a life-changing decision: to give away his wealth “with warm hands.” He started the Winsome Constance Kindness Trust, named after his mother and grandmother, to act as a venture capitalist for ethical causes.
Today, Philip’s philanthropy powers over 850 projects across 78 countries, building animal sanctuaries, vet clinics, deep-water borewells, and mobile wildlife ambulances.
Philip views animal liberation as the ultimate social justice issue in human history. A shift even more profound than the Industrial Revolution or the major scientific discoveries of Galileo, Copernicus, Darwin, or Freud. Why? Because it protects the foundation of everything: life itself.
He reminds us that peace isn’t just the absence of human conflict; it requires real, active universal justice.
As Philip put it:
“The peace map is drawn on the menu.”
His life is a powerful testament to living your values. As he says:
“In the final accounting, only three things truly matter: how deeply you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things that were never meant for you.”
These words invite us to reflect on what we want our own lives to stand for. What if the measure of our success were not simply what we accumulate, but how deeply we love, how gently we live, and how much suffering we help alleviate?
For those of us working toward a more compassionate world, Philip’s example reminds us that we can put our resources, our voices, and our lives in service of something much greater than ourselves.
LISTEN TO THE PHILIP WOLLEN INTERVIEW:
MIYOKO SCHINNER: ETHICAL LEADERSHIP AND A NEW VISION FOR BUSINESS
We were just as inspired talking with Miyoko Schinner, the vegan entrepreneur, chef and author widely known as the “Queen of Cheese”.
Miyoko approaches leadership as a deep responsibility to care for living beings and rebuild our food systems from the ground up. She flips traditional business on its head: instead of extracting value, business becomes a vehicle for ethical stewardship and real innovation.
In her businesses, Miyoko demonstrates how leadership can reshape economies while fostering true compassion across all species.
“The world is ready for true ethics. The world is ready for change. The world is ready for more than just ‘Buy my product at the best price,’” Miyoko emphasizes, telling us that being a visionary is her sacred source.
“Market research only looks at the past. What people understand to date. It does not reflect what people have not imagined.”
What a powerful reminder that the future is not limited to what we already know. Real transformation requires visionaries who are willing to imagine new possibilities and bring them into being.
Miyoko has written seven cookbooks, and she is currently working on a new book about the food system and how you can fight the oligarchy.
Beyond the business world, her leadership shines through her work at Rancho Compasión, the sanctuary she founded. There, she works directly with rescued farm animals and welcomes children to experience empathy firsthand.
By creating a space where youth can connect with animals as individuals, Miyoko is nurturing the next generation of compassionate leaders. Showing kids how to care for animals and live harmoniously with nature is just as powerful a form of leadership as transforming global food economies.
As Miyoko explains:
“We let the children see the animals for the individuals that they are. Instead of indoctrinating them. Kids are naturally not only curious, but also compassionate. And you have to maintain that compassion before it gets overlooked, forgotten and buried underneath all the indoctrination.”
We find this approach especially powerful. When children are given the opportunity to meet animals as individuals, they can discover the connection that exists beyond the boundaries of our species. Their natural curiosity and empathy can be nurtured rather than diminished.
Perhaps one of our most important responsibilities as elders is to help protect this innate compassion in our children, giving them the freedom to question, to care, and to recognize the lives and relationships of other beings.
LISTEN TO THE MIYOKO SCHINNER INTERVIEW:
WHAT THESE CONVERSATIONS MEAN TO US
Both interviews remind us of the importance of ethical leadership and the power each of us has to contribute to a more compassionate world. Philip demonstrates what it means to put generosity into action, using wealth and influence to relieve suffering across the world, while Miyoko shows us how business, food innovation, and education can become vehicles for compassion and transformation.
Their work also brings us back to a question at the heart of Million Vegan Grandmothers:
How can we create a world that protects the grandchildren of all species and their homes?
For us, the answer begins with widening our circle of compassion.
When we think about mothers and babies, we think not only of the love we recognize in our own families but of the mother cow calling for her calf and the profound relationship between them. We think about how differently we might live if we allowed ourselves to recognize these relationships and honor them. Milk does not come from “a cow.” It comes from a mother. Her calf is not a by-product of dairy production. That calf is her baby.
Transforming the dairy industry is part of a much larger invitation to rethink our relationship with animals, our food systems, and the Earth itself. It is an opportunity to bring our everyday choices into greater alignment with the compassion we want to see in the world. We do not have to do everything at once. We can begin where we are, learn from one another, and take the next step together.
We believe that our communities become stronger when we create space for these conversations, share the work of compassionate leaders, and support one another in turning our ideals into everyday action. This is why we are so grateful for the Million Vegan Grandmothers community—and why we would love for you to join us.
COME GATHER WITH US: MILLION VEGAN GRANDMOTHERS
Our biweekly gatherings are beginning again regularly on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, and we warmly invite you to join us.
Whether you are a grandmother, grandfather, parent, activist, educator, sanctuary supporter, or simply someone who cares deeply about animals and the Earth, you are welcome.
You do not need to have all the answers. You do not need to be an expert. You simply need a willingness to connect, share, listen, and explore how we can contribute to a kinder world together.
These gatherings are an opportunity to reconnect with kindred spirits, share inspiration and ideas, strengthen our collective work, and remember that we are not alone in our commitment to compassion.
Our next gathering:
Wednesday, October 28, 2026
5:30 PM Pacific Time
, 6:30 PM Mountain Time
Join us here:
https://climatehealers.org/convergence
We will continue meeting every other Wednesday.
Invite a friend who shares your hope for a world in which all beings are treated with kindness and respect.
We may each bring different experiences, gifts, and perspectives, but we share the possibility of creating something beautiful together. We can support ethical leaders, help transform our food systems, nurture compassion in the next generation, and widen our understanding of family to include all beings.
Our grandchildren are counting on us—all of them.
Let us continue learning, loving, and working together for a world in which compassion is not simply an aspiration, but a way of life.
Love All. Feed All. Serve All. Heal All.
Join Us for V-COP27
The Emergence of Planet B will be the theme of the upcoming hybrid in-person/virtual Vegan Convergence Of the Peoples #27 (V-COP27), which will be hosted in Sadhana Forest, Auroville, TN, India, from Friday, Nov 6, 2026 through Sunday, Nov 8, 2026. Please join us and become a developer of Planet B.
More on Planet B
You can download the PDFs of both Planet B books: “There IS a Planet B” and “A Guide to Planet B” for free at https://climatehealers.org/for-you/books.
You can read two peer-reviewed papers on Planet B here:
Planet B: A Systems Engineering Framework for World Peace and Planetary Health
Planet B: A PolySolution for the Planetary PolyCrisis Emergency
For more on Planet B, please go to https://climatehealers.org/planetb
With love and gratitude,
Tami Hay, Anne Casparsson
& Sailesh Rao
Million Vegan Grandmothers
Podcast:
Million Vegan Grandmothers
Listen, connect, and share:
Million Vegan Grandmothers Podcast
https://www.youtube.com/@MillionVeganGrandmothers/videos
International Calf & Cow Mother’s Day
Join our biweekly gatherings
https://climatehealers.org/convergence
May all beings be happy and free.
Let’s work together, and work fast, or by 2026 it will be too late. The damage done will be irreversible. We can do it.
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