CARYN GINSBERG: “How to Make and Keep a Veg*n” – illustrated by Faunalytics board president Caryn Ginsberg – walks through a series of evidence-based methods to help encourage people to consider, try, and then (importantly) maintain a plant-based diet. Please share the full graphic with your fellow advocates and use the suggestions in your advocacy! Here are just a few ideas to help you get started: Think about how you talk to people about plant-based eating. What are you doing well? What might you want to change? Review your website, social media, and/or print materials to see how well…

JO-ANNE MCARTHUR: Hidden: Animals in the Anthropocene is a collection of work by 40 photojournalists from around the world, documenting the lives of animals used for research, entertainment and food. “The animals we use most in our daily lives are hidden. They’re hidden away in factory farms, fur farms, and in labs that use them in research and testing,” says photographer Jo-Anne McArthur, who co-edited the collection. “They are also hidden euphemistically; we don’t say we’re eating a calf, for example. We say we’re eating veal.” “As animal rights activists, our battle is against the…

TOM BAWDEN: More than half a million Brits may have signed up for Veganuary this year but the vast majority are likely to go back to animal-based food at the end of the month if not before, a new survey suggests. A nationally-representative poll of 2,000 people from across the UK found that nearly a quarter of people have tried a vegan diet – but less than half lasted a fortnight with just one in a hundred still going a year later. The poll suggested that 2.5 per cent of people in the UK are now vegan. But while many more would like to be, few can manage it. Of those that have tried a vegan…

ASSOCIATED PRESS: Founders of the online vegan platform vKind announced that the site has seen fast growth over the past few months as more consumers opt for a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle. vKind is free for everyone to access online or through the vKind mobile app (iOS and Android), with or without setting up a free account. There are now more than 2,000 vegan product brands, businesses and professionals listed on vKind. “Our mission is to make it easier than ever to be vegan,” said Michon Javelosa, co-founder of vKind. “The plant-based products and services featured on vKind are…

DIEGO TORRES: The green wave sweeping parts of Europe could take on a more radical form in Spain. Green parties have been gaining ground in countries such as Germany and the Netherlands, but Spain’s environmentalists have struggled to attract voters. That’s changing, thanks to a radical animal rights party. Pacma — which promotes veganism to fight global warming and wants to ban zoos, circuses, bullfighting, fishing and hunting — is predicted to send one or two MEPs to the European Parliament in May, joining a small club of animal rights parties with a representative in the European…

JOHN R. PLATT: A few months ago a group of scientists warned about the rise of “extinction denial,” an effort much like climate denial to mischaracterize the extinction crisis and suggest that human activity isn’t really having a damaging effect on ecosystems and the whole planet. That damaging effect is, in reality, impossible to deny. This past year scientists and conservation organizations declared that a long list of species may have gone extinct, including dozens of frogs, orchids and fish. Most of these species haven’t been seen in decades, despite frequent and regular expeditions to…

JANE DALTON: Gene-editing will be bad for animal welfare and bad for efforts to curb greenhouse gases, organic farmers and environmental experts claim. Allowing the genes in crops and farm animals to be altered would lead to greater farm animal suffering and would not address food waste, they argue. UK Ministers have announced they will consider the use of the cutting-edge biotechnology in England for the first time, saying crops and livestock could be made to be more productive, so reducing costs to farmers and effects on the environment. Launching a consultation on the move, George…

KATHERINE MARTINKO: Veganuary is an annual challenge to eat vegan food exclusively for the month of January. It first launched in the UK in 2014, with 3,300 people pledging to give up all animal food products for 31 days. In the years since, Veganuary has grown rapidly, and 2021 is the biggest one to date. A record-breaking 537,000 participants have signed up so far, surpassing the organizers' goal of reaching a half-million this year. For comparison,... a record 400,000 people signed up to the campaign last year, compared with 250,000 participants in 2019 and 170,000 in 2018. Major retail…

ALEX FOX: A new study projects that if current trends continue, land clearing for agriculture will eat away at the habitats of nearly 90 percent of land animals by 2050... Humans have appropriated more than three-quarters of Earth’s lands for our own endeavors. According to research published in 2016, that leaves just 11.6 of the planet’s 57.3 million square miles of land to house the wealth of global biodiversity... The researchers behind the new report, published last week in the journal Nature Sustainability, say that unless the world’s systems of food production undergo massive…

NEW INDIAN EXPRESS: A 2017 FIAPO report revealed that calves were weaned off their mothers’ milk during the first three months at 74 per cent of the 451 dairies surveyed in India. In December, similar malpractices at the dairy farms were unearthed in a video titled Unholy Cattle of India by Bengaluru Brigade for Animal Liberation (BBAL). Indian dairy cooperative society, Amul, filed a case against the person who had uploaded this video for targeting the company by using its advertisements. To prevent the video from being taken off as well as to expose the hidden cruelty in the dairy…