This little lamb was born in Yorkshire, England; and has what appears to be its own Covid facemask.
It is a species of sheep who naturally have odd black markings, but this is really appropriate considering the current situation.
Regards Mark
Photo – Robert Hudson.
A “SOKO animal welfare” comment:
EU plan for the massive feeding of animals to animals!
The EU intends to radically soften the rules on feeding animal protein to livestock.
The main goal is to create a new kind of animal exploitation.
Insects are intended to replace soybeans and to be produced industrially for factory farming of pigs and chickens. Here, of course, it is pointed out again that insects would feel less or different pain.
This derogatory argument is also known from fish and marine invertebrates.
The goal is maximum exploitation with minimal consideration for living beings that we barely understand and whose sensory perceptions we have absolutely no idea.
The factory farming groups are already looking forward to it.
Can they sell themselves as sustainable at the expense of countless living beings?
The motto remains the same: They are different, they are alien to us, so they may be killed en masse just to slaughter more animals for a senseless and cruel industry.
Values EU: One does not break this fatal and deadly cycle if one exploits and kills a further trillion animals.
Here you can write your opinion to the EU.
Make it factual, otherwise, they won’t take it seriously.
https://www.facebook.com/sokotierschutz.ev/
About this initiative- Summary
Since the enforcement of a total feed ban, in 2001, the epidemiological situation regarding BSE has considerably improved in the EU with no classical BSE case since 2016 and 24 Member States having a negligible BSE-risk status.
In addition, the Farm-to-Fork strategy aims at making better use of the protein and other feed material produced in Europe. With a view to addressing this dual context, the proposal mainly allows the use of insect protein and non-ruminant protein in poultry and pig feed.
The Commission would like to hear your views.
This draft act is open for feedback for 4 weeks. Feedback will be taken into account for finalizing this initiative.
Feedback received will be published on this site and therefore must adhere to the feedback rules.
And I mean...If we have understood correctly, should another factory farming be created for factory farming?
What will “insect breeding” ultimately feed on?
And all of this to keep meat production running.
Obviously, it was not enough for the EU that almost a third of the Amazon was destroyed for animal feed, it was not enough that insects are destroyed with poisons approved by the EU … now the meat producers want to feed animals with animals
Instead of really tackling the global problem of CO2 emissions at the root, abolishing factory farming, and creating a different awareness of life, the EU Commission continues to abuse and use animals for consumption and even add another species.
Ergo: even more CO2 emissions … because such mass production systems will certainly not be environmentally friendly and CO2 neutral …
Once more we can see how much power meat producers wield over the EU.
My best regards to all, Venus
The stories of ten amazing animals are told through the lens of photographer Britt Bosse, thanks to the work of several animal sanctuaries across the US
Regards Mark
With thanks to Stacey at ‘Our Compass’ as always. Regards Mark.
Our Compass | Because compassion directs us … (our-compass.org)
By Natalie Blanton
Natalie Blanton, Author at Sentient Media
I remember their eyelashes. Big, dark, doe-eyes, encased by long, wispy, soft, curled lashes on their innocent black and white bovine faces. Newborn calves were kept in a teeny, tiny individual fenced-in pen alone. As a young child, I was fascinated by these baby creatures. I thought it was quaint that they had their own little space, their very own tiny house with a front yard.
I grew up in rural Utah and had friends who lived on idyllic “dairy farms,” you know, the kind found beaming across every carton of milk. Sure, I knew cows lived there and I knew “milk” and “cheese” came from them. However, the exact mechanics of how eluded me. As I matured, and after enough games of hide-and-go-seek among these rows of sheds housing tiny young calves, I started to piece together a more sinister cycle taking place. It was a gradual tugging on threads of understanding, an unraveling of a dark truth behind those happy cows on those happy milk cartons.
As the winter melted away and spring emerged, new baby cows could be found hobbling about the farms. Taking their first steps only moments after being born, under the guidance of their mothers. My excitement turned sour as I got older and began to notice spiked nose rings piercing through these day-old calves. Hungry for their mother’s milk, the spikes stabbed her udders, leaving them unable to feed and bond. A human-induced rift, a divide, a playing of God, separating a mother from her child. After a few days of this process, the calves were stripped from their mothers entirely. I will never forget the screams from the distressed, grieving mothers, and the cries from the terrified babies in response, now held across the farm, shackled to what I began to understand as “veal crates,” though I didn’t know yet what “veal” meant.
In my early teen years, I became a Rodeo Queen. A rural rite of passage for gritty, yet glamorous young cowgirls. Among other royal responsibilities of a newly minted Rodeo Queen, I was tasked with judging 4H cattle at the annual county fair. I watched in awe as pre-teen kids paraded their beloved animal across the arena, radiating with pride, no doubt a genuine connection between the two. They adoringly hugged their animals, naming them endearing pet names like “Daisy” or “Buddy,” only to be auctioned off later in the night, at the going rate, pound for pound of their flesh. I then watched as these same children, while loading their pets onto the slaughter truck, broke down in sobs, viscerally connecting the dots between their beloved animal and the agriculture industry. After learning of the profound bond that can come from raising and coexisting so closely with another mammal, I met the dark underbelly of animal husbandry as we now practice it in this late capitalist system. I had to ask why these cows, with their soft, brown and black fur without spots, were the “meat cows” sent for slaughter at such a tender age—while the Holsteins, the ones with the Black and White iconic spots, those found on those quaint dairy farms I spent so many hours exploring, were allowed to live and have offspring and a herd to grow and play with. I asked a nearby rancher there at the fair, and he scoffed saying, “Spots or not, they all end up at a feedlot.”
The final straw in my relationship with dairy was when I was in my later teen years, and I was helping round up some of my friends’ cattle herd at the end of the grazing season. I saw a mysterious contraption in their barn that looked like some medieval torture device—little did I realize, that is exactly what that was—known within the industry as the “rape rack.” Bold of the dairy industry to acknowledge a machine for exactly what it was. All of these moments culminated right then and there, when I, a recent survivor of sexual assault myself, found that this industry was systematically and repeatedly normalizing the raping of these innocent creatures, all in the name of profit. I thought, Please. Someone. Make this make sense.
The sexual division, male vs female Holsteins experience is upsetting, to say the least. It was always the male calves, who had no value in the dairy industry, were often kept in tiny veal crates, only to be sent to slaughter at barely a few weeks old, while the females were allowed to grow up—only to meet the same fate as their mothers: kept perpetually pregnant, in repeated distress from losing their children, only to be raped again—enduring this brutal cycle, repeatedly. I find it reminiscent of a dystopian sci-fi novel, or perhaps even The Handmaid’s Tale? But because they are animals and not humans, I was certainly being very dramatic now, wasn’t I?
The pit forming in my stomach was almost fully grown, this pit of truth, knowing that what had happened to me, was not okay—and should never happen to anyone, ever. As a woman, and a budding feminist, I was learning the urgency and vitality of bodily autonomy, and consent. I couldn’t compute that this industry wholly revolves around the commodification and exploitation of a mammal’s reproductive system. Because, lest we forget, we are merely mammals ourselves.
These vignettes in my memories are not the norm. These illustrations of Old MacDonald’s loving barnyard have been bought and sold, by Big Agriculture, since the industrial revolution. These scenes of black and white cows, leisurely grazing green pastures are a product of propaganda. And the current dairy system likens much more to a full-metal apocalyptic factory farm (industrial milking carousels). If such a place as these dairy farms still exist, they are more than likely not the source of the cow’s milk ending up in your cup. These images are tales of make-believe, and one that I fear we chose to envision to self-congratulate, or self-soothe, and absolve us of feeling the dread that factory farming imagery can bring to us—if we were only able to open our eyes.
Industrial animal agriculture is a corrupt, abusive, exploitative system that wastes all lives, human, animal, and planet alike. Now, as an intersectional feminist, I can’t help but ask why not extend the tenets of reproductive justice across all spectrums of race, class, ethnicity, gender, ability, religion, creed, and dare I say, species. As a woman, I cannot ignore the inextricable ties to reproductive labor that is inherent in the dairy industry. And what angers me the most? Is that people continue to romanticize and idealize this relationship we have with “dairy cows.” Dairy is often the last dietary frontier. Dairy products are often a person’s last culinary holdout, but this is simply people fooling themselves into thinking that we have this gentle, reciprocal, loving “animal husbandry” relationship with the animals that are forced to produce the raw product—this misguided idea that cows naturally and endlessly lactate, continuously producing this magic “essential” fluid just for us, and all they need is for humans to tease that milk out of their udders, or else they may explode. Wrong! All mammals lactate for the same reason, for their offspring, not for anyone else.
I fully acknowledge the damaging comparisons that have been made in earlier vegan feminist discourse, that likens these systems and structures to the abuse and disempowerment that is enacted upon female bodies. Mainstream feminism often centers and uplifts cis-gender white women and those with reproductive potential. I hope that we are collectively moving toward feminism that centers and celebrates equality for every woman. I dream of a world where mainstream feminist discourse does not exclude non-human animals. I am not at all attempting to compare the experience of women, Trans or femmes, to that of farmed animals—but what I am saying is all beings deserve respect and dignity. And these sacred bonds of fertility, conception, birthing, and lactation are what make us incredible beings, human or otherwise. I hope we can identify and celebrate these parallels across species, the immaculate ability to produce life. The most basic of bonds we create with our newborn infants are no different than a mother cow and her calf. The desire to protect, feed, and sacrifice, for our young and family ties. Expanding feminism to include non-human animals isn’t degrading our feminist movement, rather, I argue, it’s what’s required for the sake of compassion, empathy, and a more just future, for all.
The ditch dairy argument is a tough concept to swallow, I should know. I held on, eating cheese and yogurt for years before finally ditching dairy. I too was heard saying, “I just cannot live without cheese.” To my defense, cheese sets off the same dopamine receptors as cocaine in human brains. Alas, we are but addicted lab rats (in a capitalist maze, one designed not to make us healthier, but the exact opposite). But, what I wish people would learn to recognize is that dairy is the reason so many of us are getting sick—we have sky-high rates of lactose intolerance, not to mention that dairy has been linked to many forms of cancer, and hormonal imbalances (human female youth are beginning puberty at younger and younger ages due to the increased levels of estrogen found in mammal breast milk being consumed daily).
I read something once, in a distant theory class, that humans are superior to animals because our anatomy allows us to look up, skyward—and that these “beasts of burden” are lowly, conversely keeping their sights to the earth. I wondered if we had that all wrong, and should recognize that the creatures who center the earth, in all that they do, might just be the ones we might learn from instead.
I share this story in the hopes of expanding our circle of compassion. This is an urgent plea I ask you to consider. This is not meant to shame anyone, merely a telling of my story of why I made the choice to stop consuming dairy. These industrial food systems are decimating our planet, disrupting indigenous and natural symbiotic communion with our earth, and to put it bluntly, this is food apartheid.
It is time to seriously consider weaning ourselves off of the teats of the dairy industry. Divest our diet and dollars away from antiquated systems of torture and destruction. If you have the privilege and access to choose what you eat, I hope you choose to reduce suffering, with every meal. I am only interested in a future of expansive and inclusive feminism, one that centers on all beings and celebrates autonomous reproductive capacity and sovereign motherhood. To this day, I can still remember their eyelashes.
Natalie Blanton (she/they pronouns), MS is an activist and Sociology Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Utah, in Salt Lake City. They work, research, and teach within the veins of social, environmental, and reproductive justice. Natalie understands our world-society to be built upon the backs of oppressed and marginalized communities and actively seeks to advocate, educate, and rabble-rouse to overturn that norm. In their past life, Natalie has been a rodeo queen, turned full-time animal rights activist, worked for multiple farmed animal sanctuaries, and as a community educator for Planned Parenthood. Now, at the university level, they teach undergraduate Sociology of Gender and Sexuality and Environmental Sociology. Their dissertation is at the nexus of Environmental and Reproductive Justice in the Intermountain West Region of the United States.
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The beautiful picture of the little lambs is not only elicited by children.
Many adults also shout at this sight: “How cute! How cute! ”
But the cruel truth is: All these little lambs will soon end up under the butcher’s knife – punctually for Easter, they end up on the plate as roast lamb.
Because for many people who celebrate the “Festival of Life”, children’s corpses are part of the traditional Easter banquet.
In Germany, sheep have long ceased to be kept for their wool, as world market prices for wool are below production costs.
Today sheep are used almost exclusively for meat production: 98 percent of the sheep farmers’ income is generated from meat sales. One to two million sheep – almost exclusively lambs – are slaughtered in Germany every year.
A particular specialty at Easter is milk lambs – infants who still drink from their mother and have never eaten grass, between 8 weeks and six months old.
Because of this, they have very white meat that is called!
“As soft as butter, with delicate fibers and low in fat” applies – just baby meat.
Milk lambs, which – as the name suggests – are still infants, usually only reach an age of 2-6 months – fattening lambs an age of 6-12 months before they are snatched from their mothers – and not infrequently at just 8 Weeks to be cruelly slaughtered!
The babies tormented and murdered, the mother animals disturbed and deeply traumatized – in the name of Christian tradition, for the Easter “palate tickle”.
Since the local sheep farming and lamb production rarely yields the desired financial return, the animal children are also imported en masse from abroad in order to satisfy the annual greed for Easter lamb.
Milk lambs, which – as the name suggests – are still infants, usually only reach an age of 2-6 months – fattening lambs an age of 6-12 months before they are snatched from their mothers – and not infrequently at just 8 Weeks to be cruelly slaughtered!
The babies tormented and murdered, the mother animals disturbed and deeply traumatized – in the name of Christian tradition, for the Easter “palate tickle”.
Since the local sheep farming and lamb production rarely yields the desired financial return, the animal children are also imported en masse from abroad in order to satisfy the annual greed for Easter lamb.
In order to prevent the suffering of the Easter lambs in the long term and to prolong their unspeakably short lives, an alternative holiday menu helps.
At Easter, do without the meat of the little sheep, which, due to a stupid tradition, have to die after a few months.
Celebrate, but lamb-and animal-free!
My best regards to all, Venus
Please sign and support – Thanks, Mark
AnimalVictory.org
Here’s the full petition:
Suez Canal Situation Highlights Atrocious Animal Trade, With 200K Animals Stuck On Ships
When things go awry at sea, livestock on board ships suffer immeasurably. Animals have to stand in their own waste, for weeks on end. And if resources run out, the animals suffer dehydration and starvation; the ones who don’t survive are thrown overboard.
The atrocities these sentient beings are forced to endure are overwhelming.
Recently, a livestock ship with 1,800 head of cattle was denied port entry for THREE months! According to The Guardian, nearly 200 of the cattle died in conditions described as “hellish.”
The animals forced onboard these ships of death are already slated for death – must they suffer unnecessarily before they are slaughtered? Does anyone care for their welfare?
Your signatures and comments will be sent to the European Parliament along with our letter asking for this cruel live export transportation business to come to an end.
News:
Warning: Distressing content
Video from YouTube/Mercy For Animals
PETITION
Sign here:
WAV Comment – Around August 2010 I was very involved with investigations undertaken on the very same issue which is detailed in Caroline’s article below – the export of young Irish calves to mainland EU via Cherbourg port which is in France.
Here is a link to our other site – ‘Serbian Animals Voice’, which provides an example of the overall issue and a specific investigation report relating to the work. If you just wish to read the report, then here is a direct link:
Main link with pictures to this: About Us. | Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
Working with other EU animal welfare organisations involved in these 5 investigations, I wrote a 125 (A4) page report which detailed all the work and its findings. This was presented (as an overall one off report) to the EU, British MP’s and MEP’s (at that time the UK was still an EU member state). As Caroline details, the ferry crossing from Ireland to Cherbourg can be long – much too long for baby calves who should be given milk from their mothers on a very regular basis.
Our work found that one targeted crossing of calves on the ferry ‘Diplomat’ lasted 23 hours.
This vessel sailed from Rosslare on 28th November 2009 at 1600hrs
The other carrier ferry which was selected to be investigated, was the ‘Celtic Link’, which sailed from Rosslare on 28th November 2009 at 1815hrs, and the actual sailing time was 17.75 hours.
Important – only the sailing times for the ferry crossings (Rosslare-Cherbourg) are given above. These times are without the additional hours taken for transporters to journey from the original point of animal loading to Rosslare harbour, and once the ferry crossing has been made, the additional hours taken for transporters to journey to approved Control Posts in France once they had alighted the ferry at Cherbourg. So in reality; the times the calves were on truck was longer than that given above.
Once the calves finally arrived at their control post (feeding destination), they were supposed to be unloaded and rested up for many hours in accordance with EU Regulations. THIS DID NOT HAPPEN; and as you can read in the report link given above, exact arrival and leave times were recorded for several transporters carrying the calves.
Despite all this work and the long process of putting an overall report together, our evidence was simply dismissed by the EU; the trade in calves continued, as it does now, eleven years later, and I think I can safely say that all the rules are still being flouted.
This, and for many other export ‘things’ I have been involved with, is the simple reason why I have NO FAITH in anything that the EU preaches when it comes to legislation and the supposed welfare of animals. Animal welfare and the EU do not fit in the same box; we have proven it and all our evidence simply dismissed.
Does it anger me ? – yes, greatly; but it gives me even more impetus to research, investigate, and report on the issue of live animal exports. I think all the recent issues we have seen in Europe and the Suez Canal go to show what a sick and perverted bunch the politicians are who rubber stamp this mass animal abuse to happen. I promise that I will do everything in my power to expose the abuses !
Regards Mark
Opinion: Vulnerable unweaned calves need protection in our export trade (thejournal.ie)
WE ARE CONSISTENTLY told by the State that the live export of farm animals is a highly regulated industry, with high welfare standards and care for the animals.
Yet investigations by animal welfare groups in Irish and other European countries have pointed to breaches of EU animal welfare stan
dards, as well as evidence of sickness, injury and death among cattle and calves exported to Europe and further afield.
One area of particular concern is the export of unweaned calves, thousands of which, at just 15 to 21 days, are sent on long journeys to veal farms in Europe where they are slaughtered at a few months old.
Exports have grown in recent years; largely as a result of the uncontrolled expansion of the dairy industry that is producing an increasing number of male calves that the sector has no outlet for.
A long and difficult journey
European regulations state that animals should not be transported for more than eight hours; however, there are derogations for longer journey times so long as certain conditions are met around rest and feeding times.
In this case, unweaned calves can be transported for nine hours, after which they must be allowed to rest for one hour and be given water and feed as required. The calves can then be transported for another nine hours after which they must be unloaded and fed.
A good practices guide published by the European Commission, for example, states “young calves have to be provided with feed/water after as little as 8-9 hours”.
In reality, however, welfare groups have documented cases where calves are in a truck at ports after nine hours and are still on the ferry after 19 hours.
The ferry journey alone is 18 hours and often trucks transporting the calves are at the port for four or five hours before departure time.
Journey logs released under FOI, for example, show the calves have been put in the trucks for around 30 hours before being unloaded and fed at the resting point in Cherbourg.
Negative impacts of the journey
There are also serious concerns about feeding of the calves. At 15 days old, calves are dependent on a liquid diet and need milk or milk replacer at least twice a day.
As there are around 300 in each truck over three levels, it is not possible to access all calves to dispense the milk. In essence, many weeks-old calves are going 24-30 hours with no feed.
Leaving unweaned calves for long periods with no feed can cause all kinds of health and welfare problems. They have little body fat in reserve and the stress of transport means they burn energy at a faster rate than they would on the farm.
They cannot regulate their body temperature effectively and calves that receive no feed during a long journey will be more susceptible to cold and heat stress.
Young, vulnerable calves do not have a fully developed immune system and the lack of feed has an adverse impact further compromising immunity.
16.06.16Opinion: Allowing animals to be exported from Ireland to Turkey is no victory
30.10.14Irish cattle bound for Libya are being ‘beaten, stabbed, dragged by the eye sockets’
27.10.14Interactive map: Here’s where all our live sheep and cattle exports go
Transport is inherently stressful and it is essential that the calves be supported during the journey by receiving adequate nutrition.
To leave them without feed for up to 30 hours will compound the stress of the journey and further compromise their immune system.
Time for Europe to take action
All transporters, including ferry companies, have been authorised to transport livestock by the Department of Agriculture with certain obligations to ensure that the transport of animals is conducted in line with the requirements under EU regulations.
Based on the evidence that we have collected, together with other organisations, we have submitted a formal complaint to the EU Commission against the Department of Agriculture for what we see as failures to take appropriate action in relation to potential breaches by ferry companies whose authorisations we argue should be revoked.
There is currently a committee of inquiry underway in the European Parliament to examine long distance transport of animals, if the regulations are fit for purpose, and how well they are being enforced. The live export of unweaned Irish calves is something that we hope is high up on the agenda.
There is something inherently wrong with a system where calves are born just to be killed, and something wrong with a society that allows it to happen.
Caroline Rowley is the director of Ethical Farming Ireland that campaigns for improved conditions for farm animals, more sustainable and ethical farming methods, and opposes live exports.
You know; with all this kind of thing every day I have to chill out for a while; and music is (amongst other things) a saviour. Sometimes I need to share some music with you as I know you get affected by it all also – you have to get away sometimes, even if for half an hour or less; so enjoy !
Mark
BUCHAREST, 30. MAR, 07:04
The worst maritime animal welfare tragedy in history could, by now, be unavoidable, says Gabrile Păun, the EU director for Animals International, an NGO.
There are 16 ships taking live animals from the EU to the Persian Gulf which have been stuck for several days behind the stranded ‘Ever Given’ cargo vessel in the Suez Canal.
Even with the Ever Given now slowly moving again, the live animals inside the blistering cargo containers, which are quickly running out of feed and water, are now nearing an even more tragic end than that which awaits them in the slaughterhouses at their destination.
Even if the ships were to resume full course today, the water and food would not last until their sea journey is over.
Romania is the source for the 130,000 of the 200,000 live animals now caught in the Suez bottleneck.
Some six of the 11 ships full to the brim with the live animals from the South-Eastern European nation are in a particularly critical situation. They were supposed to reach harbours in the Persian Gulf over four days ago, but still have not left the Canal.
According to EU law, ships carrying live animals need to load 25 percent more food than planned for their trip in case of delays, but animal welfare organisations warned that this rarely happens.
Meanwhile, Păun explained to EUobserver that even with the 25 percent buffer, these ships would now run out of animal feed long before they arrive in port.
“A ship that left Romania on 16 March was scheduled to arrive in Jordan on 23 March, but instead it would now reach port on 1 April at the earliest. That is a nine-day delay. Even if the ship had the required 25 percent additional animal feed, it would only have lasted for 1.5 days”, he said.
The ‘ANSVSA’, the Romanian authority in charge of live-animal exports issued a press release two days ago saying that after reaching out to those in charge on board the ships, there is enough food and water to last a few days.
The press release added that live animal exports have been currently suspended until the situation in the Suez is dealt with.
But for Păun, those responsible for the shipment would never admit that animals are dying by the thousands on their vessels.
Meanwhile, the EU legislation does not compel an EU member state to report on animal mortality on board these ships and Romania would never release that information voluntarily because authorities know that it would lead to investigations, he added.
Romania is one of Europe’s largest live-sheep exporters and has several times been singled out by the European Commission for its bad practices regarding live-animal exports.
Last year, Romania was red-flagged by Brussels for failing to meet live-animal transport conditions after more than 14,000 sheep drowned when a cargo vessel capsized off the Black Sea coast.
A year earlier, the then EU commissioner for food safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis, urged Romania – to no avail – to stop the export of 70,000 live sheep to the Persian Gulf because temperatures inside the cargo vessel exceed 60 degrees Celsius.
Instead, Romanian authorities increased their live-animal exports, despite an investigation that showed animals exported to Gulf countries dying from the high temperatures, being unloaded violently off ships, squeezed into car trunks, and slaughtered by unskilled butchers.
Păun says the only chance now for some of the animals to make it to destination alive is for Egyptian authorities to move quickly and clear the ships trapped in the Suez.
“I am appalled that legislation did not offer Romania the power to command cargo ships to return back home. Romania should have used diplomatic pressure to resolve the issue,” he said.
“According to a ruling by the European Court of Justice, the EU member state exporting live animals to a third party country is responsible for their wellbeing until reaching destination”, he added.
For Păun, Romania should move toward exporting meat rather than live animals.
“It would cancel the unnecessary suffering of the animals and would be more economically profitable for Romania”, he said.
But even though other countries have agreed that exporting processed and refrigerated meat is far more profitable and less cruel, live animal exports remain unabated from Romania.
Some 200,000 animals trapped in Suez canal likely to die (euobserver.com)
Regards Mark
WAV Comment – we feel this a very important petition to support as it has huge implications throughout the EU regarding plant based dairy censorship. Please give your support, thank you – petition link below.
STOP PLANT-BASED DAIRY CENSORSHIP
Dear European Commission and EU Member States,
We want you to put a halt to plant-based dairy censorship
Please reject amendment 171. If adopted, it would totally counteract the consumer shift to more sustainable eating habits that’s urgently needed to fight climate change.
Dairy terms are already protected by law. Amendment 171 would go further and censor all use of dairy-related language, packaging, or imagery for plant-based foods.
Words and phrases like “contains no dairy” or “creamy texture” might be banned. The same goes for a tweet or an advert mentioning scientific data showing that a product causes, for example, “half the carbon emissions of dairy butter”. Bizarrely, the amendment could even prohibit plant-based foods from using photos of their own products on packaging.
In this way, amendment 171 would not only hide information from consumers, but also hinder innovation and the emerging sustainable food sector. Altogether, it would be a huge reversal of the work done so far to meet the EU’s own goals on public health and sustainability, as agreed under the terms of the Paris Agreement. Given the urgency of the climate crisis, it’s a highly irresponsible move.
Please add your name and tell the European Union to stop plant-based censorship.
Regards Mark
I have ‘loved’ (in a ‘blokey’ sort of way) ! Benjamin since I first saw him at a London animal rights demo decades ago. So seeing him again the BBC this morning; I thought it was time to introduce him to you. Here are a few shorts of his life and actions; a passionate animal rights advocate, he wrote the foreword to Keith Mann‘s book From Dusk ’til Dawn: An insider’s view of the growth of the Animal Liberation Movement
Dedicated – Yes;
do we want him – for sure.
Regards Mark
Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah (born 15 April 1958)[1] is a British writer and dub poet. He was included in The Times list of Britain’s top 50 post-war writers in 2008
Turning vegan at 13 Benjamin is pretty much a lifelong vegan. He is now 58 and as a busy performer, writer and with a passion for martial arts, he just naturally shows people what it is like being vegan and doesn’t “ram veganism down peoples throats”.
Zephaniah is an honorary patron of The Vegan Society,[12]
Viva! (Vegetarians’ International Voice for Animals),[13]
EVOLVE! Campaigns,[14] the anti-racism organisation Newham Monitoring Project with whom he made a video[15] in 2012 about the impact of Olympic policing on black communities, Tower Hamlets Summer University and is an animal rights advocate.
In 2004, he wrote the foreword to Keith Mann‘s book From Dusk ’til Dawn: An insider’s view of the growth of the Animal Liberation Movement, a book about the Animal Liberation Front.
In August 2007, he announced that he would be launching the Animal Liberation Project, alongside People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.]
He became a vegan when he read poems about “shimmering fish floating in an underwater paradise, and birds flying free in the clear blue sky”.
World Animals Voice 