VEGAN FOOD & LIVING: ProVeg International has released a major new report, the Food & Pandemics Report, which identifies the ‘eating and farming of animals as the single most risky human behaviour in relation to pandemics’.The report comes after leading doctors called on the UK public to stop eating meat if we are to avoid future global health disasters... The Food & Pandemics Report uncovers the link between our dietary choices and the global food system, citing them as key drivers of zoonoses (diseases such as COVID-19, which are transmitted from non-human animals to humans)…

MARLOWE HOOD: If everyone alive ate steaks and dairy the way Brazilians and Americans do, we would need an extra five planets to feed the world, according to the first report to compare the carbon emissions from food consumption in G20 nations... The report by EAT — an Oslo-based non-profit that has led peer-reviewed research on the nexus of diet, health and climate change — also rated G20 national dietary guidelines... Argentina tops the list with a diet exceeding climate thresholds nearly five-fold, followed by Canada, Brazil, the United States, Russia and Australia. At the other end of…

MATTHEW KANG: Foie gras, the fattened liver of duck or goose, is no longer illegal to serve in California, as long as the product comes from an out-of-state seller and is transported by a third party, according to a ruling from a federal judge... On July 14, 2020 U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson, who originally ruled in favor of foie gras producers and a local LA restaurant in 2015, again determined that foie gras could be sold in California: “There is no principled way to distinguish between foie gras produced out of state and transported into California by the purchaser and that which…

FARAH HANCOCK: A New Zealand Northland contract milker caught on hidden camera beating cows with a steel pipe has had five charges against him dropped after a judge ruled the footage was obtained unlawfully. While it was agreed the footage - first exposed in a Newsroom story in 2018 - showed the mistreatment of animals, the fact animal advocates trespassed in order to obtain it led to the judge excluding the evidence. Michael Ian Luke appeared in the Whangārei District Court Monday facing one representative charge under the Animal Welfare Act related to failing to handle dairy cows in a way…

AUDREY ENJOLI: The coronavirus outbreak is severely impacting the meat industry. Analysts predict the pandemic will cause a 3 percent drop in global meat consumption this year. That comes out to some 9.5 billion tons. According to the UN’s Food Outlook Biannual Report on Global Food Markets, per-capita meat consumption will drop this year to the lowest its been in nearly a decade. The drop is the largest decline since 2000... Put simply, the coronavirus is currently impacting how much meat people are eating. According to Dr. Shireen Kassam—a consultant hematologist and founder of non-profit…

ANNA STAROSTINETSKAYA: A new platform VegMovies recently debuted with a database of 200 films to make vegan-themed movies easy to access and share. The VegMovies platform—built by website design company Veg Groups—features films with strong vegan and animal-rights themes, vegan characters, and/or messages regarding climate change. It allows users to browse titles in categories such as “Animals,” “Health,” “Environment,” and “Family Friendly,” and provides information such as run time and plot summaries, along with testimonials from people that have been positively impacted by each film.…

PBFA: The Plant Based Foods Association (PBFA), the trade association representing 170 plant-based food companies, and Kroger, the largest grocery retailer in America, found that plant-based meat sales increased by 23% when those items were sold in the meat department. This ground-breaking study, which placed all plant-based meat in a three-foot set within the meat department, ran for 12 weeks from December 2019 through February 2020. The 60 test stores spanned three states: Colorado, Indiana, and Illinois. In the Midwest region, where more flexitarians are emerging, plant-based meat sales…

EZRA KLEIN: In December of 2019, while campaigning in Iowa, Sen. Cory Booker unveiled the Farm System Reform Act. It’s sweeping legislation, but at its core it... imposes an immediate moratorium on the construction of new CAFOs and phases out the largest existing CAFOs by 2040... Booker realized that, as unlikely as it sounds, there was a space... between the people who believe raising and killing animals for food is wrong and the people whose chose, as their livelihoods, to raise and kill animals for food. Both could agree that the way we are doing it now is cruel, both to animals and to…

KRISTIN SALAKY: A vegan wholesaler called VEDGEco is slated to expand its operations into the mainland U.S. later this summer... The retailer is currently based in Hawaii and right now, only customers living there can purchase their food. But starting August 1, the store will begin to service customers in the lower 48 states... The store will open as an e-commerce site serving the mainland U.S. which means you can order these foods online and they'll be shipped right to your door in eco-friendly and foam-free packing materials... VegNews referred to VEDGEco as the "Costco for Vegans"…

BLOOMBERG NEWS: The coronavirus pandemic is poised to usher in the biggest retreat for global meat eating in decades. Per-capita consumption is set to fall by almost 3% in 2020, to the lowest since 2011, according to data from the United Nations. Meanwhile, analysts across the globe are predicting declines not just per capita but for overall demand. That’s a dramatic turnaround for an industry that’s come to rely on steady growth. The shift is happening in every major market, including in the United States, where it’s predicted that per-capita meat consumption won’t return to pre-pandemic…