Ren Ryba
she/her or they/them
My work focuses on animal advocacy. I have been deeply involved in numerous fish welfare projects in particular. I worked at Animal Ask from 2021 to 2025, and I’m now an independent contractor. I like researching things, planning things, and organising things. I’m the proud parent of two special-needs rescue dogs.
I have experience in ecology, fisheries science, and statistics from my time in academia and government. I enjoy thinking about politics and social justice. I like soccer!
- Proudly transgender and autistic
- Kaurna land (South Australia)
- “Ryba” is pronounced “REE-ber” and it means “fish” in Slovak
- Years lived: 37 %
Books
Shrimp and Prawn Welfare in the Wild-Caught Fishing Industry: A Global Review and Recommendations for Research and Policy
An academic book with Shannon M Davis, Tse Yip Fai, and Peter Singer; buy from Routledge hereTrash Fish: Navigating the Shoals of Gender, Species, and Meaning in an Oppressive World
A book of autobiographical essays, free to read and download here
An academic book with Shannon M Davis, Tse Yip Fai, and Peter Singer; buy from Routledge hereTrash Fish: Navigating the Shoals of Gender, Species, and Meaning in an Oppressive World
A book of autobiographical essays, free to read and download here
Publications
Animal advocacy reports
- The economics of aquaculture and fish welfare in Europe: A systematic review, 2025.
- Tiered certification schemes for slower-growing chicken: Can a tiered animal welfare label help the Better Chicken Commitment?, 2025.
- Salmon aquaculture in Chile: Top opportunities to improve fish welfare, 2025, with George Bridgwater.
- Animal advocacy in Canada, 2025, with George Bridgwater & Max Carpendale.
- Animal advocacy in Brazil: Top opportunities for impact, 2025, with George Bridgwater & Max Carpendale.
- Slower-growing broilers and greenhouse gas emissions: Briefing report for animal advocacy organisations, 2024.
- Alternative proteins: What are the best government policies to support the industry?, 2024, with Max Carpendale.
- Farm animal welfare in Ghana, 2024, with George Bridgwater & Max Carpendale.
- Animal welfare in the United States: Opportunities for impact, 2024.
- Global performance indicators: Could they help improve animal welfare policy?, 2024.
- Meat reduction: How much can digital media and mass media help?, 2024.
- Reforming the regulatory framework for animal welfare in Slovenia: An initial look, 2024.
- Modelling the outcomes of animal welfare interventions: One possible approach to the trade-offs between subjective experiences, 2024.
- Reminding myself just how awful pain can get (plus, an experiment on myself), 2023.
- Recommendations for optimising the European Chicken Commitment, 2023, with George Bridgwater & Max Carpendale.
- Party politics for animal advocacy: Part 2 – Establishing groups across or within major parties, 2023.
- Party politics for animal advocacy: Part 1 – Animal-focused minor political parties, 2023.
- Farmed animal advocacy in Zimbabwe: Top opportunities for improving animal welfare and community health, 2023, with Max Carpendale, Matthew Blyth & Nadine Grinberg.
- Can the trajectory of meat consumption and production in developing countries be influenced by policy? An agenda for animal advocacy researchers, 2023, with Matthew Blyth.
- Economic evaluation of the transition to cage-free housing on the EU egg and pigmeat industries: A systematic review, 2023.
- Animal welfare during transport: A first look, 2023.
- Farmed fish advocacy in Denmark: Top opportunities for improving the lives of fish, 2023, with George Bridgwater & Max Carpendale..
- Farmed animal advocacy in Uganda: Top opportunities for improving animal welfare and community health, 2022.
- Subsidies: Which reforms can help animals?, 2022.
- Independent Office of Animal Protection, 2022.
- CCTV cameras in slaughterhouses: Modest benefits for animal welfare, 2022.
- Meat tax: Why chickens pay the price, 2022.
- Imports to meet UK animal welfare standards, 2022.
- The challenges with measuring the impact of lobbying, 2022.
- Economic evaluation of humane slaughter methods for farmed fish in Italy; accompanying Greece report, 2022.
Academic publications
Animal welfare
- Breaking free from the trend: Outlier policies promote sustainable poultry practices, Frontiers in Animal Science, 2025, with I. Khire.
- Are slow-growing broiler chickens actually better for animal welfare? Shining light on a poultry welfare concern using a farm-scale economic model, British Poultry Science, 2024, with I. Khire.
- Evaluating the economic impacts of a cage-free animal welfare policy in Southeast Asian and Indian egg production: A systematic review, Evaluation Review, 2024.
- Humane slaughter in Mediterranean sea bass and bream aquaculture: farm characteristics, stakeholder views, and policy implications, Frontiers in Aquaculture, 2024, with K. van Pelt.
Insect farming
- Have the environmental benefits of insect farming been overstated? A critical review, under review, 2025, with C. Biteau et al.
- Beyond the buzz: A review of the prospects of replacing meat consumption with insect-based foods, npj Sustainable Agriculture, 2025, with C. Biteau et al.
- Bugs in the system: The logic of insect farming research is flawed by unfounded assumptions, npj Sustainable Agriculture, 2024, with C. Biteau et al.
- Offshoring insect farms may jeopardise Europe’s food sovereignty, Global Sustainability, 2024.
- Is turning food waste into insect feed an uphill climb? A review of persistent challenges, Sustainable Production and Consumption, 2024, with C. Biteau et al.
- Insect-based livestock feeds are unlikely to become economically viable in the near future, Food and Humanity, 2024, with C. Biteau et al.
Science writing
- Climate donations inspired by evidence-based fundraising, Frontiers in Psychology, 2022, with M. Dry & S. D. Connell.
- Better writing in scientific publications builds reader confidence and understanding, Frontiers in Psychology, 2021, with Z. Doubleday, M. Dry, C. Semmler & S. D. Connell.
- Sparking creativity in science education, The Journal of Creative Behavior, 2021, with J. T. Draper & S. D. Connell.
- How can we boost the impact of publications? Try better writing), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019, with Z. Doubleday & S. D. Connell.
Science and philosophy
- The evolving circle of landscape design, Restoration Ecology, 2023, with M. McQuillan.
- Funding conservation through an emerging social movement, Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 2021, with S. D. Connell.
- Animal minds, social change, and the future of fisheries science, Frontiers in Marine Science, 2021, with S. D. Connell.
- Advancing government legitimacy through the scientific study of sentience, World Futures, 2021, with S. D. Connell.
- How can ecologists thrive during the global environmental crisis? Lessons from the ancient world, Restoration Ecology, 2019, with T. Preston.
Just for fun
- Books are overwhelmingly supportive of transgender identities: Analysing queer literature using a Goodreads web scrape, 2025, with M. Freeling, preprint.
- On the relative contribution of sunlight and air temperature to soil solarisation: Observational evidence from Australia, Soil Science, 2024, with M. McQuillan & R. Smernik.
Datasets
Blog
These posts are hot takes and tidbits on topics that I find interesting, not systematic or rigorous examinations. “Notes on” posts summarise key academic sources on a given topic, rather than involving my own reasoning or views. I do not use generative AI to write.
filter academic-life ai animals autism code effective-altruism history life-ops mental-health philosophy plaintext politics queer reading-lists religion research satire self-improvement soccer social-challenges tattoos | show all
- Three ways to analyze your journal entries using data analysis
- Insects killed by driving
- Notes on anger
- Minimal ethics
- Notes on artificial turf, with a focus on invertebrate animals
- Notes on sport imagery and sexualisation
- Applying 'Inbox Zero' to text messages (and other notes on tinkering with your phone)
- Simple grace - You are always enough
- Tucking underwear for trans women: My rankings!
- Essential Euphoria: Getting the most gender euphoria and queer joy for the smallest investment of time and money
- Notes on generative AI in academic research
- The Dread Reservation approach to (avoiding) advanced technology
- Legislative-physiological systems: Changing laws to influence biology
- Five hundred weeks: Why you might have less time than you think
- The Azbantium wall from Doctor Who and the central mission of animal advocacy
- Finding a free and effective academic database/search engine
- The Sudoku scale for measuring task difficulty
- Tattoos as asserting control over one's body
- Compelling fiction gives you questions, not answers
- Notes on autism and suicidal ideation
- The economics of taking the ball to the corner flag in soccer
- Tattoo traditions and empires that want to control people's bodies
- Tattoo highs and endorphins
- Notes on second-hand cannabis exposure and the philosophy of drug-driving laws
- Tattoos are expensive, and this fact is interesting
- Notes on the ethics of digital piracy for personal use
- Violent activities (when done with skill and consent) involve showing more care to ourselves and others
- What are we doing when we play (and watch) sport?
- Notes on bias against face tattoos
- Notes on vitamin B6 toxicity
- Analysis of goals conceded by Westminster in the first five matches
- Home field advantage in the A-League Women
- Tattoos, embodiment, and neoliberal 'professionalism' ideology
- When success breeds problems
- Tattoos that you need to earn
- Ancient Slavic and European tattoos
- Notes on separation anxiety and autism
- In casual sports, the optimal win rate is not 100%
- Resources: Intersectional animal advocacy
- Notes on the ethics of interacting with the dead
- Quotes on being patient as an activist
- The Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible, and cultural appropriation
- The history of Aotearoa New Zealand in Australian federation
- Resources: Buddhism and meditation
- Reserving judgment by reversing judgment
- Brief thoughts on the tension between animal ethics and environmental ethics
- Billboards and forests are governed by similar processes
- The relationship between internal comfort levels and external signs of stress (or, masking to survive)
- Soccer, the offside rule, and generational amnesia
- 'Healthy fear' mindset
- Athletes and mental health challenges
- Empathy, panic, and witnessing everyday trauma (plus, resources on overcoming compassion fatigue)
- Resources: Connecting with your inner child as therapy and practice
- What percentage of books can you read?
- Unique soccer matches from history
- The Increasing Difficulty of Communication
- Laws regulating annual paid leave are suboptimal and irrational
- How many people actually work 9 to 5?
- Cause and meaning can be different
- I think ChatGPT's Deep Research will transform the process of doing secondary research
- Animal advocacy across borders
- U.S. egg prices and indirect benefits for animal welfare
- Trump's first four weeks
- Notes on the good pain!
- Controlling what you cannot control
- Comfort in the inner lives of historical figures
- Gender transformation in the early Christian community
- Do not mistake a metaphor for a strategy
- Do not confuse deliberation with persuasion
- Avoiding the physical world means faster feedback loops!
- When ethics gives way to self-indugence
- How to ruin any horror movie
- Words that don't mean anything
- Notes on ACL injuries in women
- Notes on incest
- Notes on the rainbow flag, neocolonialism, and capitalism
- Notes on eating disorders, body composition, and soccer
- Notes on AI and authorship
- Notes on the ethics of Uber
- Relationship between my book ratings and Goodreads book ratings
- Notes on brain zaps
- If you invite somebody to a video call, give them an out
- Notes on effects of conventional vs vegan diets for dogs
- Overcoming the violence inherent in competitive games
- Right now, there is no AI that can outperform humans at performing meaningful research and analysis
- Animals and unconditional acceptance
- Notes on the (surprisingly poor) empirical evidence for health effects of body weight and body fat
- Notes on open-access mega journals (Frontiers, MDPI, etc)
- Science is getting faster, but not that much faster
- In defence of moral licensing
- Current trends in space do not point towards successful colonisation
- Tips for excellent visual science communication
- Success grammar
- Who knows the thing that you need to know?
- The amazing, high-quality work by internet hobbyists
- You can socialise without having to socialise
- Happy gay wallpapers
- Notes on artificial light perception in dogs
- Top-down work days vs bottom-up work days
- Flexible productivity systems and the Ship of Theseus
- Animal grief falls through the cracks
- 'Tomorrow Will Be Different' wallpaper
- All roads lead to 'Love your neighbour as yourself'
- Allowing ideas to expand to fill the space
- Trump's second term and variable mortgage rates in Australia
- Random unexpected effects of hormone replacement therapy
- Better ways to search for movies and TV series
- Nuke the whales
- Some notes on scraping Goodreads
- Automating searches for audiobooks
- Notes on welfare of the goldfish (Carassius auratus)
- Are meditation retreats designed for neurotypical people?
- Notes on tattoos and melanoma
- In-and-out searches vs exhaustive searches
- Meditation means simply living your life
- Against kindness
- Self-sufficiency and the fractal nature of one's surroundings
- Noise-sensitive dogs and quiet computer keyboards
- Age and quality writing
- The great leveller: a counterargument to the dizzying pace of science
- Joy of missing out
- Constructive vs productive
- Making your high-value leisure time easier
- Never do any work
- A better way to give and receive feedback on written documents
- The uncelebrated Welsh woman who might have saved your life
- A quantitative measure of sky brightness intensity
- Adapting to Sturgeon's law
- Message undeliverable (or, in defence of recluses!)
- Workflow for converting from PDF to audiobook using command-line tools
- Gatekeeping attention
- The dizzying rate of skill advancement and its existential implications
- Staying sane in the dizzying new reality
- Three types of productivity
- Hyperefficient (Dr Mithu Storoni)
- Making systematic literature searches slightly more automated
- The dizzying rate of science and its existential implications
- Heaven
- One hundred years of Port Noarlunga and the reef
- Notes on nuclear war and Australian defence
- Notes on deep uncertainty and cluelessness
- Relative vs absolute measures of scale (or, why moving a low-scale ask to China doesn't rescue it)
- Thirteen essential ingredients for doing good
- Voice pitch training using R and the command line
- Three pieces of language I wish I had growing up
- Taking a beating
- Workflow for taking notes from scientific papers
- Some poems by Buddhist nuns of Late Imperial China
- Some bangers from Essentialism
- Are most statements wrong?
- Hesitate, but make it snappy
- Nobody has any idea whether wild-caught fishing is good or bad
- Do everything in plain text
- Measuring human history
- Some data on respiratory infections in Australia
- Some quotes on suffering-focused ethics
- On welfare vs abolitionism in animal advocacy
- A modest view of doing good
- Convert open-source classical texts to plaintext audiobooks
- Double dividends
- Abundance and scarcity
- Some notes on face masks
- Random ways to improve focus
- Is the United States likely to collapse? Should social justice advocates respond?
- Seclusion and public servce
- Some thoughts on AI
- You know what you need to do!
- Japanese death poems
- Contemplative Prayer by Thomas Merton
- Some types of monastic life that I find exciting
- Some bangers from Bashō
- Some bangers from Bodhidharma
- Religion as counterculture
- Forming a lotus bud
- Some excerpts from poems by Buddhist masters
- The four levels of accepting others
- Three ingredients for sustaining an impactful career
- The best and worst things people have said about me
- Nerds with laptops
- Integrating practice and work
- Some definitions on personal development and transcendence
- Resources: Trans and queer soccer
- Holding space
- Resources: Slow productivity
- Practicing when your world is torn apart
- I know nothing
- Why pigeons are the greatest
- Underappreciated classic: The Caigentan by Hong Zicheng (1590)
- The four layers of reality
- The four ingredients of a thought or feeling
- Resources: Trans and queer spirituality
- Resources: Political history of the Czech Republic
- Are they called shrimp or prawns?
- Resources: Psychology of self-actualisation
- Some quotes on Jesus from some contemporary New Testament scholars
- Some quotes on the mystical nature of the Divine
- Passages on renunciation
- Resources: The modern hermit life
- Some thoughts on lineage in Buddhism
- Even great masters have bad days
- Be compassionate, but not a pushover