KENNY TORRELLA: This much is true: Production and consumption of meat is an environmental and ethical catastrophe. And we keep eating more of it, with enormous consequences. There’s climate change and the environment: Almost 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions can be traced back to livestock, while in the US alone, air pollution from meat production is linked to 12,700 premature deaths each year. Or lifesaving drugs: Three-quarters of antibiotics used globally are fed to farmed animals, and partially as a result, bacteria on farms are growing resistant to the drugs, contributing…

KAREN DAVIS: Dear Michael Moore, You and I are on the same side of social justice and politics. I appreciate your commentaries and exhortations on behalf of victimized human beings and, in a general way, the environment and the “climate.” But I would like to know why you and the majority of “progressives” show no awareness of or interest in or compassion for the animals who share the planet with us. Progressives talk about the planet and climate change in a very abstract way. To read you and others, it’s as if nothing and nobody exists outside the human isolation chamber – a…

THE VEGAN SOCIETY: New research by The Vegan Society has revealed that 71% of people in the UK have experienced guilt about eating meat ‘some’ (49%) or ‘all’ (22%) of the time. And, even out of those not limiting their consumption of meat and animal products at all, 45% said they felt guilty about it ‘some’ or ‘all’ of the time. To mark World Vegan Month this November, the charity has launched its new campaign 'Be AnimalKind' which aims to help people explore their relationship with all animals and think about why they love some animals but use others for food or clothing. As part of the…

MOLLY TAFT: One of the country’s most prominent academic centers that purports to “advance sustainability in animal agriculture” is almost entirely funded by industrial agriculture interests, new documents show. And the industry has used its connection to help push messaging around how beef isn’t that harmful to the planet... Beef’s impact on climate change cannot be understated, and the world’s leading climate scientists agree that cutting back on emissions associated with the beef industry—particularly its damaging methane emissions—are crucial to avoiding runaway warming. But... the beef…

SOPHIE HIRSH: Pretty much every non-vegan on Earth has uttered the phrase, “I could never go vegan.” (And so has nearly every vegan, before learning about how animal agriculture affects the animals and the planet and subsequently changing their minds.) So in response to that commonly-uttered phrase, the new documentary I Could Never Go Vegan explores the “leading reasons why people refuse to stop eating animals"... ‘I Could Never Go Vegan’ is the newest documentary about the vegan movement — and its opposition. On Nov. 1, the team behind the I Could Never Go Vegan unveiled the trailer for…

BJORN OLAFFSON: The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals set off a minor uproar last month. At this year’s Annual Humane Awards Luncheon — a celebration of both human and non-human animal heroes — the ASPCA was planning to serve meat and dairy dishes. Representatives from animal rights groups Animal Place, PETA, Direct Action Everywhere and Animal Save confirmed to Sentient Media that they directly appealed to ASPCA to change the menu to remove all animal-derived items. ASPCA declined to comment to Sentient Media about the event. “We’d hope an animal protection…

TOM ELLEN: People were shocked, and understandably so,’ says Steve Bone, a 40-year-old photographer from Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. ‘I mean — you walk into a shop and all of a sudden there’s a tall, ginger-bearded man pouring milk all over the cheese display. You’d think: “My God, what’s going on?”’ Bone, the tall, ginger-bearded man in question, is a member of Animal Rebellion, the animal and climate justice group that dominated headlines last week after several of their direct action protests went viral. You will have seen the clips: activists entering high-end food stores such as Fortnum…

HEMI KIM: In September of this year, an Iowa federal court struck down a law passed by the Iowa legislature in 2021 that made it illegal to record audio or video while trespassing on private property. It was the fourth recent challenge to so-called “ag-gag” legislation in the state, laws passed to target undercover investigations into factory farms. Ag-gag laws have been around since the 1990s, a decades-long industry effort to suppress investigations of slaughterhouses and intensive animal farming operations. These laws are typically unpopular in state polls — and a 2012 nationwide survey…

WORLD ANIMAL PROTECTION: When we make daily choices to eat fewer animal products or swap them out entirely, whether for a meal or a lifetime, we are driving meaningful change by helping reduce the demand for meat and dairy and sparing the lives of farmed animals. Imagine, then, the impact that large food companies could make by rebalancing their menus to prioritize plant-based proteins over animal-based ones. Yet, our recent assessment of the 50 largest US restaurant chains shows most are failing to embrace a more humane and sustainable food system. Moving the Menu 2022 rated the companies…

PHILIP ALTERMANN: Switzerland has been challenged at the European court of human rights over a failure to provide adequate vegan diets to a prisoner and a patient at the psychiatric ward of a hospital, in a case that could lead to veganism being interpreted as a protected characteristic under the right of freedom of conscience across geographic Europe. The court, which is part of the Council of Europe and not the EU, this week formally asked its member state Switzerland to respond to the two complaints that Swiss state institutions had failed to provide a totally vegan diet to two…