Viva! Health and wellbeing newsletter.

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Topics this month include:

Dialling Down the Grim Reaper Gene

Only about one in 10,000 people live to be a 100 years old. What’s their secret?

Why vegan is the greenest diet

Scientists are convinced we have little more than 10 years to get climate change under control! But what can you do as an individual? What if there was one simple change you could make that would be more effective than avoiding flying, buying an electric car and switching to a green energy supplier. Well, there is!

Plant protein is best

Yet another study has shown that plant protein is better for your health than animal protein, this time looking at weight loss and blood sugar control.

Vitamin B12

This vitamin is vital for getting energy from food, maintaining healthy nerve cells, and the production of DNA and red blood cells.

See our A-Z of Nutrients for the answers to all your questions about essential nutrients.

New leaflets

Our brand new leaflets are here! They contain the most up-to-date information on the positive effects of a vegan lifestyle on our health, the environment and the animals. These leaflets are brilliant for spreading awareness and taking action. Perfect for outreach events, stalls and handing out to friends and family.

Nutritional posters

Forming part of Viva!’s ‘Healthy Reminders’ series these brand new, colourful designs each come with an extendable piece giving you top tips and how much you need each day!

Bite-size fact

The pigmentation of tomatoes is responsible for many of their health-promoting qualities. The main tomato powerhouse is lycopene. This red pigment is a strong antioxidant which has been linked to many health benefits, including reduced risk of heart disease and cancer. The redder the tomato, the more lycopene it contains – and cooking helps the body to use it!

25th Anniversary dinner  
Pushing the boat out for this extra special event, Viva! and guests will be dining on The Elizabethan riverboat. Join us to enjoy stunning views of the Thames as we cruise past the London Bridge and other spectacular London landmarks, all the while enjoying a gourmet 3 course meal.

Celebrating 25 years of Viva! with patrons Jerome Flynn*, Michael Mansfield QC, Wendy Turner Webster, Heather Mills and Peter Egan!
*pending work commitments

Toast with all the Good Stuff

This is such a simple recipe and perfect for when you’re short of time, want something healthy and would like to use everything up in the fridge… it’s one of our go-to healthy lunches.

First of all, I would like to make one thing clear: Ursula von der Leyen was selected, like a miracle, as the new EU Commission President from the back room in which Merkel and Macron compared their power. She is now a kind of head of government for Europe.

New EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen

It is not understandable!

The frustrating thing is that nobody seems to bother which people are responsible for which areas of the commission.

Ursula von der Leyen is professionally not in the least suitable for the EU-Kommission, not to say, from the standpoint of animal welfare. The entire process has little to do with transparent action, rather with the ingenious talent of Merkel to intrigue effectively;  she still can it, she can win the big intrigues of chess.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel

This designation, which incidentally came without big notice, was a reassurance for the Chancellor Merkel that von der Leyen will not be her successor.

A very good commentary on the suitability of the new Commission chief was found in the British Times: “There is real doubt as to whether she has enough political character and courage to shape European politics, or not just a puppet of the French President and the German Chancellor who made her what she is. “

What is surprising in this election farce is the person. As a minister in several departments,  von der Leyen has failed terrific so far. Why must such one still be promoted? As Defense Minister of Germany, for example, she has failed.

Ursula von der Leyen in 2013, as Defense Minister, said: “:  The most important thing is the person and not the issue of material costs. The material must be so good that the human being, the people who work here, are also protected. It is important for me to show that I am there for the soldiers … They can rely on that … I am wholeheartedly proud and grateful to be your Minister of Defense. (…) I take this task very seriously. “
E voilà ! the EU can be upgraded and militarized and will soon be able to independently implement climate, enlargement and proxy wars.
Well then … nothing can go wrong. She is the right one !!

Is this case an exception or is it part of the normal EU procedures?

There is always talk of renewal, but the structures are not questioned. At the same time we know that the structure determines the function. So we have to define new structures that will help to avoid the old mistakes and help us to find better and faster solutions in the future.

In which political decision of the European Commission do we find that? Who’s talking about it … ??

If Ursula von der Leyen fulfills the role of European Commission President with the same “Elan” how she as former Secretary of Defense has done, the welfare of the animals will change as much (or as little) as before.

My best regards to all, Venus

The Trump administration has reauthorized government officials to use controversial poison devices – dubbed “cyanide bombs” by critics – to kill coyotes, foxes and other animals across the US.

The spring-loaded traps, called M-44s, are filled with sodium cyanide and are most frequently deployed by Wildlife Services, a federal agency in the US Department of Agriculture that kills vast numbers of wild animals each year, primarily for the benefit of private farmers and ranchers.

In 2018, Wildlife Services reported that its agents had dispatched more than 1.5 million native animals, from beavers to black bears, wolves, ducks and owls. Roughly 6,500 of them were killed by M-44s.

On Tuesday, after completing the first phase of a routine review, the US Environmental Protection Agency announced that it would allow sodium cyanide’s continued use in M-44s across the country on an interim basis.

Yet the traps are facing increasing opposition, and have, in the past, led to the inadvertent deaths of endangered species and domestic pets and caused harm to humans.

In 2017, a teenage boy named Canyon Mansfield was hiking with his dog in the woods behind his family’s home in Pocatello, Idaho when Mansfield’s dog triggered a cyanide trap that sprayed a plume of poison dust into the air. The dog died on the spot and Mansfield was rushed to the hospital, where he ultimately recovered. His parents are suing Wildlife Services over the poisoning.

Read more about it here:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/04/wildlife-watch-wildlife-services-cyanide-idaho-predator-control/

Mansfield’s case made national headlines and has fueled opposition to M-44s. In May, in response to advocacy by environmental groups, Oregon’s governor Kate Brown signed a ban on the use of the traps in the state. In 2017, Wildlife Services agreed to temporarily halt the use of M-44s in Colorado after environmental groups sued. The agency also stopped using them in Idaho after the Mansfield case came to light.

In the months before the EPA announced the reauthorization, conservation groups and members of the public flooded the agency with comments calling for a complete national ban on the predator-killing poison. According to an analysis provided by the Center for Biological Diversity, which is a leading opponent of M-44s, 99.9% of all comments received by the EPA opposed the reauthorization of sodium cyanide for predator control purposes.

Although the agency took a different view, it did impose new restrictions on the use of M-44s. Among other things, the agency will now prohibit government officials from placing M-44s within 100 feet of public roads or trails. The agency’s reauthorization decision is only an interim one and a final decision on the matter is expected to come down after 2021.

Brooks Fahy, the executive director of the environmental group Predator Defense and a leading opponent of M-44s, denounced the EPA’s decision.

It is a “complete disaster”, he said. “[The EPA] ignored the facts and they ignored cases that, without a doubt, demonstrate that there is no way M-44s can be used safely.”

In response to the Guardian’s request for comment, the EPA referenced the documentation of the decision on its website.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/08/trump-authorizes-cyanide-bombs-wildlife-services?CMP=share_btn_tw

Harvard Law School Debuts Program That Trains Students to Fight For Animal Rights

Led by animal-rights experts, the ivy league’s new Animal Law & Policy Clinic will focus on issues affecting farmed animals, wildlife, and animals in captivity with the aim of creating lasting legal change for all life forms.

Source – https://vegnews.com/2019/8/harvard-law-school-debuts-program-that-trains-students-to-fight-for-animal-rights

This week, Harvard Law School (HLS) announced the launch of a new program that will train its students to advocate for animals.

The Animal Law & Policy Clinic will be part of HLS’ Animal Law & Policy Program (ALPP) and will focus on issues affecting farmed and captive animals, wildlife, climate-change related topics, worker exploitation in animal agriculture, and other topics with the goal of creating future leaders in the animal protection movement.

“The Animal Law & Policy Clinic at HLS will train and prepare our graduates to embark on careers in the animal protection field, produce impactful litigation and policy analysis to benefit the animal protection movement, and provide an internationally renowned platform for educating the broader public about the many pressing issues involving animal law and policy,” ALPP Faculty Director Professor Kristen Stilt said.

The new clinic will be led by Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor Katherine Meyer (who founded leading animal-protection law firm Meyer Glitzenstein & Eubanks 26 years ago) and Clinical Instructor Nicole Negowetti (a nationally recognized food systems policy expert). “I am honored to help launch the Animal Law & Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School,” Negowetti said. “The clinic will provide outstanding training for a new generation of advocates as we identify and pursue high-impact legal strategies to achieve a resilient, healthy, and just food system—for the benefit of human and non-human animals alike.” The clinic will give students a hands-on experience in litigation, legislation, administrative practice, and policymaking, both in the United States and internationally. “Animal law is a vitally important and rapidly growing field,” HLS Dean John F. Manning said. “Our new Animal Law & Policy Clinic will give students real-world experience in this burgeoning field, build on Harvard Law School’s long tradition of innovative pedagogy, and prepare future graduates to address significant societal challenges.”

HLS is one of 167 law schools in the US that now offer an animal-law course—an increase from just nine schools that offered such courses in 2000.