Category: Vegan Recipes

IPCC findings confirm urgency to make sustainable healthy diets easy, says NGO coalition.

IPCC findings confirm urgency to make sustainable healthy diets easy, says NGO coalition

20 March 2023

Press Release

In light of the findings to be released today by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – that changes to our diets can substantially slash greenhouse gas emissions – we at Eurogroup for Animals are calling for better ‘food environments’ in the EU (1) alongside other influential organisations. This means concrete measures to make healthy, more plant-based diets with ‘less and better’ animal products the easy choice for European consumers.

We’ve recently formed a coalition with the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) and European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), as the European Commission is due to propose a landmark law on sustainable food systems in September. The law is expected to recognise the role and influence of ‘food environments’ in shaping consumer food choices.

Food is among the sectors where demand-side changes can be most impactful. Yet currently, food environments largely push consumers towards unhealthy and unsustainable foods which are the most available and advertised, as well as often the cheapest options.

IPCC experts recognise the right policies and infrastructure need to be in place to enable shifts to sustainable healthy diets (2). Incredibly, changes to our lifestyles and behaviour can result in a 40-70% drop in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, while also improving our health and wellbeing (3)!

Our coalition, named ‘Put Change on the Menu’, therefore urges action to:

Ensure that foods contributing to sustainable healthy diets are the most advertised and promoted;

Make sustainable and healthy foods more affordable;

Make food products healthier and more sustainable by design through new minimum legal requirements;

Ensure that these minimum requirements also apply to imported foods.

Reineke Hameleers, Eurogroup for Animals Chief Executive Officer, commented:

European citizens care deeply about animal welfare and have made strong calls for animal welfare to be improved. Products from higher welfare systems in combination with more plant-based food on European plates are also good for the planet and health. Still we see numerous campaigns promoting the consumption of animal products in the EU. This needs to change. Therefore we are joining forces with consumer and health organisations to make sure that the healthy, sustainable option is the one that is the most promoted along the lines of ‘less and better’.

Monique Goyens, BEUC Director General, commented:

Sustainable healthy diets are a win-win for health, climate and food security. Most consumers are willing to change their food habits, such as eating ‘less and better’ meat and more fruit, vegetables and pulses. But that is no easy task. Change must be rolled out at several levels to make the healthy sustainable choice the obvious choice. Regulators, food producers, and retailers have a crucial role to play to adjust pricing, marketing, and every other factor that pushes us to buy one food product over another.

Milka Sokolovic, EPHA Director General, commented:

Making healthy and climate smart food choices the easiest options for all is not just needed to reduce the very real threats to health posed by climate change highlighted in the IPCC report. It’s also needed to help tackle the burgeoning burden of ill health that poor diets largely contribute towards.

Notes

In its 2020 ‘Farm to Fork’ Strategy for fairer, healthier, and greener food and farming, the European Commission announced a new EU legislative Framework for a Sustainable Food System for 2023. This horizontal law will introduce definitions, sustainability objectives and principles to ensure that existing and future EU legislation about food consistently contributes towards the goal of a sustainable food system which operates within planetary boundaries. 

For our coalition, it’s vital that the Framework for a Sustainable Food System paves the ground for further concrete policy measures addressing specific elements of food environments such as advertising and marketing, labelling, public procurement and the affordability of healthy and sustainable food.

(1) The Synthesis Report, the closing chapter of IPCC sixth assessment cycle, will integrate the findings of previous reports released by IPCC during this cycle which began in 2015, including that of Working Group III on ‘Mitigation of Climate Change’ which tackled demand-side mitigation solutions.

(2) Which in the EU means eating more fruit, vegetables, wholegrains, and pulses, and ‘less and better’ meat and dairy.

(3) See IPCC Working Group III contribution published on 4 April 2022.

Food environments have been defined as the “physical, economic, political and socio-cultural context in which consumers engage with the food system to make their decisions about acquiring, preparing and consuming food.”

Regards Mark

Canada: Animal Rights Advocate Pamela Anderson will now Host a Plant-Based Cooking Show.

REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer

Animal rights advocate Pamela Anderson will now host a plant-based cooking show

Pamela Anderson is set to return to the small screen in support of a cause that has long been close to her heart. The long-time advocate for animal rights has just landed a vegan cooking show on a Canadian TV network

While the “Baywatch” star reflects on the many events that marked her career in a recent Netflix documentary, Pamela Anderson is set to return to the small screen in support of a cause that has long been close to her heart. In fact, the long-time advocate for animal rights has just landed her own vegan cooking show on a Canadian TV network.

Read the full story at:

Animal Rights Advocate Pamela Anderson Will Now Host A Plant-based Cooking Show – Forbes India

Regards Mark

UK: No chicken was eaten in this film.

No chicken was eaten in this film.

Quorn unveils 2023 marketing campaign to target chicken lovers – Marketing Beat (marketing-beat.co.uk)

Quorn has unveiled a new marketing campaign for 2023 in a bid to convince chicken eaters that Quorn products can act as perfect meat substitutes.

Produced by creative agency Adam&EveDDB, the ads showcase how takeaways after a night out can include Quorn meat-free products such as the brand’s Crispy Nuggets, Quorn Crunchy Fillet Burger and Quorn BBQ Sticky Wings.

https://www.quorn.co.uk/

Regards Mark

Vegan Foodies For Festive.

Don’t support this abuse at the festive season;

Mozza says no.

Watch here by viewing on Youtube.

For all you festive foodies, I have thrown together a few vegan nosh links which may give you some extra ideas for this time of year.

Being Vegan means rejecting ALL the industries which cause pain and suffering to animals.

And you will feel better in every way as a result of going vegan.

Regards Mark

Easy vegan recipes | Jamie Oliver

vegan recipes – Search (bing.com)

Viva ! food factsheets  Our resources | Viva! The Vegan Charity

Viva ! A to Z of food facts A-Z of foods | Viva! The Vegan Charity

Food – Gifts for Life | Viva! (vivashop.org.uk)

Animal Aid – Veganism  Veganism – Animal Aid

Animal Aid Vegan recipes  Vegan Recipes – Animal Aid

Why Veganism ? – Why Veganism? – Animal Aid

Going vegan for the animals Going vegan for the animals – Animal Aid

Going vegan for human rights Going vegan for human rights – Animal Aid

Going vegan for your health Going vegan for your health – Animal Aid

Download your free vegan pack  Animal Aid

To be further updated soon.

Belgium: Stop The Cruelty, Buy FAUX Gras For The Holidays.

Faux Gras for the holidays!

Dear animal lover,

Foie gras will be more expensive this year following an epidemic of bird flu in the duck population.  As if these poor animals did not already suffer enough from the cruel treatment of force-feeding!

GAIA fights body and soul to put an end to this practice in Belgium. In addition to our lobbying actions with politicians and raising awareness among the general public via our video below, we have been offering an alternative with our Faux Gras that respects both gourmets and animals. It is now available in 2 certified organic versions :

  • Faux Gras and its delicate taste (1)
  • Faux Gras with cranberries with leaked flavors (2)

Enough to start your holiday meals in an original way and with a clear conscience and this, at the modest prices of 3.69 € (1) and 3.89 € (2) the box of 125g. You can order them for home delivery via the button below.  

You will also find our Faux gras at Delhaize, Colruyt, Aldi, Lidl, Carrefour, Match and Cora.

By buying our Faux Gras, you contribute to our fight to end force-feeding in Belgium. Help our duck friends and make the holidays no longer a nightmare time for them.

Many thanks for your support,


Michel Vandenbosch
President de GAIA

P.S.: Also take advantage of our Webshop to find many ideas for end-of-year gifts and thus financially help our fight for the defense of animals.  

UK: (The New UK) Eco King Charles BANS Foie Gras At All Royal Residences. A Positive Message Against Animal Suffering and Abuse.

King Charles: Foie gras banned at royal residences

King Charles: Foie gras banned at royal residences – BBC News

There will be no foie gras served in royal residences, a letter from Buckingham Palace to animal rights campaigners has confirmed.

King Charles is understood to have been a longstanding opponent of the food, made from the liver of a duck or goose, that campaigners say is cruel.

The King’s household wrote to the Peta campaign group that foie gras was not bought or served in royal residences.

There have been protests about force-feeding used to produce foie gras.

King Charles, when he was Prince of Wales, had been an advocate of higher welfare standards in farming and for over a decade had stopped the use of foie gras in his own properties and had been instrumental in a wider ban across royal residences.

Now as King he has reaffirmed this opposition – with the luxury food staying off the menu.

A letter received by Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) confirms that a foie gras ban is in place across the Royal Household and for all royal residences, which would include Balmoral, Sandringham, Windsor Castle, Hillsborough Castle and Buckingham Palace.

Above – Force feeding in foie gras production.

Ministers drop plan to ban foie gras imports

MPs fail in foie gras import ban bid

Elisa Allen, vice president of the animal welfare group, welcomed this saying others should “follow the King’s lead and leave foie gras off the menu this Christmas and beyond”.

“Video footage of birds being painfully force-fed is enough to make anyone lose their lunch,” she said, describing how the livers of animals are engorged to produce the food.

The animal rights group has backed a “cruelty free” alternative called “faux gras” and is sending some of this to the King, which it says is in recognition of his “compassionate policy”.

There is a ban on the production of foie gras in the UK, but not a ban on its sale or importation.

But it will certainly not be on the menu next week for the first state visit of King Charles’s reign, when he hosts a state banquet in Buckingham Palace for the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa.

The Peta group is also campaigning for the use of fake fur instead of ermine for robes at the King’s coronation next May.

Regards Mark

USA: Animal Rights Activists Will Hand Out ‘Turkey-Free Roasts’ In Newark.

Advocates from Newark Animal Save and PETA said they’ll be handing out free Field Roast Celebration Roasts at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 19 outside the Whole Foods store in Newark, 633 Broad Street.© Shutterstock

NEWARK, NJ — Vegan turkey roasts are coming home to roost in the Brick City this Thanksgiving season.

Advocates from Newark Animal Save and PETA said they’ll be handing out free Field Roast Celebration Roasts at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 19 outside the Whole Foods store in Newark, 633 Broad Street.

According to a news release, the giveaway event is being held to encourage people to “keep intelligent, inquisitive and sensitive birds off the table” and celebrate “ThanksVegan” instead.

“Turkeys are gentle individuals who love their families, feel pain and fear, and want to live as much as humans do,” PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said.

“PETA is encouraging everyone to see the similarities among all sentient beings, eat vegan and spare turkeys – more than 45 million of whom who are slaughtered every year for Thanksgiving alone,” Reiman said.

Regards Mark

Animal Rights Activists Will Hand Out ‘Turkey-Free Roasts’ In Newark (msn.com)

Enjoy – Shelties play day

I have always had the pleasure of Shelties as my pet dog friends – beautiful, super intellignet, amazing and loyal, devoted animals.

Below are a few pictures of my dog Golda

Mark

My wonderful ‘Golda’:

Above – Shelties and I go back a long way !

The amazing and oh so beautiful Sheltie.

Food Systems Transformation is Brewing at UNFCCC COP27.

Food systems transformation is brewing at UNFCCC COP27

17 November 2022

While food systems does not yet have the place it deserves on this year’s COP27 agenda in Sharm el-Sheikh, it was addressed in important side-sessions.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held an event on ‘Climate Resilience in Food Systems – why act now?’ where it was recognised that food systems, despite their significant impact on emissions, have been lacking at the climate meetings. The panel projected that food systems would get a stronger place on the COP agenda next year. 

In fact, COP27 was the first time that the UNFCCC has endorsed food systems pavilions to be set up in the ‘Blue Zone’ and that 12 November was a thematic day dedicated to agriculture. The extensive programme in the Food4Climate pavilion, sponsored by a number of organisations including Eurogroup for Animals’ members’ Compassion in World Farming, FOUR PAWS and World Animal Protection, addressed a series of important topics related to animal agriculture and plant-based diets. 

Compassion in World Farming launched the new global petition ‘End of the Line for Factory farming’, calling on the UN and global leaders for a UN global agreement to end factory farming and reduce the consumption of meat and animal products.

Without ending factory farming, we simply cannot tackle the growing climate emergency” – Ben Williamson, U.S Executive Director of Compassion in World Farming

Above – CIWF Campaign Launch

Compassion in World Farming together with FOUR PAWS arranged the event ‘Tackling Climate Change through better Livestock Management Systems’. Martina Stephany, International Director Farm Animals and Nutrition at FOUR PAWS, gave examples of how the meat and dairy industry seeks to reduce methane emissions through techno-fixes such as feed additives.

It shows that the industry wants to further adapt the animals to a sick system rather than let the animals live the way they normally would live”, she said

Martina Stephany also called on governments to stop financing factory farms and to use public money to help farmers transition to better animal welfare systems or to produce more plant-based food.

World Animal Protection presented the new report ‘Climate change and cruelty – the true impact of factory farming’ in a session that showcased the impact of intensive animal agriculture on climate change in Africa as well as U.S farmers applying the principles of a just transition and showing that there are alternative ways of producing food.

Below – Food 4 Climate Pavillion 

World Animal Protection, together with Eurogroup for Animals, also hosted a side-event on ‘Transitioning agriculture systems for sustainability and climate resistance’ bringing together experts in food, climate and animal welfare to discuss why a Just Protein Transition to plant-based proteins and agroecological farming is critical. James Yeates, CEO of World Federation for Animals, spoke about how improved animal welfare and more plant-based diets have climate change mitigation benefits, stressing also the role of marine animal welfare.

Sophika Kostyniuk, Managing Director of Aquatic Life Institute, spoke at the Food Systems Pavilion event ‘Innovation and Technology in Water and Aquatic Food Systems’, emphasising that 2-3 trillion aquatic animals are killed for human consumption every year and that their welfare must be part of the food system transition.

Above – World Animals Protection and Eurogroup for Animals

Other signs that food systems are gaining traction at the climate talks could be seen in the Nordic Pavilion, hosted by the Nordic Council of Ministers, which had a ‘food systems take-over’ on agriculture day to bring food production, agriculture and diets to the front and centre of climate action. 

On the same day, the Singapore pavilion had an event on ‘Alternative Proteins: Boosting Sustainable Food Security Resilience through Science’ addressing both plant-based food and cellular agriculture. Singapore is the first country to have started serving cultivated meat and Low Teng Yong, Branch Head for Risk Assessment and Communications from Singapore Food Agency, spoke about Singapore’s innovation programme and the regulatory process for bringing cultivated meat to market.

In short, food systems transformation is brewing at COP27 but it still has to make its way up on the agenda to get the attention it deserves in order for the world to limit global warming.

Regards Mark

From Vampire To Vegan – Actor Paul Wesley Talks Animals and Veganism.

Paul Wesley, the vegan actor known for starring in The Vampire Diaries, discussed animal rights on the Plant Based News (PBN) podcast.

He spoke to PBN co-founder Robbie Lockie about a range of issues, including factory farming, the challenges of being a vegan actor, and the truth about dog food.

The two also discussed cultivated meat, with Wesley describing it as “the future.” He said that vegans “have a responsibility” to support the industry.

You can listen to the audio version of the podcast, or watch the full interview below:

Regards Mark