Força Vegan Magazine: issue 5

FREE

#5 JUNE 2022

FORÇA VEGAN JUSTICE FOR ANIMALS, PEOPLE & THE PLANET

M A G A Z I N E

BYC/Vegan

Uganda FC

Update Animal Sanctuaries

THE IMPACT OF VEGAN BILBOARDS

Would a bilboard make you think twice?

THINK LIKE A VEGAN

Emilia Leese tells us all about the book & podcast

HIMALAYAN VEGAN FESTIVAL Celebrating veganism in the Himalaya

in the UK

Art by Amy

Guidry Humane

Global

Network

W EL COM E T O

LAST 2 ISSUES: ISSUE #4

ISSUE #3 Greetings from sunny Bristol. We are thrilled to bring you Issue 5 of Força Vegan - packed full of vegan news, views and updates from around the world, all on vegan activism and outreach.

Dip your toes into the fabulous world of the Himalayan Vegan Festival alongside an in-depth update from Animals Alliance Asia, and relish in a full length feature on vegan Billboards, whilst refreshing yourself with a challenging essay on Ethical Consumption under Capitalism. Our history lessons continue with a look at the work of vegan pioneer Kathleen Jannaway, plus 5 Key Moments in UK AR History. We feature some simply stunning artwork from US artist Amy Guidry and catch up with Bristol muso and activist Andy Compton.

Meanwhile - there’s plenty going on in Greece this summer, as can be seen from the recent vegan festivals, and Egypt gears up for Cop27 with a resurgence in plant-based living. We meet with Animal Justice Emergency, and catch up with Roger on the story of The Animal Rights Show, as it goes from strength to strength online. Yaoh Hemp Products have some new products out, Chiemeka from Nigeria gives us a fresh insight into the work of The Humane Global Network and we find out what’s happening with our vegan pals in Uganda, before meeting up with vegan author Emilia Leese of Think Like a Vegan fame and regular contributor Tom Harris with his peice ‘Total Liberation’.

And of course, VegfestUK returns to London Olympia in the autumn. Mustn’t grumble.

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EDITOR TIM BARFORD

DESIGNER PETE METCALFE ISSN 2634-9566

Published by VegfestUK © www.vegfest.co.uk Enquiries: info@vegfest.co.uk

The views expressed in Força Vegan Online Magazine do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor nor VegfestUK Ltd, and neither the Editor, Design team or VegfestUK Ltd accept any liability for any matter in the magazine, nor can be held responsible for any actions taken as a result of the content of this magazine. Advertisements and paid promotional copy are accepted without implying endorsement by the editor or publishers. Paid promotional copy is marked ‘Promotion’ on the appropriate pages.

CONTENTS 10

HIMALAYAN

VEGAN FESTIVAL

Vegan advocates, activists, athletes, chefs, health professionals, nutritionists, educators, and entrepreneurs, and celebrities from across Nepal, Bhutan, and India, and throughout the region have come together to organize...

20 ATHENS IS VEGAN

Vegan Life NGO is a Greek non-profit organization founded in 2016 with the mission to spread...

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UPDATE: BYC /

VEGAN UGANDA FC

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VEGANS IN EGYPT:

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TOGETHER WE STAND

SUPPORT FOR VEGAN BUSINESSES

‘MAIN FEATURE’ AT

The return of VegfestUK London to Olympia Grand...

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ANIMAL ALLIANCE ASIA Elly Nakajima - Asia born and raised in Japan - is the co-founder of Animals Alliance Asia. Elly is dedicated to building a more inclusive and culturally...

CONTENTS: CONTINUED

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HUMANE

GLOBAL NETWORK

Chiemeka Chiedozie is the founder of The Humane Global Network, a World Renowned Animal Right Activist, Humane Educator, Environmentalist...

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CELEBRATING

20 YEARS

WITH NEW PRODUCTS

78 THINK LIKE

A VEGAN

Emilia Lease, co-author of ‘Think Like A Vegan’ with Eva Charalambides, talks to Força Vegan about the latest in the ‘Think Like A Vegan’ series - a podcast of the same name. 8 episodes in, and it’s already clearly a great success.

58 THE IMPACT OF VEGAN

BILLBOARDS Jordi Casamitjana, the author of the book “Ethical Vegan”, looks at the vegan outreach tactic of using billboards, and how impactful they are.

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ANIMAL JUSTICE

EMERGENCY

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TOTAL LIBERATION

96 THE ANIMAL

RIGHTS SHOW

CONTENTS: CONTINUED

100 FIVE DATES THAT MADE THE

ANIMAL RIGHTS

MOVEMENT

In 2020 a prominent vegan “influencer” claimed the animal rights (AR) movement had begun...

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AMY GUIDRY: VEGAN ARTIST

Amy Guidry is an American artist residing in Lafayette, Louisiana.

As a child growing up in Slidell, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans, she spent much of her time outdoors...

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ANDY COMPTON

Andy Compton is a long term vegan, activist and musician living in Bristol, UK. A prolific artist, he is soon to release his 45th album...

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THERE’S NO

ETHICAL CONSUMPTION

UNDER CAPITALISM A common excuse among those who choose not to go vegan.

But is it valid? Benny Malone digs deeper.

140 KATHLEEN

JANNAWAY:

PLANTING

SEEDS AND TREES

THE VEGAN WAY

The latest instalment of Roger Yates’ AR history...

148

ANIMAL SANCTUARIES IN THE UK

Jordi Casamitjana, the author of the book “Ethical Vegan”, overviews...

Vegan advocates, activists, athletes, chefs, health professionals, nutritionists, educators, and entrepreneurs, and celebrities from across Nepal, Bhutan, and India, and throughout the region have come together to organize and host the Himalayan Vegan Festival! The team at Força Vegan were lucky enough to have a sit down with the Himalayan Vegan Festival team to talk about the event & veganism in and around the Himalayas.

The Himalayan Vegan Festival! This must be a first?

Yes, this is the first-ever Himalayan Vegan Festival!!

We’re very excited to be hosting this event in Nepal.

It’s a history-making event.

And it takes place in more than one country?

Actually, it was supposed to happen in two Himalaya Countries: Nepal and Bhutan consecutively but due to the changing Covid control policy of Bhutan which 10

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requires mandatory 5 days quarantine and only permits mass gatherings of up to 100 people, we are postponing the Bhutan part of the festival.

Instead, we are continuing the plant-based celebration in Pokhara, Nepal.

Pokhara is the country’s second-largest district and a very popular domestic (as well as international) tourist area that is home to spectacular Himalayan views, Nepal’s 2nd largest lake, and colleges. The Gandaki

Province government has personally invited the festival to come there & the National Tourism Board is going to organize a full vegan street food fair festival in the evening on the country’s Constitution Day on September 19th. In Pokhara, we’ll have a 2 day-event vegan celebration with workshops, talks, screenings, cultural programs, lots of fantastic vegan food, and a fantastic vegan food festival night market on Constitution Day, and on the third day after having a delicious vegan buffet breakfast as

Pictured: A Youth Team member / coordinator for Himalayan Vegan Festival 2022

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Pictured: A group photo of the current team behind Himalayan Vegan Festival 2022.

the sun rises over the Himalayas on a nearby mountaintop (which we’ll access by the country’s newest cable car built as a Japanese-Austrian-Nepal collaboration) with some of the best Himalayan views in the area, we’ll join members from the local communities as they share with us their community and culture in Pokhara.

As of now Nepal is completely open, requiring no quarantine, only a requirement of a Covid negative test taken 72 hours prior.

What’s the main attraction of the event?

The main attraction of the festival, of course, is the sessions which will be conducted by experts from all around the world. The topics range from an introduction of veganism, its benefits to our health, health of the planet, and the animals to emerging concerns of the world like ‘the co-relation of pandemics and our food’, ‘impacts of a plant-based diet on the environment’, ‘fast fashion’, ‘preventing and reversing lifestyle diseases through diet’ and more. We even have various workshops related to cooking, effective activism, and more.

In addition to these, we’ll have: I. A fantastic food court with tasty vegan foods and vegan food festival; II. An exhibition area with vegan food and products bazaar along with various animal rights and animal

The main attraction of the festival, of course, is the sessions which will be conducted by experts from all around the world. The topics range from an introduction of veganism, its benefits to our health, health of the planet, and the animals to emerging concerns of the world” welfare organizations booth to provide animal welfare education; III. 5k mini-marathon hosted by two of the world’s leading vegan athletes; IV. A fitness activity center for physical and mental health; V. Short Film Competition to create momentum for social justice; VI. Local musical and dance performances; VII. Local and international vegan chefs hosting free cooking classes and demos; VIII. Free movie screenings; IX. Free interactive workshops and classes; X. A kids activities corner; and so much more.

We have something for everyone, so please join us.

How many countries are taking part?

More than 100 Speakers and attendants from more than 32 countries are expected to be taking part in this event.

Can you expand a little on the food choices at the event?

The festival has the objective to introduce, educate, and promote a plant-based lifestyle and its benefits to the general public, that is why this event is non-profit, free, and open to all. 100% plantbased meals will be served at all the events. In addition to this, vegan restaurants from Nepal and even a few vegan food exhibitors from outside countries are joining us so that the general public can try various versions of plant-based food.

Who are the main speakers attending?

We have more than 100 international, regional and local delegates and speakers from more than 32 countries joining the festival.

Some of the key speakers attending are: • Maneka Sanjay Gandhi (Indian Parliamentarian, FORCA VEGAN

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Founder of People for Animals, Animal Rights Activist • Keegan Kuhn (the award-winning documentary filmmaker who has worked on Cowspiracy, What the Health, etc ) • Kuntal Joisher (vegan mountaineer and first vegan to summit Mt. Everest) • Dr. Susianto Tseng (Founder of World Vegan Organization, Doctor in Nutrition) • Dr. Zeeshan Ali (Specialist at Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine) • Gauri Maulekhi (Animal Rights Activist, Trustee for People for Animals) • Dr. Govinda Tandon (Nepalese History, Culture and Archaeology Expert) • Seth Tibbott (Founder of Tofurky and Turtle Island Foods, Tempeh Experts) In addition to the aforementioned speakers, various other experts from various fields like nutrition, wildlife conservation, plant-based entrepreneurs, environment protection, animal rights activism, and many more are going to join us.

And what subjects are you covering in detail? What is the focus of the event?

Everything that is related to veganism either from an animal welfare perspective or dietary perspective or environmental perspective, will be covered in the festival. We have sessions like ‘Working Them To Death: The Plight Of Working Animals’, ‘How to do Genuine Activism’, ‘Effective Animal Advocacy’, ‘Ecofeminism 14

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Pictured: Chairperson Suresh welcoming Kuntal (one of the key speakers) during a press meet.

And Animal Rights’, ‘Solutions For Stray Animals’, etc.

All related to animal welfare and animal rights to take effective steps forward in this animal rights movement.

In order to focus on the health benefits of a Plantbased lifestyle, we have sessions like ‘The Untold Truth About Non-Plant-Based Food’, ‘Bulletproofing Your Body With A Plant-Based Lifestyle’, ‘Nutrition 101 For Vegans’, ‘Vegan Athletes Do Exist - And They Thrive’, ‘Preventing, Reversing & Healing Diseases Through Food’ etc.

We have sessions like ‘Diet Change Not Climate Change’, ‘What The Pandemic’, ‘Alternative Vegan Agriculture’, ‘Fast Fashion

and a Sick Planet’, etc to highlight the harmful impact of non-plant-based food and to encourage people to shift to a plant-based lifestyle for the protection of the environment.

In addition to these, we have sessions dedicated to Nepal like ‘The Possibility of an Elephant Sanctuary in Nepal’, ‘Senseless Sacrifices & Cruelty To Cows’, ‘Truth behind Animal Tourism’, ‘The Reality Behind One Of Nepal’s Largest Exports - Palm Oil’ etc to highlight the domestic issues of the country.

Our sessions ranges from Q&As, panel discussions, workshops to even documentary screenings. We have a separate hall for documentary screenings in fact.

We are hosting a short film competition as well.

And entertainment?

We have a dedicated vegan village theatre where informative, interactive and fun-filled 20 min TEDtalk style sessions will be held. This includes various musical performances like Live music (rock as well as traditional music from various artists), a drama performance and a mini fashion show as well. In addition to this, we have a fitness center where various types of physical and mental fitness activities which range from various yoga like hatha yoga, jivamukti yoga, etc to work-outs like zumba, a muscle build-up workout, etc.

Are you expecting a lot of visitors? And maybe tourists too?

Yes, we are looking forward to a massive public outreach. That’s why we have made this event free and open to the general public.

We are expecting delegates from around the world as well.

Since we have limited seats, the interested people can reserve their seats by buying different passes we offer.

We have a Friends of the Festival pass and All-Inclusive patron passes - these passes will guarantee seats and also provide a means to support the festival.

The main driving force behind the growth of plant-based diets in the Himalayas is the access to information.

The current generation’s inclination toward plant-based diets in my observance is the empathy, and environmental consciousness.

Spirituality and religious teachings are also a major factor.”

- Surajan Shrestha (Youth Co-ordinator)

What’s the main driving force behind the growth of plant-based diets in the Himalayas? Climate Change? Health? Animal Welfare?

‘As per my experience, many youths are found to be getting attracted to plant-based diets due to animal welfare reasons.

However, there are many youths who are attracted to it from the perspective of health as well. And there are a few due to environmental reasons too.’

- Surajan Shrestha (Youth Co-ordinator) ‘The main driving force behind the growth of plant-based diets in the Himalayas is the access to information. The current generation’s inclination toward plant-based diets in my observance is the empathy, and environmental consciousness. Spirituality and religious teachings are also a major factor.’

- Dipesh Shrestha (Creative Co-ordinator) And are there some local thriving vegan communities in the area?

Apart from the event of course!

As far as I know, there is a community of people who follow the Supreme Master Ching Hai in Nepal and they follow a completely plantbased diet.’ – Surajan Shrestha (Youth Co-ordinator) There is a vegan community budding not in a sense of a community living together consisting of an entirely veFORCA VEGAN

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With this event, we want to re-establish that veganism is not a new western concept and its roots have always been in the Himalayas in the values of Ahimsa and Karuna.”

food during the event along with the event kits whereas Patron Pass holders get to enjoy all the facilities of the Friends of the Festival Pass holders in addition to the stay, on-ground transportation and every meal as per their stay. Besides this, the event would be open to all the interested Nepalese citizens at no cost.

gan population. However, there have been vegetarian communities in existence.

Dipesh Shrestha (Creative Co-ordinator)

In order to book the pass, you can go www.himalayanveganfestival.org/attend and select the pass you require.

What do you hope to achieve with the event?

With this event, we want to re-establish that veganism is not a new western concept and its roots have always been in the Himalayas in the values of Ahimsa (non-violence) and Karuna (Compassion).

The main aim of the festival is to introduce, educate and promote plant-based living to the general public. We want to provide information and resources to the general public to switch to a plantbased diet. We want to amplify the vegan voices in this social justice movement by providing a platform for networking between activists and even plant-based entrepreneurs.

With the gathering of thousands of vegans or interested people from different parts of the world in Nepal, we would like to spread the message across the globe that Nepal is inclining toward adopting the vegan 16

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philosophy and that veganism is possible.

And what’s the future for veganism in the Himalayas?

‘Analyzing the recent progress on veganism and the way people in the Himalayas seem to be showing interest in this philosophy, I believe that this rate will increase in the future.’ – Surajan Shrestha (Youth Co-ordinator) ‘The future for veganism in the Himalayas looks hopeful, there have been new faces joining the movement, we are trying to give momentum through the Himalayan Vegan Festival.’

-Dipesh Shrestha (Creative Co-ordinator) Please tell us how visitors can attend and access the event best.

In order to make it easy for the attendants of the festival, we have come up with two types of passes; the Patron Pass and the Friends of the Festival Pass. Friends of the Festival Pass holders get the privilege to choose which session to attend during the event and also access to

Are there plans for 2023?

We are looking forward to hosting the Himalayan Vegan Festival in Bhutan in the year 2023. In addition to this, we are going to follow up the Himalayan Vegan Festival organizing smaller yet impactful national events at the local level to promote veganism.

And finally – how can people help?

Spreading the word among family members, friends, colleagues, relatives, etc. about the Himalayan Vegan Festival and inviting them to join the event would be one of the many ways that people can help. Participating in the event if possible is the biggest contribution one can make to help the festival be successful. Other options could be volunteering for the event, helping find the sponsors, helping selling the passes, etc.

Thankyou all, good luck with your fantastic festival!

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Vegan Life NGO is a Greek non-profit organization founded in 2016 with the mission to spread the vegan way of life in Greece through events, campaigns, and other activities.

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Once the restrictive measures for the pandemic were partially lifted, our team started again to dynamically organize our events. In October 2021, the Vegan Life Festival of Athens took place, which exceeded 38,000 people in attendance in only 2 days, making it one of the largest Vegan festivals in the world!”

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Vegan Life NGO became mostly known for organizing Vegan Life Festivals, which quickly became the largest Vegan gatherings in Greece, and a real institution across the vegan community. Vegan Life Festivals promote the vegan lifestyle through a large exhibition of Vegan products and services, lectures from experts such as scientists, athletes and activists, workshops by vegan chefs and food bloggers, children’s activities, film screenings and art exhibitions.

During the pandemic, many of the activities had to be put on hold, but nonetheless Vegan Life NGO relentlessly looked to find ways to continue reaching a broad audience to inform and ‘sensitize’ about veganism. That

is how “My Vegan Life”, the first ever Vegan TV show of Greece was created!

With one-hour long weekly episodes, Vegan Life NGO brought the vegan lifestyle message into many homes, accessing even people who would not easily visit a vegan event.

In April 2022, the first Vegan Life Market took place, which was the first exclusively Vegan exhibition of products and services in Athens. In addition, in May 2022 the Vegan Life Festival in Thessaloniki was held in collaboration with the Municipality.

Once the restrictive measures for the pandemic were partially lifted, our team started again to dynamically organize our events.

In October 2021, the Vegan Life Festival of Athens took place, which exceeded 38,000 people in attendance in only 2 days, making it one of the largest Vegan festivals in the world!

While organizing and holding all the above events, this year, Vegan Life NGO intensified the organization of activist demonstrations and ‘sensitization’ events in the streets of Athens and Thessaloniki. In April more than 100 activists demonstrated against the ritual slaughter of lambs during the Orthodox Easter in the main square of Athens right

in front of Parliament, while in June, on the occasion of World Environment Day, we demonstrated the detrimental effects that the animal exploitation industries have on the planet.

Importantly, besides organizing its own projects, Vegan Life NGO participates in dozens of educational seminars and events held by other organizations throughout Greece in order to spread veganism to the general public.

It has already been a busy year and we will continue to work towards our goal: to see how amazing the world will be when completely vegan!

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VEGANS

IN EGYPT TOGETHER WE STAND By Jenna Kamal Running a fully vegan restaurant in Dahab, Egypt has been fascinatingly impressive. Veganzania is located inside a scuba dive center, where I got to meet different people and different diet approaches with healthy lifestyle seekers. At first, many people were iffy about the vegan options offered in Veganzania, but over time not only did everyone learn that the food we serve is nutrient-dense, but also many others started searching for information on veganism as an ideology. It is not surprising at all since the scene has been effectively changing in Egypt. On several levels, the vegan community has been more connected in recent times, which is leading to more opportunities for options and changes.

On a large scale, the vegan community throughout Egypt has been connected through social media. Now weekly meetups and events have been organised in ve26

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gan-friendly restaurants.

The community is now coming together, so people know each other including the most active figures such as admins & event organisers, new members and the most active participants who rarely miss an event.

On social media, interactive discussions are continuous, so questions are asked and answers are offered, recipes and recommendations are shared along with demonstrating topics about animals.

In Dahab, (the small scale) the community is also connected thanks to social media including all the newcomers who started initiating groups and events.

Now the Dahabian vegans have created a few meet up points in restaurants.

Some of the points aren’t strictly plant-based, but the efforts of the vegan community here have resulted in more restaurants offering vegan options. Interest-

ingly, restaurants in Dahab have been considering the community’s suggestions, so new items such as tofu, tempeh and veganized recipes are now offered by them.

The connectedness holding the community together is taking vegans to another level of awareness, which is influencing non-vegans as well. By observing my restaurant closely, I can see more vegans considering healthier options such as sugar-free and gluten-free options. For my non-vegan customers, they are now feeling nourished with the food in Veganzania and by now they know the ingredients used. To my surprise, they now ask questions about veganism as a lifestyle and all the benefits coming with it and I happily answer.

With this progress, I expect more vegan businesses will come to existence.

By Jenna Kamal

Vegan Activist & Restaurant owner in Dahab, Egypt

Now weekly meetups and events have been organised in vegan friendly restaurants. The community is now coming together FORCA VEGAN

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UPDATE: BYC/ VEGAN UGANDA FC During the Spring of 2022, Força Vegan ran a fundraiser for vegan football team BCY/Vegan Uganda FC to raise funds to purchase new kit for the 3 teams that represent the club.

The football club competes regularly in different competitions across Uganda, including Women’s and Youth competitions, all while proudly flying the mighty vegan flag. Now the Força Vegan emblem joins that flag on their brand new kits for all BYC / Vegan Uganda FC teams, courtesy of our wonderful Força Vegan fans.

A new Força Vegan fundraiser will be announced in the autumn for 2022.

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SUPPORT FOR

VEGAN BUSINESSES

‘MAIN FEATURE’ AT

The return of VegfestUK London to Olympia Grand in November 2022 has been warmly greeted from a number of quarters – not least the up and coming vegan businesses in the UK, many of which pre covid were flourishing on the back of over 300 regional vegan events across the UK. Then the pandemic altered the landscape dramatically and now post covid, vegan businesses are facing some real challenges as they scale up to meet demand in unprecedented times.

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The event is already shaping up to be the biggest indoor vegan exhibition of 2022 in the UK, with a hunger and appetite from both exhibitors and visitors for live events again after the 3 year absence.

Whilst for many vegan businesses the market is still growing, it is of course still a challenging year, as unforeseen issues hit home in varying degrees. And with this in mind, a whole feature at the event is taking place focused on supporting both fledgling and established vegan businesses in their goals to flourish & expand whilst navigating increasingly tricky waters.

a whole feature at the event is taking place focused on supporting both fledgling and established vegan businesses in their goals to flourish & expand, whilst navigating increasingly tricky waters.

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Vegan Business Tribe Live aims to provide real support and assistance for a multitude of business challenges and includes some excellent panels and industry experts including Mitali Deypurkaystha AKA The Vegan Publisher, Esther Pearson - MD of Clive’s Pies, Thibault Guenat - Sustainability and Growth Manager at Minor Figures, Louisianna Waring - Senior Insight Officer at The Vegan Society and Keith Lesser from Vegan Accountants (also sponsoring the area) amongst the early-confirmed speakers and panellists, with lots more to come event-wide, the full line up of which to be revealed in the early Autumn. The area is curated

by Vegan Business Tribe founders Lisa Fox and David Pannell and features 12 brands - all VBT members - exhibiting within, too.

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“We’re thrilled to be partnering with Vegan Business Tribe for VegfestUK London 2022” says the event organiser Tim Barford from VegfestUK “and even more so to be providing such valuable and informed expertise around Business for our multiple exhibitors and visitors. In some respects it’s never been a better time to be running a plant-based business – and we’ve seen plenty of start-ups this past 2 years – but in other ways it’s a very tough set of conditions for business owners generally. The Vegan Business Tribe Live Zone really does give some insights into best practices and importantly, lessons that have been learnt along the way, with a supportive and inclusive approach that is fun, uplifting & informed. And as vegan businesses continue to bounce back from 2+

years of struggles, a whole new set of challenges await.

Vegan Business Tribe Live addresses this area in depth.”

Vegan Business Tribe Live organiser David Pannell added “We are thrilled to be providing such a supportive area for both new and established vegan businesses at VegfestUK London this autumn. It’s a really exciting time to be in business – but also an exceptionally challenging one. Overcoming and flourishing in these times requires experience, fortitude and - to a degree confidence, and our Vegan Business Tribe Live area helps with all of this – and more. We look forward to welcoming visitors and exhibitors alike to this really dynamic occasion within the world of veganism.”

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Sustainability is another key focus for vegan businesses right now and the event coincides with #Cop27 on the weekend of 12th & 13th November, and Barford confirms that there will be an additional focus on addressing climate change and in particular the benefits of plant-based options and the multiple solutions they provide. ‘COP27 – Collaborating on Positions’ includes multiple talks including introductions to the benefits of plant-based diets for people new to these areas, as well as evidence-based expertise from healthcare professionals. Full line-ups for all areas are unveiled in the autumn.

The event is expected to attract upwards of 12,000 visitors over the weekend alongside around 250 - 300 exhibitors.

Tickets are on sale in the autumn from the website and potential exhibitors are invited to register their interest here.

Or you can check out the event website here.

Sign up to the VegfestUK Newsletter here.

Why not follow VegfestUK on Instagram, Facebook & Twitter?

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‘COP27 – Collaborating on Positions’ includes multiple talks including introductions to the benefits of plant-based diets for people new to these areas, as well as evidence-based expertise from healthcare professionals.

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Elly Nakajima - Asia born and raised in Japan - is the co-founder of Animals Alliance Asia. Elly is dedicated to building a more inclusive and culturally relevant animal justice movement in Asia, and we’re grateful that she has taken the time to speak to us at Força Vegan to tell us - and you - a bit more about the work of Animals Alliance Asia.

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Hi Elly - so, tell us about the founding of Animals Alliance Asia, and the structure We are a movement building organisation dedicated to animal advocates in Asia.

I co-founded Animal Alliance Asia in 2019 together with an animal advocate from Hong Kong. We witnessed that a lot of the interventions, campaigns and slogans used in Asia were direct imports from the movements in the West, which didn’t always work very well. We saw the gap in culturally relevant resources, training and strategies in the animal justice movement in Asia. We wanted to create a safer and welcoming environment where animal advocates across Asia can share ideas.

The team has been growing organically and we now have country representatives from 12 countries across Asia.

What would you say is at the heart of AAA, what holds it together?

We take our core values seriously and I believe that the culture we’ve created based on our values has helped us foster a safer and more welcoming space for diverse voices to be heard and implemented - both internally

We take our core values seriously and I believe that the culture we’ve created based on our values has helped us foster a safer and more welcoming space for diverse voices to be heard and implemented - both internally on AAA operation level and from external networks of advocates.” on AAA operation level and from external networks of advocates. The struggles that advocates face in Asia are hugely intersectional, influenced by rich and complex history and culture.

Striving to practise consistent anti-oppression keeps us in check with how our views, our opinions, and how our current movement are influenced by different power dynamics. We are working to create a space that recognises and addresses all forms of oppressions and injustice and not only speciesism. This is because we need more people to fight for non-human animals, and to achieve that, we need a hugely more inclusive movement, allied with other social justice movements.

There must be a big variation in plant based options across Asia where’s the best? And the most challenging?

You are right! Plant-based dishes have been traditionally available in many parts of Asia.

As you know, Asian food is extremely diverse and of course, super tasty - so just talking about what everyone’s favourite food is at AAA makes us all hungry!

When we talk about challenges in Asia, it’s important to understand and unpack the complex layers and factors behind resistance to the concept of veganism, which vary from region to region, community to community.

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SUEBPONG SRIHATRAI Country Representative for Thailand 38

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Your name?

Suebpong Srihatrai Where do you live?

Bangkok / Thailand What’s your role in AAA? Country representative for Thailand.

Is veganism on the rise in your country?

Yes, in terms of healthy diets. However, in terms of ethics, it is only marginally better.

Favourite vegan food?

Pad Phak (Stir-fried Vegetables). The most simple vegan dish that’s available anywhere in Thailand.

Favourite project you are working on?

Country Representative’s role with AAA. Best tip for people going vegan?

Just don’t forget to figure out how to get the missing nutrients. Everything will be fine after that.

Main project with AAA this year?

Country workshops.

Best thing about AAA? If a pleasant environment isn’t taken into account, I believe AAA stands out due to our emphasis on “cultural relevance.”

Once the approach that values the local context like this gets more embraced. You’ll notice why I called it AAA’s best thing.

Hope for the future?

In the coming days, I’m hoping to improve my performance as a country representative.

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Food injustice is a huge issue. For example, in certain countries, many people don’t have access to any kitchen or cooking facilities and rely heavily on street food vendors.

Also, it’s more costly to buy vegetables than animal products in many regions.”

The history of colonialism and Westernisation of the food system have changed the way people eat across Asia. So decolonisation of our relationships with animals and food empowerment are extremely important. It requires a lot of unlearning and empower-

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ing ourselves with our own, more sustainable, healthy and compassionate food systems that we have long had across Asia.

From the perspective of being in the UK, one of the most vegan friendly countries in the world, it might be easy

to think that it’d be easy for anyone to ‘go vegan’. However there are so many cultural and economic layers that make this extremely difficult.

Food injustice is a huge issue. For example, in certain countries, many people don’t have access to any kitchen or cooking facilities and rely heavily on street food vendors. Also, it’s more costly to buy vegetables than animal products in many regions.

Religious beliefs also add another layer of complexity to our advocacy - from animal sacrifice tradition to the caste system that grants certain people access to certain animals.

Of course, political unrest in many parts of Asia is another huge aspect we cannot igPictured: Animal Advocacy Conference Asia 2021

Pictured: Vegan Pho (a northern Vietnamese dish)

nore. Basic human rights are at stake for many communities as a result of oppressive history. A single-issue approach can cause further resistance to our cause in such contexts.

We’ve seen the Himalayan Vegan Festival taking place in September – are there any other big vegan events taking place of note?

Yes, we are so excited to announce that we will be giving movement building

workshops at the Himalayan Vegan Festival!

we could see more diverse leaders in our movement.

How can people in the West, or in the UK for example, get involved with AAA? Are there ways people can help?

Another way could be to support businesses and initiatives owned or started by people of global majority, whenever you have an option to do so.

Thank you so much for asking this question. One way could be to think about minoritised groups of people who are currently underrepresented in our movement in the UK and consider why that could be and how

And of course, if you would like to support what we do at AAA, we would love it if you could support us by donating. We are currently running a matching challenge so your donation will be doubled.

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SARA CHEW

Country Representative for Malaysia 42

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Your name?

Sara Chew Where do you live?

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia What’s your role in AAA? Country Representative for Malaysia Is veganism on the rise in your country?

Yes! Favourite vegan food?

Vegan fish head mihun noodles Favourite project you are working on?

Building a network for animal justice in Malaysia with AAA Best tip for people going vegan?

Find a support group that you can discuss difficulties and triumphs with, as well as to seek advice and support from.

Main project with AAA this year?

Country workshops Best thing about AAA? Everyone openly working together as a team with the same core values, towards the same mission.

Hope for the future?

To be able to build a strong network of vegans and all other animal justice advocates in Malaysia and Asia.

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What would speed up the process for the spread of plant-based diets across Asia. What’s needed most?

There are so many inspiring people running initiatives all across Asia working tirelessly to achieve this goal. We believe that multiple approaches working in synergy will ultimately bring social change, making changes from personal level to institutional.

So it’s truly encouraging to see many local initiatives from vegan challenges, outreach, corporate engagement, alt-protein market

Pictured: Burmese Rice Salad

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research, policy reform to farm transformation and sanctuaries.

We are now conducting a scoping study to understand deeper what interventions are working and making progress, and what the gaps are.

Above all, we are working to cultivate local leadership in every corner of society across Asia, with more representation of marginalised communities. We believe that this is the key to a more equitable, stronger and more sustainable movement.

Is there an understanding of Animal Rights emerging would you say? As in a recognition that animals are rights bearers and are not ours to use as property?

Broadly speaking, this recognition has long existed in many cultures across Asia - not necessarily the same way ‘animal rights’ derived from the concept of human rights in the West, but more from philosophical and religious perspectives.

However, with the imposition of Westernised animal

agriculture systems with factory farming based practices, welfare legislation is often in need of changes.

So again, decolonising food systems and unlearning exploitative frameworks are important issues we want to focus on.

What’s in the pipeline for 2022 and into 2023 for AAA? Since 2020 we’ve held our annual Animal Advocacy Conference Asia. We’ve had over 1500 participants (cumulative) from over 50 countries, over 40 workshops given in 7 different languages so far. It is happening again this year in November too! Please sign up to our mailing list to be in the know about amazing speakers from across Asia on diverse topics.

This July, we are launching our first online Academy..

Our Academy is first of its

kind - a training course dedicated to animal advocates in Asia, developed by advocates in Asia. It will be delivered in 5 languages, and each will be tailored to the context of a specific country.

And finally – congratulations on winning the VegfestUK 2021 Award in the ‘Favourite Global Vegan Project’ category!

We have country specific forums happening in August and September, getting leaders and advocates in each country to discuss challenges and successes.

Thank you so much! We are truly honoured to have been nominated and to have won the category. We cannot be more grateful for all your support. We celebrated this with AAA members across 12 countries!!

As mentioned earlier, we are also working on a research project too, to improve our operation and programmes.

What gives you the most hope for the future moving forward?

To find out more about Animals Alliance Asia, visit their website & social media pages here: www.animalallianceasia.org

Through AAA I’ve had the honour of meeting and working with revolutionary advocates, leaders and thinkers across Asia, and it’s their collaborative vision and passion that inspires and gives me hope.

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ME ME ZIN OO

Communications Coordinator and Myanmar Country Rep 46

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Your name?

Me Me Zin Oo (Me Me) Where do you live?

Myanmar What’s your role in AAA? Communications Coordinator and Myanmar Country Rep Is veganism on the rise in your country?

Plant-based foods have been slowly introduced through various outlets. I am hopeful that growing awareness of the Vegan and animal justice movement will follow soon.

Favourite vegan food?

Vegan Chicken Biryani from ‘Munchbox by Nidhi’ in Bangkok - @munchboxbynidhi (IG) Favourite project you are working on?

Doing research for ways to grow and practice safe animal advocacy for advocates with disabilities and in unsafe environments Best tip for people going vegan?

Connect with the faces behind your ‘food’, your ‘clothes’, your ‘cosmetics’ etc. Going vegan for the main reasons of fighting injustice towards animals is what makes going vegan - and staying vegan not only a more motivating decision but one of longevity. Remember to also celebrate yourself and every small milestone in your vegan journey.

Main project with AAA this year?

Animal Advocacy Academy and the upcoming Animal Advocacy Conference Asia 2022!

Best thing about AAA? We have a passionate, de-centralized team of advocates who truly commit to and embody our core values in creating a safe space for one another as we do our part in building a kinder world for animals. As a person with disabilities, I am especially grateful to AAA for making consistent efforts to ensure that everyone feels heard, valued, safe and empowered - with respect to who we are.

Hope for the future?

I hope for growing empathy to non-human animals -of every species- and open awareness to their sentience in Myanmar and throughout the world. I hope that advocates fighting against injustice in other social movements could also make the connection of their movement to animal justice. At the end of the day, we all share the same goals in equity, peace and social prosperity. I believe that it is not until we recognize injustice and implement solutions for the well-being of all lives -human and non-human- that we will truly achieve these goals. In the long run, I hope that my belief in a “culture segmentation” strategy will result in positive change.

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HANH NGUYEN Country Representative for Vietnam 48

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Your name?

Hanh Nguyen Where do you live?

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam What’s your role in AAA? Country representative for Vietnam Is veganism on the rise in your country?

Plant-based diet more so than ethical veganism Favourite vegan food?

Curry, any and all national/regional variations of it Favourite project you are working on?

Starting a grassroots activist network in Vietnam Best tip for people going vegan?

Educate yourself as much as possible.

Main project with AAA this year?

Country-specific workshop ahead of the big conference.

Best thing about AAA? AAA encourages knowledge and resource sharing between countries, which is crucial for a movement that is still relatively small in Asia.

Hope for the future?

That we won’t have to be activists anymore because there’s no need.

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I have been vegan for a while now. Being a vegan has really opened my eyes to living a healthy lifestyle... The reason for being a vegan is not just for the sake of religion but for the sake of health.

Though, it is very difficult here, I try my best... I became ‘more’ into it recently when my dog was lynched and mudered in cold blood by my house owner.

And what work do you do currently?

What I do is promote animal welfare in schools and campain for animal rights on the television, as well as oganising talks to the kids on a plant-based lifestyle.

There is a big focus on education for kids – tell us more.

Yes we have a big focus on humane education in schools. I started the adventure in 2010 and I have been to over 200 schools in that time. Since its inception in 2010, The Humane Global Network has witnessed growth as a result of humane education in schools, both private and public schools at local, state and federal levels.

We have partnered with different organizations in Nigeria, not only African but from all over the world. We have attended conferences by ANAW - Africa Network for Animal Welfare as members. ANAW are an NGO that is accredited by the United Nations.

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In the ten years of its existence, The Humane Global Network has made a very good contribution to humane education, increasing awareness in schools in Nigeria and beyond and in advocating for animals rights in Africa - especially in Nigeria - by speaking about it in the media.

Through our partnership s with ANAW – The Africa Network For Animal Welfare, Humane Education Coalition, Global Alliance for Rabies Control, The Humane Global Network USA, Animal Care Council of Liberia, West Africa Centre for Animal Protection, & the Ghana and Rwanda Animal Welfare Organization, we have been able to realize that addressing animal rights and teaching is the only way to bring the world together, ultimately to make it a better place to live in.

We believe that Humane Global Network is making a tremendous difference in the lives of many animals and people. Currently, my organization is one of the only organizations in Nigeria that has been providing humane education to the public. The need for education on animal welfare in Nigeria is pertinent.

We believe that education is key to ending animal cruelty and creating a just and caring society where animal and human welfare matter. Education is a critical element in preparing a generation of animal lovers,

& increasing community responsiveness to animal welfare issues.

Education also helps to tackle the inhumane treatment of animals at abattoirs, educate the general population on animal welfare, and to change attitudes and practices towards humane treatment of animals. We believe that this message is best shared with children.

The message not only stays with them all their lives but they in turn share it among the rest of the family and community members. This means creating a whole new generation with a mindset that is compassionate to animals. If the next generation develops compassion and respect for animals and they are prepared to care for them in a responsible way, then surely the incidents of animal suffering will diminish in the long-run.

Is there a big rise in plant-based options currently?

Yes there is a big improvement now and rise in plantbased options. Most of the kids are now beginning to consider eating plant-based diets. These are recent changes, I believe due to the awareness we provide in schools on the benefits of plant-based diets. I also aim to inform the kids in their schools that plant-based is far more sustainable because it uses significantly fewer natural resources and puts far less pressure on the environment.

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Education also helps to tackle the inhumane treatment of animals at abattoirs, educate the general population on animal welfare, and to change attitudes and practices towards humane treatment of animals. We believe that this message is best shared with children.”

Tell us a little more about what drives you - is it compassion for animals?

The environment? Health?

The whole driving force is compassion... For the welfare of animals. I know too well that many animals suffer in factories, farms, laboratories as they are processed for nourishment, experiments, cleaning products and cosmetics and so on.

Since a significant percentage of humans depend on animals, I have come to realise that these animals are kept under deplorable conditions, often dragging themselves through their own excreta, left to suffer horrible untreated wounds, hunger, ear infections among other afflictions.

I have a passion too for the environment because I know a clean environment is essential for healthy living: The more we don’t care about our environment, the more it will become pollut56

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ed with contaminants and toxins that have a harmful impact on our health.

Tell us more about some of the other organisations working for animals in Nigeria.

At the moment, there are some organizations working for animals that I am familiar with. They are: - DOGMAN PET WORLD - Nigeria Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals [NSPCA] - Animal Protection Organization of Nigeria Do you have any support from within Nigeria?

From any Government office or Charitable foundation funding?

I do not have any support in Nigeria even from the Government or any Charitable Organization... I have been the one financing my projects with the help of friends

and family. We hope that some day our country will begin to support animal welfare initiatives.

How about from outside Nigeria – any help?

Yes I must specially thank, Paul Darwin Picklesimer and Monica Tmartella, of Direct Action Everywhere USA, Jenna Miles, Canada, Viviane from the USA, Animal Save Movement which I am their Animal Save Cordinator in Lagos Nigeria. and especially Lisa Karlskin, PEPINO PROJECT, my Partner in the states who has been of great help in many areas for animal welfare. She has been very consistent ever since I met her in making sure humane education becomes the ultimate in advancing change in this modern world. These people have been of help to me in terms of donation and support.

What are your plans for the coming year or so?

My forthcoming plans are to make a documentary on animals, plant-based lifesyles and the environment which will be submitted to American film festivals. I am currently working with some animal activists like Lisa Karlskin and Roy Krymis to make this work... Another plan I have again is to embark on the Africa Wildlife Tour. My poster already is on the internet such as Facebook. My aim is to reach about four countries in Africa with the aim to end animal abuse, promote plant-

based lifestyles and educate on environmental concerns and animal welfare.

animal park and shelter. To focus on improving animal welfare education.

And finally – we always want to know – your fave vegan food!

And the next decade?

What would you hope to achieve?

This is the way forward to ending animal cruelty. We will generate enough resources to meet its current and future needs. We will work with stakeholders across the globe to effectively implement most of our policies.

My favourite vegan food is vegan vegetable Lo Mein.

In the coming decades, I hope to create a caring and socially responsible environment where animals and people live in harmony with a focus on setting up an

Find out more about Global Humane Network on their website & Facebook pages.

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Attention is a precious thing.

In the increasingly busy world we live today, with an explosion of information and an extravaganza of consumer offers, attention is almost as valuable as money.

If you get people’s attention, not only can you get their money, but their votes, their work, and even their love.

And when everyone is fighting for attention, bigger and louder ways to demand it may win. And it doesn’t get much bigger than a street billboard.

The thing about billboards is that it’s difficult to miss them.

You may have a strong will and try not to look when you see one coming, but they are big and strategically placed right there in your eye line, so it requires a conscious

You may have a strong will and try not to look when you see one coming, but they are big and strategically placed right there in your eye line, so it requires a conscious effort from you to ignore them.” effort from you to ignore them. You can always pass by a leafleteer with not even a glance at the tiny leaflet she may be trying to hand to you, and you can turn the page of a magazine ignoring anything that is not an article. But a billboard is out there, shouting at you - “look at me!” - and you, naturally, look. This is why I imagine that some non-vegans may feel a bit annoyed if they

catch themselves looking — as if they were deceived somehow — if they have previously been dismissing vegan messages as propaganda; as if they lost a battle for attention.

I wonder if billboards work.

As a method of vegan outreach, do billboards reach people who, after the experience, change their attitude regarding veganism, and

Below: A mock up of what the original VegfestUK billboard would have looked like in 2016, jointly in promotion of veganism and a vegan event.

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become more open-minded about it? Has anyone become vegan because they saw a vegan billboard? Of all the tactics at the disposal of the vegan movement, billboards are not the cheapest, so it makes sense to ask the question of how effective they are.

I will never have the experience of seeing a vegan billboard as a non-vegan. I was already vegan when I saw my first, so I felt glad and proud of the advances of the vegan movement. I don’t know how I would have felt if I wasn’t a vegan. Curious, incredulous, interested, annoyed? I guess it would have depended on when in my life I saw it. If I had been close to becoming vegan, I may have had quite a different reaction than when

I was a full vegan-ignorant carnist. I will never know.

The history of vegan billboards

It’s not that I don’t have experience with vegan billboards. I have seen several, and I was part of the team that posed for the cameras when we unveiled the Team Badger’s billboard against the UK government’s sanctioned, ill-fated badger cull — ok, it was not about veganism itself, but close enough.

I don’t think I would ever find the first billboard about veganism, even if I find someone claiming it may be.

So, for me to evaluate the impact of billboards on vegan outreach, I would have to rely on other sources beyond my own experience. I will have to ask those who have decided to use them in their campaigns.

But before that, I better look at the history of the use of billboarding in veganism.

But I could find the first in particular places. Regarding the UK, one of the candidates for the first vegan billboard was the one seen in Bristol produced by VegFestUK. I have indeed found a Vegnews article published on 22nd May 2016 with the title “UK’s First-Ever Vegan Billboards Go Up” talking about it. It says “In what’s being described as the United Kingdom’s first vegan billboard campaign, the group Pig Freud has plastered educational posters on streets,

Below: One of many Go Vegan World billboards that started to spring up in the UK in 2016.

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buses, and building facades — all displaying images of farmed animals such as pigs, chicks, calves, and fish in an attempt to ‘get humans thinking about the source and cost of animal-derived foods — and whether they should go vegan.’ The campaign was launched in conjunction with VegfestUK in Bristol, which was held this past weekend.”

The other contestant for the first vegan billboard in the UK may be from a campaign of the Irish-based organisation Go Vegan World. Sandra Higgins, the founder of Eden Farmed Animal Sanctuary Ireland and Director of Go Vegan World, says that theirs was in 2016 too. In any event, she started her ad campaign in Ireland in 2015, and included much more than one or two billboards.

So, Go Vegan World may have been one of the first in Europe to use a vegan billboard, but definitively the first that launched a big vegan advertising campaign with multiple billboards, bus stop ads and bus ads in several cities in different countries. I contacted her, and she said the following: “Go Vegan World was the first campaign of its kind in Europe. It launched in Ireland in 2015 to tremendous success and opened in the UK in 2016. It has since appeared in Canada and runs thousands of billboards and other ads every year, targeting millions of people.”

However, I have found an earlier one. On 11th April 2012, PETA UK unveiled a billboard in the English 62

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city of Gloucester showing a meat pie in the shape of a coffin and reading “Not Ready to Meat Your Maker? Fight Obesity: Go Vegan.” Yvonne Taylor said in a PETA statement “PETA’s new billboard highlights how meat pies and pasties will not only pile on the pounds but also result in a premature visit to the mortuary. The best thing that

coffin dodgers can do for their health and to help animals is to go vegan.”

And in 2011, I found another vegan PETA billboard that was placed in the US city of Sacramento, featuring the image of a person about to put a pork chop into the microwave next to a picture of a loving mother pig. It reads “Everybody’s Somebody’s Baby. Go Vegan.”

Above: The billboard from 2010 by the Canadian group Niagara Animal Advocacy Group (NAfA).

But the earliest I could find wasn’t from Go Vegan World or PETA, but from the Canadian group Niagara Animal Advocacy Group (NAfA) in 2010. The ads were displayed from July to October on billboards in St. Catharines, Niagara Falls, and Welland. They feature a kitten and a chicken in one case, or a puppy and a piglet, with the question “Why love one but eat the other?” and the tagline “Choose compassion – go vegan.”

Ontario’s transit commission had not allowed the message to be displayed on its buses with other advertising, even though the group was prepared to pay for space on the city’s buses, so they chose billboards instead.

PETA had been using billboards before that, but the ones I found were on specific animal rights issues or asking people to go vegetarian rather than vegan. But considering that billboards as a method of advertising preceded social media, the

chances are that, somewhere, there must have been a far earlier vegan billboard which has not left a digital footprint. It doesn’t matter. The fact is that now they are widely used. Those who started using them still do, and many others have joined them.

The UK’s vegan organisation Viva! has also been using them quite often. In 2018 they launched a giant vegan billboard in Shepherd Bush, west London, that it was reported would be seen by seven million people. They had used the same billboard in Birmingham too.

The history of vegan billboards can be summarised with this sentence: It may have begun at the end of the 20th century, but it gained momentum in the early 2010s and reached its peak from 2016 onwards.

Somehow the year 2016 was a big year for vegan billboards. It’s not only the year that the UK had all the

Somehow the year 2016 was a big year for vegan billboards.

It’s not only the year that the UK had all the billboards I mentioned but the Canadian group Animal Justice launched a billboard campaign with 70 billboards across the country. Also, that year BeFairBeVegan released a series of vegan ads throughout New York City, including a moving billboard in the middle of Times Square.”

billboards I mentioned but the Canadian group Animal Justice launched a billboard campaign with 70 billboards across the country. Also, that year BeFairBeVegan released a series of vegan ads throughout New York City, including a moving billboard in the middle of Times Square.

Since its launch in 2016, the campaign has gone live in Tasmania, Connecticut, Cleveland, and Melbourne (Australia).

Vegan billboarding is still going strong, and more organisations are using this tactic. Go Vegan World is still spreading them all over (theirs are the vegan billboards I personally have seen more often), and PETA is promoting this tactic so it becomes more common (it even has a webpage encouraging people to use for their own local campaigns the many billboards they designed). In April 2021, the first-ever billboard by The Vegan Society was unveiled on Holywell Lane in Shoreditch, London. It was a mosaic of a dog and their carer made up of thousands of images of rehomed and rescued farmed sanctuary animals.

Do billboards work?

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cost from £1,000 to £5,000).

And this does not include the design and printing.

I don’t think there is any research that has specifically looked at whether vegan billboards are effective in making people vegan, but one thing is clear: billboards have existed for a long time, and they have been used by many companies.

This means that, at the very least, they work to get the attention of people, and to share awareness of a product, brand, or event. If their product is “veganism”, they should work for spreading awareness too.

Professional advertisers do think that billboards work.

According to research by Back40 Design, billboard advertising remains one of the many effective advertising tools available to modern businesses. At least 70% of Americans look at roadside billboards often, and most Americans report learning of an interesting

event, business, product, or service from billboards.

A 2009 study conducted by Nielsen Audio found that with billboards, 58% of respondents learnt about an event they were interested in attending, 58% learnt about a restaurant they later visited, 33% were reminded to tune into a TV program, 44% were reminded to tune into a radio station, 26% noted a phone number, and 28% noted a web address.

But that was at a time when most people still did not have smartphones, so they were not looking more at them than at the street — as may be the case today.

And here are some statistics produced by topmediadvertising.co.uk: Billboard advertising costs 80% less than television With an average CPM of $5.22 (Cost per thousand, the cost an advertiser pays per one thousand adver-

tisement impressions on a web page), billboards are, in many cases, less cost-prohibitive than online ads whose prices continue to grow.

71% of Consumers Often Look at the Messages on Roadside Billboards Nearly 26% of consumers visited a store as a result of seeing an OOH (out-ofhome advertising) ad Billboards make up 66% of the OOH advertising market Over 7,800 digital billboards are currently active in the US In the US, there are around 370k active billboards and about 15k new ones added each year The average cost per billboard in the UK is £200500 for two weeks Billboard advertising only makes up about 7% of the total ad budget Clear Channel UK, the second-largest provider of OOH advertising, has around 4000 billboards across the UK By 2021, billboards are expected to grow to a $33B industry Four of the 10 biggest billboard spenders are tech companies (Apple, Google, Amazon, and Netflix) 98% of people see an OOH ad each week

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Those who sell billboard space to campaigners will probably exaggerate their impact because, after all, they want the money those campaigners are prepared to pay. But the campaigners that end up paying for them may also overestimate their impact to justify their expenditure. Faunalytics has done some research about this. They found that there is some disparity in the perception of paid advertising effectiveness between advertisers and consumers.

Advertisers are more likely than consumers to believe that ads make people stop and think, and give new information. For instance, 21% of advertisers say that ads that reinforce a message are effective compared with 10% of consumers who say the same thing; they also found that 39% of advertisers are using empathy (with consumers), but only 24% of consumers say that empathy works well or very well.

Perhaps the billboards’ function is not to make people vegan, but to make people talk about veganism. If that is the case, there is evidence out there that they do that. On many occasions, vegan billboards have sparked controversy and made it to the papers.

For instance, in 2019, several billboards went up across the Maritimes in Canada showing a small calf and the text “Dairy industry took his mom, his milk, then his life.”

They were part of the Dairy is Scary campaign run by Vegan Education in Halifax.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency considered stopping them after a sin-

In a landmark decision, the ASA ruled in favour of the Go Vegan World campaign, finding that the ad is not misleading. This independent, official finding that our ad is objectively substantiated with supporting evidence was hugely significant for the campaign and for animal rights.”

- Sandra Higgins, founder of Go Vegan World & Eden Farmed Animal Sanctuary

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gle complaint about alleged breaches of Food And Drug Regulations, but they admitted they could not as it was a matter of free speech.

But the attempt made it to the papers, which probably made more people see the ad than the billboard itself.

When the BeFairBeVegan billboard was launched in Melbourne in 2016, it appeared on national TV after they were refused by the government-owned Yarra Trams, sparking a debate around the subject of censorship. In 2020, the Irish Farmers Association sent a news release to the Irish media attempting to malign Eden Farmed Animal Sanctuary because of the Go Vegan World campaign and its billboards, which of course made it to the press too. A year earlier the London Bus Operators censored the Go Vegan World New Year ad campaign on 100 buses, which also sparked publicity. And then, if a billboard gets vandalised, there is more opportunity for publicity (as happened with another Go Vegan World billboard in Northern Ireland in 2017).

Billboard campaigns also give the chance to validate some of the facts mentioned in them if an official investigation is made after a complaint and they are proven correct. For instance, in 2019, the UK Advertising Standards Authority rejected complaints about a vegan billboard advert made against Viva!’s TRASH bill66

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Billboard campaigns also give the chance to validate some of the facts mentioned in them if an official investigation is made after a complaint and they are proven correct. For instance, in 2019, the UK Advertising Standards Authority rejected complaints about a vegan billboard advert made against Viva!’s TRASH billboard ad after members of the public challenged the claim that 95,000 male calves are shot each year by the dairy industry.”

board ad after members of the public challenged the claim that 95,000 male calves are shot each year by the dairy industry.

What vegan billboarders think The people who may know more about how worthwhile vegan billboard campaigns are, are the ones who use them and invest time and resources in them. So, I thought I better ask them directly.

I started with Niagara Action for Animals, as they seem to be one of the pioneers of this tactic. Its co-founder, Cath Ens-Hurwood, sent me the following: “Billboards. Yes. We’ve done them off and on for a number of years, almost exclusively in the Niagara area (Niagara Falls, St. Catharines & Welland, & Fonthill, Ontario). Billboards are very public and the pricing is reasonable for the number of people that will see them. By comparison, if we ran a full page in a local paper for one day, the cost would be approximately the same as a 4-week billboard. I also think that things like this normalize the issue; in the most recent case, veganism. People see it; it is in their faces but in a non-confrontational way. I believe, it makes the curious look further into it or think about it again the next time they hear the word vegan or things associated with it.

I also notice a change in ‘activism’. It used to be relative-

ly easy to get people to commit to come out to public events or demos ... for many reasons that has become more difficult. We still do those things, but billboards can help advertise an issue without a lot of organizing, and they remain in public view for as long as one can afford the price. We do get emails and notes about the billboards — all positive — but those are coming from people who are sympathetic and it’s difficult for us to ascertain how ‘successful’ the billboards are — I see them as a cog in a big wheel of activism!

We’ve done billboards on chained dogs, the seal hunt, factory farming, veganism, fur, spay/neuter, circus, ‘why love one & eat the other’, the rodeo and most recently another on veganism... and possibly some that I can’t recall. We’ve also liaised with another group and shared costs with their boards to stop hunting at Shorthills provincial park; the park is also in Niagara. We normally go for the 4-week contract, but this time for the vegan ad, we have hired a board for four spells of four weeks at various times this year, for a total of 16 weeks. The theme will remain the same ... but we will use pictures of different animals — in addition to the calf, we will use a chick and a baby pig.

We also did one regarding chickens and egg-laying.

This one was quite controversial — certainly not for us, but for the Ontario Egg

Farmers who complained and threatened the billboard company with legal action. This board was a parody of an infamous Egg Farming ad. In any case, the billboard people backed down and it stayed up for only one of the four weeks contracted. However, we were given a credit towards another billboard. As luck would have it, we used the credit to do a board on a local animal-themed amusement park ‘Marineland’ who also threatened us & the billboard company with legal action — but this time, the billboard company stuck to their guns and would not take the board down. My thinking was, firstly, the billboard company didn’t have as much to fear from a local one-off company as they did from the Ontario Egg Farmers and I suppose they may have thought things like taking billboards down was not really very good for their business.”

Sandra Higgins from Go Vegan World sent me this: “Go Vegan World campaign is unique because it is inspired and informed by the rescued farmed animals who live at its vegan sanctuary, Eden Farmed Animal Sanctuary. It is animal focused and aims to illustrate the sentience of other animals and challenge the speciesist notion that they are ours to use. Its ads are very simple and easily understood by everyone from children to adults. It uses photos, illustrations and videos, mostly of the aniFORCA VEGAN

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mals at Eden, bringing them right from the dark heart of the animal agricultural, research, clothing, and entertainment industries, into the streets, where they confront us with who they are and the injustice of our use of them. It returns their voices to them, giving them the opportunity, as capable, sentient persons, to look at the viewer and ask for what they need from us: for us to stop regarding them as objects and resources, and for us to be vegan.

The campaign has faced many challenges since its inception, including constant attempts by the animal exploiting industries to silence it. In 2017 complaints about a Go Vegan World ad by the dairy industry in the UK, led to an investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). In a landmark decision, the ASA ruled in favour of the Go Vegan World campaign, finding that the ad is not misleading. This independent, official finding that our ad is objectively substantiated with supporting evidence was hugely significant for the campaign and for animal rights. News of the finding was covered in 96 media outlets worldwide, and was on the front page of The Times in the UK.

In 2018, the campaign was challenged on its anti-vivisection ad stating that animal research constitutes torture. The ad was investigated by the ASA who ruled in our favour finding that there was sufficient evidence for us to use the word torture.

It is difficult to precisely measure the success of a campaign such as Go Vegan World with any scientific rigour and this is not something Go Vegan World attempts to do. However, the amount of media attention the campaign has garnered, resulting in the discussion of speciesism, animal rights and veganism in newspapers, and on radio and television, demonstrates its effectiveness. There was an 800% increase in media coverage of animal rights and veganism in Ireland following the launch of the Go Vegan World campaign.”

PETA UK’s Director Elisa Allen sent me this: “What reaches one person may not reach another, so at PETA, we try everything.

We show people video footage from undercover investigations, hold protests, meet with policy-makers,

hand out leaflets, send letters, and publish commentaries in newspapers, among other actions — and we also place eye-catching, life-changing outdoor ads. The world is saturated with advertisements from industries and corporations promoting products that hurt animals and the environment, so it’s important that we counteract that by spreading the message that animals are not steaks, shoes, or laboratory testing equipment. A well-placed billboard can reach hundreds of thousands of people a day – and that doesn’t include all those who see our ads on social media, where they are often widely shared. Our vegan ads are designed to encourage people to question the status quo. They trigger discussion and debate, all with the goal of prompting people to change a cruel, if unconscious, habit or take compassionate action to help animals.

Many people have contacted us over the years to say that they had a ‘lightbulb’ moment after seeing a PETA ad in the right place at the right time. After taking over Clapham tube station, we saw an increase in the number of people visiting

Below: One of many PETA banners used to illustrate the reality of the source of animal products.

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If you have a strong enough message that’s completely non-gory, this is what we’ve found for us works with billboards. There’s no accusation. It’s opening a conversation with the person reading that. It’s not judgmental. It’s saying ‘you’ve probably never thought about this but you really don’t need to do this.’

And then we measure how many people go to the website.”

- Juliet Gellatley, founder of Viva!

our website to order copies of our vegan starter kit. We also know that people pay attention to our artwork, as journalists regularly write about the ad campaigns in local and national media outlets — enabling the message to spread further.”

Camille Labchuk, the Executive Director of the Canadian organisation Animal Justice, sent me this: “We ran our billboard campaign in January/February 2016. There were 70 billboards in three cities— Toronto, Vancouver, and Victoria. The billboards got 1.9 million views per day.

Animal Justice ran Canada’s largest-ever animal rights billboard campaign in 2016, focusing on animals used for food, fashion, experiments, and entertainment. We contrasted the heartbreaking suffering that animals endure when used by us, with the relatively trivial benefit to humans — a bite of bacon, a fashion item, mascara, or a moment of entertainment.

Millions of Canadians were confronted with how their choices affect animals, and we had tens of thousands of visits to our website from people who were inspired to learn more.”

And Juliet Gellatley from Viva! told me this in an interview: “All print advertising, whether it’s print in a national newspaper, print in a national magazine, or print as a billboard, all of it is inFORCA VEGAN

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credibly expensive. So, you have to test the water with things like that. We don’t actually keep doing billboards because they’re just so expensive. We only go in with them when we think we have just got the right image, and the right message.

It might not relate to a campaign that we are running.

It may be that the billboard is a standalone pro-vegan message in its own right.

For example, last spring we did ‘save a baby’ and the reason that we did that is because we tested a video through YouTube — we’re paying for advertising through YouTube, which is considerably cheaper than using a billboard — with different messages and see what’s having the biggest impact, and which people relate to what feedback we get.

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with meat-eaters. So, we decided to do it as a billboard.

Sometimes — and it depends on the message — we choose a region, as we’re not big enough as an organization to blitz the whole of the UK. What we tend to do is different tactics. For this one, we decided to choose the northwest, so we had a decent amount of billboards across the northwest, choosing very big sites that you can’t avoid in places like Manchester and Liverpool. Then we’d go and do a photocall with the media — it was in Manchester in this case. I did that myself and we talk about the message.

Then we do social media around the message and get people talking about what we’re actually saying.

The ad says ‘some people actually eat them but you don’t have to. Save-a-baby.com’.

The main one we used for the billboard was a lamb,

but we actually used piglets and chicks in the video. And the other reason we did this is because lambs are often not used in campaigns because you don’t get the footage that you get for other animals — like pigs, chickens, turkeys, and ducks. We wanted to create the empathy that most people relate to animals like lambs because they are seeing them out there. And if it’s one of the few animals they see out there in the fields, you know it’s making that connection.

If you have a strong enough message that’s completely non-gory, this is what we’ve found for us works with billboards. There’s no accusation. It’s opening a conversation with the person reading that. It’s not judgmental. It’s saying ‘you’ve probably never thought about this but you really don’t need to do this.’ And then we measure how many people go to the website.

There can be other reasons.

We did another billboard I particularly like that got the most response local media-wise — because really you’re only looking at local media. It was ‘when did you last kill an animal?’

It’s a beautiful pale pink background with a picture of a calf, piglet, and lamb.

So, there’s nothing gory.

And then the website is just to choose vegan. So, very plain and simple. What that one is saying is more challenging. It was interesting.

Before we even put that billboard up, we did research with the public, vegans, and a sixth form school.

We did a very simple survey and the vegans said ‘you can’t use that it’s too challenging,’ but the meat-eaters said ‘that’s the only one that impacts on me. I didn’t even think about the other things, they’re just not strong enough.’ And it just goes to show that sometimes you should not listen to a vegan audience, as

We did a very simple survey and the vegans said ‘you can’t use that it’s too challenging,’ but the meat-eaters said ‘that’s the only one that impacts on me. I didn’t even think about the other things, they’re just not strong enough.’ And it just goes to show that sometimes you should not listen to a vegan audience, as they’ve all got pre-formed ideas of what influences a meat-eater.” they’ve all got pre-formed ideas of what influences a meat-eater.”

Are billboards impactful?

Billboards have some inbuilt disadvantages that should be taken into consideration when thinking about using them. They are not cheap, they are temporary, they

don’t allow audience segmentation, they provide limited information, they only work if they are in places where people see them, and they do not allow the audience to directly ask questions about the issue shown (as the classic street vegan outreach would).

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On the other hand, they can draw a lot of attention (both in the street and in the media), they are useful to link them to events (i.e., their unveiling), they may spark a controversy that could lead to more exposure, once they are up they do not require additional admin, they do not need large groups of people to produce them, they are likely to be seen by people that don’t want to see them (so, they are good to reach beyond the usual audience), they can be very original and memorable, they can enhance the ”brand” of a vegan organisation, they “normalise” veganism by putting it “on the high street”, they can be more “to the point”, and they are a good counter-tactic to carnist billboards that dominate the streets.

This means that, if an organisation is lucky and has the right skills and resources, it can maximise the pros and minimise the cons. If they have very talented graphic designers and find cheaper deals for hiring billboard space, billboarding can be a cost-effective tactic for them, especially if it is just a component of a wider campaign using several platforms. But not only that. Billboards can put an organisation or group on the map, making them stand from the crowd and getting their “brand” circulating beyond the locality where the board is placed — I bet that many of you had not heard before about Niagara Action for Animals, but now because of their billboards, you have. And, like with Go Vegan World, billboarding 72

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may almost become a brand identity, which expands the remit of the organisation (once a successful billboard is produced, it is relatively simple to replicate in other places or even other countries). And as they happen in particular locations, they can be used as spots that work as “centres of focus” that can have a galvanizing effect on local grassroots movements.

They can backfire, though.

If they happen to “cross the line” or become too insensitive to particular communities — I am thinking of an early PETA “Save The Whales” billboard campaign — they could risk ruining an organisation’s reputation and can set the movement back if they show misinformation confirmed by the authorities after complaints are issued. And, if the billboard targets a particular individual or company, you may be exposed to legal action.

So, they must be properly thought about and they should be taken seriously because they can become a double-edged sword.

For established vegans like myself, I’d rather see vegan billboards on the street than have to see all the other carnist billboards that are polluting my everyday landscape every time I move away from any of my vegan cocoons — this may seem a selfish reason to have them, but it is a reason nonetheless.

As for how impactful they are on the population in terms of making people ve-

gan, we will never know for sure. But that is the fate of any vegan outreach tactic too, always surrounded by a cloud of uncertainty.

So, if one thinks that doing vegan outreach is a good strategy for animal liberation and building a vegan world, there is no reason to discard the billboard tactic only based on the difficulty to assess its impact. Who knows how many people have become vegan because, among the dozens — or hundreds — of places they were exposed to vegan messaging, one of them was a vegan billboard.

But one thing seems clear to me. I don’t think anyone decided not to become a vegan just because a vegan billboard was erected for a few weeks somewhere in a street this person may occasionally pass through. I don’t think vegan billboards make carnists out of vegans or veganphobes. In fact, other more aggressive types of activism, or more confrontational types of outreach, are more likely to have this backfiring effect than a billboard — which is unlikely to be taken “personally” by anyone.

In this regard, I would say that, whatever impact vegan billboards have, it’s likely to be a welcome addition to the efforts of the vegan movement to create a vegan world.

That’s good enough for me.

By Jordi Casamitjana Author of ‘Ethical Vegan’ >

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CELEBRATING

20 YEARS WITH NEW PRODUCTS The Bristol-based original vegan hemp company is ‘expanding once again.

20 years after the launch of their first hemp based products, original hemp vegan company Yaoh ltd have unleashed some truly excellent new additions this summer with the release of their 3 new moisturisers, a shower gel and a shampoo, to add to the range of bath and skin products, sun screens, lip balms and dehulled hemp seed.

side a refined but uplifting design. The Yaoh range is just right for the modern independent health store.

The new fragrances – Ylang Ylang, Tea Tree, and Mandarin & Grapefruit - are all essential oil-based giving a richly layered, lingering array of notes that capture an alluring range of sensations, making them ideal for the moisturisers. And the Tea Tree Shampoo is soothing whilst the Mandarin & Grapefruit Shower Gel is truly refreshing and cleansing with exceptional ingredients throughout the range.

The new products are accompanied by 3 fabulous new fragrances, and an upgrade in packaging to sustainable biopolymer, bio resin and glass options, not to mention a whole fresh makeover with some classic qual- Yaoh continue their ities retained along- 20th anniversary cele74

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brations with a number of discounts and promotions and you can access these by signing up to their monthly e-bulletin on their website homepage here.

Only available through the Independents, prospective retailers for Yaoh products can request a Trade catalogue here.

And there’s some more new Yaoh new products launching later in the year – the new Body Butter range.

Happy days!

Available from www. yaoh.co.uk along with the rest of the range including the award winning sun block products, featured here.

The new fragrances – Ylang Ylang, Tea Tree, and Mandarin & Grapefruit - are all essential oil based giving a richly layered, lingering array of notes that capture an alluring range of sensations

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Emilia Lease, co-author of ‘Think Like A Vegan’ with Eva Charalambides, talks to Força Vegan about the latest in the ‘Think Like A Vegan’ series - a podcast of the same name. 8 episodes in, and it’s already clearly a great success.

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‘Think Like a Vegan’ – your new book – successful?

I’m absolutely delighted with it. It’s all been a tremendous amount of work: researching, writing, finding a publisher (hello, Unbound!), editing, promoting (especially during lockdown) and then, most recently, making a podcast. And it’s been such a learning curve.

The feedback, reviews, reactions, comments and all we’ve heard back during author events have been overwhelmingly positive and encouraging. It’s wonderful and very satisfying how people are responding to our work. We couldn’t ask for more. This book has always been about spreading the message of veganism as basic fairness, making ethics accessible and giving

people the tools to explain this to themselves and others. And we’re doing that and it’s been 100% worth all the effort.

TLAV was included in a sustainability exhibition at the Alfred Nobel House Björkborn, in Karlskoga, Sweden.

And it’s all been fantastic.

Some of the things we’ve done have been wild! We’ve been on BBC Radio a few times and BBC World News; on a variety of podcasts, including the Vegan Society Podcast, the Bloody Vegans Podcast, the Bluedot Festival podcast where Moby was also a guest and Sustainable Dish; presented in a variety of venues and events, such as the Nairn Book & Arts Festival, the National Library of Scotland, Global Vegfest, Timber Festival and Keats Library; Marc Bekoff interviewed us for Psychology Today and we’ve been in magazines, such as Brightzine, Green Queen, Closer, and Best; and

The book is available worldwide wherever books are sold and there’s even an audiobook available on all the major audiobook platforms.

We also encourage everyone to request their local library to carry a copy. We’re fortunate it’s available via the major book distributors, Gardners and Ingram, so any library and shop can source it.

We’ve been on BBC Radio a few times and BBC World News; on a variety of podcasts, including the Vegan Society Podcast, the Bloody Vegans Podcast, the Bluedot Festival podcast where Moby was also a guest and Sustainable Dish; presented in a variety of venues and events, such as the Nairn Book & Arts Festival, the National Library of Scotland, Global Vegfest... and TLAV was included in a sustainability exhibition at the Alfred Nobel House Björkborn, in Karlskoga, Sweden. And it’s all been fantastic.

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And it’s co-written – could you tell us a little about your co-author?

Eva Charalambides and I collaborated and wrote TLAV together. Eva and I met in 2016 at a vegan conference on Berkeley campus in California. We knew we’d be friends forever when we shared vegan doughnuts during a macrobiotic cooking class.

Perfectly reasonable!! From that moment, we were fortunate to be able to see one another in North America in various cities during the Vegandale festivals, which she helped organise, and where I answered all sorts of questions in the Why should I go vegan? tent.

After the 2018 festival in Toronto, we got the idea to do something more with our writing and organising, so the idea for the book began to develop. Eva is a photographer, vegan and disability advocate. She has also written for the vegan life-

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Above: Emi speaking at the Nairn Book & Arts Festival 2021

style website Ecorazzi and the disabled creatives magazine Not Your Monolith.

She lives in Ontario.

People might have noticed I’ve been flying solo a bit with events and hosting the podcast. The reason is Eva lives with a chronic illness.

Originally, we planned to do everything together, including the podcast, but that’s not been possible. So, hearing the perspective of chronically ill vegans is something important per se and for us personally. Eva has been speaking out and writing more about her perspective on life with a chronic illness.

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mire that. I’m proud of her for doing so and I encourage you to go find her work on her Instagram page, @eatinworkout.

What were the driving motivations behind writing the book?

Eva and I wrote TLAV because we wanted to show animals aren’t objects to be used and basic fairness requires we include them in moral society. Our book provides vegans and non-vegans a tool to understand this ethical basis and how to apply it everyday. We don’t need to be scholars or experts in basic fairness

and we want to show how everyone can understand veganism.

We’ve set up the book to be a conversation. We present topics through essays, have thought experiments throughout the book and a chapter at the end dedicated to scenarios (all of which are real) to help people put the concepts to work, so they can think through how they’d work on a daily basis. ● Are there any people who have influenced your work?

Oh yes, and we acknowledge them in a Further

Reading page in the book: Tom Regan, Gary Francione and Anna Charlton, Sherry Colb and Michael Dorf, David Nibert and Carol J. Adams. And on thinking about social justice and fairness in general, that’s a long list, but some of the people on it are Maya Angelou, Angela Davis, Hannah Arendt, James Baldwin, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Stewart Hall, bell hooks, Calo Levi, Primo Levi, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Ida B. Wells, Mary Wollstonecraft and Malcolm X. ● Why is it important to ‘think’ rather than just ’act’?

The two are always present, it might be a question of how much we do of both or what we believe is more important. Fully understanding why we do something is critical in guiding how we choose what to do and to apply that understanding consistently in everything we do.

In 100 words... how would you best describe veganism to someone new to it all?

We have a chapter in the book where we summarise the major points in our book and provide an elevator pitch, which when you speak it, it takes about 20 seconds to say… It starts with “Like us, animals aren’t things” and it goes on from there. I’ll let your readers pick up or borrow (ask your library to carry Think Like a Vegan) a copy of the book and read the rest for themselves. ●

...And the concept of Animal Rights – which is often misunderstood.

We owe animals the same moral treatment as people, unless there’s a morally relevant reason to justify treating animals differently. ● Who else is impressing you in vegan circles – we’ve noticed you’ve already had some great guests on the podcast?

Oh my podcast guests have been brilliant and their talks have been mind blowing.

I’ve structured the podcast as succinct 20-or-so minute mini-lectures, where the guests (or myself) talk about a specific issue or their work.

I’ve had on: Prof Jason Hannan on the rhetoric of the meat industry from his Meatsplaining book; Prof Maneesha Deckha on animals as legal beings (and

her eponymous book); Prof Sherry Colb talking about reproductive rights and animal rights; Dr Aysha Akhtar, co-founder of the Center for Contemporary Sciences speaking about replacing animal experimentation in medicine with something that actually works; Geertrui Cazaux on why veganism isn’t ableist; Benny Malone on his top five favourite fallacies against veganism and I’ve talked about using graphic images and the matter of consent, how veganism is for everyone and so is activism and my top three strategies for talking to people about veganism. The podcast is available on all podcast platforms, including Spotify and Apple.

And some rather exciting news about New York coming up soon?

We had a very fun - and in-person - US launch party in New York City at the of-

Eva and I wrote TLAV because we wanted to show animals aren’t objects to be used and basic fairness requires we include them in moral society. Our book provides vegans and non-vegans a tool to understand this ethical basis and how to apply it everyday. We don’t need to be scholars or experts in basic fairness and we want to show how everyone can understand veganism.”

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fices of Rose Street Capital, who generously donated their space for the event.

And author events in Asbury Park, the Monmouth County Library System and the Kent Place School in New Jersey, with more US events coming later this year and next! ● Are we going to see a vegan world any time soon?

Not likely, but who knows!

We are living in very changeable times. There’s certainly a growing interest and a massive need for it.

What do you think we should focus on to get us to that point?

A few things. Education and advocacy, especially around the issue of whether we should be using animals in the first place. That issue arises before we get to whether we’re treating them well. There are still so many whose idea of veganism is quite fuzzy or simply misunderstood. This is despite the growth in vegan products, visibility of vegans in popular culture and even the growing familiarity with the word vegan, people may

have heard it, but they often have no idea what it means.

We need everyone doing whatever they believe they can do.

I don’t believe there’s any value in arguing whether this action or that is the right and only way. It’s important to discuss and analyse, but people will do what comes naturally to them. Historically, no political/social justice movement has ever been monolithic and especially at the beginning - which is still where I believe we are, despite the idea of animal welfare existing for about 200 years.

Below: Ewa Hector Agorelius, organiser of the exhibition at Alfred Nobel House Bjorkborn (Photo credit: Johan Agorelius)

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LISTEN TO

THE PODCAST

I don’t believe there’s any value in arguing whether this action or that is the right and only way. It’s important to discuss and analyse, but people will do what comes naturally to them. Historically, no political social justice movement has ever been monolithic and especially at the beginning - which is still where I believe we are, despite the idea of animal welfare existing for about 200 years.

Get as creative as you like and go for it while always keeping in mind it’s not about us or about how animals are treated. It is all about the injustice of using animals. That’s a deeply uncomfortable question for most people because it’s been the way of humans for 10,000 years since agriculture began.

On activism and advocacy, think about what it is you like to do, how you like to express yourself, what you can handle, what do you want your activism or advocacy to look like for you.

There’s no one form of activism or advocacy. There is no one formula or action.

Sometimes just existing as a vegan is all the activism or advocacy we can handle.

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Just remember, focus your thinking on what is happening to the animals to keep you grounded.

Picture their plight as the hub of the problem with all the related issues, even the ones related to people, coming out from that. In TLAV, we talk about not “compromising down” when it comes to veganism and animals. If you’ve got to compromise, then lift them up with that compromise to better their position. You wouldn’t want someone who’s advocating on your behalf to sacrifice you or your needs in the compromise. Or to use your problems for their own benefit. So, do the same for the animals.

Do your thing, focus on the ethical principles, understand why you’re doing it and how it fits into the larger picture of our world, find people who are interested,

educate yourself and others and let’s make as many vegans as possible.

What’s holding us back?

The biggest thing is the simple reality of the overwhelming majority of the world isn’t vegan and has no idea what that even is. Everything is stacked against the animals.

There are alot of systemic issues in terms of justice and fairness towards people too.

These are all big hurdles to overcome. I don’t let the magnitude stop me though.

Hope for the future?

If we don’t act, we’ll never know what effect or change we could have made. So even if the odds are long, that doesn’t bother me. It’s not my problem. My problem is here and now. As long as we’re alive, we can keep putting one step in front of

the other and do our thing.

The future will come. It’s what we do everyday that counts the most.

Where can people find out more about the book, events and what about social media?

We update the website for Think Like a Vegan regularly. People can also follow the book on social media @ thinklikeavegan. They can follow me at @emisgoodeating and emisgoodeating.com. And Eva at @eatinworkout.

Thanks Emilia - well done to you both on an excellent book and we wish you every success.

‘Emilia A. Leese writes essays on life, travel and veganism for a variety of online publications, including her personal blog Emi’s Good Eating. She regularly hosts benefit supper clubs and speaks about veganism at events and festivals. She’s also the host of Think Like a Vegan: The Podcast and is closely involved in Birchfield, a rewilding project in the Scottish Highlands. Emilia lives in London and the Highlands of Scotland.’

You can pick up a copy of ‘Think Like a Vegan’ in all good bookstores & online at Bookshop.org & thinklikeavegan.com. It’s also available on Amazon and as an audiobook via Audible.

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TOTAL LIBERATION What is the single largest obstacle on our path to total animal liberation? Surely an absurd question; the road ahead is littered with innumerable barriers.

After decades of fighting, many of the issues we once faced now lie distant, allbut forgotten, in our rear-view mirror, yet many still lie before us. To highlight one issue standing between us and total liberation as our major hurdle seems almost laughable. Except, it’s not. For every single issue we face has a single root cause, and every single one of us have helped cement it.

For thousands of years, many of the world’s major religions have promoted the idea that humans exist somewhere between the animal kingdom and god.

Our capacity to reason, communicate, and build is proof of our divine purpose.

The lowly beasts of the field exist for no purpose other than our consumption. This notion has been derailed by centuries of evolutionary and behavioural science.

While some things do make humans unique (our ability to destroy an entire planet for example), we are no more or less than any other animal species. We are no different to dogs, than cats 88

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are to horses. And yet, this inter-generational absurdity is so entrenched that science is ignored, even by those who hold themselves up as scientists, relying as they so often do on non-human animal models in research.

Thank goodness then that we, the animal liberation movement, stand apart from this madness, and exist to remind the world that humans are animals too. That the entirety of evolutionary science proves unequivocally that our capacity to suffer, to learn, to feel, and emote is not, cannot be, wildly different to any other species.

Except all too often we don’t.

And therein lies my single largest gripe with our movement, and the single largest stumbling block to our aim of animal liberation.

I see it on a daily basis, in social media statuses, magazine articles, memes, interviews, and scattered liberally throughout online comment sections; ‘I prefer animals to people’, ‘Why do we test on animals when there’s sex offenders in jail’, ‘I don’t care about humans, I’m vegan for the animals’.

No. Perhaps you prefer other animals to humans, I’m sure many of us do, but it is

scientifically and linguistically impossible to like animals more than humans, when humans are animals.

I won’t comment on the ethical repugnancy of testing on prisoners, except to say that if you oppose animal research, then you necessarily oppose non-consensual research on humans. Human testing is animal testing. And I’m afraid that if you’re ‘vegan for the animals’, then that means you’re also vegan for the humans (which presumably why you don’t eat them).

This may seem like semantics. Arguing language for the sake of pedantry, which is without question something we do tend to focus

on too much. But this isn’t a circular argument, for no reason other than to virtue signal or make a redundant case. I know all too often we like to debate rather than act (and my focus has always been on celebrating activism and following the suffragettes’ ‘deeds not words’ motto). But this is far from sematic. This is how we unwittingly reinforce and secure the position of those we oppose.

Every time we do anything which reinforces the ridiculous notion that humans are somehow separate to all other animals, we play a tiny part in pushing our victory further down the road. By treating human and non-hu-

man animals as two entirely separate entities, we are saying; ‘Yes, humans and animals are different. Yes, you are fundamentally different from that pig you are about to eat, that rabbit you are about to experiment on, and that mink you are about to wear’.

What we should be saying, what we need to be saying is, ‘The life you are about to take is an animal, a person, just like you.’ As long as people believe (or can convince themselves) that non-human animals are fundamentally different to humans, their exploitation is guaranteed.

Let’s break this cycle, so we can break their chains.

By Tom Harris Author at SHAC Justice

No. Perhaps you prefer other animals to humans, I’m sure many of us do, but it is scientifically and linguistically impossible to like animals more than humans, when humans are animals.”

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ANIMAL

JUSTICE EMERGENCY

GRASSROOTS BY ACTIVISM AND SYSTEM CHANGE

PAMELA NOVA

The last thing on my mind when I came to Bristol four years ago was starting my own animal activism group. I’d done that in Malaysia where I’d lived before and where I’d become vegan.

Moving lock, stock and barrel, from Penang, with Bob and Liz, my two Indian rescue cats was an ordeal. My sanity barely survived the vaccinations, vet visits, tests, bundles of paperwork, 24 hour flight with poor Bob and Liz in the hold, and their eventual appearance, yowling and damp with wee, in my Bristol home.

“Never again” I promised them and myself.

I’d relocated back to the UK for several reasons. As a long-term climate change 90

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activist, I was increasingly uneasy with the outlook for survival in Asia.

the Hin Art Depot, and met politicians to pitch putting up vegan adverts.

In Malaysia I’d decided to prioritise animal activism over climate change and started a vegan outreach group Life Love Vegan with some locals.

Since Penang is an entrepôt, audiences were mixed : middle class Malay Chinese and Indian families rubbed shoulders, while hip young Malaysians joined European economic migrants who called themselves ‘expats’.

My increasing unease with the sense of white privilege I felt was another factor in my relocation to the UK.

Chen, a teacher, Rohith an IT whizz from Bangalore, Chen’s mum Selli, Mani a concerned parent, and a monk, organised film screenings, talks, hosted food events in a Buddhist temple, ran workshops at

Keen to find my activism feet in Bristol, I joined some

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SAVEs and found them soul destroying and upsetting. In AV Cubes I struggled to understand how the societal change required to make a vegan world could be achieved by random conversations with passers-by.

Could XR be veganised I wondered?

“It’s not about personal change” they’d chirp.

I became a regular, then when the actions started, handled their media. I talked about veganism, class, ageism and racism.

A new group, Extinction Rebellion (XR), was meeting near me, campaigning on climate breakdown. A major draw was their free vegan meals.

I hoped to learn from them, and veganise them from the inside out. They were serious about catastrophic climate breakdown & served vegan food before meetings, so I figured they’d be pretty up for that.

Well it could be AND they could challenge the subsidy drenched animal agriculture industrial complex at the same time. You know, walking and chewing gum?

Younger, blokey and resolutely middle class, they seemed to have a model of organising more along the lines of previous freedom movements.

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Sadly, this was far from the case, and I encountered ongoing hostility/disinterest whenever I raised the issue.

Apparently not.

I called XR co-founder and vegan, Roger Hallam, asking his views on a vegan kind of XR. Hallam was vaguely supportive - “go and do it!” he said. So I did. Which is how Animal Justice Emergency began. Five people around a table in a community centre.

We did talks, discussed tactics and strategy, worked out a detailed five year plan and timelines, subverted some McDonalds ads... We started a Youtube channel to maximise our effectiveness alongside the AJE Facebook Page.

I’m not really an organiser and I turned to Dan Kidby, (Animal Think Tank), who I’d met briefly in Bristol, for a different perspective and to knock around ideas about organising. And then one morning, scanning Facebook, everything changed.

A new animal activism group had been launched!

Like XR only for the animals and against industrial agriculture!! Earthling Ed was part of it!!

Kidby had set it up. And one of the AJE members was with him. This thing had clearly been planned for a while.

It seemed odd.

AJE carried on. More talks, including the London Vegfest. Non-XR people joined.

Students. We checked out funding.

Brainstormed.

Planned. We were on a roll.

Then COVID hit everything changed.

and

Lockdown was a time to focus on the Animal Justice Emergency Youtube channel. We interviewed ALF founder Ronnie Lee; lifelong sab and activist, Lynn Sawyer. Jeanette Rowley, the Vegan Society’s legal person, who had blood-curdling stories of vegans targeted by the PREVENT ‘anti-terrorist’ legislation, who’d nearly lost their jobs then been forced to sign non-disclosure agreements as a condition of not being sacked.

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There is a new sense of solidarity and unity among animal activists. A joining together of different strands of activism for one powerful and necessary end.

Veganism and animal agriculture are appearing in mainstream media as key to tackling climate and ecological collapse.” culture to species extinction and climate change. The COVID/animal ag connection. COVID and mink. Bird flu. Examined how consumer capitalism/neoliberalism was a key driver in the subjugation of other animals.

Dug deep into language and the framings of the dominant culture in maintaining the status quo. Analysed other liberation movements, Civil Rights in the US, the Indian independence struggle against the colonial British oppressors, the Haitian rebellion, always searching for more effective forms of vegan activism. Puzzled over the vast sums of money which the Save Movement, and Anonymous for the Voiceless had access to from venture capitalists and millionaire donors.

Where was the grass roots in all of this?

Inspired by chats with Ronnie Lee, once the lockdown ended I decided to step out 94

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of the vegan bubble and see what was happening in local communities. I joined green groups, community growers, climate community groups, attended refugee events, Afrifest, and many others.

As a result and with funding from the Million Dollar Vegan and support from Friends Not Food, we organised two vegan pop-up cafes aimed at non-vegans, framing the events (in a church hall and local park) with a short talk on ethical veganism and climate breakdown.

And then something incredible happened.

I noticed a shift in vegan outreach. Perhaps mobilised by the challenges of the pandemic, the COP in Glasgow and a growing awareness of the role of the animal death industry in climate and ecological breakdown, many groups were now using the climate change framing as

part of the animal liberation message.

The local SAVE was linking with Viva! The local Animal Rebellion was linking with the Saves. I was invited to speak at the launch of the Plant Based Treaty initiative in Bristol, chatting with Animal Rebellion and joining them in an outreach event and march.

There is a new sense of solidarity and unity among animal activists. A joining together of different strands of activism for one powerful and necessary end.

Veganism and animal agriculture are appearing in mainstream media as key to tackling climate and ecological collapse.

Perhaps this signals the end of the dominant speciesist and human supremacist culture?

Who knows?

Only time and more activism will tell…

By Pamela Nova Founding member of Animal Justice Emergency Follow AJE on social media here:

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THE ANIMAL RIGHTS

BY ROGER SHOWYATES In the first months of 2020, the routines of Planet Earth were somewhat disrupted by the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic. Since normal is violent, C-19 disturbed what was normal for humans, for example, willfully damaging the environment with perpetual international transport.

We might think this rather a good thing. Fairly early on in the pandemic, I remember sitting in the garden at the vegan-run Back into Daylight animal sanctuary in Ireland when we noticed how clear and vivid the sky above the sanctuary was.

Another effect of the pandemic, amongst tens of thousands of things, was the end of vegan street outreach which, in the case of The Vegan Information Project and Vegan Educa96

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tion on the Go in Dublin was our regular activities, three times a week for 11-12 hours per week.

When the strict lockdowns associated with the pandemic began, animal advocates, like many others such as musicians, began to concentrate on online events such as conferences and what was to become virtually daily Zoom events.

And so, the barely visible and audible pilot of “The

Animal Rights Show with Jeremy and Roger” was recorded on March 20th 2020, and released on the 26th. By April 8th, we had improved the technology, had brand new fancy pants into and outro videos to top and tail the shows, and we were good to go. Jeremy Hess and I wanted to use The Animal Rights Show to try to explore the idea of rights-based animal rights, especially the ideas associated with Tom Regan the author of The Case for An-

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imal Rights in 1983 and numerous other related books, the last being Empty Cages: Facing the Challenge of Animal Rights in 2004.

Due to a feature called “Common ground,” we soon realised that we needed to expand the number of people involved in the show, so the “with Jeremy and Roger” part of the title just had to go, leaving The Animal Rights Show to expand and flourish. To date there have been more than 110 shows (or show clips) and the most settled team has been comprised of Wendy McGovern, Nella Giatrakou and I, with special mentions going to Jeremy Hess, Tom Gale-Batton, and Brad George. The current show format was set by October 2020 with a switch from Zoom to the StreamYard platform. Keeping to the main aim of the show to explore rights-based

animal rights, the first show in this format addressed the question of whether animal rights (as a philosophical idea) is too complicated for the social movement often bearing that name.

One of the greatest pleasures of The Animal Rights Show are the episodes when we have either guest panelists or guest presenters. These have included great contributions from people such as

Carol J. Adams, who gave us an updated version of her Pornography of “Meat” slideshow, Louise Wallis, who devised World Vegan Day, pattrice jones, Laura Schleifer, Pamela Nova, and a lengthy “grassroots activist series.”

By Dr. Roger Yates Co-founder of The Animal Rights Show & The Vegan Information Project

Below: Pattrice Jones, co-founder of VINE Animal Sanctuary joined Wendy, Nella & Roger on this episode, titled ‘Queering Animal Liberation’.

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five dates that made the animal rights movement In 2020 a prominent vegan “influencer” claimed the animal rights (AR) movement had begun in 2015. In fact he was wrong by 50 years. Animal protection can be traced back centuries and there were campaigns against vivisection and fur in the Victorian era but the modern movement, in the way we know it today, goes back to the 1960s. Here is a plotted history of AR in Britain since then, in the form of five key dates over four decades.

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Hunt Saboteurs take to the field

1963

The ICI smoking beagles raid

1975

The Animals Film broadcast on Channel 4

1982

Jill Phipps is killed on a live exports demonstration

1995

“Where does the animal rights movement go from here?”

2003

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that they cancelled the hunt.

The local butcher gave us 50 pounds of meat and we fed it to the hounds. We used hunting horns. Nothing like that had ever really happened before and it caused absolute chaos! We did a lot of research on horn-blowing and did the job very, very well. The police were completely bemused”.

26/12/1963: Hunt Saboteurs take to the field.

The Hunt Saboteurs Association was formed in December 1963 by 21 year old freelance photographer, John Prestige (on the right in the photo). Direct action was in the air thanks to anti-nuclear groups like the Committee of 100 in the UK and the civil rights movement in the USA. He told the Daily Herald: “We aim to make it impossible for people to hunt by confusing the hounds. The movement is being financed by a small legacy of mine and the 2/6d membership fee”. One hundred members were enrolled in the first week and Prestige received 1000 letters in the first ten days. Two large donations totalling £1000 meant he could set up a small office in Brixton, Devon.

The first HSA strike took place on Boxing Day 1963 against the South Devon Foxhounds. Over 30 years later Prestige told the HSA: “We did so well that day 102

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Prestige’s small group of saboteurs went into action for the second time on 10th January 1964, again against the South Devon hunt. HSA groups sprung up throughout the West of England and by the end of 1964 an estimated 120 sabs had taken place.

Tactics included horn blowing, spraying aniseed to take hounds off the fox’s scent and tipping “highly flavoured meat” off the back of a landrover in front of hounds. That year saw the first arrests of sabs and reprisals by hunt heavies but the HSA kept on growing during subsequent decades and became the main route into direct action for activists.

17/06/1975: The ICI smoking beagles raid On 17th June 1975 three beagles used by multinational chemical giant ICI were rescued by Mike Huskisson and John Bryant. The dogs, like those in the photo were forced to inhale cigarette smoke to test an allegedly “safe” cigarette.

This image (below) had appeared on the front page of the Sunday People in January 1975 and caused national outrage. It was taken by undercover reporter Mary Beith, who took a job at the ICI laboratory in Cheshire to expose the scandal.

“Their heads were restrained by locking boards in place like medieval stocks.

The dogs were then lifted on to trolleys to the smoking platforms and the masks, valves and tubes were fixed to their faces,” she later said.

Some of the beagles were forced to smoke as many as 30 cigarettes per day.

Opposition to animal testing was growing. Protests were held against the experiments and the same year the book Victims of Science was published. The term “speciesism” had also been coined to describe the exclusion of nonhuman animals from rights granted to humans.

The raid itself received national publicity. Mike and John were arrested and appeared in court in December but the prosecution offered no evidence. ICI was afraid of adverse publicity resulting from a trial.

Both defendants agreed to be bound over to keep the peace and the charges were dropped. Afterwards Mike said: “It is terrific, we have won. My actions have been vindicated.”

This was the first time laboratory animals had been rescued but direct action against vivisection began three years earlier when Ronnie Lee formed the Band of Mercy. In 1975 he was in gaol after being convicted of arson against a laboratory but on his release he founded the Animal Liberation Front.

04/11/1982: The Animals Film broadcast on Channel 4 television Channel 4 was the first new TV station for nearly 20 years and its launch was a landmark event. Three days later on 4th November 1982 it broadcast The Ani-

mals Film - a feature length documentary which covered every aspect of animal abuse in graphic detail and sent shockwaves across the country.

The film was made by Victor Schonfeld and Myriam Alaux and went on cinema release in 1982 at a time when interest in animal rights was burgeoning. That year saw a record number of ALF raids, national and local protests (including a 5,000 strong march to the Ministry of Defence weapons base at Porton Down) and heightened media interest.

What drove this upsurge was direct action, in particular the rising number of ALF attacks on laboratories. When Life Sciences Research in Essex was raided in February, with nine beagles and 100 rodents liberated and over £100,000 in damage, The Daily Mirror headline was “Rescued: hooded raiders free lab dogs”, alongside an iconic

photo of a masked activist holding a beagle.

Local AR groups publicised the film when it was shown in cinemas. On the evening of 4 November, activists handed out leaflets at train stations, asking people to watch the film when they got home.

Film censors passed the film uncut for cinemas. However the Independent Broadcasting Authority told Channel 4 to cut certain scenes depicting an ALF raid on a battery farm because they could “incite crime or lead to civil disorder”. This raised the film’s profile even further and ensured even more people watched it.

The Animals Film has been described as “an important moment in the growth of public awareness of animal exploitation” and it helped propel an era of militant activism.

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01/02/1995: Jill Phipps is killed on a live exports demonstration On 1st February 1995 Jill Phipps was killed by a lorry taking calves into Coventry Airport for export by the veal trade. She was not the first activist to die – two hunt saboteurs, Mike Hill and Thomas Worby, had been killed earlier that decade but her shocking and tragic death resonated across the world.

Due to protests and public outcry, all major passenger ferry companies had pulled out of live animal exports by the autumn of 1994 but, seeing a commercial opportunity, Phoenix Aviation began running up to five flights of calves out of Coventry Airport each day.

Jill was part of a small group who broke through a police line to stop a lorry from delivering calves. According to a witness the police “were 104

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so keen to protect the business of this filthy firm that they had made little effort to ensure the way was clear… the truck driver moved off at speed, knocking Jill down and crushing her under his wheels.”

A group of people, many of whom were Jill’s friends, trashed the company director’s house later the same day. Protesters also set up camp outside the airport for months to come and many ran onto the airfield to try to stop aircraft taking off when live exports resumed. One was Jill’s partner who chained himself to the wheels of a plane. They were the first of over 300 people arrested during the campaign.

Jill’s funeral at Coventry Cathedral was attended by 1000 mourners. Over the next three months activists fought a war of attrition with police, whose resolve and finances were gradually worn down. As a result police began limiting the number of flights and they were

suspended in May. In July Phoenix Aviation went into liquidation.

Jill’s memory lived on and she became an inspirational figure. Ten years after she died hundreds marched through Coventry to remember her.

16/02/2003: “Where does the animal rights movement go from here?”

On 16 February 2003 the Animal Rights Coalition held a special meeting entitled: “Where does the animal rights movement go from here?” ARC was an umbrella organisation for local AR groups set up by Neil Lea. Grassroots campaigns had grown enormously and the most important anti-vivisection group of this era was Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty.

SHAC targeted the animal research laboratory Hunt-

Over the next three months activists fought a war of attrition with police, whose resolve and finances were gradually worn down. As a result police began limiting the number of flights and they were suspended in May. In July Phoenix Aviation went into liquidation.” ingdon Life Sciences. The campaign was initially successful and HLS almost went bankrupt, but by late 2002 it was not in imminent danger. There were also wider concerns such as declining numbers and increasing police repression. Campaigning was becoming less effective.

The idea for the meeting grew from email conversations and ARC said: “Many activists feel that the time has come to re-evaluate how we are campaigning.”

About 80 people attended and the vast majority felt changes were necessary.

What makes this meeting important is how this was put into action. A discussion on vivisection led to the formation of Stop Primate Experiments At Cambridge which successfully prevented a new laboratory being built there.

Following this victory SPEAC became Speak and focused on a new biosciences laboratory in Oxford. Direct

action halted construction in July 2004 and work did not resume until the following year after the Labour government backed it to the tune of £100m. The laboratory finally opened in 2008.

Until 2002 most AR activists did not actually campaign for veganism. Mary and Neil Lea spoke about their first free vegan food fair at the meeting, inspiring activists from London to organise their own free vegan food fairs and set up London Vegan Campaigns in 2005.

Other vegan campaigning groups were formed around the country.

In 2008 LVC organised the first Vegan Pledge, where a group of people were invited to go vegan for one month. The idea was taken up by Animal Aid, the Vegan Society and eventually Veganuary. In 2020 400,000 people signed up to Veganuary showing how popular veganism has become.

Conclusion Selecting five dates with which to tell the history of the AR movement is incredibly difficult. I’m sure many of you will disagree with my choices. Please contribute with alternatives, including more recent examples if you wish.

By Paul Gravett

(Note: this is an edited version of an article written in 2020 which appeared first in the one-off Animal Liberation Zine and then in the ALF Supporters Group Newsletter, February 2021) 105 FORCA VEGAN

AMY GUIDRY

Vegan artist.

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Amy Guidry is an American artist residing in Lafayette, Louisiana. As a child growing up in Slidell, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans, she spent much of her time outdoors and drawing animals and nature. After going vegan twenty-three years ago, her concern for the welfare of animals and the environment became a prevalent subject in her artwork.

INTEGRAL

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Guidry’s current series of paintings “In Our Veins” explores the connections between all life forms and the cycle of life. Through a psychological, and sometimes visceral, approach, this series investigates our relationship to the natural world, as well as our role in its welfare.

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ARISE

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Concepts such as life and death, survival and exploitation, and the interdependence of living and nonliving organisms are illustrated throughout.

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INVASIVE SPECIES

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“In Our Veins” demonstrates these ideas in a surreal, psychologically-charged narrative in an effort to raise awareness and promote ecological conservation.

EXPATRIATE

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PERVASIVE

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MY STAR WILL BE ONE OF THE STARS FOR YOU 8” x 10” Acrylic on Canvas

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EXPOSED

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ASCENSION

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Guidry comes from a family of artists including the late painter Eleanor Norcross.

Guidry’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums including the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Aljira a Center for Contemporary Art, Brandeis University, the PhilaMOCA, and the Paul & Lulu Hilliard Art Museum. Her work is present in public and private collections throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia.

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THE PACK

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ANDY COMPTON

Andy Compton is a long term vegan, activist and musician living in Bristol, UK. A prolific artist, he is soon to release his 45th album, spanning musical influences from across the Globe. Força Vegan chats with Andy over a coffee and some blues in one of the most iconic musical – and vegan - capitals of the world.

Andy – hello – greetings from probably the coolest place in the world to be a musician from.

away, i also heard the mums crying for their babies for days on end. It was heartbreaking!! The conditioning started crumbling in my late teens after meeting and making music with Yes! its true, Bristol rocks! a friend who was vegan, at first i thought he was deWhich came first – luded, but then the reality vegan, or Castle Morton? 30 years ago now… started to sink in! I was veggie for well too long, then Castle Morton! That was a did the right move in 2009. life changing musical event Peng records? And for me, but going vegan before that? could be the best decision I ever made, back in 2009.

Peng, my label started in ‘99, before that I released What drove you on many labels! But when to veganism? the royalties never arrived I grew up on a dairy farm, I realised the best move one of the ones where the was to create my own label male calfs are shot right for our music.

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You’ve travelled the world and the seven seas… looking for something?

It’s been an amazing life so far, and I’m truly blessed to be able to travel to play my music worldwide! But, i’m taking time off from touring abroad for a while, as i’m now looking after my youngest son full time. Although, i’m still making and releasing tons of music!

Go on then...

What’s your favourite destination (or 3)?

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Photo credit: Marcus Way

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SM

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Photo credit: Marcus Way

And best for vegan scran?

What campaigns do you support and why?

Is travel affected for you moving forward?

Los Angeles is king for vegan grub!! I opened up the ‘happy cow’ app last time in Hollywood and 300-ish listings appeared! It’s a large city of course, but the food is next level!

I love Vegfest, as it showcases in a gentle way that a vegan lifestyle can be fun and healthy. I have much respect for VIVA!, Surge and Animal Rebelion as well. I also respect anyones efforts towards promoting a cruelty free lifestyle!

It has been... I’m not keen on the jabs, so hoping everything will return to normal soon. I see some EU counties are chilling a bit already. I will be very selective with gigs for a while, as I’ve upped my Dad duties!

You’ve played with some fabulous musicians in your time…

I’ve been very lucky to work with so many amazing musicians!! Worldwide... I won’t start naming as there’s so many, and if I forget anyone i’m in trouble!

44 albums and counting!

45th is nearly wrapped! I release under 7 different project names, The Rurals, COMPTON, Andy Compton, Sowetan Onesteps, L.A.M.P, Blue Dream, Acid Andy, etc...

Every album reflects my feelings at the time of writing it, so in a way they’re all like my babies, so it’s hard to pick a fave!! I love them all.

You do a bit of street activism in Bristol…

Yes, my son and i were doing ‘the Matrix’ nearly every week. It’s a huge inflatable cube with ipads on each corner showing footage, it was a great way to talk to the public, most who don’t have a clue where their ‘meat’ comes from, or the process. Many times people will walk away deeply disturbed and aim to hit the veggies harder! I also jump on any other activism that my time allows.

What would you really like to see happen within the vegan communities?

It’s great when everyone comes together, we all have a common goal. It’s sometimes tricky when there’s so many big personalities, But when egos are put aside good things can happen!

What’s going to shift everything up a notch do you think?

I guess most people care about the environment more than animal welfare, but I think if these plantbased ideas work, then they will shift their conscience towards animals as well. We need to spread the love!

Festivals this summer?

Some in the works, one in Croatia - that should be fun!

Family life high on the agenda no doubt too, as you mentioned…

Thats my priority right now!

Both my sons are autistic, so needing a lot of extra energy.

Are you positive for the future?

Very much so! And I think making music helps my mental outlook, and apparently other peoples as well.

I’m blessed to be able to touch other people, worldwide, through my musical vibrations. The only way is UP!

I love Vegfest, as it showcases in a gentle way that a vegan lifestyle can be fun and healthy. I have much respect for VIVA!, Surge and Animal Rebelion as well. I also respect anyones efforts towards promoting a cruelty free lifestyle!”

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ETHICAL CONSUMPTION

UNDER CAPITALISM’

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MALONE

BY BENNY

‘THERE’S NO

Observation – ‘All consumer choices involve some form of exploitation of human workers, animals and the environment.

There is no ethical consumption under capitalism.’

Not even an argument.

When a statement is made it is often an observation rather than an argument. In the case of ‘There’s No Ethical Consumption under Capitalism’ an argument is not being offered unless they are forwarding a conclusion from this premise. An argument normally takes the form of a premise and a conclusion indicator, usually ‘therefore’, and then a conclusion. ‘There’s No Ethical Consumption under Capitalism’ isn’t even an ar-

gument because it only fulfils the observation part; it is descriptive rather than prescriptive.

planation or provision of an argument. It has therefore become a Thought Terminating Cliché.

This shouldn’t surprise us seeing as the statement started as a meme. It’s not like it is a pithy phrase that got distilled from the thesis of a philosopher or theorist.

You won’t find a detailed exposition of this statement if you are searching for its origin. Without the provision of an explicit argument that follows, this meme is simply repeated without ex-

Valid statement. Awful argument against veganism.

As an observation it is valid.

When used as an argument against veganism however, it utilises a number of fallacies.

It’s not clear that the people simply repeating this phrase know what their argument is.

Valid statement. Awful argument against veganism.

As an observation it is valid.

When used as an argument against veganism however, it utilises a number of fallacies.”

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As the statement is used in response to vegan advocacy efforts we have to work from the basis that they are using the statement as an argument against veganism.

That is, they are arguing in favour of the commodity status, exploitation and slaughter of animals *because* ‘there is no ethical consumption under capitalism’. It is therefore used as an anti-vegan argument but this still leaves uncertainty as to the precise way it is an argument against veganism.

It seems the conclusion that is inferred is that because all consumption in a capitalist society harms or exploits humans and animals in some way to some degree, at some point, the efforts of veganism are futile.

Used in this way it is an appeal to futility, otherwise known as a Nirvana Fallacy. This fallacy rejects a real world solution because it cannot meet the standards of a posited perfect solution.

It is only a fallacy if some progress or solution is rejected because it isn’t perfect. Under this fallacy, the choice is not between real world solutions; it is, rather, a choice between one realistic achievable possibility and another unrealistic solution that could in some way be “better”. So veganism is rejected because it compares unfavourably with a supposed ideal in which there is zero harm or exploitation of humans and other animals.

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ed because it wouldn’t solve every problem in the world and problems would still remain. These are obviously not good arguments for real, practical improvements where possible. Such thinking is an enemy of progress no matter what the goal is.

Another way the statement could be used to conclude an argument against veganism is saying that there are no ethical options under capitalism – therefore no choices matter and all choices are equally bad.

If the argument was made that there is no ABSOLUTE ethical consumption under capitalism then this is again an observation and true, but trivially so. It doesn’t follow from this that there aren’t some better choices than others. However used

in a way to create a sort of equalisation between all choices where everything is as bad as everything else then it becomes a Fallacy of the Grey.

I have never seen the term ‘Fallacy of Absolute Privation’ used and I believe I am coining it here.

‘The fallacy of relative privation rejects an argument by stating the existence of a more important problem. The existence of such a worse issue, the fallacy insists, thereby makes the initial argument irrelevant. This fallacy is also known as the appeal to worse problems or “not as bad as”.’ (1) The distinction between absolute and relative terms

Above: The ‘original’ meme, thought to be the source of the phrase.

was introduced by Peter Unger in his 1971 paper ‘A Defense of Skepticism’ and differentiates between terms that don’t admit of degrees (absolute terms) and those that do (relative terms).

It works something like this:

So the fallacy of ABSOLUTE privation is one in which the person is saying there are no degrees and all choices are the same – no relatively good choice can be made.

Veganism doesn’t commit this fallacy because it is itself a relatively better choice.

The fallacy would be rejecting better choices.

Relative privation: Mass murder is worse than murder (true)

If relative privation rejects a problem because there are bigger problems, then absolute privation rejects a problem because all problems are the same. Essentially this act of equalisation says ‘is just as bad as’ where relative privation says ‘not as bad as’. The fallacy lies in not acknowledging relevant differences, significance, scale and degree of different choices. ‘Privation’ in these arguments refers to the ‘loss’ or bad outcome that is identified. So relative privation is dismissing the privation because it relates to other problems by not being as bad (or good). Absolute privation therefore rejects the privation being a problem because other problems are equally as bad.

The word privation refers to the “bad thing” being done.

In the context of relative privation fallacy, it means you are committing a fallacy by making privation (bad things) relative (to other bad things).

Privation: Murder is bad (true)

Relative privation fallacy: Murder isn’t bad because mass murder is worse (false) Privation: Animal exploitation is bad Absolute privation: Farm workers are exploited (also bad) Absolute privation fallacy: Animal exploitation isn’t bad because farm workers are exploited and therefore all choices are bad. (false) When stated like this the fallacy is obvious.

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We see this in arguments such as ‘there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism’ when used to dismiss situations where there does actually exist a spectrum of choices. This new fallacy is related to the Fallacy of the Grey which means that a ‘black and white view’ is rejected in favour of a ‘one colour view’ (grey) admitting of no variation or gradation.

The Sophisticate: “The world isn’t black and white. No one does pure good or pure bad. It’s all gray. Therefore, no one is better than anyone else.”

The Zetet: “Knowing only gray, you conclude that all grays are the same shade.

You mock the simplicity of the two-color view, yet you replace it with a one-color view . . .”

—Marc Stiegler, David’s Sling. (2) Origins of the phrase ‘there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism’ The term ‘There is no ethical consumption under capitalism’ surprisingly originated from a meme. ‘In 2014, fashion magazine Elle UK, feminist campaign group The Fawcett Society and street brand Whistles collaborated on making ‘This is what feminism looks like’ T-shirts, even having celebrities such as Emma Watson and Benedict Cumberbatch model to advertise the campaign. However, public outrage sparked when it was revealed that the T-shirts 128

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were made in Mauritian sweatshops, where female workers were treated under unethical practices, from earning only 62p (6hkd) an hour (minimum wage being 1.19 pounds, or 11hkd per hour) to being forced to sleep in cramped dorms with up to 16 women per room. The campaign’s message turned sour at the irony, with leftist Tumblr and Twitter discourse responsible for the origin of the quote ‘There is no ethical consumption under capitalism’ due to this news, turning to popular game character Sonic the Hedgehog and Pepe to make memes with their famously quirky characters.’ (3) Using the argument the way most anti-vegan leftists use it you would conclude that

you might as well buy the sweat shop t-shirt. The way they use the argument is against veganism and therefore against choosing the best available option.

The systemic speciesism of animal commodification, exploitation and slaughter is not ethical under any economic or political system.

Individuals don’t get a pass in arguing for racism even though systemic racism exists. The same is true for your attitude to other animals and their systemic exploitation.

Let’s be clear. Using it as an argument like this does ZERO for farm workers. If there actually was a call to action or something being advocated it would be subject to their own criticism!

Let’s be clear. Using it as an argument like this does ZERO for farm workers.

If there actually was a call to action or something being advocated it would be subject to their own criticism! Want to support farm workers? That’s a shame because ‘there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism!’”

Want to support farm workers? That’s a shame because ‘there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism!’

Farm workers have human rights and rights as workers.

When these are not respected due to unscrupulous practices and advantages taken by those who employ them we recognise that there are rights violations taking place. If possible legal action can be taken and reforms and improvements made. We can boycott the very worst practices and there is no necessity to consume every plant just because we are vegan. For example, tobacco is a plant but does massive damage to humans and the tobacco industry is despicable, so we should rightly boycott them.

If you strongly object to a

certain plant product there are plenty of alternatives still within the plant kingdom to choose from. Similarly with any issues with vegan advocacy, individuals or organisations there are alternatives you can support within veganism without compromising your position. People are welcome to advocate for farm worker’s rights and demonstrate practical ways to campaign and avoid human exploitation. Is there any inherent reason vegans can’t follow this practical advice too?

In contrast animal’s rights are not respected and not defended by law. Animal rights violations are an inherent feature of animal agriculture, not a bug. Breeding, commodifying, slaughtering and exploiting their bodies

and reproductive systems are all inherent features of animal use. Animals are turned into products. We are not in a situation where the critics of veganism are opposed to exploitation of humans and other animals.

They are simply using the exploitation of farm workers to argue for the exploitation of animals. Why not reject false dilemmas and be in favour of respecting the rights of all sentient beings?

They are saying the focus on ‘consumption’ is wrong but where is their focus on ‘production’? Plant agriculture has problems but it is not an existential risk to humanity. NECUC distracts from mitigating production side difficulties.

A good test of an argument is often whether it is put forward pro-actively and independently of other arguments i.e. it is not only used in a reactionary and defensive way when an issue is brought up. Are people campaigning for farm worker’s rights or only raising the issue in response to veganism? Are they equally as vocal about slaughterhouse workers who suffer from PTSD and high rates of injuries? Modern slavery is a major problem on fishing vessels, especially in the prawn industry. Silence on these issues is telling.

Indigenous Amazonians also encourage boycotts of companies invading their land and destroying the rainforest. Brave environmental protestors have been targeted and killed by FORCA VEGAN

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companies who want to exploit animals and the land.

(4) Cattle ranching is an ideal form of land grabbing as it maximises land use. Colonialism used ranching as a very effective means of conquering land. If you want to minimise land use you would be growing the most efficient crops you could on the land. Ranching is the opposite and it is Cowboys, not vegans, maximising land and resource use. (5,6) The weaponisation of social justice talking points against veganism changes nothing about the reality of the devastation wreaked by animal agriculture on the environment. It is these facts that need addressing and it is merely scientific denialism to insist otherwise.

Greedy reductionism Nihilism Going nuclear Use of TNECUC as an argument can be a form of greedy reductionism, a term coined by philosopher Daniel Dennett to describe situations where “in their eagerness for a bargain, in their zeal to explain too much too fast, scientists and philosophers ... underestimate the complexities, trying to skip whole layers or levels of theory in their rush to fasten everything securely and neatly to the foundation.” That is, people reduce things to a level of explanation that is ‘greedy’ because it reduces to a level that no longer explains a phenomenon. An example would 130

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be using atomic theory to explain the plot of a Shakespeare play. The useful level with explanatory power is literary criticism.

This can feed into nihilism and ‘Going Nuclear’ where in order to avoid engaging with a argument the whole structure is brought down.

If no ethical decisions can be made then it renders everything unethical and ‘anything goes’.

The animals we exploit as resources are sentient, climate change, antibiotic resistance and zoonotic diseases pose an existential threat to humanity. ‘Hot takes’ on Twitter do nothing.

By contrast there are many vegan organisations such as Food Empowerment Project and others that highlight all of these issues and take a

stand against all forms of oppression and exploitation.

Perhaps it is because veganism is practical rather than impractical that it doesn’t find favour with the slacktivist armies on Twitter. Veganism actually asks you to do something and make a practical change.

Consumption The view of veganism as nothing more than a diet must shoulder some blame here as well. If people understood veganism as a principle exploitation and use of animals as resources and respected animals as individuals, then arguments treating them as fungible, interchangeable and replaceable commodities would be unconscionable in the first place. Veganism is not merely ‘consumerism’,

Above: One of hundreds of memes utilising the same mantra, after it was adopted as an anti-vegan sentiment. Source: https://me.me

or at least it shouldn’t be. Veganism represents a set of values and principles. It informs our diets because that is one way (albeit the main way) in which animals are used.

The role of consumers should not be dismissed so easily in any case. A focus on individuals is often said to be problematic but studies find that production side mitigation is limited whereas there is greater potential Producer mitigation limits and the role of consumers.

Though producers are a vital part of the solution, their ability to reduce environmental impacts is limited.

These limits can mean that a product has higher impacts than another nutritionally equivalent product, however it is produced. In par-

ticular, the impacts of animal products can markedly exceed those of vegetable substitutes, to such a degree that meat, aquaculture, eggs, and dairy use ~83% of the world’s farmland and contribute 56 to 58% of food’s different emissions, despite providing only 37% of our protein and 18% of our calories. (7) Supply/demand side mitigation Towards net zero nutrition: The contribution of demand-side change to mitigating UK food emissions Alice Garvey et al ‘1.2. The importance of demand-side change Demand-side change should be a critical ongoing focus for food studies, as the ulti-

mate determinant of future food emissions. As Nemecek and Poore note, ‘today, and probably into the future, dietary change can deliver environmental benefits on a scale not achievable by producers’ (p. 5, 2018). Demand-side change has important benefits in addressing consumption-based emissions by improving resource efficiency and changing both the quantity and structure of demand for imported goods (Owen et al., 2018). Demand-side options impact consumption-based emissions to a greater extent than improving production efficiencies alone, since they act on all food supply irrespective of national origin. Furthermore, demand-side action has an additional public health rationale, where in improving the emissions-intensity of UK diets there is also scope to improve health outcomes.

Uniting these two policy objectives provides a cogent argument for demand-side change.’ (8) Crop calories we currently feed to animals could meet the calorie needs of 4 billion people (9,10) Individual and systemic change both need to occur.

We can change quickly and effectively as individuals and also become part of a movement to recognise animal rights. Our arguments are given greater force by ‘practicing what we preach’.

Study Shows Individual Lifestyle Change Boosts Systemic Climate Action (11)

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Above: an appropriated comic originally by Cyanide and Happiness, edited to incorporate TNECUC. Author unknown.

Studies show the credibility afforded by actually following your own advice – for environmentalists reducing carbon footprints, for vegans avoiding animal use – means people take you and the cause more seriously. After all, how much do you really believe in what you are saying if you don’t change your own behaviour and attitude? Individual change is necessary if there is to be support for systemic change.

Systemic change without support from a population is change that is imposed.

Popular support is needed for legislation and policies.

It’s clear that those who decry individual change aren’t calling for the abolition of animal agriculture or Pigouvian taxes. They don’t even welcome basic incremental systemic change such 132

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as initiatives to only have vegan meals served at organisations meetings or in schools. It would be a start if they actually acknowledged that the ‘systems’ are in fact those of animal exploitation that are wreaking havoc on biodiversity, enslaving animals and causing massive amounts of environmental damage and pollution whilst risking public health.

Avoid-Shift-Improve (German: vermeiden, verbessern, verlagern) is an approach developed in Germany to improve efficiency through modifying consumer behaviour. The approaches are listed in order of effectiveness with avoidance being the greatest lever a consumer can pull, followed by shifting to a different product or service,

and finally improvements within already available options. It’s clear we should be consuming less as a society and that includes vegans of course. We should avoid fast fashion and buy second hand and upcycle. The biggest lever you can pull however is avoiding meat and dairy. Then look into shifting and improving within veganism, meaning improving plant-based production. It’s all very well calling for systemic change but if the meat and dairy industries shut down what are people going to be consuming? More often than not, these arguments are simply a way to abrogate personal responsibility for choices well within our power.

There can be arguments made from ‘causal impotence’ that ‘one person doesn’t make a difference’ but we would reject these when it came to other social justice issues. The argument is meant to apply to personal consumption not making a difference but at some point a threshold is reached where a collection of individuals do make a difference. Individuals are important for modelling the change we want to see, living authentically and matching our morals with our actions, and educating others. In terms of social movements you may see various figures from 3.5% - 25% of a population being needed to affect real change. Veganism is growing as a percentage of the population and already exerts a large influence on public discourse. (12)

‘New research from GRAIN and IATP shows that: Together, the world’s top five meat and dairy corporations are now responsible for more annual greenhouse gas emissions than Exxon, Shell or BP. By 2050, we must reduce global emissions by 38 billion tons to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. If all other sectors follow that path while the meat and dairy industry’s growth continues as projected, the livestock sector could eat up 80% of the allowable GHG budget in just 32 years.

Most of the top 35 global meat and dairy giants either do not report or underreport their emissions. Only four of them provide complete, credible emissions estimates.

14 of the 35 companies have announced some form of emission reduction targets. Of these, only 6 have targets that include supply chain emissions, yet these emissions can account for up to 90% of total emissions. The six companies that do pledge cuts in supply chain emissions are simultaneously pushing for growth in production and exports, driving their overall emissions up regardless of their intention to reduce emissions per kilo of milk or meat produced.

To avert climate catastrophe, we must reduce production and consumption of meat and dairy in overproducing and overconsuming countries and in affluent populations globally, while supporting a transition to agroecology.’ (13,14)

The Continuum Fallacy – also known as ‘Sorites Fallacy’ or ‘Fallacy of the Grey’ occurs when there may be two positions at each end of a spectrum. The fallacy lies in saying that because there exists a continuum then there is no meaningful distinction between those two positions. If in reality, we can distinguish between positions along the spectrum, then it is a fallacious argument.

‘There’s No Ethical Consumption under Capitalism’ (TNECUC) can use this fallacy if used to argue that there is no cut off point where we can say something is more or less ethical than other available options. This is similar to line drawing and demarcation questions. We can’t say exactly where sentience begins in the evolutionary tree of life – but we can say with high degrees of

Below: Another meme (one of hundreds) displaying TNECUC. Author unknown. Source: https://me.me

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scientific certainty that the animals that are exploited and slaughtered by humans are sentient. We know pig farming involves exploiting and slaughtering sentient animals and this is not made uncertain by any possible uncertainty in other areas.

The fallacy of the grey use of TNECUC would state that all choices are equally unethical and therefore our choice of any position along the spectrum doesn’t matter. It asserts that the choices we are presented with can’t be meaningfully distinguished.

It seeks to replace a binary of black and white by saying everything is one shade of grey, therefore it’s impossible to decide on or make ethical choices. This is also a form of equivocation, an attempt to equate all choices as equally bad or good, therefore no meaningful choices can be made.

From ‘Logically Fallacious’

by Bo Bennett P1: X is one extreme and Y is the opposite extreme.

P2: There is no definable point where X becomes Y. C: Therefore, there is no difference between X and Y. In reality though there is an order of magnitude difference in the level of exploitation and harm between plant agriculture and animal agriculture. Slaughterhouses, environmental racism, air pollution, antibiotic resistance, zoonotic diseases, breeding, commodifying and exploiting animals are all variables on top of any problems that can be identified in plant agriculture. Targeting vegans who make up 2% of the population also seems unfair.

Somehow people want to blame vegans for the choices vegans make but also say that their own choices don’t matter. We don’t have a vegan agricultural system yet and so it’s true that the system producing plant foods has issues, but nonvegans consume these same foods in addition to the animals they exploit and eat.”

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Somehow people want to blame vegans for the choices vegans make but also say that their own choices don’t matter. We don’t have a vegan agricultural system yet and so it’s true that the system producing plant foods has issues, but non-vegans consume these same foods in addition to the animals they exploit and eat.

Absolute and relative concepts Saying there is absolutely no ethical consumption or anything you can do is a form of equivocation – all choices are said to be equally bad.

But if degrees on a spectrum are acknowledged then we are able to choose oat milk rather than supporting the animal exploitation and slaughter of the dairy industry and its commodification of animals for example.

Rather than an absolute position, our choices are relative to each other and exist on a spectrum. Avoiding animal exploitation minimises land use and any problems with plant agriculture as animal agriculture uses far more resources.

The statement started as a meme in response to the hypocrisy and irony of celebrities wearing slogans on t-shirts that were made in sweatshops. But an erroneous interpretation of this of the sort we see used against veganism would say ‘it doesn’t matter, just buy the t-shirt’ because all choices are the same, rather than seeking to avoid hypocrisy and aim for greater ethical consistency.

Pictured: An activist during a protest. The exact percentage in this statistic varies from source to source - some sources say 50% is too high, others say 50% is too low.

The sentiment though is largely undisputed. Image source: Wikimedia Commons

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Above: Data taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions#Fossil_CO2_emissions_by_country/region Source: Wikimedia.

So in a sense it is often used as a subset of ‘vegans are hypocrites’ type arguments that utilise tu-quoque fallacies. It’s an attempt to turn an argument back around on vegans and make everyone inconsistent and hypocrites and remove any possibility for improvements.

It can become a Nirvana fallacy if the practicable option of avoiding animal use as far as we are able is compared unfavourably with the unrealistic and unattainable model of causing zero harm to other beings on this planet. Vegans acknowledge this, and ‘cruelty free’ is a claim originally from cosmetic company certification that may have erroneously drifted into vegan discourse.

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ism or simply be a misunderstanding of the ‘possible and practicable’ aspect in the definition. It’s true that we can’t avoid paying taxes that may subsidise industries we would rather avoid supporting. This is also true for policies and wars that our taxes fund. However we can exercise choice in the areas we do have control over.

By framing veganism as solely consumer activity it limits the scope of veganism. Veganism is more than an individual boycott – it is a collective protest, a refusal to partake in treating animals as ours to use when we have better options. It represents a paradigm shift in our relationship towards other animals, from breed-

ing them into a canned hunting operation they can’t escape from and asserting complete dominance over their lives, reproduction and bodies.

Using the TNECUC argument does not abrogate ones from personal responsibility to be anti-speciesist, improve your attitude to animals and protest their use as commodities, property and resources.

It is a useful statement in some ways but not an argument against being vegan.

It should fit in well with the possible and practicable part of vegan definition if used as a way to explain how individual change goes up to a point after which there

Above: Methane emissions (Tg CH4 yr−1) for 2017 by region, source category, and latitude. The mean estimates shown arise from the ensemble of top-down inversion models described in Saunois et al. Source: Wikimedia.

are some things beyond our control. It should offer assurance that we aren’t accountable for things we can’t change at such massive systemic levels but not be an excuse not to change what is in our power. Used this way it should be empowering, so that we don’t become despondent about things we can’t control. We should also work on improving plant agriculture and making conditions fairer.

Supporting animal agriculture does not help achieve any of this. Many vegan organisations such as Food Empowerment Project campaign for veganism and improving working conditions, it is not a false dilemma.

Animal commodification is not ethical under any eco-

nomic system. If system change is to come about then people would need to consume in line with the changes that are made. Systemic change requires popular support and so increasing the vegan population is of great importance if political change is to have support and stick.

The massive disparity in agricultural subsidies that exists between animal agribusiness and fruit and vegetables needs to be redressed. ‘Agriculture Fairness Alliance ® is a 501(c) (4) nonprofit whose mission to accelerate policy changes that make plant based food accessible to everyone at a price they can afford, and to help farmers align with this mission.’ Other organ-

isations help farmers transition away from exploiting animals to veganic farming – in Scotland there is Farmers for Stock Free Farming https://farmersforstockfreefarming.org and in the USA the Rancher Advocacy Program. Scientists are telling us that we need a massive shift away from animal use merely as a practical matter to minimise harm to biodiversity, the environment, and the climate. (15) Like lots of anti-vegan arguments, TNECUC is not employed against areas of animal use that people actually do oppose. And if they say any areas should be avoided, it proves to be a self-defeating argument as they could have their own TNECUC argument used against FORCA VEGAN

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themselves. More often it is an attempt to avoid personal responsibility for propagating a harmful ideology and merely another attempt to silence, demoralise and equivocate.

‘100 Corporations are Responsible for the World’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions.’

This widely circulated claim has been used to abrogate personal responsibility in a similar way to TNECUC arguments.

The claim was that ‘just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global greenhouse emissions.’ Both Full Fact and Snopes investigated this claim and found it to be misleading. ‘Of the estimated greenhouse gas emissions from human activity (excluding certain sources like agricultural methane)

between 1988 and 2015, 71% originated from 100 fossil fuel producers. This includes the emissions released when the fossil fuels they sold were subsequently used by their customers.’

(Full Fact) (16) So the claim is misleading as it stands because it only refers to fossil fuel emissions.

Emissions from the food sector need to be addressed too and indeed according to a study in Science ‘To have any hope of meeting the central goal of the Paris Agreement, which is to limit global warming to 2°C or less, our carbon emissions must be reduced considerably, including those coming from agriculture. Clark et al. show that even if fossil fuel emissions were eliminated immediately, emissions from the global food system alone would make it impossible to limit warming

When phrases like this are tweeted they are enthusiastically received by those who refuse to look at their own consumption and attitudes. Collectively it matters a great deal what we consume and both ‘top down’ and ‘bottom up’ solutions are needed for widespread change.”

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to 1.5°C and difficult even to realize the 2°C target. Thus, major changes in how food is produced are needed if we want to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.’

Global food system emissions could preclude achieving the 1.5° and 2°C climate change targets (17) Pointing to fossil fuel production fails to address this area of production and consumption just as much as if fossil fuels were being wilfully ignored.

When this claim gets shared it is typically used to abrogate personal responsibility. There is a fair point to be made when saying that focus shouldn’t be solely on consumers, but as discussed elsewhere, does this mean focus is being put on meat and dairy producers and pressure put on them to reduce, minimise or eliminate production? I don’t see those complaining of focus on the individual campaigning for systemic change which would mean an end to exploiting animals as resources.

The claim has become a meme that is passed on without any of the context necessary for proper analysis. When phrases like this are tweeted they are enthusiastically received by those who refuse to look at their own consumption and attitudes. Collectively it matters a great deal what we consume and both ‘top down’ and ‘bottom up’ solutions are needed for widespread change.

Shaina Sadai writing for Sentient Media explains that ‘Deflecting the need for a global transition to plantbased diets by pointing to research that is unrelated to agriculture and land use change emissions is counterproductive. The Carbon Majors analysis is an important contribution to our understanding of how fossil fuel companies perpetrated the climate crisis. It is valuable information and needs to be portrayed accurately.

Taking the conclusions of it out of context to disparage the important action of confronting emissions from agriculture and land use change is harmful.’

Lloyd Alter writes in Treehugger that out of the list of 100 companies ‘Exxon and Shell are the only private companies to even make it into the top ten; the rest are all government entities.

China (Coal) is by far the biggest emitter of them all at 14.32%; fully 18.1% is just Chinese, Russian and Indian coal, so it’s incorrect for anyone to say “just 100 companies.” We are dealing with national governments and the entities that they own.’

(18) For Exxon and Shell it is also worth remembering that ‘The world’s biggest meat and dairy companies could surpass Exxon, Shell and BP as the world’s biggest climate polluters within the next few decades. At a time when the planet must dramatically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, these global animal protein giants are driving consumption by

ramping up production and exports.’ (19) The original report breaks emissions down into Scope 1 and Scope 3 emissions which clarifies the role of producers and consumers further.

‘Scope 1 emissions arise from the self-consumption of fuel, flaring, and venting or fugitive releases of methane.

Scope 3 emissions account for 90% of total company emissions and result from the downstream combustion of coal, oil, and gas for energy purposes. A small fraction of fossil fuel production is used in non-energy applications which sequester carbon [like plastics].

In other words, for gasoline, Scope 1 is the entity extracting and refining the gas and shipping it to the pumps, and Scope 3 is us buying the gas, putting it in our cars, and turning it into CO2.

Of that 70.6% of emissions attributed to these hundred entities, over 90% is actually emitted by us. Those entities may all by happy and rich because we are doing this and no doubt are encouraging it, but who is ultimately responsible for the consumption of what they are producing?’ (20) Like TNECUC, this claim uses a legitimate point as a terrible argument against actually creating change where it is needed.

Written by Benny Malone Author of ‘How To Argue With Vegans’

Notes (1) https://academy4sc.org/.../fallacy-of-relative-privation.../) (2) https://www.lesswrong.com/.../dLJv2Co.../the-fallacy-of-gray (3) https://issiahk.org/blog/ why-there-is-no -ethical-production-under-capitalism-.html (4) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/03/brazilianmeat-companies-linked-to-farmercharged-with-massacre-in-amazon (5) https://theecologist.org/2019/ may/16/brazilian-indigenous-peoples-propose-boycott (6) https://www.reuters.com/article/ us-casino-amazon-lawsuit-idUSKBN2AV1UY (7) https://globalsalmoninitiative.org/ files/documents/Reducing-food’s-environmental-impacts-through-producers-and-consumers.pdf (8) https://www.sciencedir e c t . c o m /s c i e n c e /a r t i c l e /p i i / S0959652620357188(9) https:// www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1246067 (10) https://www.foodnavigator.com/ Article/2014/07/18/Study-pinpointskey-leverage-points-to-feed-morepeople-with-existing-land (11) https://www.forbes.com/sites/ j e f f m c m a h o n /2 0 1 9/1 1 /1 9/g r e ta-is-right-study-shows-individual-climate-action-boosts-systemic-change/?sh=6cf535044a54 (12) https://www.bbc.com/future/ article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-ofpeople-to-change-the-world (13) https://grain.org/article/entries/5976-emissions-impossiblehow-big-meat-and-dairy-are-heatingup-the-planet (14) https://www.ecowatch. com/world- meat- consump tion-2021-2654945657.html (15) https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac. uk/news/201603-plant-based-diets/ (16) https://fullfact.org/news/are-100companies-causing-71-carbon-emissions/ (17) https://www.science.org/doi/ full/10.1126/science.aba7357 (18) https://www.treehugger.com/ is-it-true-100-companies-responsible-carbon-emissions-5079649 (19) https://grain.org/article/entries/5976-emissions-impossiblehow-big-meat-and-dairy-are-heatingup-the-planet (20) https://www.snopes.com/factcheck/corporations-greenhouse-gas/ FORCA VEGAN

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KATHLEEN JANNAWAY: PLANTING SEEDS AND TREES THE VEGAN WAY In the fifth of the ‘...And If You Know Your History’ series, Dr. Roger Yates of the Vegan Information Project continues with his account of some of the vegan social movement pioneers. Here is an account of the contribution of Kathleen Jannaway towards the vegan cause.

Born in 1915, Kathleen Jannaway’s working class origins and the values of her parents and grandparents were to shape her radical vision of a just vegan future, which she campaigned for first for the Vegan Society as its General Secretary from the early 1970s, and then as a co-founder of the Movement for Compassionate Living (MCL) from 1984 onwards. She was born into a very poor family and she remembered as a child having to go to bed early on the days when the gas would run out. Her father was a speaker for the Socialist Party of Britain (which became the British Labour Party) and he gave talks on peace and the dignity of the working class. Her grandfather held unorthodox views and was said to be opposed to Kath140

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leen joining the Girl Guides which he thought negatively was a “representative of the status quo.”

A bright child, Kathleen Jannaway won an educational scholarship to grammar school where she learnt the value of critical thinking and to question everything.

She gave up the opportunity to go to university to take a job as a teacher in order to financially help her family. She married her lifelong partner, Jack Jannaway, before the “Second World War” and, like Donald Watson, they both registered as conscientious objectors. During the war years, they both turned vegetarian when Kathleen saw the slaughterhouse truck arrive to take lambs away. Not yet vegan, she helped to organ-

ise a protest meeting for the organisation that was to become Oxfam demanding that dried cow’s milk be sent to the children of allies in mainland Europe.

It was the Jannaway’s keen ability to see connections between justice issue that led them to veganism. Kathleen taught children with learning difficulties; she was peace and “freedom from hunger” campaigner, and served for many years on the executive committee of the Gandhi Foundation.

Then, in 1964, the Observer newspaper in London published a two-page review (which is remarkable in itself) about Ruth Harrison’s then new publication, Animal Machines: The New Factory Farming Industry.

Harrison deeply shocked

it is becoming obvious that humanity is set on a suicidal course. Most of our intellectual power is used to speed the road to oblivion.

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an entire nation, the Jannaways included, when she revealed that calves are separated from their mothers to be sent to veal units in which they were tethered and not allowed solid food. There have been some modifications to this form of animal use since the 1960s but such rights violations, including the separation of mother cows from their babies, continues to this day.

Kathleen says: “It was at this point that I realised that these calves were the surplus of the dairy industry and that the milk which nature intended for them was being fed to us.”

It is a sobering thought that this revelation is still as striking in the 21st century as it was in 1964, so carefully have the animal user industries hidden their dirty secrets. Although humans are mammals, we tend not to identify as such – and we certainly do not see ourselves as apes, even though 142

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that it precisely what we are. Therefore, to this day, human mammals, even those who generally understand human lactation, are still surprised when they learn mother cows must be pregnant to “give milk,” certainly in the volume needed for commercial exploitation.

Jannaway decided that she would attempt to live without consuming calf food.

Another connection about justice was made and, as mentioned above, she says that she came to the “animal issue” via her concerns for peace and world hunger: “My involvement in the animal movement developed out of these, particularly when I began to make connections between the different issues.” Later in life, she would also become involved in the Plant a Tree for Peace movement, which was started by vegans associated with the Movement for Compassionate Living.

Back in 1964, Kathleen Jannaway, like most people, had not heard of the philoso-

phy of veganism, and knew nothing of the existence of the vegan social movement, which was only 20 years old at the time. As an early vegan movement pioneer, she had the same fears that people like Donald Watson, Eva Batt, and Leslie Cross had held when they first went vegan: whether or not it is possible to survive without animal products.

Although her account is a little disjointed, Victoria Moran, author of Compassion the Ultimate Ethic, reports on a research trip she took in 1981 to study vegans in Britain and Ireland. Among other vegan movement pioneers, Moran met Kathleen Jannaway who said that the earliest vegans, “didn’t know if our bones would disintegrate or if we’d perish in a fortnight.” Eva Batt, who went vegan overnight in the 1950s, says that she didn’t know how she’d manage: “I knew people could live without meat, but without milk! I really thought I was going to die.”

Animal advocate and author Mark Gold suggests that some of the initial health fears about veganism had been dispelled by the time Jannaway became the Vegan Society’s General Secretary in the 1970s. However, Ronnie Lee, a co-founder of the Animal Liberation Front and now a vegan educator, reports that when he went vegan in 1972 his mother genuinely feared that he would be dead within a year, and even went to the lengths of secretly putting hens’ eggs into Ronnie’s “vegan” food that he was preparing.

At least those beginning to live vegan now will have comparatively little to fear in terms of risking losing their lives through the adoption of a 100% plant diet and, apart from a few strange people in the toxic place of YouTube, new vegans are now unlikely to have people seriously warn them that they will surely die by “going vegan.” The vegan social movement pioneers not only had a revolutionary vision of the future but they were very brave trailblazers. We owe them a great debt.

In the early 1970s, virtually all the Vegan Society literature was written, typed, and produced by Kathleen and Jack Jannaway. In a leaflet from 1972, it is clear that Kathleen understood the power of culture and advertising: “The chief obstacles to man’s survival on this overburdened planet lie in the minds

the present materialist, competitive, violent civilisation which has spread rapidly throughout the world is not sustainable. We need above all the vision and hope of a practically-based alternative.”

- Kathleen Jannaway of men. Most people find difficulty in adjusting to ideas that do not fit in with the habits and thought patterns of generations – especially when, as with feeding habits in the West, both producers and consumers are subject to the high pressure salesmanship of the meat, dairy and chemical industries.”

Jannaway was issuing a warning about “the environment crisis” from at least the early 1970s. She pointed out that humanity was engaged in an all-out assault on the living systems of the planet, and claimed that it must become more and more clear that “the Age of Man the Exploiter is over,” not least because, “he is wasting his resources and fouling his nest.” Showing that she shared a similar radical vision of the vegan movement pioneers of the 40s and 50s, she declared that, “the Age of the New Man is dawning” with the vegan being, “the prototype of the New Man of the New Age.”

The Jannaways house also became “vegan headquarters” in the 1970s, ironically situated in an English town called Leatherhead. MCL report that: “Their…house and garden became a venue, attended by many over the years, for meetings and garden parties to raise funds for the many concerns they were involved in. Many will remember Kathleen and Jack’s garden as the place where they came together each year with vegans from up and down the country.

These meetings provided a wonderful opportunity for fellowship with kindred spirits – especially important for people who were isolated and knew no other vegans living near to them – and for vegan children to be together.”

Mark Gold says that the Jannaways importance to the development and evolution of the vegan movement was FORCA VEGAN

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huge. He says that Kathleen was all about, “linking the compassionate desire to avoid animal products with rational use of world food resources.” Gold states that: “Her own half-acre of garden in the heart of suburban Leatherhead was soon turned over to a horticul-

tural experiment where she and Jack successfully developed green manure techniques (i.e., manure from plant sources only), food-bearing trees, vegetables, and fruit beds.”

The Vegan Society was featured in a BBC community-based TV programme

Below: Kathleen Jannaway. “When Kathleen was eighty-one, she was still harvesting bumper crops of which any gardener would be proud, all grown from her own vegan compost.” Quote source: www.mclveganway.org.uk

called Open Door in 1976.

Reviewing the programme, Kim Stallwood says: “To watch the show today is to be reminded how, nearly forty years on, many of the arguments made for veganism then remain the same today: that more people could be fed directly through plants than through animal protein, thus alleviating world hunger; that consuming dairy products involves more cruelty to animals than eating meat; that vegans lower their risk of contracting heart disease and cancers of the colon; that the vegan diet requires vitamin B12 supplementation (although this deficiency also occurs among many non-vegans); and that vegans are, according to one of the doctors interviewed, ‘normal, healthy, happy people whom you couldn’t distinguish from omnivores except that they are slimmer and perhaps smile more’ [sic].”

Kathleen Jannaway is featured at some length in the programme, proudly showing off her green manure techniques. The show admittedly looks very dated nowadays: indeed, vegan comedian Simon Amstell used sections of the film to comic effect in his 2017 “mockumentary” entitled Carnage.

The production values of the 1976 programme are pretty low but it should be remembered that the BBC were trying to offer facilities for NGOs and social movement organisations to showcase their work as they wanted it showcased. There are few if any sound bites,

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which is exactly the same with respect to the writing of the vegan movement pioneers as a general matter.

Due to this rather stiff formal style, in writing or on film, some of the radicalism of what the pioneers stood for seems to have become lost on more recent generations of vegans used to sound and visual effects, rapid-fire delivery, and instant global communications via the internet.

Gold claims that some dismissed Kathleen Jannaway as a “crank” due to her utopian vision for the future.

She looked forward with optimism towards a “treebased culture” in which animal agriculture would be replaced by forests providing food, a mitigating factor against climate change, and preventing soil erosion.

She wanted to see a global network of tree-based autonomous vegan villages

replacing industrialised cities. Jannaway’s tree-based vision of the future is truly revolutionary. It would prevent monocropping, end unemployment, and re-fertilise areas of desert. There was even talk about whether money would be abolished as part of the MCL’s vision of the future.

She was a great supporter of science – but argued that it has to be guided by compassion. The enormous power that humans have needs “compassionate direction,” she argued. She believed that humanity’s moral development has fallen behind and food is part of the reason. She argues that when parents tell their children that they must eat animal products, and are punished if they didn’t, the child must in turn suppress their compassionate side. On the other hand, veganism manifests a “properly balanced

human being,” she believed.

In 1986, Jannaway wrote: “Freedom from dependence on the slaughterhouse nurtures faith in the possibility of creating a compassionate age.”

In terms of active campaigning and advocacy, she said that anger has its place but it should be anger directed against the act rather than the actor. After all, she argues, “you don’t know what turned him that way,” adding that, “you don’t change cruel people with more hostility.” She says that education is the key to spreading veganism and this entails us taking the time to educate ourselves. She said that we must be aware that: “the present materialist, competitive, violent civilisation which has spread rapidly throughout the world is not sustainable. We need FORCA VEGAN

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erosion, pollution, global warming and ozone layer depletion.”

above all the vision and hope of a practically-based alternative.

Time, however, is not on our side, and certainly the daily slaughter of other animals demands urgency War and the slaughter of animals for food, have much in common. Now as the mass slaughter and violence escalates in both areas, it is becoming obvious that humanity is set on a suicidal course. Most of our intellectual power is used to speed the road to oblivion.”

Jannaway states that, “Fundamental changes in the values and practices of the dominant world system, which has created a situation in which millions of people and animals already suffer extreme deprivation and 146

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die prematurely, is essential.” Once she had moved to the MCL, she developed her ideas of a tree-based culture fully. Through growing enough trees, she argued, “we can satisfy nearly every human need, including that for food, and at the same time do much to restore and maintain planetary health.”

Adding, “What is needed is a trend towards compassionate living the vegan way, with the emphasis on the use of trees and their products.”

Stating that, “animal farming imposes suffering on highly sentient creatures,” Jannaway warned that humans have created a “second population explosion of deliberately bred animals” that “competes with humans for diminishing resources and adds to desertification,

In terms of her position on interconnections, on what David Nibert has called the “entanglements of oppression and liberation,” she recognised that veganism must be central to our thinking.

She said: “Veganism which brings freedom from dependence on the cruel exploitation and slaughter of highly sentient creatures is the essential foundation of compassionate living.” And, again echoing the views of the pioneers of the 40s and 50s, she underscores their point that veganism represents the liberation of humans and other animals.

Jannaway would not have a moment’s hesitation in endorsing Kath Clements assertion that, “veganism is about having a consistent approach to human rights and animal rights, ecology and world food problems.”

Jannaway states with great hopes that: “An era of truly abundant living will dawn in which humans, at peace with themselves, with each other and with all living creatures, will reach heights of creativity as yet unimagined.”

By Roger Yates Co-founder of Vegan Information Project & The Animal Rights Show Coming in issue 6 > ‘Let’s All Sing to Arthur Ling, The Plamil King!’ Available also on www.vegfest.co.uk.

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Jordi Casamitjana, the author of the book “Ethical Vegan”, overviews the status of animal sanctuaries in the UK in 2022.

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These days, we hear a lot about refugees.

There are always places on this planet where life for those who are oppressed or persecuted is unbearable, so they must move and find a better place. And when they leave their birthplace for this reason and arrive at a better location where they think they can stay, then we call them refugees. We hear a lot about human refugees, but there have always been non-human animal refugees as well.

Most of them could not leave by themselves the place where they suffered, as their instinct as sentient beings dictated they should

do — after all, sentience is precisely for this purpose, to leave environments that cause negative experiences and stay in those creating positive ones. Instead, most were “rescued” by humans who took them to a better place. For those who are unlucky for being unable to survive in the wild (perhaps because they are no longer wild animals but domesticated animals with different morphology and psychology than their wild counterparts) the best place they can end up in is an animal sanctuary.

Animal sanctuaries are — or should be — safe havens for animal refugees, and in the UK, there are quite a few of

them. In this article, I will give a general overview of what they are. But first, we should define what a sanctuary is, so we are not getting it confused with other facilities — such as zoos and factory farms — which do the opposite that sanctuaries do.

What is a genuine animal sanctuary?

The common definition of a sanctuary is a place where animals can live and be protected, especially from being hunted or from dangerous conditions. But this could be many things. In some cases, a sanctuary can just be land where wild animals can enter or leave

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at will, but humans are not allowed to enter or disturb them in any way (such as the League Against Cruel Sports’ sanctuaries in the south of England).

Then we have some places that people may call a sanctuary, but they are not strictly so. For instance, Rescue Centres/Animal Shelters temporarily care for animals with the goal of placing them in permanent ownership/foster care with approved members of the public, or with accredited or verified sanctuaries.

Or Rehabilitation Centres, which temporarily care for wildlife so that they can be returned to their native environments. Actual Animal Sanctuaries should provide lifetime care for animals 150

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that have been abused, injured, abandoned, or are otherwise in need. These animals often come from private owners, research laboratories, government authorities, the entertainment industry, zoos, and the agricultural industry. However, sometimes you have facilities that are a mix of sanctuaries, rescue centres and rehabilitation centres, where some animals are rehomed, others rehabilitated back into the wild, and others are cared for for life.

divided into Farm Animal Sanctuaries (cows, sheeps, pigs, chickens, etc.), Equine animal sanctuaries (horses and donkeys) and Companion Animal Sanctuaries (cats and dogs), while the latter into Exotic Wild Animal Sanctuaries and Native Wild Animal Sanctuaries.

And then, we could subdivide them all further if they only keep one type of animal, such as horse sanctuaries, donkey sanctuaries, primate sanctuaries, tortoise sanctuaries, etc.

There are different types of animal sanctuaries depending on the type of animals they keep. They could be divided into Domestic Animal Sanctuaries and Wild Animal Sanctuaries.

In turn, the former can be

Sanctuaries can be accredited or not because there are federations that have created their own standards.

For instance, we have The Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS), which states on its website the fol-

Sanctuaries should provide lifetime care for animals that have been abused, injured, abandoned, or are otherwise in need.

These animals often come from private owners, research laboratories, government authorities, the entertainment industry, zoos, and the agricultural industry” lowing: “Not all sanctuaries are created equal. Animal care is a poorly regulated industry, and thousands of organizations worldwide that describe themselves as ‘sanctuaries’ or ‘rescues’ do not provide quality or humane care for their animals.

For all people invested in the welfare of captive animals, including donors, grantmakers, supporters and legislators, there is a shared desire to differentiate true sanctuaries. Through our evaluation process, GFAS can ensure that those designated as GFAS-Verified or Accredited uphold the highest standards for the animals in their care. Any organization that meets our eligibility criteria may apply to receive GFAS Accreditation or Verification.”

These are the criteria they use to accept facilities as good enough to be accredited by them: 1.

No captive breeding (with a potential exception for only those organizations having a bona fide release/ reintroduction program to return wildlife to their native habitat).

2.

No commercial trade in animals or animal parts.

3.

No tours allowed that are not guided and conducted in a careful manner that minimizes the impact on the animals and their environment, does not cause them stress, and gives them the ability to seek undisturbed privacy and quiet.

4.

Animals are not exhibited or taken from the sanctuary or enclosures/ habitats for non-medical reasons, with some limited exceptions for certain animal species, such as horses, under approved circumstances.

5.

The public does not have direct contact with wildlife (with some limited exceptions as outlined in the Standards for some birds and small reptiles).

6.

Adherence to standards of animal care including housing, veterinary care, nutrition, animal well-being and handling policies, as well as standards on physical facilities, records and staff safety, confirmed by an extensive questionnaire, site visit, and interviews.

7.

Ethical practices in fundraising.

8.

Ethical acquisition and disposition of animals.

9.

Restrictions on research – limited to non-invasive projects that provide a health, welfare or conservation benefit to the individual animal and/or captive animal management and/or population conservation.

10.

The existence of a contingency plan, if the property where the sanctuary is located is not owned by the sanctuary or its governing organization.

In Europe, we also have a separate umbrella organisation that also accredits animal sanctuaries, the EuFORCA VEGAN

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ropean Alliance of Rescue Centres and Sanctuaries (EARS). As the name shows, it also covers rescue centres. To be accredited under EARS, sanctuaries must do the following: “Appropriate measures must be taken to prevent propagation and to have species appropriate contraceptive programmes in place. All sanctuaries and rescue centres should aim to achieve a zero birth rate for all animals housed at their facilities. It is acknowledged that: (a) there is limited technical knowledge of contraception for some species; (b) when separation is the only preventative option, this method can be compromised when animals arrive in large numbers; (c) in the case of confiscation and whilst the government maintains ownership of the animal the Partner is obliged to follow the decision of the responsible governmental body and may not be allowed to implement permanent sterilisation; (d) some countries will not allow wildlife to be permanently sterilised; and (e) when part of recognised programmes, breeding may contribute to endangered species conservation.”

Other organisations deal with facilities keeping specific types of animals. For places keeping only horses and donkeys, there is the National Equine Council (NEC), the International Coalition for Working Equids (ICWE) and the National Equine Welfare Council (NEWC). For companion animals, there is the Association of Dogs and Cats Homes 152

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Any facility that keeps animals for their entire life but breeds them while they are there so as to bring more animals into captivity, and are open to the public who pay an entrance fee to see them and then wander around at their leisure, is clearly a zoo rather than an animal sanctuary.”

(ADCH) which is the leading representative charity for dog and cat rescue and rehoming organisations across the British Isles. For rehabilitation centres, there is the British Wildlife Rehabilitation Council (BWRC).

Any facility that keeps animals for their entire life but breeds them while they are there, so as to bring more animals into captivity, and are open to the public who pay an entrance fee to see them and then wander around at their leisure, is clearly a zoo rather than an animal sanctuary. However, to be officially licensed as a zoo in the UK, it will need to be open more than seven days a year and keep animals not normally domesticated in the British Islands. But otherwise, it would still not be a proper animal sanctuary if it allows breeding. Let alone if it ends up killing the animals

(as in the case of open working farms) or forcing them to do tricks for visitors (such as birds of prey centres).

Stats of UK animal sanctuaries in 2022 I found a website (animalsanctuaries.co.uk) that lists UK animal sanctuaries and rescue centres. Its design is a little bit old, so I am not sure how up to date the list is (my attempts to contact the organisers to check about that failed). The total facilities in their list is 330, which are divided into Birds (41), Cats (28), Dogs (28), Horses (43), Miscellaneous (76), Mixed (74) and Wild (40). It seems that they have classed reptile and fish rescue centres as miscellaneous despite being wild animals, which suggests they consider Wild Sanctuaries only the ones keeping native species.

However, to be officially licensed as a zoo in the UK, it will need to be open more than seven days a year and keep animals not normally domesticated in the British Islands.”

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Above: “From them, I created a database of 100 sanctuaries which seemed operational (as they all hadf functioning websites)...”

How accurate is the number 330? As the list is old, many of the sanctuaries may be closed now. I devised a method to find out how many, without having to contact them all. I calculated that a representative sample of the 330 (with a Confidence Level of 95% and a Confidence Interval of 10%) would be 75. So, using a random computer generator number function, I drew a random sample of 75 of the entries of the 330 listed.

I then went to the website of those (the list includes websites) and calculated the percentage of websites that are still active (the ones that are no longer active may suggest that the sanctuary 154

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is no longer in existence). It turned out that only 48% of the sample had active websites. As the sample is representative of the entire population of sanctuaries in the list, I am confident enough to say that there are about 159 sanctuaries in the UK (48% of 330). Let’s round it to about 150.

The next step would be to contact a sufficient proportion of them and gets some data to be able to provide some statistics for 2022. For that, I looked online, and I found several lists (one from Animal Aid last updated in 2018, a recent Facebook page with a list of UK and Irish animal sanctuaries,

and a current Google map with animal sanctuaries).

From them, I created a database of 100 sanctuaries which seemed operational (as they all had functioning websites), and which seem to keep some animals in their facilities (even if they were wildlife rehabilitation centres where they release most back into the wild or companion animals rehoming centres which aim to find homes for cats and dogs). I then contacted them all between the 26th and the 29th of April 2022 with the following message (either emailed to them or send them as a direct message on social media):

“Dear sanctuary staff, I am a freelance writer, and the UK online magazine Força Vegan has commissioned me to write an article about UK animal sanctuaries. For it, I am trying to calculate some stats, so would it be possible for you to quickly answer the following questions about your sanctuary?

1.

Which type of sanctuary are you (only farm animals, mixed farm and wild, mixed farm and exotic, only wild, etc.)?

2.

How many animals (roughly) do you have now?

3.

Which year were you founded?

4.

Are you accredited by any sanctuaries’ federation or similar (if so, which)?

5.

Are you a vegan sanctuary?”

To be sure they did not forget, on 9th May I re-contacted all those who had not replied yet, reminding them of my enquiry. In the end, only 42 which qualified as sanctuaries (because they keep animals for the rest of their lives) replied with answers (and two replied saying that they would not give me any answer). However, that would give me enough to have some statistics (although the results would not be representative of the overall population as those 42 are not a random sample).

Of those that responded, six were from Scotland, six

from Wales and 30 from England. As far as the types of animals they kept are concerned, 57% of those that responded kept more than one type of animal while 43% only one type, 76% kept farm animals, 52% domestic companion animals (such as cats or dogs), 29% wild animals, 19% small animals (such as Guinea pigs or rats), 17 % equines (horses and donkeys) and 10% exotic animals (such as monkeys or non-native reptiles).

The average number of animals kept in the sample was 238 animals (the range goes from 5 animals to 1,500).

Considering that my calculation above estimated that there may be about 150 animal sanctuaries in the UK,

multiplying this number by the average number of animals kept in each gives us about 36,000 animals currently kept in UK animal sanctuaries.

Regarding the year they were founded, 7% before 1980, 12% in the 80s, 12% in the 90s, 14% in the 00s, 43% in the 2010s, and 7% since 2020 (which means 50% from 2010 to today).

As far as defining themselves as vegan sanctuaries is concerned, 69% said yes, while 31% said no. Of those that are not vegan, 54% are equines sanctuaries, 38% keep farm animals, 38% keep companion animals, and 15% keep wild animals.

I created a database of 100 sanctuaries which seemed operational (as they all had functioning websites), and which seem to keep some animals in their facilities (even if they were wildlife rehabilitation centres where they release most back into the wild or companion animals rehoming centres which aim to find homes for cats and dogs).”

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It’s interesting to see that most of those I contacted kept more than one type of animal, which suggests to me that they are likely run by people motivated by helping animals and who find it difficult to say “no” when asked to give a home to a needed animal.”

Of those sanctuaries that keep farm animals, 84% said that they were vegan while 16% (5) said they were not.

Some of the sanctuaries asked me for clarification regarding what did I mean by “vegan sanctuary”. I replied with the following: What I mean by a vegan sanctuary is that is run by vegans, does not use substances or materials produced by the animals kept for food or clothing to humans, if it offers food or refreshments to visitors no animal products are included in them, and does not contravene the basic principles of veganism in

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terms of exploiting the animals kept (for instance, using them as a form of transport or making them do tricks for visitors). However, if you would have a different definition feel free to include it in your answer.

No respondent suggested an alternative interpretation to what a vegan sanctuary is, but some who may have answered “yes” may have had a different interpretation that they did not share with me.

Regarding accreditation, 74% said they had none, and from those who said they

had some, 36% had ADCH accreditation, 18% had GFAS, 9% had BWRC, 9% had NEC, and 9% had ICWE. Also, 45% of those who said they have accreditation are equine sanctuaries. I contacted EARS and they told me that two UK sanctuaries were accredited under them (both with exotic animals), and GFAS told me that they have 3 UK sanctuaries accredited (one for exotic animals, one for equines and one for farm animals) — one of these overlapped between the two, so only 4 UK sanctuaries are currently accredited under either of both federations.

Overview of UK animal sanctuaries The results of my mini-study are not representative of the entire population of sanctuaries, but the sample is big enough and does provide enough information for a general overview likely to be relatively accurate.

I drew some conclusions from the data.

First of all, the fact that my study of the long list showed that more than half of the sanctuaries were no longer active, and the fact that half of the sample of those I contacted had been founded in this millennium, suggest to me that there is a high turnover of animal sanctuaries.

It may be that many have started recently because the number of vegans has increased considerably in the last two decades, but as we have seen not all sanctuaries are vegan, so I suspect the real reason is that it is very difficult to run a sanctuary (lots of work, expensive, etc.), so many may fail after a few years. And if there are many sanctuaries around, they would be competing with each other in terms of donations and visitors, which may mean that an explosion of sanctuaries caused by an increase of vegans may also have led to many not making it.

Secondly, it is interesting to see how few of the animal sanctuaries responded to my request for information, which could easily have

been provided with a couple of minutes of their time.

Less than half of the ones I approached responded after I gave them 20 days to respond, and I contacted them twice if they had not responded in the first two weeks. This could be explained by several reasons. Perhaps some of the sanctuaries are no longer operational despite their website being still up and running (which does happen). Perhaps those running the sanctuary are not very digitally orientated and they either don’t check emails often, or don’t have a good online system to allow them to be alerted if someone has sent them a message.

But also, perhaps some did not want to answer me.

Why? Although it is possible that some of them did not trust who I was (requests for information may be seen as a potential scam), or they did know me but perhaps did not like either me or the publication I mention the article would be on, I think it is more likely that, if they were not a vegan sanctuary, they

did not want to be featured — or exposed — as such in any vegan publication.

It’s interesting to see that most of those I contacted kept more than one type of animal, which suggests to me that they are likely run by people motivated by helping animals and who find it difficult to say “no” when asked to give a home to a needed animal. This may also mean that many sanctuaries are not specialised in particular animals, which may increase their expertise in those animals over time. In other words, it seems that most sanctuaries may be Noahs-Ark cottage-industry-type enterprises which started in someone’s home learning how to do it as they went along, and while some may still be small and amateurish (which doesn’t mean that they don’t provide good care to their animals) some may have developed into something bigger and more “professional”.

A clear majority of the sanctuaries that responded keep

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farm animals, but the majority of those I contacted may be the typical farm animal sanctuaries because I obtained them from sources that tended to focus more on this type, so I don’t think we can draw any conclusions from that.

But, in my opinion, the two more revelatory conclusions are regarding the accreditation and vegan status of the sanctuaries. Most sanctuaries in the UK are not accredited by the most prestigious organisations that accredit sanctuaries, and most of those that responded did not seem even aware such accreditation existed. Only four of the possible 150 sanctuaries in the UK are accredited by GFAS and EARS. But may this be because such federations

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do not cover farm animal sanctuaries, for example? I contacted GFAS and I asked them. This is what they replied: “GFAS offers accreditation for sanctuaries, rescues, rehabilitation, and transition centres caring for wildlife, exotics, equines, and farmed animals. Our wildlife/exotics program was our first program, and therefore, the most established. We piloted the farmed animal project in 2014, but did not formally begin until late 2019/early 2020. We now have a staff Program Director, Jessica Harris, overseeing farmed animal sanctuary accreditation.

creditation are significant.

It gives organizations the comfort and confidence that they are giving animals the best in care, and also provides clear, objective, measurable outcomes by which facilities can assess their performance, make improvements, and reach out to GFAS for assistance with challenges. As GFAS broadens its reach, geographically and programmatically, I expect to continue to see an increase in the number of accredited sanctuaries. At any given time, across all programs, we have up to 90 new applications in process; currently 20 new applicants are within the farmed animal program.”

Accreditation with GFAS is a voluntary process. We believe that the benefits of ac-

“We currently have three accredited sanctuaries in the U.K.:

- Wild Futures - The Flicka Foundation Donkey Sanctuary - Goodheart Animal Sanctuaries for farmed animals” This reinforces the notion that the UK animal sanctuary industry may be leaning towards the “amateurish” side. Many sanctuary owners may feel that they do not need any special training or certification and they should just get on with the job of looking after their animals — which is fair enough.

But if accreditation helps to improve standards and to allow the public to learn which are the best sanctuaries (or at least the ones with better safeguards and overview), it seems the sector is missing some opportunities there. I, for one, would be happier to donate to — and visit — a vegan sanctuary that I know is accredited, but if sanctuaries are so busy helping animals that haven’t got the time to apply for accreditation, I would understand. However, based on the replies I got, I suspect that it is more an issue of not knowing that the accreditation exists, rather than not wanting to have it — part of it because is relatively new.

Regarding sanctuaries that consider themselves ‘vegan sanctuaries’, I was disappointed to see how many are not yet vegan. I was not surprised to see that many equine sanctuaries were not vegan because I have got the feeling many may come from people who ride

horses (or even who have connections with hunts) and could be of the countryside-type who see vegans as urban intruders. Many of these may just be retiring homes for horses given by those who ride them, rather than places where rescued horses now live. But I did not expect to find so many sanctuaries (at least 16%) that keep farm animals not being vegan. This may have been common in the past, but now, at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, I expected that the only animal sanctuaries not self-defined as vegan would be equine centres, wildlife rehabilitation centres, and dog/cat rehoming centres.

Considering that, as we discussed earlier, it is more likely that a non-vegan sanctuary did not reply to my questions than a vegan one, this means that the actual percentage of non-vegan animal sanctuaries may be much higher than 31%. It could be the majority, when, if you think about it, all animal sanctuaries should be vegan as for my interpretation above (it makes no sense to save some animals and then pay for the killing of others). That is worrying and disappointing, but hopefully, time will correct this.

My last conclusion is regarding the number of animals living their lives in a UK sanctuary free from the exploitation and threats they may have experienced in the past. My estimation is about 36,000. This is such a

drop in the ocean. In the UK, in 2020, there were 12.7 million cows and bulls, 9.1 million pigs, 25.7 million sheeps, and 142 million chickens, kept (and eventually killed) by the animal agriculture industry. If we counted all the 36,000 at UK sanctuaries as farm animals (which not all are), this means that less than 0.02% of farm animals in the country are “safe”.

Undoubtedly, animal sanctuaries alone are not a solution to the problem. There are not enough of them, and they are not big enough.

The solution must be to prevent new farm animals from being born in the first place, so we do not need to liberate them and take them to sanctuaries. The solution is veganism.

But we should not be too gloomy about this. For each individual animal kept in a sanctuary, if they are looked after properly in a good environment tailored to their individual needs, whether they are a drop in the ocean or not does not really matter. That drop is the entire ocean for them. Statistics would not be relevant for them. Only nice food, water, shelter, health, enrichment, peace, and good company does. For each refugee living in a sanctuary, that new home means the world to them.

In the grand scheme of things, that’s everything.

By Jordi Casamitjana Author of ‘Ethical Vegan: A Personal and Political Journey to Change the World’ FORCA VEGAN

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Featured in issue 4:

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- Defining Veganism - Animals of our World, Cambodia - Fundraising for BYC / Vegan Uganda FC - Sunny Satva - Vegan Africa Fund - Barbara Helen - Animal Rights Music - Vegan Education in Ghana - Majeed Suhuyini, a Travel Freak - The Green & Pleasant Land - Vegan in Cambodia - Vegan-Run Animal Sanctuaries - Helping Animals in Tanzania + MORE

Featured in issue 3:

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- Kampala, Uganda - The Vegan Society of Kenya - Camp Beagle - Vibrant Vegan Society of Ghana - The Ghanaian Vegan - Unapologetic Vegtino - Vegans of India: Atul Sarin - Vegan For Half a Century - Vegan Capitalism - Inside SHAC - The Making of Animal Rebellion + MORE 162

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Featured in issue 2:

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- Gaza: Plant The Land - Athletes, Food & Diversity - Animal Rebellion Actions Update - ‘Is Your Vegan Chocolate Cruelty Free?’, featuring articles by Food Empowerment Project, Dr. Roger Yates, Plamil, Dapaah Chocolates & more - How Frustrated Activists Evolved During Lockdown - How To Argue With Vegans - Art of Compassion Project + MORE

Featured in issue 1:

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- Mexico - Dublin, Ireland - Fes, Morocco - Athens, Greece - Unapologetically Black - Hugletts Wood Farm Animal Sanctuary - Ethical Vegan - Chilis on Wheels - Integral Ahimsa, and the Dharma of Disruption: Anti-speciesism Activism in Pan-Dharmic Communities - World Day for Laboratory Animals + MORE FORCA VEGAN

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Issue 4 After Veganuary: What happens when the plant-based hype is over?

Building Collective Power through Community Kitchens...

Environmental Injustice & Chorkor Chemuenaa in Accra, Ghana Tomi Makanjuola & The Vegan Nigerian Kitchen Lisa Gawthorne: Entrepreneur, Team GB Athlete & Vegan Leader Heather Mills: VBites, World Records & what the future holds Hempen: Creating sustainable rural communities... + lots more!

Issue 3 Plant Based Treaty The Vegan Society at COP26 The Impact of Agriculture on Wildlife Wetnose Animal Aid Vegan Consumerism Within Ethical Capitalism Plant Based Health Online Greenbay: The UK’s First Omnichannel Vegan Supermarket Celebrates...

- What Exactly is Vegan Compleating?

- Jasmine Harman: Back In The Sun + lots more!

Issue 2 Feeding Your Vegan Child An interview with TVs Danny Hatchard Robert Cheeke & The Plant-Based Athlete Vegan Society: Planting Value in the Food System The Vegan Vet Crystal Bonnet: Queen of Raw Desserts, with Danielle Maupertuis V for Life A Day in the Life: Juliet Gellatley + lots more!

Issue 1 Vegan Compassion in Action: New Projects Launched to Tackle Human Hunger An Interview with Kirly-Sue Summer of ‘21: Bryan Adams on Tour Vegans Deserve Better than a Fruit Salad Grow Veganic, Save The Planet Is the Plant-Based Sector Immune to Greenwashing?

Top 20 Vegan Friendly Passport-Free Things to do in the UK this Summer + lots more!

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