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I had always called myself an animal 'lover' while I was simultaneously stuffing their tortured and decaying corpses into my mouth. - Jayn Meinhardt, letter to Observer, UK
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In this edition...
Featured Video |
 Rescue pig Pigcasso loves to paint |
Top Stories |
| The unstoppable rise of veganism: How a fringe movement went mainstream |
| Our love of seafood is strangling marine life |
| China going vegan? |
| James Cameron touts veganism over Viagra to raise male awareness and save the planet |
Health |
| How a recent doctor's visit inspired 'Grey's Anatomy' star to go vegan for breast health |
| Vegan Diet May Decrease Risk of Depression, Study Finds |
Environment and World Hunger |
| By going vegan, America could feed an additional 390 million people, study suggests |
| How to make global food systems more sustainable |
| How bad is Canada's food waste problem? Among the world's worst |
Lifestyles and Trends |
| 'Dining of the future': Canada's vegan restaurant boom fuelled by meat eaters |
| New Australian vegan accessories brand reflects global shift to ethical fashion |
| Plant-based investing: An emerging investment strategy For vegans |
| Canadians under 35 three times more likely than older generations to be vegans or vegetarians |
Signs of the Times |
| Gordon Ramsay finally gives vegan thing a try |
| U.S. ranchers fight against vegetarian 'fake meat' |
| Florida hospital offers vegan menu to patients |
Animal Issues and Advocacy |
| Australian MP announces bill to phase out live sheep exporting |
| Nicholas Kristof: Choosing animals over people? |
| Toronto restaurant owner under fire for deer carving stunt during animal rights protest |
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(Excerpts are included from current news stories. Click on the "Full story" link to read the full article.)
Featured Video 
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| Top Stories
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The unstoppable rise of veganism: How a fringe movement went mainstream
Full story: Guardian, UK
Veganism might have recently acquired a hipster cache at buzzy London events such as Vegan Nights and the weekly Hackney Downs market established by influential blogger Sean O'Callaghan, AKA "the Fat Gay Vegan", but its surging popularity is a national phenomenon, with plant-based food festivals and businesses booming from Bristol to Inverness. Health, climate change, animal welfare... what's driving more people and brands to embrace a plant-based lifestyle? We investigate [in depth], and four vegans explain their choice...
Read more... |
Our love of seafood is strangling marine life
Full story: Care2
We hear a lot about marine pollution and how it's hurting wildlife, but much less attention is paid to the impact of discarded fishing gear - fishing gear that is used to procure all the seafood the world consumes. Seafood companies are leaving behind thousands of tons of fishing materials, or "ghost gear," that are choking our marine life, according to a new report.
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China going vegan?
Full story: Financial Express
With increasing health consciousness among people, the Chinese food eating habits are witnessing a paradigm shift. A recent PTI report suggests that more and more people in China are switching to vegetarian food. In China, a country which is the world's largest market for beef, pork, and poultry, eateries are going all vegan to encash this popular sentiment. The report hints that people relate non-vegetarian food with high blood pressure and obesity. This has made the vegan eateries more competitive than ever.
Read more... |
Financial Express - February 26
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James Cameron touts veganism over Viagra to raise male awareness and save the planet
Full story: Toronto Star
Hollywood titan James Cameron wants to save the planet by promoting veganism - and he's happy to begin in the bedroom by raising the sexual benefits for men of a plant-based diet. "I'd love to put Viagra out of business, just by spreading the word on plant-based eating," Cameron said in an interview from Los Angeles. The director of Titanic and Avatar is executive producer of The Game Changers, a feature-length testimonial to the benefits of veganism, with Olympic athletes, distance runners and bodybuilders - including Arnold Schwarzenegger - extolling the benefits of a plant-based diet.
Read more... |
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| Health
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Vegan Diet May Decrease Risk of Depression, Study Finds
Full story: LiveKindly
New research on the impacts our daily dietary choices have on our risk factors for mental health issues points to the benefits of a plant-based or vegan diet in mitigating depression, particularly in elderly individuals.
Read more... |
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| Environment and World Hunger
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By going vegan, America could feed an additional 390 million people, study suggests
Full story: LA Times
More than 41 million Americans find themselves at risk of going hungry at some point during the year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says. But it doesn't have to be this way. New research suggests the country could feed all 327 million Americans - plus roughly 390 million more - by focusing on plants. If U.S. farmers took all the land currently devoted to raising cattle, pigs and chickens and used it to grow plants instead, they could sustain more than twice as many people as they do now, according to a report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [The study further states that this shift would have a greater impact on reducing hunger than even eliminating all food waste from supply chains.]
Read more... |
How to make global food systems more sustainable
Full story: National Post, Canada
Global food systems are increasingly generating severe human, social, environmental and economic costs. We need smarter, healthier and kinder approaches. For example, it is grossly inefficient to grow grains and feed them to livestock. It would be 10 times more efficient if humans ate these grains and seeds instead. It would also be more equitable. The price of grains increases when feedstocks are channelled to industrial animal agriculture, and puts them out of reach of marginalized populations.
Read more... |
National Post, Canada - April 13
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How bad is Canada's food waste problem? Among the world's worst
Full story: CBC
Canada wastes so much food that a researcher likens it to tossing a quarter of your groceries away when you leave the supermarket. In fact, Canada is among the worst globally in wasting food, according to a recent report on the state of food loss and waste in Canada, U.S. and Mexico.
Read more... |
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| Lifestyles and Trends
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'Dining of the future': Canada's vegan restaurant boom fuelled by meat eaters
Full story: National Post, Canada
Foodies say Canada is in the midst of a renaissance in plant-based dining as vegan restaurants sprout up across the country and traditional establishments update their menus to make them more animal-friendly. But restaurateurs say the proliferation of options is being driven not by observant vegans, but by dabbling omnivores looking for appealing meat-free fare. Frank Ferris, who consults with businesses about targeting ethically minded consumers, said as plant-based diets become more popular, particularly among young people, non-vegan restaurants are adding animal-friendly options in a bid to regain market share.
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National Post, Canada - April 19
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New Australian vegan accessories brand reflects global shift to ethical fashion
Full story: Australian Financial Review
Cathryn Wills was working as the managing and creative director of [leather] accessories brand Mimco when she watched Cowspiracy, a documentary about the impact of animal agriculture on the environment... The result is her new vegan accessories brand Sans Beast, born of the Melbourne-based designer's twin passions for good design and the ethical treatment of animals. "But even if you don't care about the animals, with the environmental damage that mass farming inflicts, the excessive water usage and health impacts of consumption of these products, it seems clear to me a change is needed," she says.
[Her products] are part of a global movement towards animal alternatives products that will see the vegan "leather" market reach $US85 billion ($108 billion) by 2025, according to a 2017 report.
Read more... |
Australian Financial Review - February 26
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Plant-based investing: An emerging investment strategy For vegans
Full story: Green Business Network
An increasing number of both institutional and individual investors are aligning their investment dollars with their values - this approach to investing totaled $8.72 trillion in assets under professional management in the United States alone as of 2016 according to the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investing. Socially responsible investing strategies continue to evolve to reflect new concerns and heightened values that investors seek to integrate with their investment decisions. As people understand that decreasing meat consumption is good for the climate, there is simultaneously growing interest in plant-based diets - and in plant-based or vegan investing. Several members of the financial service industry and Green America's Green Business Network share their perspectives on this emerging investment strategy...
Read more... |
Green Business Network - February 22
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Canadians under 35 three times more likely than older generations to be vegans or vegetarians
Full story: Toronto Star
Younger Canadians are far more likely to be vegetarians or vegans than older generations, according to a survey that a researcher says is among the first of its kind. The poll, conducted for Dalhousie University professor Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, reported that 7.1 per cent of Canadians consider themselves vegetarians, and 2.3 per cent consider themselves vegans - levels he says were not previously known. More than half were under the age of 35 [indicating numbers could go up].
Read more... |
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| Signs of the Times
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Gordon Ramsay finally gives vegan thing a try
Full story: VegNews
The celebrity chef - who has publicly mocked vegans for at least 10 years-has changed his mind about plant-based food. Ramsay surprised his social media fans [recently] with a cryptic message about veganism. "Going to give this #vegan thing a try," Ramsay tweeted alongside a photograph of what appears to be a vegan-friendly pizza.
Read more... |
U.S. ranchers fight against vegetarian 'fake meat'
Full story: USA Today
Some see plant-based food products as a fad, others see them as a revolutionary force in the food industry. Companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat are combining plant-based ingredients and science, rather than animals, to create fake-meat burgers and other products that taste like the real thing.vNow U.S. Cattlemen's Association is looking to draw a line in the sand. The association launched what could be the first salvo in a long battle against plant-based foods.
Read more... |
Florida hospital offers vegan menu to patients
Full story: Care2
You'd think that by 2018 all hospitals would be providing healthy, nourishing food to their recovering patients. After all, as Hippocrates once said, "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food." Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, just became the first hospital in the state - and one of only a handful in the United States - to offer a 100 per cent vegan meal option to patients. "I was on rounds one day," Dr. David Dodson said, "and a patient of mine had been admitted to the hospital with a heart attack, and he had a stent. I happened to be rounding at noontime, and they were serving him a cheeseburger! And I said, 'Wait a minute, something's wrong here.'" The lightbulb went off for Dotson, and he pushed for better patient meal options. T
Read more... |
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| Animal Issues and Advocacy
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Australian MP announces bill to phase out live sheep exporting
Video source: SkyNews Australia
 MP Sussan Ley says "We have to lift our eyes; we have to focus on what is really happening and we have to recognise that these exporters have had years, if not decades, to clean up their act. It is 'inherently impossible' to transport sheep to the Middle East during the northern summer in a humane manner. Particularly if the exporters are not interested in doing it." [You can send a note of thanks to Sussan Ley at http://sussanley.com/contact/]
Watch video... |
SkyNews Australia - April 19
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Nicholas Kristof: Choosing animals over people?
Full story: New York Times
Hearts melt seeing the wildlife in the Dzanga Sangha rain forest. But is it wrong to focus on animal welfare when humans are suffering? Are we betraying our own species when we write checks to help gorillas (or puppies or wild horses)? Is it wrongheaded to fight for elephants and rhinos (or farm animals at home) while five million children still die each year before the age of 5? It's a legitimate question that I've wondered about over the years. But I've come to believe that on the contrary, conserving rhinos or gorillas - or speaking up for tortured farm animals at home - is good for humans, too. At the broadest level, it's a mistake to pit sympathy for animals against sympathy for humans. Compassion for other species can also nurture compassion for fellow humans. Empathy isn't a zero-sum game.
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Toronto restaurant owner under fire for deer carving stunt during animal rights protest
Full story: The West Australian
A Toronto restaurant owner is under fire after slicing up a deer leg during an animal rights protest outside his eatery. The protesters were holding signs emblazoned with slogans such as 'Murder' and 'Animals are not ours to use' outside Michael Hunter's restaurant, Antler Kitchen and Bar. Hunter responded by taking an animal leg to the front window of his restaurant and carving it in full view of the protesters.
Read more... |
The West Australian - March 28
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