MEGAN POINSKI: As companies making meat from cells raise money, create prototypes and improve their technology, they are getting closer to having products to make available. And that leaves a question hanging in the air: What can those products be called? The USDA — which formally agreed in 2019 to jointly regulate products in the cell-based space with the FDA — put out a formal request for input in September. The department asked a battery of questions about how these products should be described on packaging labels, especially compared to animal derived products. Which terms work best for…

MAYO CLINIC: Cancer is the second-leading cause of death in the U.S. But estimates suggest that as many as a third of cases could be prevented with diet and nutrition alone. The recipe? Many experts recommend filling your plate with foods that grow from the ground. Decades of research suggests that the best diet for cancer prevention is all about plants. That means lots of fruits, vegetables and legumes, and little to no meat or other animal products... For many Americans, meals center around the meat. After all the Department of Agriculture reports that 222 pounds of meat are sold per…

JESSICA SCOTT-REID: According to The Associated Press (AP) Stylebook - the go-to style guide for most journalists in the U.S. — when referring to animals in the media, it advises: “Don’t apply a personal pronoun to an animal unless its sex has been established or the animal has a name.” A named companion dog, for example, can be referred to as he/she/they in the media, while any unnamed animal becomes a mere it. This use of it to refer to unnamed animals in the media may seem somewhat trivial in the broader scope of their suffering today, however, that one small word holds much power. It…

SANDRA KYLE: The dairy exposé MILKED is reeling in the awards while the Dairy Industry remains silent... In this article End Animal Slaughter’s Sandra Kyle talks to its inspirational Director, Kiwi filmmaker Amy Taylor... SK: Why did you make ‘MILKED’? AT: The motivation for making this film came from a growing awareness I had about the dairy industry’s impacts on people, the environment, and on animals. I began looking into the dairy industry more and seeing the damage it does to the environment, as well as the water pollution, one of the most obvious being the huge amount of native…

LINA ANH VAN: Although the beneficial effects of a plant-based diet on global change have been well-studied, the majority of Americans are neither vegetarian nor vegan. Global food production contributes up to 30% of global emissions — with animal agriculture making a large proportion of this — in addition to other effects such as habitat destruction and freshwater use. A large-scale transition to a more plant-based diet is one collective action that would greatly reduce the impact of diet on global warming and environmental changes. However, adoption by U.S. adults has been slow, as only…

WAYNE HSIUNG: The Utah Court of Appeal denied our petition to review a lower court order that prohibits the presentation of animal cruelty evidence at our September trial. That trial, which relates to an investigation and open rescue at the largest pig farm in the nation, has likely generated more attention than any animal rights story of the last decade. (Over 130,000 people shared it on Facebook alone including 6,000 from the author’s post.) And there was one overriding reason for the case’s reach: it was a classic cover-up story, and cover-ups nearly always backfire... Smithfield Foods,…

JOSEP MORENO: In June 2021, a pig escaped from a farm in Nottinghamshire and gave birth to ten piglets shortly after in the woods. After a dog walker spotted them, and thanks to a great collaborative effort by Brinsley Animal Rescue, The Surge Sanctuary, animal rights activists, and members of the public, the pig family was eventually saved. When Pigs Escape recounts the campaign to save Matilda and her piglets, and focuses on their lives after being rescued by Brinsley Animal Rescue and The Surge Sanctuary. The documentary records the events that followed their rescue, giving centre stage…

AMY BUXTON: San Francisco-based startup cultivated meat Orbillion has announced that it projects reaching price parity with conventional meat by 2026, with commodity pricing for beef to follow by 2030. The declaration comes as CEO and co-founder Patricia Bubner is present in Davos, Switzerland, where the World Economic Forum (WEF) is holding its annual meeting. The focus of her presentation will be how they plan to democratize access to delicious and healthful cell-cultured meat to help address food insecurity. Orbillion claims that it can work faster and cheaper than other cultivated…

DALIAN JUSTLONG: To win the favor of consumers, plant-based meat brands need to be competitive enough with animal-based meat brands on price. This could happen sooner than expected, new reports suggest. According to the latest information from the nonprofit Good Food Institute (GFI), the cost of plant-based meat is expected to equal that of traditional animal meat by 2023. Achieving price parity is critical to mainstream adoption of plant-based meat, as consumers are more likely to try new plant-based food options that are comparable in price to comparable animal-based meat products. In a…

ROGER YATES: The march to create a vegan movement that resembles the RSPCA (the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) continues apace – or so it seems to me. Social movement theory warns us that, once social movements grow, their core values may be placed in danger. Is this happening to the vegan social movement? Has it already happened? All I hear now are foul-mouthed vegans using the dread c-word. Cruelty this, cruelty that, cruelty the other. I’m heartily sick of the damn word! This welfarist language is now largely dominant in the vegan movement. On platforms such as…