GOVERNMENT

FARAH MASTER: 'For the past two weeks China’s police have been raiding houses, restaurants and makeshift markets across the country, arresting nearly 700 people for breaking the temporary ban on catching, selling or eating wild animals. The scale of the crackdown, which has netted almost 40,000 animals including squirrels, weasels and boars, suggests that China’s taste for eating wildlife and using animal parts for medicinal purposes is not likely to disappear overnight, despite potential links to the new coronavirus. Traders legally selling donkey, dog, deer, crocodile and other meat told…

SARAH LAWTON: ' 'Livestock' welfare has been a recent topic of conversation, as environmental activists have decried the low meat prices that can only be maintained through dismal living conditions for the animals... A commission led by former Minister for Agriculture Jochen Borchert issued its proposals for reshaping "animal husbandry" in Germany. By 2040, they expect that all animals will be at a minimum kept in conditions that adhere with Level 2 of those in the planned Animal Welfare Labelling Act. This requires creating more space and better climate conditions in stables. To pay for…

JOHN RAMOS: 'At Miyoko’s Creamery in Petaluma, they’re producing butter and cheese from plants. But according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, that’s not what they’re doing at all. Miyoko Schinner is on a roll. Her company turns cashews, oats and legumes into items that taste just like dairy products. Her best-selling vegan butter just got picked up by Costco and her company is doubling in sales each year. So she was surprised when she got a letter from the Department of Food and Agriculture saying she should stop calling her vegan butter butter... The letter says a…

JULIET GELLATLEY: 'It is time to finally make the connection between animal agriculture and environmental destruction, antibiotic resistance and disease outbreak... The coronavirus (WN-CoV), the viral disease outbreak that has captured headlines, has shut down cities and continues to spread while the rest of the world looks on with horrified abandon. Coronaviruses are a common type of virus that cause mild illnesses, such as the common cold, but can cause more serious respiratory problems... Where did it come from? How is the virus transmitted and what are the symptoms? Will face masks…

JESSIE HIGGINS: 'The unveiling of Impossible Foods' latest product -- "Impossible Pork" -- has drawn American pork producers into a years-long battle waged by the beef industry to stop plant-based companies from calling their foods some sort of meat. "It's not pork," said Dan Kovich, director of science and technology for the National Pork Producers Council. "The ironic thing is that's impossible. You can't get pork from plants unless you feed them to a pig." Beginning in 2016, companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat launched a series of meat alternatives made from plants. Their…

DAN MARTIN: 'The animal-borne SARS virus 17 years ago was supposed to be a wake-up call about consuming wildlife as food, but scientists say China's latest epidemic indicates that the practice remains widespread and a growing risk to human health. Like SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which was traced to bats and civets, the virus that has killed dozens in China and infected almost 2,000 people is believed to have originated in animals trafficked for food. Final findings are yet to be announced, but Chinese health officials believe it came from wildlife sold illegally at a market…

SAM RIDER: 'On 3rd January 2020, a UK employment tribunal found in favour of Jordi Casamitjana, who claims he was sacked by the League Against Cruel Sports because of his ethical veganism. The court ruled that ethical veganism satisfies the tests required for it to be considered a philosophical belief under the Equality Act 2010, meaning ethical vegans could be entitled to protection from discrimination in the workplace. The Vegan Society’s legal expert Jeanette Rowley told Welltodo she believes the decision will ensure vegans are provided for in the workplace, in public sector institutions…

KELSEY PIPER: 'Kansas cannot bar people from conducting undercover investigations on factory farms, the a federal court in Kansas ruled Wednesday. For nearly 30 years — since 1990 — a Kansas state law made it illegal to take photographs or record video in a factory farm or slaughterhouse “with the intent to damage an enterprise conducted at the animal facility.” The law was the earliest example of what are now called “ag-gag” laws, which criminalize undercover investigations, often by animal welfare groups, that reveal abuses on farms. Since Kansas’s law was enacted, half a dozen states…

BARRY ROCHE: 'Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has rejected a call from Green Party MEP Grace O’Sullivan for a ban on live animal exports from Ireland over animal welfare concerns. The Ireland South MEP called for the ban following the death of 14,000 sheep when an animal export vessel, the Queen Hind, capsized last month in the Black Sea on its way from the Romanian port of Midia to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. “These live exports shouldn’t be happening. The case in Romania proves a point to an extent, but we know for years that it isn’t a good way to bring animals, particularly in…

BUSINESS WIRE: 'Seven organizations dedicated to protecting the animals, people, and environments that suffer due to industrial animal agriculture filed a lawsuit today against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) challenging its decision to reduce oversight at pig slaughterhouses and eliminate limits on the slaughter speeds, exposing pigs to greater suffering and flouting federal humane slaughter, meat inspection, and environmental protection laws. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York on behalf of Farm Sanctuary, Animal Equality, the…