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Wishing all a happy new year - may there be more compassion and less suffering in the world
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In this edition...
Featured Videos |
 Interview: End meat & dairy consumption to prevent worst impacts of climate change |
| DawnWatch's guide to turkey preparation |
Top Stories |
| Why 'plant-based' is more palatable than 'vegan' |
| Meat and dairy industries overproduce despite plummeting demand |
| Meat or two veg? Find your food's carbon footprint |
| The end of animal farming is not an impossible dream |
Health |
| 'Drinking milk for nutrients is like smoking for oxygen' |
| Veganism helps diabetics lose weight and control blood sugar |
Environment |
| The Earth is in a death spiral. It will take radical action to save us |
| A new way to fish - in the lab |
| Urgent need to reduce meat and dairy consumption to meet climate targets, says expert |
Lifestyles and Trends |
| The truth about why we vegans are so vilified |
| Sharing tasty vegan food wins converts |
| Plant-based 'dairy' products aren't new. Neither is the U.S. dairy industry's hostility |
Signs of the Times |
| Over 50 per cent of Australians say they're eating less meat |
| 'Veganism is the future of farming' - former 'humane' pig farmer |
| Never too late: Vegan woman who switched her diet at 96 feels 'wonderful' |
Animal Issues and Advocacy |
| Animal sentience: Cows can be pessimistic and it affects their ability to cope with stress |
| Open rescue animal activists aren't cranks |
| Dairy farmer says 'some mother cows will bawl for days' - the dark side of dairy |
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(Excerpts are included from current news stories. Click on the "Full story" link to read the full article.)
Featured Videos 
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Interview: End meat & dairy consumption to prevent worst impacts of climate change
Video source: Democracy Now, U.S.
 George Monbiot, from The Guardian, says "If the rest of the world wanted to switch to our levels of meat eating, well, there simply wouldn't be enough food to go around. It's a planetary disaster. There wouldn't be enough soil. There wouldn't be enough water. There wouldn't be enough land. What we need to do in the rich nations is to switch toward a plant-based diet. We have the means to do so, we have the technology to do so, we have the choice to do so and I believe that's the course we should take as quickly as possible."
Watch video... |
Democracy Now, U.S. - November 29
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DawnWatch's guide to turkey preparation
Video source: DawnWatch
 With this delightful video "How to prepare your turkey in six steps: Wash, dry, stuff, add water, bake and share" Karen Dawn shows us what delightful creatures turkeys are.
Watch video... |
More videos:
Interview with Farm Sanctuary's Gene Baur
Fox News - also well-worth viewing as the skeptical host becomes sympathetic to the vegan cause (September 4)
Why vegans want you to be vegan
Vegan Activist - powerful short video (October 15)
The future is vegan
VeganKanal - By 2050 the majority of meat, dairy, eggs will be animal free if vegan advocate Jacy Reese is right (September 25)
Debunking the humane meat myth
Plant Based News (September 3)
Mother cow cried all night until reunited with her calf
Watchjojo Animals (November 8)
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| Top Stories
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Why 'plant-based' is more palatable than 'vegan'
Full story: GoodFood, Australia
For some people, "vegan" conjures up images of long-haired hippies and malnourished waif-like creatures who exist on carrot sticks and lettuce. Or perhaps protesters shoving violent images of tortured animals in people's faces and telling them how bad the meat industry is. I am not knocking hard-core vegans... but the world - or the word, in this case - is changing. Vegans are getting a second chance - a chance to reinvent themselves in a more consumer-friendly way by adopting the term "plant-based." Personally, I like the term, especially if it's going to make veganism palatable to more people.
Read more... |
GoodFood, Australia - December 4
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Meat and dairy industries overproduce despite plummeting demand
Full story: COK
As meat industry sales go down, the United States is experiencing a huge surplus of animal products sold as food. Currently supplies of chicken, beef, pork, turkey, and milk far outweigh demand... And this needless supply comes at a heartbreaking cost to animals, workers, and the planet.
Read more... |
Meat or two veg? Find your food's carbon footprint
Full story: BBC
To find out the climate impact of what you eat and drink, choose from one of the 34 items in our calculator and pick how often you have it. Even the most climate-friendly meat options still produce more greenhouse gases than vegetarian protein sources, like beans or nuts...
Read more... |
The end of animal farming is not an impossible dream
Full story: The Progressive
Children are now growing up in a world where veggie burgers taste just like meat, and true meat burgers, grown from cells, are soon to be on supermarket shelves.
Read more... |
The Progressive - September 13
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| Health
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'Drinking milk for nutrients is like smoking for oxygen'
Video source: Plant Based News
Dr Milton Mills explains why humans should not consume dairy.
Watch video... |
Plant Based News - August 1
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Veganism helps diabetics lose weight and control blood sugar
Full story: London Times, UK
Vegans have long championed the health benefits of their diet and now they can point to research suggesting that cutting out meat and dairy can keep type 2 diabetes in check. Patients following a mainly plant-based or vegan diet had better blood-sugar control and lost nearly twice as much weight as those on other diets, according to the review of studies.
Read more (free registration required)... |
London Times, UK - October 31
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| Environment
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The Earth is in a death spiral. It will take radical action to save us
Full story: The Guardian, UK
Climate breakdown could be rapid and unpredictable. We can no longer tinker around the edges and hope minor changes will avert collapse. [By George Monibiiot, featured in the video above.]
Read more... |
The Guardian, UK - November 14
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A new way to fish - in the lab
Full story: Washington Post
[I]f they can figure out the science from beginning to end and, perhaps more important, figure out how to scale up the process into a viable commercial venture, the folks at Finless Foods hint at an almost utopian reversal of fortunes for humans, fish and the environment. Consumers could enjoy bluefin tuna above current recommended levels (one serving per month, says the Environmental Defense Fund; avoid altogether, counters the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch) without fear of ingesting mercury, plastic or other contaminants. Just as important, the three bluefin species could begin to recover from decades of overfishing.
Read more... |
Washington Post - November 13
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Urgent need to reduce meat and dairy consumption to meet climate targets, says expert
Full story: Phys.org
The livestock sector could use almost half of the 1.5 degree C greenhouse gas emission budget allowed by 2030, so addressing this should be a key part of the strategy to hit climate targets, according to a new study published in Climate Policy. Dr. Helen Harwatt, farmed animal law and policy fellow at Harvard Law School, advises that getting protein from plant sources instead of animal sources would drastically help in meeting climate targets and reduce the risk of overshooting temperature goals.
Read more... |
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| Lifestyles and Trends
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The truth about why we vegans are so vilified
Full story: Telegraph, UK
Just for the record, I'm not outraged by Waitrose magazine editor William Sitwell's comments about vegans this week. I'm not even offended that he replied to a freelance food writer's well-meaning suggestion of a vegan recipe series with, 'How about a series on killing vegans, one by one. Ways to trap them?' I am, in fact, just weary. Because as the editor of a vegan food magazine I've heard it all before.
Read more (free registration required)... |
Telegraph, UK - October 30
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Sharing tasty vegan food wins converts
Full story: Plant Based News
Change often scares people, so putting the options out there is really the key to helping them see veganism as accessible and achievable
Read more... |
Plant Based News - November 24
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Plant-based 'dairy' products aren't new. Neither is the U.S. dairy industry's hostility
Full story: Washington Post
Stroll through your local supermarket and it won't be hard to see why some in the dairy industry are, well, having a cow. Milks and cheeses from soy, almonds, coconuts, cashews and even flaxseeds are decidedly in. Cow's milk isn't in danger of being put out to pasture, but consumption in the United States has been in a steady slide since the 1970s and the dairy aisle is getting crowded. The dairy industry is fighting back against the plant-based competition... The dairy industry's hostility to plant-based foods has a long tradition. By 1900, 30 states had made it illegal to dye margarine yellow. Some stipulated that it be dyed pink.
Read more... |
Washington Post - October 19
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| Signs of the Times
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Over 50 per cent of Australians say they're eating less meat
Source: LiveKindly
More than two million Australians are vegetarian or vegan, and an even greater number claim to consciously be eating less meat, according to a nationwide population study. The study, which observed diet patterns between 2012 and 2016, demonstrated the overall shift toward plant-based food across the continent. As of 2016, vegetarians accounted for 11.2 per cent of the entire population. Further, 53.4 per cent of Australian adults claimed to be eating less red meat.
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'Veganism is the future of farming' - former 'humane' pig farmer
Full story: All-Creatures.org
An ex-pig farmer from Sweden has spoken out about his decision to go vegan, and become a vegetable farmer instead. The farmer, who used to manage a small-scale 'humane' meat business, soon realized that the only way he could continue his profession was if he hid the truth. Most of our customers bought meat from us to silence their own consciences. "Our customers loved to hear that the pigs had had 'a good life.' If I'd told them that a mother sow didn't want to be separated from her babies or that the pigs screamed with anguish as they were loaded onto the lorry bound for the abattoir, I wouldn't have kept a single customer. If you care about animals, the answer isn't 'humane meat.' The right thing to do is to stop breeding animals for food."
Read more... |
Never too late: Vegan woman who switched her diet at 96 feels 'wonderful'
Full story: Evening Standart, UK
A yoga loving 97-year-old who recently completed her first year as a vegan says the diet has left her feeling "wonderful". Sprightly grandmother Anne Evers Fraser turned to the plant-based way of life shortly before she turned 96 and says she will never go back to eating animal produce. Asked if she could ever ditch the diet, she said: "Never. Since learning about the ethical and environmental benefits of a vegan diet, I could never go back."
Read more... |
Evening Standart, UK - September 23
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| Animal Issues and Advocacy
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Animal sentience: Cows can be pessimistic and it affects their ability to cope with stress
Full story: CTV
Dairy cows can be optimistic or pessimistic from a young age and their inherent outlook can predict their ability to cope with stress, new research from the University of British Columbia says. Benjamin Lecorps, a PhD student in the animal welfare program, said the study has implications for animal welfare and suggests some commonalities between the human and animal worlds. [Editor's note: Perhaps it should be under "Signs of the Times" that a major Canadian news outlet is running this article!]
Read more... |
Open rescue animal activists aren't cranks
Full story: Toronto Star, Canada
Animal activists performing open rescues - meaning removing animals, often farmed animals, from situations of pain and suffering - are not "cranks" or "guerrillas," or "gangsters," or "thieves." They are normal people, only differing from the rest of society due to having a moral baseline that dictates no animal, whether human or dog or pig or fish, should be forced to endure cruelty... When a sentient being is suffering - a child in a hot car, a drowning dog, an injured piglet - they deserve to be saved. The people confining pigs to gestation crates, macerating male chicks alive, and castrating cows without anaesthesia are able to do so with full legal permission. But sure, the animal activists are the crazy ones.
Read more... |
Toronto Star, Canada - November 12
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Dairy farmer says 'some mother cows will bawl for days' - the dark side of dairy
Video source: BBC One, Scotland
 A report on the controversial world of live animal exports, uncovering what happens to the male calves discarded by the Scottish dairy industry. One dairy farmer tells how he has stopped taking calves away from their mothers.
Watch video... |
BBC One, Scotland - September 16
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