We are currently attempting to get e mail contact details for the Ministry of Agriculture so that you can write to them expressing your disgust at their attempts to change the legislation. We will publish as soon as we have information – WAV.

Dear all;

Here is an update on the situation relating to the German pig issue.

Please see our recent past posts:

1 This gives an overview of the situation – https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/02/01/an-open-letter-to-the-eurogroup-for-animals/

2 And here is a rather dramatic video showing the situation for intensively reared (caged) pigs -WARNING: Distressing Images –   https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/02/03/germany-please-make-the-connection/

Over the last few days (early February) we have collaborated with our good friends at Compassion In World Farming (UK) – https://www.ciwf.org.uk/ and also established very promising links with contacts at CIWF Italia (Italy) – https://www.ciwf.it/ to further actions on this issue. CIWF UK are currently running the campaign to End the Cage Age right across Europe. Please read more and see video footage at – https://www.ciwf.org.uk/our-campaigns/end-the-cage-age/

And so on the (German) subject of extending the pig boxes for 17 years:

As Venus has rightly written in communications today:

It is a first-class crime that these metal prisons are still allowed in a country like Germany, which – at least in theory – has anchored ‘animal welfare’ as a state goal in the Basic Law.

In the previous version of the Animal Welfare / Animal Husbandry Ordinance (1), Section 5 determines Section 24 (4)…is clear:

(Pig) Box stands must be designed so that:

– the pigs cannot injure themselves and

– Each pig can stand free, lie down and stretch its head and side members.

A total of three courts have already ruled that the sows must lie down in the crate and that the limbs must be able to stretch out on their side. Anytime and unhindered.

The legal regulation was so clear that the Magdeburg Administrative Court, the Higher Administrative Court of the State of Saxony-Anhalt and the Federal Administrative Court expressly approved this in the years 2014 to 2016.

Now the Federal Government, together with Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner (CDU), wants to delete this part of the regulation, which provides that the sows in the crates may at least stretch their limbs and their heads in a lying position. Only in this way (by deletion) she can legalize her decision to keep these cages for another 15/17 years.

The German Minister’s proposal is really dangerous for different reasons:

–           It would legalise the suffering of millions of German sows in narrow stalls for the next 15-17 years and to do that it would set a precedent, i.e. worsen existing legislation by deleting the national legislation paragraph saying that sows should stretch their legs. A very dangerous precedent, which could then be repeated on other issues.

–           It could undermine ECI asks as Germany will soon hold the presidency of the EU.

We comment – As an EU ‘civilised’ nation; should Germany be attempting at all costs to improve its animal welfare, rather than taking steps back; as this proposal would ? – How are nations in the Far East (for example) expected to improve their welfare when Germany adopts this kind of negative stance ?

That’s what it’s about here.

The Federal Council should have voted on this (practically unlawful) extension on December 2, 2019 (i.e. approval would allow the crates for another 17 years).

The decision was postponed to February 14 2020, because we (in the animal welfare movement) protested and blessed Klöckner with petitions and demos and war over the Internet.

The decision of February 14^th will be binding. How sad that this is the same date (14/2) when you should show love and respect – Valentines Day.

Many groups and citizens from all over the EU, and also other nations, are trying to make their voices heard about this very important issue before, and on 14^th February.

In view of the 27th of January 2020, (a session of the German Agri Committee) the 27th was a ‘non-public one’ and little has been revealed after it.

What we know so far:

1. The Agri Committee seems to have made many amendments to the draft sow bill but has still approved it (it could have rejected it)
2. IMPORTANT Positive – But it also seems that the Land Sachsen Anhalt managed to have an ‘amendment’ approved which basically says that sows should be able to stretch their legs during the phase-out period!
3. Phase out period for sow stalls should have been shortened from 17 to 10 years- for farrowing crates no change.

So, point 2. Above (the Amendment) could potentially mean the end of the Minister’s proposal. Since the whole construction of her new regulation was based on making current sow stalls legal. And this can be done only by deleting the paragraph mentioning leg-stretching.  The submitted Proposal changes this and says that sows should be able to stretch their legs during the phase-out period

It is getting legal and becoming a strong fight by both pro animal welfare advocates; and also the government who wish change. With the Point 2 issue above we (in the welfare movement) are hopeful of a positive end result; but actions will continue to the end. For the pigs, regardless of the result; their confinement will not end. – the ‘Eternal Treblinka’ policy.

CIWF and its partners from the ECI and Eurogroup coalitions will participate in a protest on the 14th in front of the Bundesrat, an action being coordinated by friends at Four Paws – https://www.four-paws.org/campaigns-topics/topics/farm-animals . They are also exploring additional actions.

So; whoever you are and wherever you are, if you want to help get part justice for the caged pigs then search the web and try to take part in written or physical protests. There is one final chance on 14/2 and it needs to be in the favour of the pigs that are suffering enough now as it is, let alone with this changed legislation.

Please keep up the fight and be a voice until then at least – there is very little time left.

Regards to all of you from Mark, Venus (WAV) – Annamaria, Philip and all the crew at CIWF (UK and Italy).

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2019/10/23/germany-13-million-pigs-end-up-in-the-garbage/ 

Photo – CIWF

https://vimeo.com/120458793

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/02/01/an-open-letter-to-the-eurogroup-for-animals/

The current Federal Agriculture Minister of Germany, (the worst for animal welfare but the best farmer lobbyist as she only does what they want), Julia Klöckner wants to legalize the too narrow individual cages for sows that have been banned for decades.

A draft regulation by the conservative politician removes the requirement that the animals must be able to stretch their legs.

Only after the possible transition period of up to 17 years would the times be reduced for keeping animals in them, and the length of the boxes will increase to 220 cm instead of 200 as they are now!!

Pigs stands with a width of 65 cm (gilts) or 70 cm (sows) and a length of 200 cm are currently common practice, although a fully-grown pig has a body height of 90 cm.

There must be room for the legs to extend full length.

But if the farmers had to widen the box stands, it could be expensive.

That is why the Ministry of Agriculture wants to lift the regulation, which is annoying for many animal owners.

After a tough fight by animal rights activists, the decision of the Federal Council has been postponed to February 14, 2020.

In order to influence this decision positively, there is a letter and a petition to the new head of the EU Commission (Eurogroup knows that) and another petition addressed to the Federal Council of Germany.

“Whatever the Federal Council decides on February 14th can no longer be changed by Minister Klöckner”, the petition explains fairly naively, thereby proving that the initiators know neither Klöckner nor the Federal Council.

The maximum result that could come from the second petition would be that Klöckner shortens the transition period.

Because something else is not to be expected from the Federal Council.

The Federal Council has as Members only conservative factory farming lobbyists, self-operating farm owners, hunting fans and mostly disinterested heads of state.

One of them, the green Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg Winfried Kretschmann, is ceremoniously received by the hunting association in a castle!!

Back to the 1^st comment – Klöcker herself is the WORST for animal welfare and the BEST for the farmers – a real friend of the meat industry.

So.. why one petition after another?
Didn’t reach the 1.5 million?
Is that what the initiators of the “end the cage age” campaign actually do?

The animal rights movement has turned into a petition shop.
We feel abandoned and cheated by these initiators.
The crime in Midia remains unpunished to this day, the 1.5 million vision (Ban live exports and break the cage) remains unfulfilled.

With petitions you can of course keep your post and secure your existence.
Nothing else will come of it.
Even if you started a thousand new petitions.

And it is precisely these new petitions against the pig cages that make us feel uneasy.
The fear that Eurogroup knows more than we do and that is a bad thing.
Namely that the EU Commission will again consciously, knowingly, deliberately betray the animals.

And the Eurogroupe can’t help it because it doesn’t decide anything anyway.
It (Eurogroup) can only work with MEP’s, while we know the Commissioners only have the final say, and not the MEP’s or the EU citizens.

Those who can decide for changes to improve welfare don’t want to, and those who want (the EU citizens) can’t.

Federal Minister of Agriculture Julia Klöckner with her Chinese counterpart Han Changfu after signing the bilateral agreement, source: BMEL

In any case, the Agriculture Minister of Germany Julia Klöckner made a decision in advance and acted against the will of 1.5 million citizens with the extension of the pig cages for 17 years! – the advanced decision says little about democracy in what is called a ‘democratic member state of the EU’.

And she does it, even before the EU Commission makes a judgment about the boxes. She is a poodle of the farmers; nothing else. They command and she barks support.

Germany is the most influential country within the European Union and holds the EU Council Presidency from July 2020.

So … if Germany, then the whole of Europe remains in the age of the cage.
The wishes of over 1 million EU citizens has been ignored, as is usually the case.

And by the way, the crimes against animals and the environment go on UNDIMINISHED!

Client: EU Commission and everyone who works for them.

As we always say, the EU is run by lobbyists, not citizens. They get what they want – the common man does not!

Mark Johnson and Venus Reichenbach (WAV)

Congratulations to all parties involved in this wonderful news – respect from us all ! – WAV.

Court Strikes Down Unconstitutional Kansas ‘Ag Gag’ Law

Posted by Jane Wolfe | January 27, 2020

In a triumph for animal welfare, the U.S. Court for the District of Kansas has ruled that the state’s “ag-gag” law violates the First Amendment and is therefore unconstitutional.

Challenged in 2018 by a coalition led by the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), the law bans undercover investigators from taking photographs or filming animal facilities, such as slaughterhouses and factory farms, ultimately preventing the documentation of animal abuse.

On January 22, the U.S. Court for the District of Kansas rejected the state’s motion to dismiss the case and accepted the majority of the coalition’s motion for summary judgment, thus prohibiting Kansas from implementing the Ag Gag law.

ALDF maintains that the almost 30-year-old legislation prevents undercover activists from investigating inhumane conditions at animal facilities, stifling free speech. This enables unscrupulous companies to hide systemic animal abuse and avoid public scrutiny.

“For 30 years, Kansas lawmakers have suppressed whistleblowers from investigating cruel conditions on factory farms with this unconstitutional law,” explains ALDF Executive Director Stephen Wells. “Today’s decision is a victory for the millions of animals raised for meat on factory farms.”

ALDF explained the importance of undercover investigations in both regulatory practice and public informational awareness.

“It is critical that investigations are not suppressed,” the organization said in a statement. “The public relies on undercover investigations to expose illegal and cruel practices on factory farms and slaughterhouses. No Federal laws govern the condition in which farmed animals are raised, and laws addressing slaughter and transport are laxly enforced.”

“Undercover investigations are therefore the primary avenue through which the public receives information about animal agriculture operations,” ALDF continued. “Investigations also reveal health and worker safety violations. Factory farms and slaughterhouses are major polluters, so undercover investigations are important for learning about violations of environmental laws as well.”

This victory in Kansas follows other federal courts in Idaho, Iowa and Utah ruling that those states’ ag-gag laws also violate the U.S. Constitution.

I’m from England – Saff (South)  London type.  ‘Adam and Eve’; Cockney slang for ‘Believe’.

Even then the words are usually shortened to further confuse ! – I love it !

‘Apples and Pears’ = Stairs; just becomes ‘Apples’ – I went up the apples to clean the ‘Tommy’s’ – Tommy Trinder – Winder; or ‘Window’.  See what I mean ?

Great news here below;

Regards Mark.

KFC’s Beyond Meat chicken is a damn miracle

By Mark Wilson

In a hip hotel in Chicago’s West Loop, nestled among more Michelin-starred restaurants than I can count, KFC has presented me with a carefully plated presentation of chubby chicken chunks on a rectangular white plate. The first is your standard, plain tan. The second, a honey BBQ. The third, drenched in buffalo sauce. And the final features an oily coating of Nashville hot spice.

Sitting amid lavish bouquets of bell peppers, turnips, Brussels sprouts, and other vegetables, I take my first bite of vegan* KFC.

KFC’s new Beyond Fried Chicken will be available in nearly 100 stores in Charlotte, North Carolina; Nashville; and surrounding areas from February 3 to February 23. Produced by Beyond Meat exclusively for KFC, if it sells and customers like it, a nationwide release will follow at an undisclosed date.

Back in Chicago in my fancy tasting room, a 3-foot-tall cutout of the Colonel himself looks on from a green wall as I tried the undressed plant nugget for the first time. My teeth pierce the crunchy fried coating and shred through the meat.

It tastes like a doggone piece of chicken—and not just any piece of chicken, but a KFC piece of chicken with hints of those 11 herbs and spices. I fork and knife my way through the honey BBQ (perfectly too sweet, and the coating still crunchy), the buffalo (a touch vinegary for my taste but offering the uncanny aftertaste of chicken), and the Nashville (the deep pepper flavor has respectable heat that hits me a delightful 10 seconds later).

KFC and Beyond Meat executives are waiting to be interviewed, and I look at the four remaining pieces there on the plate, realizing this is the best faux chicken I’ve eaten in the last five years of eating mostly vegan. Would it be uncouth to keep going, to meet Ethan Brown, CEO of Beyond Meat, with BBQ sauce on my hoodie? (I opt to stop. Though I regret later that I didn’t finish.)

KFC adopting Beyond Meat is not necessarily the biggest coup for fake meats in fast food: Last year, Beyond Meat has already snuck its breakfast sausage into sandwiches and bowls at Dunkin’ (the fourth most popular chain in the U.S.) while fierce competitor Impossible landed the Whopper at Burger King (the sixth). But while KFC is smaller than either of these chains (at 12th place), it certainly feels like a sign of the times that a company that’s literally named “Kentucky Fried Chicken” will be selling chicken with no literal chicken in it. No wonder the alternative meat industry is projected to grow to $140 billion in a decade.

As Andrea Zahumensky, CMO of KFC U.S. tells me, KFC has been eyeing meat replacements for a while, but no product in the category seemed mature enough to work. That was until last year when talks with Beyond Meat began in earnest, and the two companies struck up a deal to co-develop a product. The process has taken about six months.

The target customer isn’t just vegans or vegetarians, but flexitarians—people who might eat meat but would like to cut back on how much they consume. As a recent Kroger study found, 93% of people who bought Beyond Burger had other animal proteins in their cart. And for KFC, which has been posting solid revenue and profits, though failing to have its Popeyes Chicken Sandwich moment, the product offers the opportunity to bring in a new, younger audience.

The chicken is good enough that I suspect it will. But getting to this point was difficult. Beyond Meat’s chicken product is completely custom for KFC—which is unique; the Impossible Whopper at Burger King and sliders at White Castle are the standard blend. The company went through countless iterations on the protein, ultimately opting, not for a ground, spongey protein, but something more akin to whole breast muscle tissue. As Brown demonstrates, picking apart a nugget with his fingers, Beyond Fried Chicken flakes and shreds. (It’s anything but the grill-marked homogenous slabs of Beyond Chicken I bought from the freezer aisle years ago.) The meat is marinated to improve texture and impart extra KFC flavor. Meanwhile, KFC worked on the breading, opting for a coat that was similar to the company’s popcorn chicken. It all comes together in a factory, before the product is shipped to KFC locations and deep fried to food safe temperatures, just like meat would be. This final fry is also key to denaturing the proteins, and giving the chicken the right mouthfeel, I’m told.

I was surprised that KFC is opting to present its plant-based chicken so naked, as a product that could be eaten plain, dipped, or tossed in sauce. Why not release a Beyond Meat Fried Chicken Sandwich that could hide any off flavours with a bun, veggies, and extra condiments? The vegan chick’n sandwiches I’ve eaten at restaurants for years do just this, and often to a convincing effect.

“Our customers expect KFC to have a certain flavour, [and] to be flavourful. Doing it in a form like this allows that flavor to shine and the texture to shine,” says Zahumensky—who implies that a bun or extra accoutrements would have just gotten in the way of this result.

One other curious part of the design is the shape. McDonald’s famously uses “bell, ball, bone and boot” moulds in their nugget designs, to create a sensation somewhere between chicken as factory-processed food and unique, organic snowflakes. For KFC’s Beyond Fried Chicken, each chunk of chicken has a geometry that’s tougher to describe. I jot down the term “warbly square” in my notes. Some pieces look like wing flats. Others look like a sort of fried tamagotchi keychain.

“It’s some kind of nugget-like boneless wing-like, more premium than a nugget [thing],” says Zahumensky. Indeed, originally this shape was even called a “boneless wing” during an early market test in Atlanta. Fans lined up around the block, but they got feedback: Plants don’t have bones so they can’t be boneless. “That’s why we test,” Zahumensky laughs at the company’s error. “We’re trying to learn.”

In the future, Beyond Meat could shape this chicken however KFC wants. For now, it’s clear the company is going for something more premium than a chicken nugget—but they can’t call it a wing. Chicken cube? Chicken tesseract? Don’t be surprised to see more testing from KFC in the future, regarding both the shape of its plant chicken and its branding.

Whatever shape and name Beyond Fried Chicken takes when it eventually hits stores nationwide, the product they have ready to trial today is superb. As I leave the meeting, the flavors of KFC are still left on my tongue. And I’m left with a new revelation about the future of fake meats.

Some people don’t like Beyond Meat for its uncanny resemblance to real meat. Others frown upon eating plant meats when the real stuff is so delicious and plentiful. (Both of these perspectives are fair; what you put into your mouth is entirely your business.) But Beyond Fried Chicken demonstrates that KFC is more food as brand than it is food as chicken. KFC as we know it in our mind’s eye is an experience that transcends the quibbles, “Is this real meat?” to ask, “Is this authentic KFC?” And Beyond Fried Chicken certainly is as guilty, salty, chewy, herbaceous, and umami-loaded of an experience as the KFC you know.

Though now I’d like some the Extra Tasty Crispy and Original Recipe versions, thanks!

* Beyond Fried Chicken is fried in the same fryers as KFC’s meat-based fried chicken. So much like Burger King’s Impossible Whopper, some people may have issue with call this “vegan.”

https://www.fastcompany.com/90455889/kfcs-beyond-meat-chicken-is-a-damn-miracle