ANIMALS

JACOB R. PEACOCK: Animal welfare, environmental, and public health advocates believe plant-based meats present a valuable opportunity to mitigate significant negative externalities of industrial animal agriculture, like animal suffering, greenhouse gas emissions, and antimicrobial resistance... The private and public sectors have taken note as well; in 2022, the “plant-based meat, seafood, eggs, and dairy companies” foods industry attracted at least 1.2 billion in private investment activity and at least 874 million in public funding... This enthusiasm has been propelled in some significant…

ALEXANDRA TREMAYNE-PENGELLY: The Bezos Earth Fund, a philanthropic organization launched by billionaire Jeff Bezos in 2020, is ramping up its commitment to food system transformations with a $60 million investment in alternative protein. The funds will establish the Bezos Centers for Sustainable Protein, a series of research centers focused on boosting the quality and nutritional benefits of sustainable protein products. The initiative also aims to enhance the flavor and texture of alternative meat, in addition to bringing down prices—two challenges alternative meat startups have had to…

REBECCA THRUN: This article uses exemplary analyses of empirical data collected through qualitative interviews with vegans to shed light on how they perceive certain ways of treating animals as violent practices. The analysis in this article focuses on the functions and effects of language, not only in terms of its role in maintaining existing carnivorous structures and practices, but also in terms of dynamic processes and potentials for change. This approach presupposes a notion of structural and symbolic violence. Specifically, this study examines how the vegan research partners perceive,…

THE UP COMING: Dartmouth Films has set 19th April 2024 as the release date for the insightful and provocative documentary 'I Could Never Go Vegan' across the UK and Ireland. Directed by Thomas Pickering and featuring executive producers, including the well-known actress and vegan advocate Alicia Silverstone, the film embarks on a comprehensive journey to dissect the numerous objections that people have towards adopting a vegan lifestyle. Despite the rising trend of veganism, the documentary delves into the reasons why the majority are hesitant to reduce their consumption of animal products.…

GEORGINA GUSTIN: When researchers at the United Nations published a bombshell report in 2006 called “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” the livestock industry soon realized it had a major public relations challenge on its hands. Media outlets around the world covered the report and its main findings: Livestock are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions that need to be reined in, and cutting emissions from the industry should become a focus of public policy, on par with cutting emissions from fossil fuels. It was the first time such a high-level report had come to this conclusion. In the…

WILL JEFFORD: Leicester has been recognised as the home of veganism with a new heritage panel, installed to commemorate the man who coined the word. Donald Watson and his wife Dorothy created the name while living in Leicester in the 1940s, the Leicester Vegetarian and Vegan Group said. A new panel has been installed in Evesham Road, where Mr Watson lived. Mr Watson became vegetarian at 14 after witnessing the slaughter of a pig on his uncle's farm, the group said. The resident was a woodwork teacher and started eating a vegan diet after learning about milk and egg production. Despite…

SOCIAL CHANGE LAB: Animal Rising (AR) disrupted the 2023 Grand National (GN), the biggest horse racing event in the UK, causing a delayed start to the race and kickstarting a national conversation about society’s relationship with animals... By its nature, disruptive protest is unpopular. When the US Civil Rights movement was active in the 1960s, approval ratings for Martin Luther King were extremely low. Despite this, civil disobedience has been a vital ingredient for social movements to draw attention to the issues they are fighting for... Heightened salience of an issue leads to more…

SILVIA CAPRIOGLIO PANIZZA: One of the most common, and most obvious, reasons for ethical veganism is to save animal lives and reduce suffering. This reason is based on broadly consequentialist thinking: animal consumption causes suffering and death; reducing the demand will reduce the number of animals bred and raised for exploitation and slaughter. There are well known intermediaries along this causal chain, as the great majority of consumers of animal products rely on others to bring the animal, their parts of products, to their table. On a large market, this means that a single vegan will…

WHITNEY BAUCK: Some farmers have turned from livestock to crops to avoid the financial pitfalls and thorny ethics of industrial agriculture... Farmer Tom Lim had been raising poultry for 20 years when the company he worked for as a contractor terminated him without warning, leaving him saddled with debt and unsure of where to turn. “My heart just dropped,” he said. “I didn’t know where to make money to pay off our loans"... Lim is one of a number of farmers transitioning away from industrial animal agriculture in favor growing vegetables and mushrooms. Though Lim’s contract ending forced…

JUSTIN MARCEAU, ET AL: The impacts of voluntary prosecution are canonical in American history, from the women’s suffrage movement to the civil rights movement... They can reverse the traditional accountability rationale of the criminal law, which counsels, “Don’t do the crime, if you can’t do the time.” If the public views the charges (or even the criminal statute itself) as unjust or unlawful, then accountability may come, but in the form of a backlash against the legal system. The prosecutor, the judge, and even the law itself will be held to account when the injustice of a prosecution —…