PETA helps as many animals as we can—including dogs, goats, cats, bears, and chimpanzees—be it on battlegrounds or in backyards. We do everything we can to rescue, treat, and comfort them.
Meet Some of the Animals PETA Helped Rescue in 2023:
PETA’s fieldworkers rescued kitten Elmer, whose eyes were crusted shut, and nursed him back to health before working to find him a safe home.
PETA Latino helped free severely neglected dogs Kal and Abigail from deplorable conditions and secured them a loving foster home.
Thanks to PETA’s damning 18-month investigation, the National Institutes of Health stopped funding two experimenters’ horrible laboratories, ordered the seizure of 180 mice and 108 owl monkeys from the sites, and succeeded in having them charged with several crimes.
In Ukraine, Lada the dog was covered in fleas and maggots that were eating away at her damaged, infected skin. She couldn’t walk and didn’t have long to live—until a PETA-supported team came to her rescue.
Edward and Seymour were abandoned at a dog park, but now they’ve been adopted by the purrfect families.
As pregnant horse Maria painfully discovered when her hoof landed on an explosive device, landmines can’t tell the difference between an animal and a soldier. PETA-supported teams hurried to care for her ghastly wound, even as bombs tore apart her home.
PETA’s work lead to the rescue of four chimpanzees—April, Anna, Lucy, and Cash—from roadsize zoo Union Ridge Wildlife Center in Wilkesville, Ohio.
We are pleased to announce the addition of four very sweet chimpanzees to our Save the Chimps family. Please join us in…
After a truck transporting thousands of chickens overturned on the I-5 highway in Portland, Oregon, a PETA staffer was able to rescue one of the birds, later named Milagros, who is now thriving.
A PETA-supported team helped save 200 terrified animals on a farm in Ukraine from a drone attack.
A short, heavy chain kept Simon on a concrete slab without adequate shelter before fieldworkers supported by the Global Compassion Fund (GCF) gave his living conditions a revamp.
Wally looked more like a rhino than a puppy due to a bad case of mange. Fortunately, PETA fieldworkers were able to provide him with veterinary care and a foster home with lots of TLC. He was soon adopted through the Richmond SPCA.
Alaska the goat had a broken leg with a ghastly abscess growing around it. She made it through an intense surgery and is the GOAT at the PETA-supported clinic for animals suffering in Ukraine.
PETA fieldworkers found this dog wandering the streets and covered in such severely matted fur that even walking was difficult for him, as the clumps of hair painfully pulled at his skin. The team scooped him up, took him to the local animal shelter, and shaved him to provide him with some relief.
Penny the dog was found down in the dumps—literally: This sweet girl had been abandoned at a junkyard. Fortunately, she was brought to PETA and now enjoys sniffing in a yard full of flowers.
Arik the dog miraculously survived a missile strike 54 yards from where he was chained to the side of a house in Ukraine. When a GCF-supported team moved through the area to scoop up injured and abandoned animals, kind Ukrainian soldiers told them not to forget sweet Arik!
Elmyra the cat was critically ill with an upper respiratory infection when fieldworkers found her. She was so sick—her eyes crusted with discharge, her nostrils bubbling over with mucus—that our staff wasn’t sure she would survive. But little Elmyra beat the odds, and after weeks of antibiotics and careful nursing in a foster home, she made a full recovery.
The operators of Waccatee Zoo in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, can never again legally own or exhibit captive wild or exotic animals. Following a lawsuit filed by us and concerned citizens, PETA and The Wild Animal Refuge in Springfield, Colorado, rescued the remaining captive animals at Waccatee: a llama, six emus, and two bears (named Care Bear and Shortcake).
Slurpee was infested with fleas and ear mites, anemic, malnourished, and petrified with fear, but after some veterinary care and TLC, the little cat is thriving. He has since been adopted, and this timid kitten now spends his days cuddling, wrestling, and following after his new feline friend.
Charik and Graf were rescued from battle-torn Ukraine, thanks to support from the GCF. PETA Germany and Animal Rescue Kharkiv (ARK) will help both dogs find loving families once they have fully recovered.
After an entire mobile home park was deserted and then caught fire, PETA fieldworkers found that more than homes had been left behind when Fuego the tabby cat trotted out from the debris to greet them. He was brought to the Sam Simon Center (PETA’s Norfolk, Virginia, headquarters), where he was provided with comfort and care.
In Ukraine, Hamlet was struck by flying shrapnel and sustained wounds on his legs that began to fester as his health deteriorated. His guardian tearfully hugged her best friend goodbye and pled with PETA-supported ARK to save his life and find him a loving, safe home far from the war.
When PETA’s fieldworkers met Milo, he was struggling to breathe. Like so many homeless kittens born into a harsh life outdoors, he had contracted an upper respiratory infection. Now he has made a full recovery and enjoys playing fetch—he loves to pick up his toys and carry them in his mouth, but don’t expect him to give them back anytime soon.
Our Community Animal Project helped thousands of animals in 2023 in Virgina and South Carolina, including by helping to find homes for Fuego, Simon, and others; performing their free or low-cost spay/neuter surgeries; and providing them with food, water, and TLC.
PETA’s GCF helps power animal rescue work, spay/neuter programs, educational campaigns, and more in countries on nearly every continent. You can help us rescue more animals like Hamlet, Care Bear, and Charik by making a donation today:
Reducing meat and dairy consumption, food waste and fertiliser use can halve nitrogen pollution from agriculture in Europe, which is linked to biodiversity loss, respiratory and heart conditions, and ozone depletion, according to a new report commissioned by the UN.
Since COP28, there has been an even more heightened focus on gases like carbon dioxide and methane than usual – and rightly so – given their hugely detrimental effects on the climate. But one that hasn’t been talked about as much as it should have is nitrogen, a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than carbon.
Unlike methane, which is 28 times more potent but only lasts in the atmosphere for about 12 years, nitrogen hangs around for over 100 years, with different forms of the gas presenting adverse effects. Take nitrogen fertilisers, for example, which are responsible for 5% of all GHG emissions – one study suggests increasing nitrogen-use efficiency is the “single most effective strategy to reduce emissions”.
How can we do that? A new report by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), the EU Commission, Copenhagen Business School and the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) of the Netherlands – points the finger at agriculture and food systems. Called Appetite for Change, the study was conducted on behalf of the UNECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution’s Task Force on Reactive Nitrogen.
Focusing on Europe, it provides a ‘recipe’ to halve overall nitrogen waste by 2030, an ambition set by the UN Colombo Declaration and extended by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The key, it says, is replacing meat and dairy with plant-based foods, cutting food waste, and using fertilisers more efficiently.
The trouble with nitrogen and EU meat consumption
Courtesy: UKCEH
Globally, unreactive nitrogen forms 78% of the Earth’s atmosphere and is benign. However, the remaining reactive nitrogen can be a damaging pollutant in various forms. This includes ammonia, produced by livestock and fertilised fields and causing biodiversity loss; nitrogen oxide, which comes from fossil fuel combustion and fertilisation; nitrous oxide, which contributes to ozone layer depletion; and nitrates, sourced from chemical fertilisers and manure, which pollutes water bodies and threatens aquatic and human life.
In fact, when ammonia is combined with other gases like nitrogen oxide, it generates fine particulate matter in the atmosphere, which can exacerbate respiratory and heart diseases, in turn leading to millions of premature deaths.
As of 2015, the EU food system’s nitrogen use efficiency was at only 18%, with the rest being wasted and leaked into soil, water and air, which presents health and climate threats. This is due to inefficiencies in farms, retail and wastewater practices. Appetite for Change builds upon the UKCEH’s Nitrogen on the Table report from 2014, which noted that Europe’s food system – especially livestock – accounts for 80% of its nitrogen emissions.
The researchers analysed 144 different scenarios, involving various reductions in meat and dairy intakes, agricultural and retail practices, and wastewater treatment. Through these, they considered the health and environmental benefits, as well as the severity and costs of potential mitigation measures. They found that a “combination of halved meat and dairy consumption with improved farm and food chain management, and reduction of excess energy and protein intake achieves 49% reduction in nitrogen losses”.
This is in line with another study earlier this year that suggested swapping half our meat and dairy consumption with plant-based alternatives could double the climate benefits, halve ecosystem decline and halt deforestation. The UN report also revealed that a complete exclusion of meat and dairy from human diets – combined with “ambitious technical measures” – could lead to food system nitrogen use efficiency of close to 50%, and decrease nitrogen waste by up to 84%.
It makes sense when you realise that Europeans eat 1.4kg of meat each week, which is 80% higher than the global average, and alongside Central Asia, the region’s red meat consumption is four times the recommended daily intake by scientists and organisations like the Eat-Lancet Commission. Moreover, 40% of farmland in Europe produces feed for livestock, while meat production in the EU is set to grow until 2030.
How plant-based diets could fix the EU’s nitrogen problem
Courtesy: Catharina Latka
The researchers suggest a combination of interventions for dietary change, in tandem with policy evaluations of their effectiveness, to “improve nitrogen management in agriculture, reduce food waste, explore ways to recover nitrogen from organic residues, reduce the share of animal products in diets and enable a shift to a balanced and healthy diet”.
This includes the adoption of agroecological approaches and high-tech food production systems (like vertical or indoor farming), which promise enhancements in sustainability and nutrient and water use, seasonal plant-based food supply in urban areas, as well as reduced land requirements. Increasing the production of legumes – adept at nitrogen fixation – is another key measure, just as it’s important to invest in “novel and future foods” like cultured meat and precision-fermented proteins.
Such foods are valuable sources of human nutrition, use fewer land resources, and produce lower GHG emissions than animal-based food. But the report cautions that while many of these future foods are on the market, widespread adoption would mean overcoming technological, economic, legislative and socio-cultural barriers. “As such, recognising and understanding the potential of future foods in providing environmental and nutritional benefits can encourage opportunities and innovations across the food system to address the overconsumption of conventional animal-based foods in the EU,” the authors state.
Policy interventions are key here. Appetite for Change highlights taxes and subsidies as “powerful market-based instruments”. Between 2014 and 2020, meat and dairy farmers in the EU received 1,200 times more public funding than alternative protein companies. In fact, cattle farmers receive half of their income directly through EU subsidies.
The UN report suggests that meat and dairy taxes to prevent overconsumption of unsustainable foods, combined with a shift in subsidies towards low-impact foods (like plant-based) to “reduce the regressive effect of these instruments”. In addition, behavioural policies support consumers’ active and conscious choices, and nudge them into picking healthier and more sustainable foods – for example, by changing the position of food products on grocery shelves, or reducing food portions.
In addition, the researchers found that national food and nutrition policies could integrate sustainability goals and reflect the importance of low-carbon (or, in this case, -nitrogen) eating. We’re already seeing this in some quarters, with EU member state Denmark becoming the world’s first country to publish a national action plan detailing a transition towards plant-based diets. The Netherlands – whose nitrogen emission plan sparked backlash from livestock farmers – has proposed a six-year master plan to increase plant protein production and consumption, while Germany’s National Nutrition Strategy involves a focus on plant-based diets too.
“Effective strategies to food system governance must integrate a combination of such measures and target environmental, social and economic objectives at all food system stages,” states the report.
The need for a holistic approach
Courtesy: UKCEH
A plant-based transition would require less land and fewer mineral fertilisers – the prices of which, alongside energy and food, have gone up exponentially since 2021 – which will reduce energy dependency and increase resilience to the global food crisis.
More efficient fertiliser application and manure storage are key, as is better wastewater treatment to capture nitrogen from sewage (this would cut emissions and allow farmers to use recycled nutrients on fields). Switching from mineral to organic fertilisers will generate energy savings too.
The authors state that farmers, industry, government and consumers need to be mobilised and work together to reduce nitrogen losses throughout the food system – one way to do this could be by setting up governance platforms at national, regional and local levels. “Action does not begin and end at the farm gate; it requires a holistic approach involving not only farmers but policymakers, retailers, water companies and individuals,” noted Professor Mark Sutton, one of the report’s editors.
“It is also not saying we should all become vegan,” he added. “Our analysis finds that a broad package of actions including a demitarian approach (halving meat and dairy consumption) scored most highly in looking to halve nitrogen waste by 2030.”
“Freeing up land to restore habitats would help tackle the climate and biodiversity crises,” said Dr Adrian Leip, an environmental scientist at the EU Commission and lead editor of the report. “The unprecedented rise of energy, fertiliser and food prices since 2021 underlines the need to address the vulnerability of the current food system. Plant-based diets require less land and fertilisers, reduce energy use and increase our resilience to the current multi-crises: food, energy, climate.”
This UN-commissioned study comes a couple of weeks after another report (directly from the UNEP) promoted alternative proteins as a way to slash emissions, reduce biodiversity loss, pollution and deforestation,
A host of studies over the last few years have shown that consumers don’t like the word ‘vegan’ on product labels, even if they’ll otherwise like or consume those items. So how do you disassociate vegan food from its definition?
I wonder if this has ever happened to you. You’re eating at home with your family, with a bunch of dishes and their exact vegan replicas. One of your non-vegan loved ones picks up the plant-based dish (say, an Impossible Bolognese, mistaking it for “the real thing”), eats it, and loves it (or at least doesn’t bat an eyelid).
Now, consider this. Someone instead asks you to pass that same pasta to them, but you tell them it’s vegan as you pick up the serving bowl. “Oh no no, I don’t like the vegan one,” they say, requesting you to place it back down and give them the Bolognese with the conventional beef.
I ask because this has happened to me, on multiple occasions. Maybe it was a sabzi with oil instead of ghee, or a pancake with vegan butter, or a scramble that came from plants rather than a chicken egg. People are creatures of habit, mostly hesitant to embrace change.
This is a predicament many manufacturers and restaurants have been facing when it comes to plant-based food. How do you convince a consumer to buy your product or dish with a few words on your packaging or menu? The obvious answer, of course, is by telling them it’s vegan.
But like many things, just because something seems obvious doesn’t mean it rings true. There has been a lot of discourse about labelling in plant-based food this year. I’m not talking about the use of meat- and dairy-related terms – that’s a whole other conversation – but rather the message brands are trying to promote to reach a wider consumer base.
The problem
This isn’t a new conversation – it’s one marketers have been having for years, with several studies pointing to consumers’ specific aversion to the word ‘vegan’. In 2018, Morning Consult research revealed that for the 2,201 Americans surveyed, ‘vegan’ is the most unappealing descriptor for groceries, chosen by 35% (ahead of terms like ‘organic’, ‘gluten-free’ and ‘sugar-free’).
Courtesy: WRI
In 2019, the World Resources Institute (WRI) published research intended to help brands boost plant-based sales. Terms like ‘meat-free’, ‘vegan’, or ‘vegetarian’ were a no-go, and considered to be “healthy-restrictive”. The argument by respondents was that ‘meat-free’ means less of what meat-eaters like, ‘vegan’ represents something different from themselves, and ‘vegetarian’ means healthy but unsatisfying. was that meat-free labels
The same year, analysis by alt-protein think tank the Good Food Institute yielded similar results. Terms like ‘plant protein’, ‘plant-based protein’ (56% each), ‘veggie’ (54%), ‘100% plant-based’ and plant-based (both 53%) are much more appealing than descriptors such as ‘meatless’, ‘meat-free’ (42% each), and ‘vegan’ (35%). The latter was amongst the least effective ways to label vegan food, behind only stuff like ‘[insert animal here]-less’ and ‘plant-based seafood’.
Courtesy: GFI
Last year, Dutch consumer insights firm Veylinx found that – contrary to other reports – calling a hot dog ‘meatless’ works better than other terms. But like other reports, ‘vegan’ still ranks low, even behind ‘animal-free’. In fact, a ‘meatless’ label can boost demand by 16% compared to ‘vegan’.
Another study, published earlier this year in the Appetite journal, focused on menu labelling, which found that “menu items were significantly less likely to be chosen when they were labelled” as vegan or vegetarian, versus not being labelled at all. Conversely, it didn’t find that “vegetarians and vegans were more likely to choose items with meat when the labels were removed”.
The most recent study of the bunch, conducted by the University of Southern California and published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology – has made the rounds everywhere for the past few weeks, in part due to its large sample size of 7,341 Americans. The researchers used gift baskets as a gauge for which labels work, and which don’t. Participants chose between a vegan and non-vegan food basket, with the former being labelled in five different ways.
Only 20% chose the ‘vegan’ gift basket over the meat and dairy one, while 27% picked it when labelled ‘plant-based’. However, describing them with impactful attributes represented a significant upturn: when marked as ‘healthy’, 42% went with the vegan basket, while 43% did so for those tagged as ‘sustainable’ or 44% when labelled as both ‘healthy’ and ‘sustainable’.
“Our study described every single item that was in the food basket, but we just didn’t call it vegan,” study co-author Wändi Bruine de Bruin told the Washington Post. The research concluded: “This labelling effect was consistent across socio-demographics groups but was stronger among self-proclaimed red-meat eaters. Labels provide a low-cost intervention for promoting healthy and sustainable food choices.”
This is perhaps why companies like the aforementioned Impossible Foods are moving away from terms like ‘vegan’ – there has been a noted push towards using the term ‘meat from plants’ in the brand’s communications of late. (California’s Eat Just similarly uses ‘made from plants’ to describe its Just Egg products.) But why do people have such a problem with the term ‘vegan’, despite not necessarily disliking the products themselves?
Courtesy: Impossible Foods
The reason
Among the multifaceted reasons behind people’s aversion to ‘vegan’ labelling, one is an inherent view that meat-eating is entrenched deep into their culture. In 2021, Ipsos conducted a 1,018-person poll that revealed 59% of US citizens believed eating meat is the American way of life, and 52% felt that people advocating for reduced consumption are trying to control what the public eats.
People have been inadvertently eating vegan all their lives – an aglio e olio is typically plant-based, just as an Oreo or Lotus Biscoff biscuit is – but they don’t like the word. Paul Shapiro, co-founder and CEO of fungi protein startup The Better Meat Co., calls ‘vegan’ the “product label which shall not be named”. He writes: “Part of the problem may just be that, for whatever reason, a lot of people simply think “vegan” food won’t taste good. After all, it’s well-established that taste is by far the biggest motivator of food purchasing.”
Some would argue that the fact that so many vegan alternatives to meat and dairy exist is counter to the lifestyle’s point – isn’t it all about eschewing those very products? But it seems consumers find it hard to detach what they eat with how it affects the planet. One study has shown how vegan diets are associated with 75% fewer emissions, water pollution and land use than meat-rich diets – a similar percentage (74%) of Americans don’t think meat has any impact on climate change, a figure that climbs to 78% for dairy.
Courtesy: Burger King/Instagram
For many people, veganism still hasn’t shed its early reputation of bland rabbit food, or one that has poor analogues trying to mimic animal products, despite companies making ever more realistic versions. There’s a sense of compromise (in terms of ingredients and flavour), deprivation (regarding the satisfaction provided by food) and restriction (since you’re giving up a lot of things).
“If your freedom is restricted, a motivational drive emerges,” psychology professor Jason Siegel told National Geographic. He explained the phenomenon of reactance – or the mental pushback resulting from choice restriction. To avoid triggering this, he noted that framing change as a choice instead of an order is much more helpful – something that could be applied to what many find are extremist tendencies in the vegan movement. “If I say: ‘Please consider this, it’s up to you,’” he explained, “that’s often better than: ‘You must do this or you’re a terrible person.’”
It’s this rhetoric that Impossible CEO Peter McGuinness is hoping to banish, describing early messaging around alt-meat as unhelpful: “There was a wokeness to it, there was a bicoastalness to it, there was an academia to it… and there was an elitism to it – and that pissed most of America off,” he said at an Adweek X conference. Echoing Siegel, he added: “The way to get meat-eaters to actually buy your product is not to piss them off, vilify them, insult them and judge them,” he said. “We need to go from insulting to inviting, which is a hell of a journey.”
Britty Mann, founder of the US non-profit Planted Society, which helps restaurants add vegan dishes to menus, told Green Queen that it’s scary for businesses to take risks by adding plant-based options. “Chefs express the same fears that we hear from friends and family: ‘It’s too expensive, I don’t have time, it’s not going to stick, I’ll lose the respect of people I like, and if it’s not broke, why fix it?’”
The solution
Courtesy: Beyond Meat
So, where do brands go from here? Highlighting attributes relating to health is often much more successful than pointing out the climate or animal welfare aspects of plant-based products. This is a shift we’re already seeing in the space, from the likes of Beyond Meat and Impossible in the US to THIS in the UK and Dreamfarm in Italy.
Detaching the rampant misinformation is also key – for years, meat industry interest groups have been targeting vegan companies and their products as overprocessed junk food, and they’ve been successful in alienating a significant amount of consumers. This is something Beyond Meat looked to tackle with one of its ad campaigns this year, putting the focus on its steak’s cleaner-label ingredient list. Soon after, the brand then pivoted to a health focus in its marketing campaigns.
There’s something to be said about advocating for meat reduction over outright elimination – realistically, the world may never go fully vegan, but cutting back on animal products is a more pragmatic approach that presents tremendous environmental benefits. For example, if you just replace just half of your meat and dairy intake with plant-based alternatives, it will reduce emissions by 31%, halt deforestation, and double the overall climate benefits.
Blended meat companies – which mix animal proteins with plant-based ingredients in varying proportions – are the biggest proponents of this idea. Andrew Arentowicz, founder and CEO of 50/50 Foods, summed it up in an interview with Green Queen in October. “Asking everyone to turn into a vegetarian is an impossible goal. At least today it is, and we need bold solutions to big problems today,” he said. “I’m too practical to let perfect be the enemy of the good. Cutting beef consumption in half will save lots of animals, so we’re technically on the same team.”
For alt-dairy companies, honing in on the base ingredient is a great way to go, the way brands like Alpro have done. Bar one (its This Is Not M*lk range), Alpro’s products don’t bother with terms like ‘drink’, ‘yoghurt’, ‘mylk’, etc. – instead, you see a tetra pack with a giant ‘Oat’ or ‘Coconut’ with health and flavour descriptors, with Alpro trusting consumers to know they’re looking at a milk alternative.
Courtesy: Elmwood
This is harder for plant-based meat, of course. People want ‘almond milk’, but they don’t necessarily want a ‘pea protein burger’, irrespective of the fact that they like it – pushing them to make the choice to buy the product involves detaching from words like ‘vegan’ or unappetising phrases, such as the ones we saw above (‘fishless’, etc.).
For these businesses, it’s key to note that vegans aren’t their key demographic – that’s flexitarians and meat-eaters. “We’re trying to reach meat eaters – not vegans, vegetarians or those already eating sustainable diets. That’s why we focus on making products that appeal to actual meat eaters,” an Impossible spokesperson told Green Queen earlier this month. “Our goal is not to compete with fruits, vegetables, and other whole foods, but to offer meat eaters products that are better for them and the planet.”
In terms of foodservice, a ProVeg International report suggested listing plant-based items alongside other options, but on top is an effective motivator. Instead of using the product name as the label, it recommended restaurants to use subtle, easily identifiable labels (like pictograms) to “minimise the deterrent effect that vegan-identifying denominations can have on mainstream consumers”.
Emphasising flavour attributes as well as provenance (i.e. referring to the birthplace of a dish or its culinary history) can go a long way towards encouraging consumption, in addition to highlighting the product’s appearance and texture according to WRI research. Meanwhile, brand consultancy Fuze released a strategy guide for restaurants, which suggested using discreet symbols to mark vegan or vegetarian dishes, as those labels are often seen as lifestyles: “Trust that your conscious customers will spot these options.”
There are tons of opinions – many contradictory – on best practices when it comes to plant-based marketing and branding, but one consistent viewpoint is that many people, for better or worse, actively dislike the word ‘vegan’ when it comes to labelling. Do vegan brands need to move away from their very identity to resonate with more customers and reach mass appeal?
An increasing number of diaspora startups in the US are championing their South Asian heritage with offerings that pay homage to their culture while catering to a broad audience.
When I lived in the UK, my bedroom was always known as the spice market. I genuinely had more spices than clothes, stocked in big batches because they were never from my local supermarket. Instead, I’d always get them from India, filling an entire bag with all the spices every time I was travelling, alongside chips packets that I would find for five times the price in London, and Maggi. Because always, Maggi.
It’s a reality many South Asians will know of and relate to. Moving out of home to a new country is always a challenge, so it’s really helpful to have food – also known as instant happiness for many – that you’re familiar with and reminds you of home. Whether that’s homemade paranthas destined for the freezer, family recipes and condiments passed down multiple generations, or spices that we grew up around.
In the US, there’s now a plethora of brands catering to people like this, alongside citizens of South Asian heritage and the wider American population, sharing a taste of the subcontinent’s best offerings and entrepreneurial talent.
Here are some of the trailblazing US brands championing South Asian culture (shoutout to culture magazine The Juggernaut, a media platform dedicated to stories and news about the South Asian diaspora that showcases many of these startups):
Diaspora Co.
Courtesy: Diaspora Co.
Since we’re talking about spices, Diaspora Co. is a company I would have loved to have in the UK. Founded in 2017 by then-23-year-old Indian expat Sana Javeri Kadri, it sources single-origin spices straight from India and Sri Lanka, paying farmers four times the commodity price on average. It’s an elevated experience for South Asian cuisine fanatics – almost what I’d call specialty spice – with everything from ground varieties and whole spices to dried chillies, jaggery and tea.
Diaspora Co. also sells merch and accessories like chai caddies and masala dabbas (spice boxes found in every Indian kitchen), alongside gorgeously illustrated, bright tins of proprietary spice blends. Each individual spice has tasting notes and details about the harvest year and origin too. Plus, there’s a really neat Build Your Own Spice Shelf feature to personalise your rack.
You can buy Diaspora Co.’s products online via its website for $10 per pack.
Brooklyn Delhi
Courtesy: Brooklyn Delhi
Founded 10 years ago by first-generation Indian American Chitra Agrawal and her now-husband Ben Garthus, Brooklyn Delhi is a condiment company putting outstanding vegan twists on traditional Indian sauces like tikka masala, cashew butter masala and coconut cashew korma. On top of that, it offers two hot sauces based on Indian chillies, alongside chutneys and achaars (South Asian pickles).
The company uses clean-label formulations for its preservative-free products, with all ingredients being carefully sourced to suit each recipe (down to the kind of coconut cream and variety of mangoes). It’s also been endorsed by Canadian Indian influencer Lilly Singh – need I say more?
You can buy Brooklyn Delhi’s products online via its website for $10 per pack.
Paro
Courtesy: Paro
One of the newer brands on this list, Paro was founded by Umaimah Sharwani earlier this year, named after her mother. The company makes Pakistani-inspired meal kits that can be prepared in under 30 minutes, with both of the dishes being vegan.
Sharwani. who moved to New York from Pakistan for her education, always wanted a piece of her mother’s cooking, carrying ziplocked boxes of her lentil and spice mixes. Now, she’s spreading the love with meal kits for Kitchari and Masoor Dal. And if you’re not vegan, there’s a South Asian chilli crisp named after the South Asia tempering technique, Tarka, which uses ghee.
You can buy Paro’s meal kits online via its website for $10 per pack.
Bollygood
Courtesy: Bollygood
If you’ve ever had nimbu paani, you know that stuff hits different. To help you get a taste of the real thing, Bollygood makes a range of sparkling drinks inspired by the classic Indian lemonade, which is light on ingredients but heavy on flavour.
It was founded in 2021 by Maxie Henderson, who grew up in Canada in a South Asian household, spending summers visiting her grandparents in India. She launched the brand after realising there was a lack of representation of Indian beverages in US supermarkets. Bollygood has two flavoured lemonades and limeades that pack more than a punch, with the bubbles taking the refreshment to the next level.
South Asians love – and are known for – their heat. With that in mind, Alyzeh Rizvi and her husband Ahmer Zaidi launched Peepal People, a fermented hot sauce company, in 2020. It’s an ode to their Pakistani roots with a nod to their American home. Hot sauces aren’t something you find in Pakistan as a traditional food. Americans, though, love a good hot sauce. So they decided to blend Pakistani flavours into an American condiment for a beautiful marriage of culinary cultures.
Peepal People – named after the fig tree native to the subcontinent – offers three hot sauces, with a milder green chilli base, a fruity and versatility yellow chilli variant, and the extra-spicy red chilli version with bhut jholakia (ghost pepper).
You can buy Peepal People’s products online via its website, or in select US retailers for $12 per sauce.
Kanira
Courtesy: Kanira
Snacking is ingrained in South Asian food culture, and bringing a piece of that to the US is Vishal Ramakrishnan with his biscuit brand Kanira. The company makes healthful vegan biscuits (cookies, if you’re American) with ingredient sourcing and quality a high priority. It champions millets as an environmentally friendly and farmer-supporting food group – these require two to three times less water than grains like oats, wheat and corn, and can withstand higher temperatures.
The clean-label biscuits come in three flavours, all with a gluten-free base. They’re packed with prebiotic fibre and 4g of plant protein per serving, with half the sugar and carbs found in conventional biscuits.
You can buy Kanira’s products online via its website for $19.99 for a three-pack.
Bonus: Mango People
Courtesy: Mango People
Okay, so this isn’t a food brand, but it’s a fantastic cosmetics company that we had to include. Growing up in Canada, Sravya Adusumilli struggled to find makeup that reflected her skin colour, and realised it’s a wider problem faced by the South Asian community in North America. So she launched Mango People in September 2020.
The brand’s name is a direct translation of the Hindi term for ‘common man’, with vegan makeup products inspired by Ayurveda and powered by adaptogens. The company claims it’s carbon neutral and its products are “infinitely recyclable”, given the packaging is made from recycled aluminium.
You can buy Mango People’s products online via its website or at Sephora.
In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Beyond Meat’s giant Costco partnership, a new CEO for plant-based chicken maker TiNDLE Foods, Dove’s upcoming plant-based milk soaps, and a host of (positive and negative) ads about veganism.
New products and launches
Personal care brand Dove is set to launch Plant Milk Cleansing Bars in January, which are said to have a 98% biodegradable formulation and will be available in four scents: Coconut Milk & Sugar Lychee, Macadamia Milk & Willow Lavender, Oat Milk & Berry Brulee, and Turmeric Milk & Lemon Drop.
Courtesy: Beyond Meat
Plant-based giant Beyond Meat has expanded (quite literally) its signature burger’s footprint, which is now available in frozen 10-packs with an exclusive Costco deal across the US.
New York-based upcycling brand The Spare Food Co. has debuted a plant-based Spare Starter ingredient blend, which comprises six vegetables and a spice mix. The product can be used to replace animal protein in burgers and meatballs, and uses parts of produce usually discarded in food production.
Retail giant Trader Joe’s has revamped its private-label meatless breakfast sausage patties with a 100% vegan recipe. The previous iteration, which was discontinued a couple of years ago, contained eggwhites and a base of soy protein – the new recipe has a wheat protein base.
Also in the US, specialty mushroom company Smallhold has released a vegan upcycled mushroom pesto packed with blue oysters, trumpets and shiitakes, complemented by roasted aromatics, spices and balsamic vinegar. It’s available in health stores nationwide.
Courtesy: Smallhold
After revealing it was in discussions with partners, Canadian vegan seafood brand Konscious Foods is entering the foodservice sector in the US in 2024. The brand’s portfolio for restaurants will include four varieties of plant-based sushi, salmon and tuna blocks or pieces, a vegan snow crab, and four kinds of onigiri.
In France, fellow alt-seafood startup Ocean Kiss has launched the country’s first vegan smoked salmon product, made with a blend of pea protein and marine algae.
In more plant-based seafood news, you’ll soon be able to order a chilli-cheese style vegan tuna baguette if you’re travelling on a train in Germany, thanks to a partnership between BettaF!sh and national rail company Deutsche Bahn.
More from Europe: German ingredients manufacturer Loryma has launched a vegan egg substitute for baked goods. The wheat-based Lory Stab replaces the technical properties of eggs (and milk) in bakery products like muffins and sponge cakes.
Courtesy: Loryma
Nestlé, meanwhile, is bringing back its Garden Gourmet-branded Voie Gras for the holidays. The vegan foie gras is made from a miso and soy base, and will be available in the supermarket fridges in Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
Also in the Netherlands, The Vegetarian Butcher has launched a whole vegan stuffed turkey for Christmas, available exclusively in its plant-based meat butchery in Rotterdam (orders are closed now). It’s part of a wider Christmas menu that includes a meatloaf and a shwostopping three-person platter.
In the UK, Fry’s Family Foods has teamed up with animation house Aardman to commemorate the launch of the new Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget movie with branded vegan nuggets, available at Tesco, Iceland and Spar stores in time for Veganuary.
British tofu maker The Tofoo Co. has revamped its marinated range with two new flavours: Smoky BBQ Strips and Lightly Spiced Pieces, which can be pan-fried in eight minutes. The ready-to-cook SKus will be available across British supermarkets from January.
WNWN Food Labs co-founder Johnny Drain is launching a new book on the science of fermented foods, with global rights bought by Penguin. Titled Ferment for Flavour, it’s set for a 2025 debut.
And famed cooking school Le Cordon Bleu is expanding its vegan offerings in London with two new specialised three-month plant-based diplomas, focusing on whole-foods-forward cuisine as well as pâtisserie, adding to the existing plant-based course launched in 2019. It comes weeks after its Malaysia branch announced its first vegan diploma – all these courses will begin next year.
Policy and labelling news
Unilever – one of the world’s largest CPG companies – is facing a greenwashing investigation from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority after allegedly overstating how sustainable some of its products are through vague claims and unclear statements about recycling.
Beyond Meat has filed to dismiss the lawsuit that alleged the company had misrepresented its investors over its finances, over a “failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted”.
South Korea’s new labelling guidance prohibits conventional terms like ‘beef’, ‘milk’ and ‘egg’ on plant-based analogues, but it allows companies to emphasise the nature of the product or the name of the substituted raw material – for example, ‘plant-based bulgogi’ or ‘bulgogi made from soybeans’ is fair game.
Courtesy: NotCo
One company that’s fighting the labelling battle is Chile’s NotCo, which has appealed against the ban on the use of its NotMilk trademark in its home country with a survey showing that 99.9% of consumers do not think NotMilk is milk.
Meanwhile, two weeks after launching a standardised terminology tool, Cellular Agriculture Australia has unveiled a Regulation Resource Hub to support companies in Australia and New Zealand through food safety regulation processes for novel foods and gene technology.
Finance and corporate moves
Ventrue capital firm Lever VC has increased its equity stake in Mexican plant protein powder and supplements company Birdman, which is gearing up for a US launch after hitting $65M in sales.
Courtesy: Birdman
After gaining a multimillion-dollar investment from Suntory last month, US beanless coffee company Atomo is preparing to launch in over 100 coffee shops by April 2024, with 500 targeted by the end of the year. Its espresso is currently available at Gumption Coffee in New York in 450g pouches, and available for pre-order on its website.
US whole-cut meat producer Meati is capping off an eventful year with funding from athletes. The company has added Olympian gymnast Aly Raisman and NBA All-Star Chris Paul (both multiple gold medallists) to its list of investors.
Across the Atlantic, Belgian precison fermentation cheese startup Those Vegan Cowboys has opened a €15M funding round to scale Margaret, its tech platform to develop animal-free casein.
Catalan whole-cut vegan meat producer Libre Foods has been awarded a €335,000 R&D grant by Neotec, a public programme supporting tech startups to create a cost-effective mycelium ingredient for alt-meat.
Finnish air protein startup Solar Foods is leading a consortium (which includes Gingko Bioworks and two Dutch universities) that has been awarded €5.5M from the European Innovation Council Pathfinder programme. The financing is directed towards a precision-fermented whey protein project called HYDROCOW, where microbes are fed with CO2 and hydrogen instead of sugar.
UK artisan vegan cheese maker Honestly Tasty has closed a new oversubscribed funding round, bringing in £304,000. It plans to expand into foodservice and wholesale now, along with a wider move into the European market. Plus, the brand has reduced its product emissions by 65% in three months, working with carbon labelling startupMy Emissions.
Courtesy: Honestly Tasty
British bioprocess optimisation software company New Wave Biotech and cultivated meat growth media producer Multus have collaborated to accelerate and scale up cultured meat production using AI.
Also in the UK, cultivated fat producer Hoxton Farms has tapped leading executives from cultivated meat pioneers Good Meat (a subsidiary of Eat Just) and Aleph Farms, with the former’s senior cellular agriculture director Vítor Espirito Santo taking up Hoxton’s head of cell biology role, and the latter’s R&D engineering director Nadav Tai appointed as systems engineering lead.
Singapore-headquartered alt-meat producer TiNDLE Foods has appointed co-founder and executive chairman Timo Recker as its new CEO, following the departure of former chief Andre Menezes. Recker had previously served as CEO from July 2020 to May 2021, and will relocate to Germany. Menezes will remain a Board member and shareholder while stepping away from day-to-day operations.
Pop culture
The meat lobby has launched a fresh attack on alternative protein. After years of targeted ads by the Center for Consumer Freedom (a meat industry interest group), the Center for Environment and Welfare is a new association that seems dedicated to thwarting attempts to make food better for the environment and animal welfare, with a new ad attacking cultivated meat that you’ll find suspiciously similar.
To counter stuff like this, Scottish zero-ABV beer brewer Days and French vegan pork producer La Vie have linked up on a UK marketing campaign to hit back at the trolls who mock alcohol-free booze and plant-based meat.
Courtesy: Days/La Vie
Speaking of ads, the Eat Differently campaign is airing 60-second PSAs at 1,800 US cinemas ahead of the new Wonka movie, promoting the adoption of a plant-based diet.
And finally, Indian cricketer Virat Kohliwent viral after posting an Instagram story praising a vegan chicken tikka product by alt-meat brand Blue Tribe, which he’s an investor in. People were initially confused as they didn’t realise it was plant-based, with the sportsman famously known for having a meat-free lifestyle.
Orlando diners just might think twice about chowing down on fried chicken after they see—and hear—“Hell on Wheels,” PETA’s guerilla-marketing campaign featuring a life-size chicken transport truck covered with images of real chickens crammed into crates on their way to a slaughterhouse, complete with actual recorded sounds of the birds’ cries and a subliminal message every 10 seconds suggesting that people go vegan. The vexatious vehicle will debut outside Huey Magoo’s Chicken Tenders downtown before moving on to confront diners at 4 Rivers Smokehouse, Hen & Hog, PDQ, Crave Hot Dogs & BBQ, Chick-fil-A, New Texas Fried Chicken, bb.q Chicken, Pollo Tropical, Zaxby’s Chicken Fingers & Buffalo Wings, Fork & Hen, Theo’s Kitchen, O’Town Burgers N Wings, and Kennedy Chicken & Grill.
“Behind every barbecued wing or bucket of fried chicken is a once-living, sensitive individual who was crammed onto a truck for a terrifying, miserable journey to their death,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s ‘Hell on Wheels’ truck is an appeal to anyone who eats chicken to remember that the meat industry is cruel to birds and the only kind meal is a vegan one.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and offers a free vegan starter kit on its website.
In cities across the U.S., PETA is decking the halls with a dash of compassion. This holiday season, we’re spreading good cheer in the form of a Christmas ad blitz-en to inspire empathy for all our fellow animals.
Our festive ads serve as reminders that no animal wants to be exploited and killed for their flesh, feathers, fur, or skin. Vegan living spares countless animals a lifetime of suffering.
’Tis the Season for Kindness to Animals: See How PETA’s Holiday Ads Are Lighting Up U.S. Cities
In Des Moines, Iowa, a little calf delivers a can’t-miss message to the city’s bustling Merle Hay neighborhood, urging everyone to see her as a living, feeling individual—not an accessory or a piece of meat.
Cows naturally spend their time socializing with friends and family, but those raised for meat and leather typically spend their lives on crowded, filthy lots, where they have little opportunity to form meaningful bonds essential to their well-being. Workers in the meat and leather industries castrate, brand, string up, skin, and dismember cows, sometimes while they’re still conscious.
In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, PETA is lighting up the largest shopping district between Denver and Minneapolis with sky-high appeals from animals to leave only animal-friendly gifts under the tree this Christmas.
Just feet from The Empire Mall—home to dozens of retailers worthy of the naughty list, such as Coach and lululemon, which sell skins and down—PETA’s digital billboard reminds shoppers that animals are living, feeling beings, not merchandise.
Buying wool, leather, or anything else made from animals supports the violent abuse of sentient beings in these industries. PETA entity investigations into more than 100 wool suppliers have exposed that shearers beat sheep, cut their skin to shreds, and hastily sew them back up—without painkillers. At down factories, workers hang ducks and geese upside down, drag them through electrified water, and stab them in the throat. Meat industry workers pack chickens densely on top of one another in filthy cages, where they often die after their legs break under the strain of their own weight. And in the reptile-skins industry, workers hack apart lizards with machetes while they’re still conscious.
Travelers coming to and from the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport for their holiday trips are reminded that cruelty doesn’t fly. Plastered on Uber, Lyft, and other rideshare vehicles, PETA’s thought-provoking ads challenge consumers to think about who suffers for luggage made from leather.
Because animals’ skin is one of the most profitable coproducts of the meat industry, purchasing leather directly contributes to the slaughter of countless animals. Worldwide, the meat and leather industries kill more than a billion cows, sheep, and other animals for their skins every year.
Along the Long Island Expressway, jam-packed with Manhattan-bound tourists, residents, and holiday shoppers, PETA’s highway billboard shows the loving bond between a mother cow and her precious calf—a reminder that these gentle giants have their own lives and families, just like we do.
At Newark Penn Station in New Jersey, one of the busiest train stations in the U.S., all eyes are on PETA’s “I’m Me, Not Meat” ads. Every year, the meat and fishing industries kill billions of animals, including fish, turkeys, cows, chickens, and pigs, for their flesh. Every individual who goes vegan spares nearly 200 animals per year.
In Columbus, Ohio, known as one of the best towns for Christmas shopping, PETA’s bike share ads peddle a plea to let our fellow animals live in peace.
In Trenton, New Jersey, and Tucson, Arizona, PETA’s ads illustrate the love that mothers of all species have for their babies. Mother cows are nurturing and fiercely protective of their young, but the dairy industry denies them this important bond. There are countless reports of mother cows frantically crying out for their babies for several days after workers tore their babies away from them.
PETA’s heartwarming Christmas special tells the touching story of Toby the turkey, who spends the holidays with his loving family—not being sent to a slaughterhouse. The festive ad, which is airing on local TV stations across the U.S., encourages viewers to leave turkeys in peace, not in pieces.
Give the Gift of Empathy by Going Vegan
This holiday season—and all year round—show kindness and compassion to all living, feeling beings by going vegan and only wearing animal-free clothing. Check out PETA’s exciting selection of vegan holiday gifts, and order our free vegan starter kit to make the compassionate switch today:
“All mothers love their babies.” That’s the call for compassion that just went up in the capital of New Jersey—a majority-Catholic state—ahead of Christmas. With this message, PETA’s Christian outreach division, PETA LAMBS (“Least Among My Brothers and Sisters” from Matthew 25:40), is calling on empathetic onlookers to honor the spirit of the holiday by leaving animals off their plates.
“Christmas is a time to gather with mercy and compassion in our hearts. Just as we embrace and cherish our children, mother cows and their calves want to live in peace, together,” says PETA Vice President Daniel Paden. “PETA encourages everyone to show goodwill to all God’s creatures by rejecting the cruelty of the meat and dairy industries and eating vegan this Christmas and every other day.”
Credit: PETA
PETA LAMBS’ plea, which will be up through January, can be found at 1500 Pennington Rd. near N. Olden Avenue—less than a mile from four churches and numerous meat-serving eateries.
PETA LAMBS opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. Its motto, a variation of PETA’s, is “Animals are not ours. They’re God’s.” For more information, please visit PETALambs.com or follow PETA on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
Tucson will get a tasty treat tomorrow when a flock of PETA LAMBS (“Least Among My Brothers and Sisters” from Matthew 25:40) supporters land beneath a new sky-high plea that just went up on Grant Road to remind everyone that there’s no better time than Christmas to show mercy to all of God’s creations by going vegan. The group’s faith outreach division will help passersby enjoy a delicious and compassionate holiday by distributing free vegan cheese underneath the can’t-miss message.
When: Tuesday, December 19, 12 noon
Where: 831 W. Grant Rd., Tucson
“Christmas is the season of goodwill, and it’s easy to show compassion to vulnerable mother cows and their babies by choosing the delicious vegan cheese, milk, and ice cream available everywhere,” says PETA Vice President Daniel Paden. “PETA LAMBS encourages everyone to celebrate the holiday with a decadent vegan feast that leaves all animals in peace.”
Animals aren’t mentioned in Genesis 1:29, which states that God provides “every seed-bearing plant” and “every tree whose fruit contains seed” as food for humans. In the dairy industry, calves are torn away from their mothers, often within a day of birth, so that the milk meant to nourish them can be stolen and sold to humans. PETA’s investigations into dairy facilities have found workers electroshocking cows in the face, hitting them with poles and a cane, and abusing them in other ways. Once their bodies wear out from repeated pregnancies, they’re sent to slaughter.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and offers a free vegan starter kit on its website.
Today, PETA sent a letter to Merced County District Attorney Nicole Silveira calling on her to investigate and file appropriate criminal charges against Clausen Meat Co. Inc. and the worker responsible for repeatedly electrocuting a pig and cutting the throat of the conscious, crying animal at the slaughterhouse located at 19455 E. Clausen Rd. near Delhi on November 15.
A just-released U.S. Department of Agriculture report revealed that a federal inspector witnessed a pig “breathing, shaking, and struggling to get up” after exiting a severely crowded gas chamber. The pig was hoisted upside down, and a worker repeatedly electrocuted the pig in an attempt to render the animal unconscious, but the pig remained alert and crying out. The worker then cut the animal’s throat.
“This pig endured electric shocks and being stabbed in the throat in a terrifying, drawn-out killing that was nothing short of torture,” says PETA Vice President of Evidence Analysis Daniel Paden. “PETA is calling for a criminal investigation on behalf of this pig and urges everyone to help prevent all slaughterhouse violence by going vegan.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—points out that pigs, cows, sheep, chickens, turkeys, and other animals feel pain and fear and value their lives, just as humans do. The group is pursuing charges under state law because federal officials haven’t prosecuted any inspected slaughterhouses for acts of abuse since at least 2007.
The Honorable Nicole Silveira
Merced County District Attorney
Dear Ms. Silveira:
I hope this letter finds you well. I’d like to request that your office (and the proper local law-enforcement agency, as you deem appropriate) investigate and file suitable criminal charges against Clausen Meat Co. Inc. and the worker responsible for repeatedly electrocuting a pig and cutting the conscious, crying animal’s throat on November 15 at the company’s slaughterhouse located at 19455 E. Clausen Rd. near Delhi. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) documented the incident in the attached report, which states the following:
[T]he CSI [FSIS Consumer Safety Inspector] observed a market pig exiting the CO2 stunner … breathing, shaking and struggling to get up. The CSI observed that [the pig] was rhythmically breathing. Using his flashlight, the CSI observed the pig’s eyes had tracking movement. … The CSI immediately notified an establishment employee of his observations as another employee hoisted the pig onto the rail. The CSI observed the pig continuing to breathe rhythmically. In response to the flashlight, the pig’s eyes moved right to left as [the animal] continued tracking the light as well as the CSI’s finger, and [the pig] was … squealing. An establishment employee retrieved the first back-up electrical stunner … and applied the stun to the animal, but it malfunctioned and failed to emit any electrical stun. The employee then retrieved a second back-up electrical stunner …. The pig continued to vocalize (squeal) as the stun operator made three attempts to stun the animal. However, none … were effective as the pig continued vocalizing during the process. The employee then stuck the pig as [the animal] continued to vocalize and was conscious. The pig bled out and became insensible with no vocalization, eye tracking or rhythmic breathing.
This conduct appears to violate California Penal Code § 597(b). Importantly, FSIS’ action carries no criminal or civil penalties and does not preempt criminal
liability under state law for slaughterhouse workers who perpetrate acts of cruelty to animals. Since FSIS hasn’t initiated a criminal prosecution of a licensed slaughterhouse for inhumane handling since at least 2007, charges under state law are this victim’s only chance at a measure of justice.
Thank you for your consideration and for the difficult work that you do.
Below, please find a statement from PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman in response to reports of avian flu outbreaks at the Trillium Farm Holdings LLC egg farms in Union and Hardin counties and the Hardin County facility’s plan to kill more than 2.6 million chickens:
An avian flu outbreak at Trillium comes as no surprise to PETA, whose previous investigation into one of its filthy egg farms revealed hundreds of dead birds decomposing alongside their surviving cagemates and hens left to die slowly and painfully after botched killings. The only things Trillium pumps out more of than eggs are disease and death, and since authorities turn a blind eye, PETA urges everyone to take matters into their own hands and help end this horrific cycle by going vegan.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information about PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
After captivating East Coast commuters with his daring trot down New Jersey Transit train tracks, this rogue steer is getting his own Christmas miracle.
NJ TRANSIT rail service is subject to up to 45 minute delays between Newark Penn and PSNY, due to Police activity near Newark Penn Station. NJ TRANSIT rail tickets and passes are being cross-honored by PATH and Hoboken, Newark Penn and 33rd Street New York.
Officials reportedly believe that the steer escaped from a local slaughterhouse before ending up along the train tracks near Newark Penn Station—the same one where dozens of PETA’s “I’m Me, Not Meat” ads are placed for the holiday season.
After being safely captured, the steer was taken to Skylands Animal Sanctuary & Rescue in Sussex County, New Jersey, and named Ricardo. Now, he’s enjoying the greatest gift of all: a safe home where he can roam free, graze, and socialize with other animals.
UPDATE: SOUND UP. New Jersey runaway train track bull, ‘Ricardo’ saved from slaughter house. He has new permanent home at Skylands Animal Sanctuary, where he will have 232 acres to graze and roam. Here he is walking up from tranquilizer. pic.twitter.com/haPRMdKh45
Ricardo’s heartwarming tale is a celebratory one indeed, but the countless animals still suffering on farms and in slaughterhouses aren’t so lucky. Each year, the meat and dairy industries exploit and kill more than 29 million cows in the U.S. alone. In the meat industry, workers subject many young cows to agonizing mutilations, such as castration, branding, and dehorning—often without any pain relief. At slaughterhouses, workers hang them upside down and slit their throats—sometimes while they’re still conscious.
Cows Want to Live
Cows have been known to go to extraordinary lengths to escape from slaughterhouses—a testament to their extreme intelligence, knack for solving problems, and, most importantly, desire to live. Just earlier this year, a 4-month-old calf ran loose through the streets of Brooklyn after breaking free from a slaughterhouse.
All Our Fellow Animals Deserve the Same Happy Ending as Ricardo
If Ricardo’s inspiring escapade teaches us anything, it’s that cows desire the same things we do: respect, compassion, and the freedom to do as they please. No one wants to spend their lives on crowded, filthy farms or to die in a slaughterhouse.
You can save nearly 200 animals per year by going vegan. Make the compassionate switch today:
In the much-anticipated sequel to the animated classic, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget takes flight, entertaining audiences with its feathered protagonists and delivering a powerful message about the plight of chickens on farms. The film follows the antics of Ginger (voiced by Thandiwe Newton) and Rocky (voiced by Zachary Levi)—and the rest of the flock—as they plot to rescue their child, Molly (voiced by Bella Ramsey, PETA’s 2023 Most Beautiful Vegan), from a chicken farm and save her from ending up as nuggets in a bucket. Producer Aardman Animations shines the spotlight on the fact that chickens are wonderful, curious individuals who want to live in peace, not in pieces.
Throughout the film, the concept of a “happy ending” is a recurring theme. Ginger envisions a paradise where chickens are free, emphasizing their innate desire to live peacefully rather than ending up on a dinner plate. The movie cleverly addresses the serious issue of animal agriculture by satirically naming the chicken farm “Fun-Land Farms, where chickens find their happy endings.” This ironic twist draws attention to the discrepancies between the idealized image presented by the industry and the grim reality, revealing that there’s no such thing as a “happy ending” for chickens on farms. We’re looking at you, “humane meat.”
In the U.S. alone, a staggering 9 billion chickens are slaughtered for their flesh each year, with an additional 305 million hens used for their eggs. Newly hatched chicks are crammed into shipping crates and sent to farms within days of birth. Denied the chance to meet their parents, these chickens face a life devoid of the opportunity to engage in natural behavior: no dust baths, no sunlight, and certainly no fresh air. Most chickens spend their entire lives in filthy sheds with tens of thousands of other birds, where each has less space than a sheet of paper and where intense crowding and confinement lead to disease outbreaks.
The film breaks stereotypes by showcasing chickens as clever, resourceful beings. The protagonists, particularly Ginger and Molly, challenge preconceived notions about chickens, portraying them as smart, social animals with complex emotions and family bonds.
While the film showcases the intelligence and social dynamics of chickens, reality amplifies these traits. In their natural surroundings, chickens form complex social hierarchies, displaying advanced intelligence comparable to mammals. They use dozens of types of vocalizations, such as ones that distinguish between threats that are approaching by land and those that are approaching over water, and a mother hen begins to teach these calls to her chicks before they even hatch. She clucks softly to them while sitting on the eggs, and they chirp back to her and to each other from inside their shells.
Crack Open Compassion for Chickens
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget not only entertains but also serves as a catalyst for awareness and change. Beyond its animated charm, it calls on us to consider the real-world implications of our choices and advocates for a future in which chickens are celebrated, not commodified.
So grab your favorite vegan nuggets and enjoy the remarkable adventures of your favorite chicken friends.
As more people earn themselves spots on Santa’s “nice” list by looking out for animals, the planet, and their own arteries, retailers across the U.S. are keeping pace by stocking delicious Christmas delectables that are free of meat, eggs, and dairy. To help hosts pick the best of these new offerings for an unforgettable Yuletide feast, PETA is sharing its favorite vegan roasts and other holiday essentials.
“Hosts with the most compassion can serve up vegan roasts and other tasty foods that leave animals in peace, not in pieces,” says PETA Senior Vice President Colleen O’Brien. “PETA encourages us to look to our plates and extend the spirit of goodwill to animals, too, with soy to the world.”
Credit: PETA
Every person who goes vegan spares nearly 200 animals each year daily suffering and terrifying deaths, combats the climate catastrophe by slashing greenhouse gas emissions, and reduces their risk of developing heart disease and cancer. PETA’s free vegan starter kit can help those looking to make the switch.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
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Your family can spend quality time assembling a gingerbread house that’s just as sweet to animals as it is to eat. This year, try one of these options!
In what is one of the largest acquisitions in the Indian plant-based sector, superfood player Nourish You has acquired vegan dairy brand One Good. Ahead of a planned Series A next year, co-founder and CFO Radhika Datt pulls the curtain on the why and how of the deal.
Hyderabad-based superfood maker Nourish You has acquired 100% of Bangalore-based plant-based dairy startup One Good for an undisclosed sum, the largest M&A deal in India’s booming alt-dairy sector. The move strengthens Nourish You’s position as one of the leading businesses in the space, leveraging One Good’s strong online presence to complement its increasing retail footprint.
The acquisition was conducted via a share swap and sees One Good’s co-founders Abhay Rangan and Radhika Datt obtain a minority stake in the parent company. Speaking to Green Queen, Datt confirms that while the brands will remain separate, operations will merge and there will be restructuring involved.
It’s big news for India’s biggest plant-based market. According to the alt-protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) India, nearly two-thirds (65.8%) of vegan companies are focused on dairy alternatives (with almond milk brands topping the list). And more Indians are familiar with plant-based dairy (49%) than meat (28.5%) or eggs (19%).
“One Good’s journey is revolutionary. It was born with a vision of creating the next big dairy company, devoid of animals,” said Nourish You co-founder Krishna Reddy, who added that the deal helps Nourish You evolve “from being a superfood brand to a plant-based brand”.
Courtesy: Nourish You
New roles, no layoffs
Founded in 2015, Nourish You has an extensive range of superfood grains and products, including millets, seeds, mueslis, snack bars, speciality flours and quinoa – it prides itself on mainstreaming the latter in India. The company, backed by investors like Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath, actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Darwinbox’s Rohit Chennamaneni, and Triumph Group’s Y Janardhana Rao (among others), also ventured into the alt-dairy world with a range of millet milks earlier this year.
So it makes sense that One Good was on its radar. Beginning as a door-to-door delivery service, the company (founded in 2016 as Goodmylk) has ridden the success of its flagship cashew-oat-millet milk, expanding into vegan alternatives to ghee, butter, mayo and peanut curd (it’s India’s leading dairy-free yoghurt brand). As it grew, it acquired other plant-based businesses to broaden its portfolio: nutrition brand Pro2Fit, and cheese makers Katharos and Angelo Vegan Cheese.
Now, with the Nourish You acquisition, the two South Indian startups will hope to consolidate their foothold in India’s non-dairy sector. It’s something One Good has been exploring for a while, as Datt explains: “As a brand, we have been on the lookout for the right strategic partnership for some time now. I think it’s a conversation that is constantly being had. Nourish You has been aware of our work since our inception, and has also entered the vegan space through their millet milk. So when this conversation came about, it was a natural fit.”
Courtesy: Nourish You
Datt confirms that there were no redundancies as a result of the acquisition. “The teams complemented each other well and there was immediate synergy,” she notes. All of One Good’s senior management employees, meanwhile, have assumed titled roles in the new entity. She is now a co-founder and the chief financial officer, Rangan is a co-founder too, and (former COO) Dhivakar Sathyamurthy takes up the position of supply chain head.
“We will continue to remain two separate brands,” adds Datt. “One Good’s mission of providing affordable, accessible Indian vegan products will endure. There is vertical and horizontal integration on product lines, which will increase economic efficiency. Overall, customers can expect to see both brands in more channels, and at competitive prices.”
Path to price parity and upcoming Series A
That last point is pertinent. Despite dairy’s dominance in the plant-based sector, cost remains a key hurdle for many Indians – a GFI India and Ipsos survey revealed that it’s the least influential reason for buying milk alternatives in India. Plant-based milks can be two to four times more expensive than cow’s milk, which is expected, given the country is home to the largest dairy industry in the world.
But One Good has made massive strides here. Its cashew-oat-millet milk is already much cheaper than most oat and almond competitors, selling at half the price. And in its home city of Bangalore, it continues to offer door-to-door delivery of fresh milk – while obviously hard to scale, this is where it achieved price parity with conventional dairy a year ago, with a litre of its plant-based milk available for ₹59 (70 cents).
Datt describes how a combination of Nourish You’s growing retail presence – its products are available in over 2,500 stores nationwide – and One Good’s strong D2C engagement positions can make them the “go-to destination for innovative plant-based alternatives in India”.
“We have years of hard work coming up to really leverage the scale and operational excellence of Nourish You to our advantage,” she says. “We are excited about expanded operations, working with new talent and delivering a combined value to the consumers.”
Courtesy: One Good
Nourish You certainly does have the platform – it’s aiming to close the fiscal year with a revenue of ₹30 crores ($3.6M), and aims to reach the ₹100 crore ($12M) mark by 2025. And given the dominance of the ₹250 crore ($30M) Indian alt-dairy market – it’s valued 2.5 times higher than plant-based meat – it will be hoping to grow exponentially. Plus, there’s government support: the country’s Science and Engineering Research Board (part of the Ministry of Science and Technology) has announced a funding call centred on making millet-based meat, egg and dairy proteins.
All this makes its case for its upcoming fundraiser stronger. Having raised $2M in seed funding earlier this year, Nourish You aims to secure ₹60 crores ($7.2M) in its Series A round, which is expected to close by mid-2024.
Next year will also see One Good hoping to expand its presence in more stores and widen the reach of its cost-competitive fresh milk. Additionally, apart from household consumers, it wants to be available to more institutions. “The funds will be used to expand our distribution for sure,” says Datt. “Through One Good’s warehouses, we’re currently already present in all five major cities in India, but our footprint in these locations needs to increase. We’ll want to invest more in offline presence and customer awareness.”
After capping off a big 2023, it seems Nourish You is embarking on One more Good year.
Nut Roast or Turkey with Trimmings? Which is better for the planet? To find out, Green Queen asked climate data intel startup Calyx to calculate the carbon footprint and Eco-Score of a traditional Christmas meal versus a vegan feast and here’s what we found.
Can you hear the sleigh bells? Christmas is almost here! And without sounding too Scroogey, that means waste and excess everywhere. Particularly on the big family meal table…but what does the data say? We wanted to know how a vegan Christmas dinner compared with a traditional turkey and ham extravaganza
To give you a fuller view, Green Queen has teamed up with Calyx, an Australian data intelligence company that provides sustainability insights for the food and beverage sector. It specialises in carbon, water and biodiversity measurements for companies’ products and ingredients, with its experts having over 27 years of experience in the agrifood sustainability space.
Calyx has worked with the likes of Chipotle, Walmart, Nestlé, the World Economic Forum, the Australian Open and the Olympics. As we approach Christmas – which happens to be the same month leaders from around the world just convened in Dubai for COP28 – food is firmly in focus this year.
And rightly so: the food system accounts for over a third of all emissions and is the greatest driver of deforestation. Christmas, meanwhile, is a period responsible for a huge climate footprint. Research has found that three days of festivities can result in as much as 650kg of carbon emissions per person –that’s 5.5% of our entire year’s share, or, as the researchers put it, over 1,000 Christmas puddings.
Courtesy: Calyx
What is an Eco-Score?
To bring about change, we can start with our plates. The Eco-Score provides a scientifically robust methodology and simple communication strategy for footprinting food menus, based on a farm-to-fork life-cycle analysis (LCA). Additionally, it integrates parameters not always well-measured in an LCA: Calyx’s Eco-Score takes into account a product’s carbon footprint, water use and pollution, land use, packaging, as well as its impact on biodiversity and animal welfare.
What do consumers think about eco-scores?
Eco-scores are already used by many companies across multiple countries, and they have been shown to influence consumers’ purchasing habits. A small 255-person study in the UK revealed that 63% of consumers would be deterred from buying meat if it had a negative climate score, and 52% would consider buying a plant-based alternative if it fared better. Meanwhile, 58% said they’re interested in eco-labels but require more information.
On a larger scale, an analysis of three global YouGov polls totalling 10,540 participants found that two-thirds of respondents find carbon labelling a good idea across all countries surveyed.
About the menus and the recipes
To measure the impact of a Christmas dinner, we sourced recipes from popular cooking websites. A majority were from NYT Cooking, while others were from online blogs Once Upon a Chef, Easy Peasy Foodie, Best Recipes and Veggie Desserts.
The two menus had eight dishes each, with a mix of mains, sides and desserts, and the Eco-Scores ranged from A+ (best) to E- (worst). Here’s what Calyx’s analysis found.
The mains: turkey and ham vs nut loaf and stuffed squash
Source: Calyx | Graphic by Green Queen Media
For the mains, the traditional Christmas menu contains roast turkey with cranberry sauce and roast ham with gravy. The turkey has a carbon footprint of 3.56kg per serving, with an Eco-Score of 37 (out of 100), or D+.
The ham, meanwhile, had the lowest score across both menus. While its carbon footprint was lower than the turkey dish, at 2.73 kg per serving, when accounting for other factors (like land and water use, animal welfare, biodiversity, etc.), its impact is much worse. It scores a D on the rating scale, earning just 29 out of 100.
In comparison, the vegan mains have a much lighter effect on the environment. A nut loaf with cranberry sauce only produces 0.3kg of CO2 per serving, with a score of 70 and a B rating. In terms of pure carbon footprint, this is 11 times lower than the turkey and nine times lower than the ham.
And a stuffed butternut squash dish with mushroom gravy scores seven better. It has a higher carbon footprint per serve (1.98kg), but the overall eco score is 82, or A-. This is the joint-highest rating across both menus.
The sides: stuffing, mash and green beans
Source: Calyx | Graphic by Green Queen Media
We chose four sides across both menus: two mashes, one green, and one stuffing each. Starting with the latter, a sausage and cornbread stuffing has a footprint of 1.2kg per serving, with an Eco-Score of 62 and rating of B-. On the other hand, a plant-based stuffing made from a base of baguettes, pecans, onions, celery and vegan butter has an Eco-Score of 80 out of 100, or A-, accounting for 0.43kg of CO2 per serving – almost three times lower than the meat-based stuffing.
The two mashed dishes – made from potatoes and sweet potatoes – have the lowest carbon footprints. A vegetarian potato mash (with milk and butter) produces 0.28kg of carbon per serving, but the heavy use of dairy brings its Eco-Score down to 65, or B. Similarly, the vegan mash has a CO2 footprint of 0.2kg per serving, but the use of soy milk and vegan butter means its Eco-Score is only slightly higher, at 67 or B.
Mashed sweet potatoes make for the most sustainable dish on the Christmas dinner menu. The traditional cream- and butter-based version emits 0.25kg of carbon per serving, with a high score of 83 or A-. A vegan alternative with soy milk and plant-based butter brings this up to 85 (still A-), with only 0.1kg of carbon emissions.
Finally, a simple green bean dish with almonds has a lower Eco-Score than the mash. If cooked in butter, it’s rated as B- with 64 out of 100. If prepared in coconut oil, it’s still B-, but with 62 out of 100 on the green rating. This is despite the latter having a lower carbon footprint – it’s key to remember that carbon emissions are just one aspect of the Eco-Score, and taking into account other factors like biodiversity and animal welfare, using coconut oil maker for a marginally lower overall score.
The desserts: traditional vs vegan pumpkin and pecan pie showdown
Source: Calyx | Graphic by Green Queen Media
On to the sweet stuff. We chose two pies – pumpkin and pecan – comparing traditional recipes with vegan alternatives (all with store-bought pie crusts). The dairy- and egg-based pumpkin pie produced 0.45kg of CO2, with a 70 or B- Eco-Score. The vegan version – containing coconut oil, maple syrup and cornstarch – ranked higher (80 or A-) with a 2.5-times lower carbon footprint (0.18kg).
Meanwhile, a pecan pie with butter, honey, eggs, whipped cream/ice cream, and golden syrup was responsible for 0.46kg of carbon emissions per serving, with an Eco-Score of 61 out of 100, or B-. A vegan version – with maple syrup, brown sugar, coconut oil and silken tofu – ranked higher here too, with 0.37 of carbon emitted, and a total score of 74 or B.
Result: a vegan Christmas dinner is better for the planet
Overall, the vegan Christmas dinner trumps a traditional one heavy on meat and dairy. While the latter accounts for 10.12 of CO2 emissions per serving, the plant-based one has less than half the impact at 4.43kg. This chimes with research showing that animal-derived foods have twice as high greenhouse gas emissions as plant-based ones.
Calyx’s overall Eco-Score for a Christmas dinner with conventional dishes is 53 out of 100, which translates to a C rating – in contrast, the vegan menu ranks 76 out of 100, a B rating.
“To save the planet, we all need to do better,” said Calyx co-founder and CEO Lauren Branson. “Impact transparency is the first step to understanding the impact our food has on the planet, and the Calyx Eco-Score – developed in partnership with Beelong – is a great starting point. We know that once people can see the impact their food choices have on the planet, they make better decisions. What will you be dishing up this Christmas?”
Top: Matcha Sugar Cookie, Credit: Orange & Blossom Modern Patisserie
Bottom: Black and White Cookie, Credit: Ben & Esther’s Vegan Jewish Deli
“The deliciously sweet Matcha Sugar Cookie from Orange & Blossom and the unbeatable classic Black and White Cookie from Ben & Esther’s deliver fabulous flavor without using a single egg or splash of milk,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk, who knows her vegan cookies, having eaten them for over 50 years. “Every delicious cookie on PETA’s ‘nice’ list helps bring peace on Earth to all living beings in this season of goodwill.”
On a more somber note, every person who goes vegan spares nearly 200 animals each year daily suffering and terrifying deaths and reduces their own risk of developing heart disease and cancer. PETA’s free vegan starter kit can help those looking to make the switch.
Orange & Blossom and Ben & Esther’s will receive framed certificates from PETA and bragging rights for the holiday season. Other winners include the Ginger Pine-Apricot Cookie from Like Mom’s Only Vegan in Cincinnati; the Marzipan Cookie from Sweet Maresa’s in Kingston, New York; and the Chocolate Raspberry Cookie from Bake Me Vegan in Teton Village, Wyoming.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
Local diners just might think twice about chowing down on fried chicken after they see—and hear—“Hell on Wheels,” PETA’s guerilla-marketing campaign featuring a life-size chicken transport truck covered with images of real chickens crammed into crates on their way to a slaughterhouse, complete with actual recorded sounds of the birds’ cries and a subliminal message every 10 seconds suggesting that people go vegan. The vexatious vehicle will circle the heart of Daytona Beach at Main Street and S. Atlantic Avenue—near Hog Heaven Bar-B-Q and Steve’s Famous Diner—before moving on to confront diners at 4 Rivers Smokehouse, Metro Diner, casualbird, BurgerTen and ChickenToo, Pollo Tropical, Huey Magoo’s Chicken Tenders, and Brickyard Lounge and Grill.
When: Saturday, December 16, 12 noon
Where: Circling Main Street and S. Atlantic Avenue, Daytona Beach
“Behind every barbecued wing or bucket of fried chicken is a once-living, sensitive individual who was crammed onto a truck for a terrifying, miserable journey to their death,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s ‘Hell on Wheels’ truck is an appeal to anyone who eats chicken to remember that the meat industry is cruel to birds and the only kind meal is a vegan one.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and offers a free vegan starter kit on its website.
If you wouldn’t eat a dog, why eat a pig, a turkey, or a cow? That’s the food for thought PETA supporters will be serving up on Saturday as they “barbecue” a lifelike “dog” next to Vernon Worthen Park and the Downtown Farmers Market while other animal allies hand out free vegan starter kits and kids’ guides to animal rights.
When: Saturday, December 16, 12 noon
Where: Near the pickleball courts at Vernon Worthen Park, 210 S. 400 E., St. George
A PETA supporter “barbecues” a “dog.” Photo: PETA
“Pigs, cows, chickens, and turkeys feel pain and fear and love their families just like dogs do,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA urges anyone disturbed by the idea of cooking a canine to extend that compassion to all animals and go vegan.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview.
For the busy holiday travel season, PETA has erected a sky-high appeal on the Long Island Expressway (heading into the city), reminding drivers that mother cows form strong bonds with their babies and that families don’t wish to be separated, killed, and reduced to steak or shoes.
“A mother’s love must come before brie, burgers, and boots,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk, a vegan for 50 years. “PETA encourages everyone to offer cows and their calves a little comfort and joy this holiday season and beyond by choosing vegan foods and fashions.”
Cows and other animals used for food endure extreme crowding, routine mutilations without pain relief, and a terrifying trip in all weather conditions to slaughterhouses, where they’re killed violently and painfully on blood-soaked floors. In the dairy industry, calves are torn away from their mothers, often within a day of birth, so that the milk meant to nourish them can be stolen and sold to humans. Once mother cows’ bodies wear out from repeated pregnancies, they’re sent to slaughter.
Animal agriculture—which includes the leather industry, a major part of meat and dairy profit margins—is responsible for nearly one-fifth of all human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. The World Bank reports that cattle ranching has caused over 80% of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest since 1970. Because of fires—many of which are deliberately set to clear land to raise cows and grow crops to feed them—hotter temperatures, and droughts, parts of the Amazon are now emitting more carbon dioxide than they can absorb.
The billboard is located on the Long Island Expressway heading into the Manhattan-bound Queens-Midtown Tunnel.
While recognizing that there are more delicious vegan cookies this year than Santa could fit into a supersized sack, PETA made a list (yes, we checked it twice) of its Top 10 Favorite Festive Vegan Cookies—and the sprinkle-covered Birthday Cake Cookie from local family-owned vegan café Quickie Too nabbed a spot.
The Birthday Cake Cookie. Credit: Quickie Too
“The festive Birthday Cake Cookie from Quickie Too delivers fabulous flavor without using a single egg or splash of milk,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk, who knows her vegan cookies, having eaten them for over 50 years. “Every delicious cookie on PETA’s ‘nice’ list helps bring peace on Earth to all living beings in this season of goodwill.”
On a more somber note, every person who goes vegan spares nearly 200 animals each year daily suffering and terrifying deaths and reduces their own risk of developing heart disease and cancer. PETA’s free vegan starter kit can help those looking to make the switch.
Quickie Too will receive a framed certificate from PETA and bragging rights for the holiday season. Other winners include the Ginger Pine-Apricot Cookie from Like Mom’s Only Vegan in Cincinnati; the Marzipan Cookie from Sweet Maresa’s in Kingston, New York; and the Chocolate Raspberry Cookie from Bake Me Vegan in Teton Village, Wyoming.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
For doing an impeckable job rousing empathy for roosters and teaching children that chickens are thinking, feeling beings just like them, TeachKind—PETA’s humane education division—is recognizing Ashtabula-based author and educator Camille Licate, along with her rescued rooster companion, Bree, with its inaugural Chicken Crusaders Award.
An advocate for nurturing compassion in young people, Licate wrote a book, Bree and Me: A True Story of a Rescue Rooster’s Journey, and hosts Kids for Positive Change, a television show encouraging young viewers to take positive actions for humans, other animals, and the planet. (Bree’s scenes are filmed in Licate’s home studio, where he feels safe and comfortable.)
Licate also teamed up with PETA Kids, the group’s division for kids 12 and younger, to star in a charming video with Bree, in which she shares how she took in her feathered friend after he was found as a chick on a busy street in New York City—and how the bird went on to become a “chicken with a mission” to “wake up the world to kindness” through his endearing, inquisitive, and loyal personality, his love of sun and dust baths, and his proclivity to protect his “flock,” i.e., Licate, her parents, and their adopted canine companions.
“Camille and Bree are showing youngsters and their parents that chickens—and all animals—are thinking, feeling beings who deserve our respect and consideration,” says PETA Senior Director of Youth Programs Marta Holmberg. “TeachKind is thrilled to recognize these compassionate companions for working around the cluck to make the world a kinder place.”
PETA Kids and TeachKind—whose mottos read, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—oppose speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information about TeachKind’s free resources, presentations, and lessons for teachers, please visit TeachKind.org or follow the group on Facebook or Instagram. For more information about PETA Kids, please visit PETAKids.com or follow the group on Facebook or Instagram.
As the UK eats less meat and dairy than ever before, the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) is launching an ad campaign promoting beef, lamb and dairy in January to rival the increasingly popular Veganuary, with three TV commercials as well as newspaper, magazine and online adverts.
“Did you know that beef, pork, lamb and dairy are natural sources of vitamin B12, an essential vitamin not naturally present in a vegan diet?”
AHDB, the UK farmer-funded livestock association, just couldn’t resist. After years of campaigning to “protect long-term consumer attitudes towards naturally produced ‘British’ meat and dairy”, it is relaunching its We Eat Balanced campaign, except with the slightly different Let’s Eat Balanced moniker.
Starting on January 1, the livestock body’s new “bold and exciting” campaign is designed to highlight locally produced beef, lamb and dairy, with the campaign’s ‘This’ and ‘That’ theme hoping to encourage consumers to “adopt a sustainable, healthy and nutritiously balanced diet”.
If the timing seems curious, make no mistake: this was deliberately planned to coincide with Veganuary, the monthlong campaign asking people to go vegan in January, as a driver of changing dietary habits to facilitate a permanent transition to a plant-based diet.
A Veganuary challenger?
AHDB says the theme reflects how “this rain and grass” produces “that delicious beef, lamb, milk and cheese”, which provides “this vitamin B12”, which helps with “that fatigue”. Indeed, the focus on this vitamin group is high, with the industry body hoping to highlight these foods as natural protein and B12 sources.
Courtesy: AHDB
The campaign will see three TV commercials – one each for beef, lamb and dairy – voiced by British comedian Richard Ayoade (The IT Crowd). These will feature on cinema screens for the first time, and will be complemented with ads in newspapers, magazines and on social media. Additionally, AHDB has partnered with Tasty UK (the culinary content arm of BuzzFeed) to create ‘Balanced Bites’ videos to encourage younger audiences (aged 18-25) to eat “balanced dishes using British red meat and dairy”.
“Let’s Eat Balanced aims to capture consumers at every touchpoint, with its vibrant colours and streamlined design catering to a broad demographic, especially appealing to the younger Gen Z audience,” said Carrie McDermid, head of domestic marketing at AHDB. This strategy could be born out of the fact that more and more Gen Zers are shying away from meat. A December 2022 survey revealed that 43% of British Gen Zers didn’t plan to meat this year, accounting for the demographic with the highest share.
While the announcement doesn’t feature any reference to veganism, one click on its website displays a homepage that features the aforementioned dig at vegan diets and vitamin B12. The campaign directly targets Veganuary, which was founded in the UK in 2014 but has become a global movement since, with a record-breaking number of participants each year.
Toni Vernelli, Veganuary’s head of communication, also feels that AHDB’s campaign has been timed to “try and counteract” the vegan challenge’s impact on meat and dairy sales. But she’s not worried about it. “AHDB has launched a pro-meat and dairy campaign every January for the past few years and it has not received much mainstream attention or affected Veganuary in any way,” she tells Green Queen.
January 2023 saw over 700,000 people globally pledge to vegan for the month, and Vernelli confirms that the campaign expects more participants than ever before in 2024, with consumers becoming more concerned about the environmental, health and animal welfare impacts of their eating habits.
Graphic by Green Queen Media
Within the UK, meat and dairy consumption are at their lowest since records began nearly 50 years ago, with cost of living and inflation playing a major role. But groups like AHDB would be quick to note that produce intake is lower than in previous years too, while cheese-eating is at a high.
Busting the myth
AHDB’s We Eat Balanced campaign does make a pretty bold statement: “British meat and dairy are also amongst the most sustainable in the world.” Expanding on this, the group cited government data showing how transport and energy emissions are higher than livestock in the UK, while the animal agriculture industry accounts for 7% of national GHG emissions.
“But sustainability isn’t just about carbon, there [are] many other things to consider,” it points out, continuing with some land and water use statistics that included research that the group jointly conducted with others. However, the AHDB conveniently leaves out any mention of methane, a gas 20 times more potent than carbon and with more immediate implications for the planet.
Courtesy: Defra
The same government report it cites for carbon emissions figures revealed that agriculture accounted for 48% of the UK’s total methane emissions – and while that figure has fallen by 15% from a 1990 baseline, it has largely been at the same level since 2009. Methane is a byproduct of enteric fermentation from livestock farming, and the decomposition of manure under anaerobic conditions.
Colin Bateman, beef and lamb sector council chair at AHDB, said: “The Let’s Eat Balanced campaign does not just deliver vital information to consumers about maintaining a nutritious and tasty diet. It also highlights the efforts of farmers dedicated to welfare and sustainable food production.” But an investigation has previously found that the UK has nearly 800 livestock mega-farms, a far cry from the welfare standards Bateman is hoping to promote. You almost can’t blame him for making claims like these though, as the industry has gotten away with it time and again.
Only one in 300 complaints about animal welfare at UK farms actually led to prosecution between 2018-22, with half of the accused not even inspected, according to a report by two animal welfare charities. And in 2021, AHDB was cleared of wrongdoing after complaints from animal rights groups about its greenwashing claims were dismissed by the UK’s Advertising Standards Agency. It’s stuff like this why such organisations probably don’t even need help from the country’s Green Claims Code and its six-point checklist for validating environmental claims.
Courtesy: Veganuary
Finally, this idea of British meat and dairy being better is not reflective of the wider argument. Farm and land use emissions from producing these animal foods are the main culprits – transportation makes up only a fraction of the total. Analysis by Our World in Data shows how buying imported beef from Central America in the UK versus buying local makes barely any difference. Plus, a 2022 report by the WWF asserted that UK farmers must reduce their meat and dairy production by a third in the next decade to meet climate goals.
“The science on climate change is now indisputable, we must reduce the amount of meat and dairy we consume and the general public is taking this on board more and more every year,” notes Vernelli. “There is no going back from here, try as the meat and dairy industries might to counter the shift.”
So, will AHDB’s new programming cut through to the 72% of Brits whose food decisions are affected by sustainability, or will Veganuary take the cake? Roll on, January.
In honor of the more than 100 baby pigs who died in agony after the truck carrying them caught fire due to a mechanical problem on Highway 60 on November 28, PETA plans to place a sky-high memorial near the accident site pointing out who’s responsible for their deaths: everyone who isn’t vegan.
“Each of these piglets was an individual who died in pain and terror, engulfed by smoke and flames,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA urges everyone to prevent pigs from being crammed into trucks in the first place by taking the easy step of going vegan.”
PETA points out that pigs are playful, intelligent, friendly animals who are soothed by music, love playing ball, sleep in “pig piles,” and even enjoy getting massages. In the meat industry, workers chop off piglets’ tails, clip their teeth with pliers, and castrate the males—all without painkillers. Each person who goes vegan spares nearly 200 animals every year; reduces their own risk of suffering from cancer, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, and obesity; and dramatically shrinks their carbon footprint. PETA’s free vegan starter kit can help those looking to make the switch.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
While recognizing that there are more delicious vegan cookies this year than Santa could fit into a supersized sack, PETA made a list (yes, we checked it twice) of its Top 10 Favorite Festive Vegan Cookies—and the satisfyingly sticky Peanut Butter Cookie from local sweet spot Gingersnap Vegan Bakery nabbed a spot.
“The creamy and craveable Peanut Butter Cookie from Gingersnap Vegan Bakery delivers fabulous flavor without using a single egg or splash of milk,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk, who knows her vegan cookies, having eaten them for over 50 years. “Every delicious cookie on PETA’s ‘nice’ list helps bring peace on Earth to all living beings in this season of goodwill.”
On a more somber note, every person who goes vegan spares nearly 200 animals each year daily suffering and terrifying deaths and reduces their own risk of developing heart disease and cancer. PETA’s free vegan starter kit can help those looking to make the switch.
Gingersnap Vegan Bakery will receive a framed certificate from PETA and bragging rights for the holiday season. Other winners include the Ginger Pine-Apricot Cookie from Like Mom’s Only Vegan in Cincinnati; the Marzipan Cookie from Sweet Maresa’s in Kingston, New York; and the Chocolate Raspberry Cookie from Bake Me Vegan in Teton Village, Wyoming.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
While recognizing that there are more delicious vegan cookies this year than Santa could fit into a supersized sack, PETA made a list (yes, we checked it twice) of its Top 10 Favorite Festive Vegan Cookies—and the chocolatey Salted Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie from locally based vegetarian comfort food purveyor Spacecat V-stro nabbed a spot.
“The craveable Salted Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie from Spacecat V-stro delivers fabulous flavor without using a single egg or splash of milk,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk, who knows her vegan cookies, having eaten them for over 50 years. “Every delicious cookie on PETA’s ‘nice’ list helps bring peace on Earth to all living beings in this season of goodwill.”
On a more somber note, every person who goes vegan spares nearly 200 animals each year daily suffering and terrifying deaths and reduces their own risk of developing heart disease and cancer. PETA’s free vegan starter kit can help those looking to make the switch.
Spacecat V-stro will receive a framed certificate from PETA and bragging rights for the holiday season. Other winners include the Ginger Pine-Apricot Cookie from Like Mom’s Only Vegan in Cincinnati; the Marzipan Cookie from Sweet Maresa’s in Kingston, New York; and the Chocolate Raspberry Cookie from Bake Me Vegan in Teton Village, Wyoming.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
There’s no room at the inn … for animal exploitation! Because Arch City is a Christmas shopping hub, PETA is posting ads on local bikeshares throughout the city showing a cow, a sheep, a chicken, a pair of geese, and a donkey gathered in a cozy Nativity scene as they appeal to humans to let them live in peace by embracing a vegan lifestyle.
Credit: PETA
“Our fellow animals feel pain, fear, love, and joy, yet their body parts are often eaten and their skin, fur, and feathers are often worn without a second thought,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “Animals have a voice, but humans don’t listen to them, so PETA urges everyone to accept that animals don’t want to die for drumsticks or decor and to choose vegan everything.”
PETA points out that speciesist attitudes—the archaic, human-supremacist notion that other animals exist for human benefit—cause the suffering and deaths of billions of individuals every year. In the leather industry, cows endure intensive confinement, castration, branding, and tail-docking before being violently killed, while screaming sheep are cut to ribbons for wool and birds’ feathers are roughly and repeatedly ripped out for down. In the food industry, animals endure terrifying trips to slaughterhouses in all weather extremes before their throats are slit on blood-soaked floors. Ending these horrors is as simple as opting for the many delicious vegan foods and exciting animal-free clothing and home goods options on the market today.
The ads are located on bikeshares at 750 N. High St., Grandview and Third avenues, High Street and Fourth Avenue, W. Third Avenue, High Street and King Avenue, 1408-1420 Neil Ave., High Street and 11th Avenue, 2570 N. High St., Bruck Street, and 299-281 Buttles Ave.
