SEBASTIEN MALO: 'Across the United States, tens of legislative bills have been introduced - some unsuccessfully - as well as half a dozen with opposing aims, as an out-of-sight battle heats up between friends and foes of plant-based meat. One key issue at stake is making it illegal for meat-substitute products to be labeled as meat... In contrast, legislative bodies in states with enthusiastic backers of vegan diets - green groups, animal rights activists and health campaigners - have pushed bills encouraging plant-based food, first in California, followed by Washington D.C., New York and…

CANDICE CHOI: 'U.S. regulators gave the green light to salmon genetically modified to grow about twice as fast as normal, but the company behind it may face legal challenges before the fish can be sold domestically. The Food and Drug Administration said it lifted an alert that had prevented AquaBounty from importing its salmon eggs to its Indiana facility, where they would be grown before being sold as food... The move comes despite a pending lawsuit filed by a coalition of consumer, environmental and fishing groups that challenged the FDA’s approval of the fish... The genetic modification…

KATIE O'MALLEY: 'A vegan organisation is urging the National Health Service (NHS) to include vegan-friendly milks and vitamins to its "discriminatory" Healthy Start voucher scheme. The scheme is a means-tested initiative and offers pregnant women and parents of children under the age of four vouchers to help them buy foods including milk, vitamins, fruit and vegetables. The vouchers, which can be used at local retailers, can currently be spent on plain cow’s milk which is whole, semi-skimmed or skimmed and infant formula milk which is made from cow’s milk. Vegan substitutes such as almond…

JESSICA SCOTT-REID: 'Mayor de Blasio just announced that Meatless Mondays will be in public schools across the nation’s largest city starting next academic year. Not surprisingly, immediate online reactions ignited increasingly common debates over the consumption of animal products, from concerns about forcing vegetarianism on children, to calls to remove dairy as well. Ultimately though, eliminating meat from school meals one day a week is a positive and necessary move, and it's something all school districts should consider... Not only do Meatless Mondays teach children about food, but…

HUMEYRA PAMUK: 'President Donald Trump’s 2020 budget on Monday proposed a 15 percent cut for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, calling its subsidies to farmers “overly generous”... The Republican president’s budget requested $20.8 billion for the USDA, a cut of $3.6 billion, or 15 percent, from the 2019 estimate, according to the proposed budget text. It proposes reducing premium subsidies for crop insurance, limiting the number of producers who would be eligible and tightening commodity payment limits. “The budget also proposes that USDA responsibly and efficiently use taxpayer resources…

JAQUI FATKA: 'In Iowa, the Ag Production Facility Trespass legislation passed in both the state’s House and Senate that would create a trespass charge for anyone who uses deception to access an agricultural production facility that is not open to the public. The bill, approved by a strong bipartisan vote in the Senate 41-8 and the House 65-32, now goes to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds for her expected signature on March 14. Animal activists said the bill is a way to circumvent a previously struck down ag-gag law which criminalized those who would do undercover investigations under false pretenses.…

PETER GUEST: 'Chinatown is the epicenter of Singapore's largely carnivorous food culture... It is a bold place to start an experiment in eating differently, but here, just off South Bridge Road, the founders of one of Singapore's handful of vegan restaurants have chosen to establish a beachhead. Hello Baby was launched last year by the founders of HRVST, a vegan fine-dining restaurant in the central business district... Hello Baby's patties, developed by California-based Beyond Meat, are surprisingly similar to beef burgers, with the same texture and appearance and an almost…

MARIA CHIORANDO: 'A US army dining facility has become the first of its kind to offer troops a vegan entrée at every meal time. The Guns and Rockets Dining Facility in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, added the new options to its menu after a soldier requested more plant-based dishes... The launch of the new dishes corresponds to growing appetite for vegan-friendly food in the US, with the retail sector in seeing a surge when it comes to demand for plant-based alternatives, with leading business and food expert and Executive Director of the Plant Based Foods Association (PBFA) Michele Simon branding vegan…

OLIVER MILMAN: 'The producers of Nellie’s Free Range Eggs have been accused of deceiving US consumers about how well it treats its hens in a lawsuit lodged in New York City. The packaging of the eggs shows hens roaming open pastures and being cuddled by children. This is deceptive, the lawsuit claims, because Nellie’s crams as many as 20,000 hens into crowded sheds, with just 1.2 sq ft of floor space each. The US district court complaint, by four individuals represented by the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), further alleges that Nellie’s provides…

JANE DALTON: 'New drone footage has revealed the spread of US-style mega-farms in Britain and worldwide – after MEPs voted to slash funding for them. The aerial film was taken to show the scale of industrial sheds that mostly house farm animals permanently indoors. Intensive farming is blamed for helping to accelerate climate change, driving species loss, emitting damaging slurry and nitrates, putting smaller farmers out of business and causing large-scale animal suffering by cramming creatures into windowless buildings with no outdoors access... Matthew Glover, head of Million Dollar Vegan,…