Viva!Life Issue 71 | Summer 2019

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life

Published by Viva! the vegan campaigning group

Issue 71 Summer 2019

An audience with

Peter Egan Viva!’s new patron

‘The Fortune Teller’ Our new spring

on the stree of Britain ts

Ooh la la

Paris goes vegan

Book now!

Viva!’s Magnificent

lamb video

Hogwood the Movie Be part of our ground-

Anniversary Dinner

breaking documentary

Viva!

Poland …just keep on saving animals

s e i t u a e b e m i t Summer For outdoor dining

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who we ARe

Viva!’s fight is a fight for life – for animals and ourselves. Through effective campaigning, we take the brutal reality of intensive farming to the people who can effect the most change: consumers. our wide-ranging campaigns promote veganism as the best way to save animals from suffering, protect the environment and improve health. we have cleared most shelves of so-called ‘exotic meats’; our campaign against the factory farming of pigs, turkeys and ducks saw deaths dive; we are closer to a foie-gras free Britain and meat and dairy consumption are down in the uk thanks to Viva!, in part, and you. Viva! is a registered charity (1037486). viva.org.uk

Viva! health (a part of Viva!) really is the authority on everything to do with vegan diets and health. Staffed by qualified professionals, for over two decades it has championed vegan diets for what they really are – the key to a healthier way of living, a lower risk of killer diseases and a longer life. And it has done it with sound science. it publishes fully-referenced scientific reports on such important subjects as breast cancer, obesity and diabetes – but it can also tell you the difference between potassium and selenium; manganese and magnesium. in fact, its brilliant website gives you the complete A-z of Nutrients, the A-z of Diseases and A-z of Food. everything you want is there. vivahealth.org.uk

Contents

life 71

8 29 8

PeTeR egAN – A MAN wiTh A heART

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interviewed by Juliet gellatley

10 Moo FRee MAy Scary Dairy on the streets

14 BRiLLiANT BiRMiNghAM 25th Anniversary – review

17 ViVA! AwARDS Choose your favourite everything

18 ViVA!’S CoMeDy NighT Stand up – and get your tickets

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19 ALL ABoARD! Last call for dinner afloat

26 VegAN PARiS oui, oui – no kidding

29 SuMMeR CookeRy

how To geT ThiS MAgAziNe Join Viva! to get your copy of Viva!life magazine three times a year for only £15. You’ll also receive a supporters’ card – giving you discounts at hundreds of shops and on services and holidays (see myvegantown.org.uk/discounts) – plus a free car sticker. Call 0117 944 1000 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm) or join online at viva.org.uk/join.

The delicious outdoors

34 ViVA! PoLAND Prosecuting the abusers

36 hogwooD The MoVie help fund our new documentary

46 MeRChANDiSe Latest Viva! products

50 LiFeSTyLe Trendy vegan living

5 Lifelines 21 Viva!shakes 23 John Robb 24 Doctor’s Notebook 33 Cage Age petition 39 Team Viva!

40 Media Life 42 Life Science 45 Thank you 49 Restaurant reviews 53 Book Club 54 Classified 55 Viva!’s Podcasts

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Welcome

VIVA!LIFE MAGAZINE

As Britain continues to roll forwards along the vegan road, we’re there behind it, pushing with all our might as we always have done. There have been times in the last 25 years when progress seemed frustratingly slow but we knew we had truth, science and morality on our side.

Now, we have won all three of the big arguments – health, the environment and animals and gradually the rest of Britain is catching up with us – but it’s still far too slow so our work is far from done.

This is the second celebratory issue of Viva!life marking our 25th anniversary year and it is packed with things we have done, are doing and intend to do.

There’s no let up!

Our magical Birmingham Festival was a glorious celebration, with a whole variety of great speakers, cookery demonstrations and performances – including a magician and a star of Hogwarts, Evanna Lynch! (see page 14).

On page eight, I interview the wonderfully elegant actor, Peter Egan, possibly best known for his recent role as the Marquess of Flintshire in Downton Abbey, and discover that he is an absolute champion of the animals. And I’m delighted to announce that Peter has become a patron of Viva!.

Our exposé of sickening cruelty at Hogwood pig farm was, in some ways, a landmark event – not because it was exceptional but precisely because it wasn’t. Hogwood is typical of factory farming all across Britain and it was for this reason that the government, Tesco and Red Tractor ‘assurance’ refused to even acknowledge the cruelty. We now intend to shame them and their inaction by producing a documentary film that revisits Hogwood and exposes their shameful role in excusing animal abuse. I’m pleased to say that another of our patrons, Jerome Flynn, will present it. You too can play a part in this important project – see page 36.

A wonderful indication that veganism is storming previously impregnable barricades is our story on page 26 – a vegan guide to Paris. Yes – Paris, France! It’s a lovely and encouraging read.

Again, Viva! Poland continues to help determine the agenda for animals in that country, promoting veganism, influencing government and carrying out prosecutions against animal abusers (page 34). When I set up Viva! Poland in 2000, I could never have imagined how successful it would become and I am full of admiration for its manager, Cezary Wyszynski. I will introduce you properly to him in a future edition of Viva!life.

This is your last chance to sign up for our celebration dinner aboard a gorgeous River Thames cruise boat to see the sights of London, devour a delicious three-course vegan dinner, meet five of our patrons and many other lovely people and have a whole lot of fun. See page 19 and please join us if you can.

Yours for the animals

Juliet Gellatley Founder & Director Juliet@viva.org.uk facebook.com/juliet.gellatley

Viva! Founder & International Director Juliet Gellatley Editor Tony Wardle Campaigns Manager Lex Rigby PR & Marketing Manager Roisin McAuley Campaigns & Outreach Laura-Lisa Hellwig, William Sorflaten, Tayana Simons, Louisa Kendal, Sam Ashman Viva! Health Dr Justine Butler, Grace Forsythe Office Manager & Supporters’ Liaison Laura Turner, Nick Hallows, Beata Rzepecka-Wilk Merchandise, Business, Festivals & Events Liam Nolan, Kris Atherdon, Dani Lawton, Alice Short, Jem Adéola Food & Cookery Manager Maryanne Hall Design The Ethical Graphic Design Company Ltd Web Matthew Coffey, Conor Haines, Mark Schiller Podcast Presenter Kristian Townsend Database & IT Manager Jeremy Ludlow Editorial enquiries 0117 970 4633 Advertising enquiries 0117 944 1000 Membership enquiries 0117 944 1000 info@viva.org.uk Online viva.org.uk vivahealth.org.uk veganrecipeclub.org.uk vivavegancharity vivacampaigns vivacharity Viva!, 8 York Court, Wilder Street, Bristol BS2 8QH

General enquiries Contact Viva! on 0117 944 1000 (Mon-Fri 9-5) Email info@viva.org.uk Write to Viva! at: 8 York Court, Wilder Street, Bristol BS2 8QH 4

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vegan is a staTe of kind Kind to you, animals and the planet

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lifelines For Viva! Elders Vegetarian for Life (VfL) are our old friends who look after the interests of older vegans and vegetarians living in care homes or independently. They recently commissioned research that interviewed residents in some 1,000 care homes in the uk and found the number of vegan residents has almost trebled in the past five years. The total number of vegetarians and vegans in nursing and residential care is now estimated to be more than 7,000.

Amanda woodvine, Chief executive at VfL (and ex-health researcher at Viva!), said: “it’s great that more older people are choosing a vegan lifestyle and we’re working hard to ensure that there are adequate meals and snacks available for them. we have numerous recipes on our website and offer fully-funded, live cooking demonstrations in homes from our team of roving chefs.”

The charity has recently launched a free, Dietary Diversity in the Care Sector guide and has a list of more than 1,200 cares homes that have pledged to cater ethically for older vegans or vegetarians. Visit vegetarianforlife.org.uk/resources/publications to download a copy or order direct on 0161 257 0887.

Welsh Water Falls

Forward-thinking water board, welsh water, posted an advert on their Facebook page encouraging people to go meat-free for one day a week, saying: “Nearly onethird of agricultural water use is related to animal products.

Try going meat-free for just one day #watersavingweek”. it didn’t last long! Due to an angry backlash from welsh farmers, welsh water has been forced to delete the post. it was supposed to be part of a promotion to raise awareness that animal products have a much larger water footprint than crops. why pick on the farmers?

The average water footprint per calorie for beef is 20 times larger than for cereals and starchy roots. For protein from milk, eggs and chicken meat, it’s about 1.5 times larger than for pulses. Sorry boyos, but facts are facts!

Dietary diversity in the care sector

A guide to catering for people with aller gies, intolerances, and religious, philosop hical and cultural dietary beliefs

vegetarianforlife. org.uk

£2

where sold

Whistling in the Wind in response to news that plant-based food sales in ireland have increased by a staggering 40 per cent, zoe kavanagh, Ceo of the National Dairy Council, stuck her fingers in her ears and in between singing ‘la la la la la’ said that veganism would only last for another two or three years as it’s “too expensive and restrictive”.

She then crossed her fingers and added: “i don't think it’s forever”.

One in Four For zoe’s peace of mind, we hope she’s not a regular at Sainsbury’s because they’ve predicted that 25 per cent of Brits will be vegan or vegetarian within six years. its latest Future of Food report predicts how people could be eating in the future following huge changes in 2019: “… an unprecedented awareness of animal welfare, health concerns and eco-anxiety, resulting in consumers making more plant-based food choices”. it says that Britons are changing their diets by eating less meat. Today, meat reducers make up a third of Britons, vegetarians account for an eighth whilst those calling themselves vegan is 2.2 million. “with the rise of an ecologically aware new generation, driven by health concerns and environmental determination, vegetarians and vegans look set to make up a quarter of the British population in 2025 – flexitarians just under half”.

Education Begins at Home Anyone who watches BBC1’s Countryfile will know farmer/presenter Adam henson, who presents the happy face of farming for the programme – not an intensive unit in sight! he is calling for agriculture to be taught in schools at gCSe level so that young people can learn more about farming meat and make informed choices. “what drives me mad are the vegan vigilantes who post horrendous things on social media that aren’t true (name them please, Mr henson).

Are you better off eating a lamb that's been bred on my farm, grazed on beautiful Cotswolds pasture, or something that’s been shipped half way around the world and may have contributed to deforestation?” says Mr Adam henson, who owns a huge 1,600acre farm in the Cotswolds. ummm… there are other alternatives, Adam! will this education include filthy factory farms, the abject cruelty of dairy, broiler farms and caged hens? i think you’ve got your work cut out, Adam, considering your wife, Charlie, and daughter, ella, who stroll your flower-strewn meadows, are both vegetarian. Now why do you think that could be?

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Viva! Vivera Dutch food group, Vivera, has sold its enkco meat company to focus exclusively on the ‘strong growth opportunities’ in the plant-based market in europe. “we are one of the world’s first meat companies to say a final goodbye to meat,” said willem van weede, Ceo of Vivera Foodgroup. “From now on, we will focus only on plant-based foods which are really conquering the world. More and more consumers are discovering that plant-based products have many benefits for personal health, environmental impact and animal welfare”. he went on to pledge large-scale investment to expand their facility and expand their product range.

The Fortune Teller

Campaigns manager Lex Rigby recently managed to covertly film inside a small slaughterhouse that had scrubbed itself as clean as a new pin for an official visit.

No matter how unusual this cleanliness, it couldn’t hide the fact that the place is dedicated to taking the lives of creatures who don’t want to die – on this occasion lambs. Captive bold pistols are still used and throats are still cut. we wove this everyday happening into a short story to bring home the fact that killing animals for food is simply not acceptable. it has been distributed on social media and you can view it at viva.org.uk/fortune-teller.

Prodigious Poo After the Guardian ran a piece back in March on the horrendous environmental impact of harmful greenhouse gases and waste slurries generated by livestock farming – The Planet’s Prodigious Poo Problem – Julian Vincent from Bath responded: “The problems caused by apparent overabundance of cow faeces are at least partly in the control of the farmers, who feed a broad spectrum insecticide (Dimilin) to their cows. i did some of the early work on Dimilin and its purpose is to stop flies and beetles from feeding and breeding in the dung and creating infestations. But they also break it down, a crucial step in the removal of dung”.

Dimilin can remain active in the dung for a month or more, so when it’s disposed of, it’s still not possible for insects and other arthropods to survive or breed in it. Dimilin then becomes an added pollutant of run-off and water courses. oh poo!

Prada Drops Fur Prada has announced it will stop using animal fur from Feb 2020. Well it’s about bloody time guys, but great news for the animals.

George Monbiot …the day I became vegan george Monbiot went vegan a couple of years ago after discovering a river he loved, once beautifully rich with wildlife, had been polluted and all that subsequently flourished was sewage fungus. A slurry pipe from a local dairy farm was discharging into it. george reported it to the environment Agency’s pollution hotline, who eventually told him they were taking no action as there was no evidence of fish kill. it

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seemed there were no fish left to kill!

Two whistle-blowers from the eA wrote to george saying that despite reports of rivers being wiped out left, right and centre, they’d been instructed not to enforce complaints against dairy farms. That was when george decided to go vegan, saying: “i don’t want to be complicit in the destruction of these beautiful ecosystems”. you can read our interview with george Monbiot in the next issue of Viva!life.

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Carole Hayman obituary

Die for Dozens of Viva!’s vegan activists protested at the Coca-Cola sponsored London eye in June in defence of dairy cows everywhere. it was triggered by the horrendous suffering revealed in an undercover campaign by Animal Recovery Mission (ARM) at Fair oaks Farm (indiana, uSA). Not only is it one of the biggest dairy farms in the world, it is linked to CocaCola and supplies its Fairlife brand of milk. when you’re dealing with animal abuse on a regular basis, you have to develop coping strategies or you couldn’t do your job. But every so often, a piece of film makes you scream in anger and despair as you view behaviour that is so inhuman that you simply can’t comprehend it. in scene after scene, bewildered little calves are shown being punched, thrown, having

feeding bottles rammed into their faces with the purpose of hurting them, kicked, dragged, stamped on and tortured. Some are left to die in 100ºC plus heat. Cruelty is inherent across the world and Viva! Campaigns investigated more than a dozen dairy farms which supply big brands like Cadbury, Lurpak, Cravendale and Anchor. we filmed cruelty wherever we went and it, too, was sickening.

And that’s why we had to take action, talking to people at one of London’s biggest attractions, showing them footage from the uS and uk, giving them literature and listening to their almost universal condemnation of these farms; listening to the large numbers who said they were changing their diet. Make no STOP mistake – times are changing!

PRESS: COCA-COLA DUMP FAIR OAKS!

scarydairy.org.uk/die-coke BOZZIE, YOU WILL GO VEGAN

ARE YOU SURE PEOPLE WON’T THINK THIS PHOTO’S STAGED?

‘You Will Go Vegan!’

Boris Johnson penned an article for The Telegraph in 2008 in which he said: “i don’t want to seem churlish in the face of advice from a body as august and wellmeaning as the iPCC. But if they seriously believe i’m going to give up eating meat in the hope of reducing the temperature of the planet - then they must be totally barmy.”

Despite that, he has recently allegedly confided in a fellow Tory MP that he is ‘toying with going vegan’. he said he was ‘trying it out’. The decision is widely attributed to the influence of his 30-year-old girlfriend, Carrie Symonds, and who knows, maybe that’s what the big row was all about?

we have belatedly heard of the dearth of Carole hayman who has died aged 78. She was a passionate campaigner for animal rights and one of Viva!’s original members. She spent nearly 50 years educating and campaigning for change, after witnessing the slaughter of animals while living in rural italy in the 1960s. her persuasive letters to people in power elicited many positive replies, including from Nelson Mandela!

Carole worked for several animal rights organisations and spent many years leafletting, running stalls and protesting. in the last few years of her life, she took much pleasure from the visits of oliver, a local cat she had helped to rehome, who she really loved. She was so pleased to see the recent rise in veganism and was very supportive of Viva! and Juliet gellatley’s achievements.

The Establishment is Crumbling After 185 years of dairy cream on their strawberries, wimbledon has gone vegan (well, partially). Some of the 7,000 litres of dairy cream cream gave way to soya cream, plus there was a vegan sorbet and ice cream on offer. Not yet game set and match but veganism has shot up the seedings.

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Peter Egan and the

Meaning of Life

From humble beginnings, Peter egan became one of the uk’s finest actors and later, a staunch animal activist. he talks to Juliet gellatley, founder of Viva!, about his fascinating road of discovery n a cold, clear evening two years ago, the pig industry presented its annual awards at a London hotel. I stood outside with actor Peter Egan, projecting gigantic images from Hogwood pig farm on to a wall. He spoke to camera: “It’s absolutely appalling to have awards for such a cruel industry. I support everything Viva! is doing. To be a vegan is the most exciting and creative way of living – so become a vegan!”

Little wonder I’m a big fan of this guy – he is a genuinely lovely person with a massive heart, who is on a mission for the animals. He has used his status as a wellrespected actor to force some grisly issues into the spotlight. And he walks the walk in a way that most don’t.

So where did his journey to veganism begin?

“I’m one of those people who suffered from ignorance much of my life. I believed the happy pictures of animals and didn’t question it until my late 50’s, which I regret hugely.

“My wife Myra and I started rescuing dogs and that flicked the switch to other animal welfare issues. But it was a slow awakening until we rescued DJ. He was a spaniel-collie cross and I called him DJ because he had a white bib and a black coat like a dinner jacket. He reached my soul and was my gatekeeper who opened the door to animal welfare, which then led me through the most important door, animal rights.

“I saw the world through DJ’s eyes. I saw all the other animals that are abused. So, about 10 years ago, I

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started campaigning to protect dogs from abandonment and cruelty and that led me to my being asked by Jill Robinson, the founder of Animals Asia, one of the most inspiring people I’ve ever met, if I would visit China and help expose the deep horrors of bears farmed for bile.”

Over 20,000 bears – mainly moon bears but also sun bears and brown bears – are held in captivity on farms in Asia to have bile painfully extracted from their gall bladders. Most are kept in cramped cages, some so small that they are unable to turn around or even stand.

“It was heartbreaking to think a bear can live for 30 years in those cages and their bile extracted daily. It’s horrible.

“I was edging closer to vegetarianism and then I watched Earthlings and was gobsmacked – I had no idea that the problem was so enormous. I remember my wife came into the room as the film was finishing. ‘What’s the matter with you? You look like something terrible has happened’. I said, it has and I’m never going to eat meat again. And I haven’t! But I still ate fish!

“I was then told about the fascinating lives of lobsters and it dawned on me that fish and other sea animals have their own amazing lives and I stopped wanting to eat them. Last for me was cheese and chocolate. I did reduce them and then was asked to do Veganuary in 2016 and was happy to publicly go vegan.

My only regret is not doing it earlier – and that’s my very messy journey!”

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Photo credit: Maria Slough Photography

Not so much messy as a typical evolution. Viva!’s recent survey of 3,000 people showed that 86 per cent of vegans were first vegetarian. It shows how we are conditioned to eat certain animals and breaking free can be instantaneous but more likely gradual.

I put it to Peter that he would probably never have eaten meat if schools told children the truth; why it is vital to nurture love for our planet and all life. How all the animals eaten across the globe want happy lives, to play, have fun and be free. How manifestly disgusting it is to lock animals away and take their young lives for a slab of flesh. And imagine schools running fun vegan cookery lessons so you leave a superb chef! What a different world we would mould.

Instead, we are ripping the heart out of our planet and have immersed ourselves in an orgy of death. Peter agrees and talks with a deeply-moving sincerity: “Our desire for flesh of the innocents seems insatiable and we are great at creating smokescreens to justify our cruelty. We slaughter 50 billion farmed animals yearly so that six billion carnivores can eat them. We slaughter endangered species in the disgusting world of trophy hunting under the guise of conservation. We watch as foxes are ripped apart or bulls tortured to death under the guise of culture and tradition.

“Humans are very strange. We are waging war on every species on the planet and we do it with the belief that it is our right. We accept that elephants, the most stoic and gentle creatures, can have their spirit broken by brutal beatings in the horrible business of Phajaan, the Asian practice of breaking a young elephant’s spirit so they are submissive to humans. Why? So that tourists can ride on their backs or visit them in temples where they stand for hours on

the concrete floors where people seek blessings from a broken giant”.

In March this year, Peter put himself through a terrible ordeal when he filmed the plight of dogs killed for meat in Indonesian markets for Change for Animals.

He recounted his experience with a controlled passion that I recognised well: “There were 10 dogs in four cages awaiting their turn.

We could rescue only four so chose the youngest – the only way we could rationalise it. There was one big, older dog whose face I will never forget. He wouldn’t look at me… In rescue shelters, dogs rush to the front of the cage to make contact but these dogs were traumatised, with blood on their faces from witnessing their companions being slaughtered in the most disgusting manner. It exasperates and angers me – why can’t people see the cruelty they are creating?”

“Going to that market enabled me to publicise the trade and my piece on Sky News Online had millions of views.

It has to be seen to stop it, just as Viva! exposes cruelty in the UK. If you didn’t have your amazing undercover work, people would live in blissful ignorance, just as I once did”.

Peter has a passion for all life and a special place for dogs in his heart. In fact, it was his work with Saving Suffering Strays (SSS) in Sarajevo, with an extraordinary woman called Milena Malesevic, that led me to homing the noble wolf, Pablo, and bonkers fun-pup Lily. What a joy to share my life with them!

Peter Egan has the perfect theatre actor’s voice – deep and rich with impeccable pronunciation. “A bit posh, you mean…?” he asks.

Well, yes! In fact, his accent belies his upbringing.

“My background is totally working class, CONTINUED ON P57

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and that’s just the beginning

BY LAURA LISA HELLWIG

Last year’s MooFree May campaign was such a success that we launched another one in 2019 – a month-long initiative where we asked the public to ditch dairy for something kinder. And just like last year, it was a thumping success, reaching tens of thousands of people online and on the streets.

Armed with an array of eye-catching props, our campaigns team set off on a road trip to London, Cardiff, Glasgow and Liverpool. In tow were all our attractive educational materials about the dairy industry, our eye-catching, two-metre high banners and our big inflatable cow that everyone seems to love.

But there was more! We took along delicious vegan chocolate samples (kindly donated by Moo Free chocolates) and a selection of vegan cheeses (kindly donated by VBites). There’s nothing like a lovely, free, food sample to entice people into conversation.

It was a two-pronged approach just like last year – appealing to shoppers with tasty food samples and having a positive chat with our outreach team; and then helping them to discover the truth about dairy by watching Viva!’s hard-hitting undercover investigations.

The samples helped to show how good vegan products can taste, including the food the majority of people find hardest to give up – CHEESE! Our perfectly presented samples went down a storm. And let’s be honest, who wouldn’t be open for a chat about veganism when you get to munch a cracker with delicious vegan cheese and chutney?

Our chocolate samples absolutely flew out. One of our many hard-working volunteers had the particularly clever strategy of asking parents with children whether she could give the kids free chocolates – who could say no? She then took the opportunity to educate the mums and dads about the horrible fate of dairy cows having their babies taken from them – all while their children were happily eating cruelty-free chocolates. How poignant!

“Tastes just like cheese!”, “Tastes just like chocolate!” were the most common reactions to our samples. Jill from Cardiff was very sad to learn that calves are taken away from their mothers so that we humans can drink

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 Our vegan cheese samples went down a storm  What a great bunch of people in Liverpool

their milk. She decided there and then that she would not support this cruel industry anymore. She happily took our Everyone’s Going Dairy Free guide and downloaded our Vegan Recipe Club app for a smooth start to her vegan journey.

Another special facet of this year’s campaign was that local activists were able to apply to us for a small budget to purchase dairy-free samples to entice shoppers in their own localities! As a result, our amazing supporters ran more than 20 MooFree May events around the country.

Tony, who organised an event in Plymouth, said: “We had a successful day of outreach and many people were impressed with the plantbased samples we had on offer. We were pleasantly surprised by the response and look forward to holding another event!”

On top of taking our campaign to the high streets of Britain, we also played it big online. Our posts and videos about the health benefits of going dairy-free, animal welfare issues in the dairy industry and the huge negative impact on our planet, reached thousands of people. For example, did you know you could save the equivalent of 455 car miles, 284 showers and 26 days of central heating a year by switching to plant milk? Not many people know that!

Our YouTube ad, which poignantly educates people about the killing of bull calves, seen as useless byproducts of the industry, has reached over a million people now.

What a successful month of vegan activism MooFree May was! If you’d like to join us for a day full of fun and saving animals, sign up at viva.org.uk/streetaction to stay updated about our upcoming events.

 A big thank you V-bites and Moo Free Chocolates for donating samples  Lots of attention for our inflatable cow – not only kids love her!  Passers-by are very open to talking about the truth around dairy

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Obituary

Audrey Eyton It is with a very heavy heart that I write this tribute to Audrey Eyton (née Gray), who died on June 30, 2019.

You may not know her face or her name because she avoided publicity like the plague, preferring to tirelessly work behind the scenes to protect animals. But she was absolutely key to the formation of Viva!.

Audrey first contacted me when I was in my twenties after hearing me on BBC Radio 2 creating a bit of a storm with a campaign urging teens to protest about factory farming. She subsequently followed my work with the Vegetarian Society and when I left, we arranged to meet at the Liberal Club in Pall Mall.

I had this big idea to form the first organisation to campaign loud and proud on vegan issues and expose Britain’s factory farms. Problem was, I had no funding! I drew up a five-year plan, Audrey asked a few questions and gave me £20,000. I could now equip an office and buy everything I needed to launch our first campaign.

It is rare in life that you meet people with such faith, kindness and foresight. Audrey told Viva!life back in 2004: “I don’t support organisations, I support people…

I was entirely vindicated, Viva! established itself remarkably quickly, chose a good name and punched way above its weight.”

Audrey never asked for grant applications but instead voted with her wallet whenever she saw Viva! succeeding. Over 25 years, she donated £206,000.

She was a beautiful person, with heaps of common sense, emotional intelligence, humour and great business-savvy. Audrey’s compassionate journey began in Blackburn with parents sensitive to animals. Her father died when she was only 12 and at 16, she became a reporter on the Accrington Observer. Just three years later, she was beauty editor of Woman magazine, under the by-line ‘The Lovely Helen Temple’.

She spotted a gap in the market – slimming! With her then husband and no staff, she launched Slimming magazine in 1970 and later founded Ragdale Hall Health Farm in Leicestershire and several slimming clubs, which she sold in 1980.

Then came her extraordinarily best-seller, The F-Plan Diet. It sold four million copies and was the first diet book to start weaning people away from meat.

Amidst her success, she had to endure the worst possible nightmare – the loss of her two children.

Richard was only 10 days old when he died. Matthew ended his life at the age of 24 – a magnificently intelligent and handsome young man who had begun working with his mum to expose the horrors of factory farming. He won a post-graduate place at Cambridge University but from the age of 15, had a rapidly

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developing obsessive compulsive disorder. Audrey told me: “Matthew found humour in everything. He even made me laugh with droll jokes about his painful psychiatry, which went on for five years. He was a joy to be with – he had style.

“Matthew was vegetarian and very generous hearted. If he passed a homeless person in the street he would always give them £10 – usually my £10! He once brought a homeless woman to our house because he couldn’t bear her situation. He was a very inspiring person.”

Matthew’s life became unendurable and when he ended it, he left his mum a note asking her to continue helping animals. And she did, by founding the Matthew Eyton Trust in 1991 and funding projects to end farmed animal suffering. Poignantly, I remember Audrey saying: “I decided I couldn’t spend my life weeping and the best memorial is the way you live your life.

I wouldn’t want to go on living if I wasn’t contributing to this cause.”

The birth of Viva! is directly related to Audrey’s determination to honour her son’s life and one of my sons is named Finn Matthew in remembrance of Matthew Eyton.

Audrey moved to Canterbury where she lived until her death. She had been constantly active behind the scenes, talking to opinion formers – and rescuing pigs and studying their intelligence!

It is impossible to portray a lifetime of Audrey. She will be very warmly remembered for her cheerful ballsiness, go-get attitude, charm, positivity, bravery, astuteness, determination and, of course, incredible kindness. Audrey you are sorely, sorely missed.

JULIET GELLATLEY

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Standing up for Roisin McAuley talks to comedian Paul Donnelly Veganism and comedy – an unlikely pairing you’d think.

Not a bit of it I discovered when I met the delightfully refreshing Carl Donnelly, stand-up comedian, outspoken vegan activist and headliner for our Viva! Comedy Night (see page 18).

Soaking up the sunshine on a pop-art themed barge in the middle of London, we shared our vegan origin stories and Carl’s was typical of many: “I was a real big meat-eater who loved cooking and did that whole ‘nose to tail’ thing because I hated people who’d just buy prime cuts and not care that an animal had died for them. Me, I bought hearts, and livers and kidneys thinking I was in some way an ‘ethical’ meat-eater.”

As time went on, he found it more difficult to justify and then, one day, it all clicked into place and he went vegan overnight: “I went from the full-bloodied meat-eater cooking lamb’s hearts to never touching a piece of meat again.”

In the years following, Carl’s career went from strength to strength – twice nominated for the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Award and appearances on Mock the Week and Russell Howard’s Good News.

Despite describing himself as ‘a bit of a London lad’, he came across as something different – modest, relaxed and a very mindful person whose chatty style put me instantly at ease. He stressed that he was nonjudgemental and took a very gentle approach to veganism and I got the distinct feeling that he is an introvert at heart, despite being a comedian.

His sense of humour is self-deprecating and cynical – not witty one liners. Through this gentle style, he has perfected the comedic art of discussing serious topics in a light-hearted way, with veganism centre stage.

“I’m writing a new show that I’m taking to the Edinburgh Fringe in August. It’s not just about veganism but also environmentalism, which makes it sound like a bleak show but it’s not!

“It came from talking to friends who are still a bit anti-vegan or antienvironmentalism. I don’t think it’s because they hate the world or anything like that but because they’ve just lost faith that anyone can make a difference. That’s an interesting topic for a show, I thought!”

It does sound quite serious, I joked. Carl laughed: “Yeah, as I learnt in my preview last week!”.

So how do you make a serious Listen to topic funny, I asked?

Roisin’s full “If you tell somebody that what they’re doing interview with Carl on is wrong, it can have a backfire effect, making the Viva! Podcast them do it more. That’s why when I talk about viva.org.uk/podcast veganism, I try to make it personal so they don’t To book tickets for Viva!’s feel judged but at the same time I’m still Vegan Comedy Night promoting and endorsing it.” on October 26, see So does he get heckled? page 18 “I definitely still get a little moment of ‘ugh God!’ when I say I’m a vegan. You can just feel the slight reticence. But they soon see that I’m not going to start shouting ‘meat is murder!’”

With Viva!’s Comedy Night coming up in October, I had to ask him about vegan audiences.

“I normally ask if there are any vegans in and usually a couple of hands go up. With vegan gigs, I ask if there are any carnivores in and you get like five hands go up. I find it funny that they’re in the minority and you can play with that dynamic!”

Joining Carl in our line-up at the Glee Club in Birmingham (one of his favourite venues) are comedians Andrew O’Neill, Adele Cliff, and Matt Hoss, each with a very different style.

“I tend to be more into storytelling while Andrew looks like the lead singer in a goth band – he’s alternative, old school vegan.

Matt’s more of an upcoming guy who’s going out and creating these gigs. He’s got that proactiveness of a young comedian.”

Lastly, I had to ask him that old chestnut – where did he get his protein?

“From the vegan shop, of course. Go to the shop, buy a bag of protein.”

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a m h g n i m r i B

n n i v A e r s h a t ry F 5 2 a

Magic made real yes, it really was, with close-up vegan magic by Alex Shultz (what’s vegan magic? Much like ordinary magic but made from tofu!!!). But that wasn’t the only magic as the whole event was sprinkled with the star dust of 25 years of saving animals. evanna Lynch (of harry Potter fame) waved her vegan wand while in conversation with Juliet gellatley and captivated all those who came within range. we had more talks and cookery demonstrations at our incredible Birmingham Magical Vegan Festival than ever before, with Dirty Sanchez daredevil, Matt Prichard, demonstrating some of his recipes from his hugely popular cookery book, Dirty Vegan. in fact, everywhere you looked there were supernatural goings on.

An audience with Evanna Lynch! evanna (harry Potter’s Luna Lovegood) was in conversation with Juliet gellatley. She talked about her own journey to veganism and what activism meant to her – summed up with a quote by Paulo Coelho de Souza, Brazilian lyricist and novelist, best known for his novel The Alchemist: “you change people by your example, not your opinion”. Catch ‘An Audience with evanna Lynch’ on youTube now.

Matt Pritchard, daredevil and Dirty Vegan wales’ iron Man, Double iron Man, Triple iron Man, ultra-athlete, pro-skater and now vegan chef, television presenter and cookery book author! Matt first went vegan for endurance but the animals came soon after. he’s about to start his second series of the cookery programme, Dirty Vegan, for BBC wales. To salivating mouths, he cooked his signature dish, crispy tofu bang bang. here he is with our own Maryanne hall.

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Ruthie Adamson – Wonky Wordsmith Ruthie performed a rhyming roller coaster of vegan poetry, with all its ups and downs – enlightening, entertaining and utterly unique.

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r e y Festival to rememb Viva!’s Richard Buckley – mister Master Chef himself owner of Acorn Restaurant, Bath (the only vegan restaurant listed in the Michelin guide, 2019) and author of the vegan cookery book, Plants Taste Better. “what we do at Acorn is we take plants and we cook with plants, really quite simply”. his delicious mushroom and port parfait with glazed asparagus had the crowds wonderstruck. it is utterly sublime!

Battle to Save The World!

with a truly inside story, Viva!’s founder and director, Juliet gellatley, lifted the lid on threatened lawsuits, intimidation, insults and lies – the never-ending struggle to stop Viva! saving animals. And they’ve all failed! She told how our undercover teams continue to avoid the razor wire and security lights and spread the truth about factory farming across the uk. in another talk, she outlined a simple truth – why we don’t need dairy.

The Future is Plant Based heather Mills is an extraordinary woman – entrepreneur, champion skier and Viva! Patron – who nailed her colours to the vegan mast when she launched VBites Foods. heather talked us through the exciting new products being launched by VBites and the research and investment that goes into making them.

And as we go to press, we are delighted to report that heather has just won her 10-year-long law suit against what was the News of the World.

Dairy, Beef and Bullsh*t Tony wardle, Viva! Associate director and editor of Viva!life, introduced our new report, Envirocidal, which spells out just what’s happening to our planet and what needs to be done to rescue it. he also delivered his ever-popular talk, Dairy, Beef and Bullsh*t on why we don’t need meat and dairy and how the establishment goes out of its way to keep us eating them.

As well as the wide range of food and merchandise stalls, talks and demos were taking place – all over the place! Viva!’s cookery co-ordinator, Maryanne Hall, had the crowd open mouthed (in the hope of a sample) with her demo of soft and crunchy sweet peanutty snack bars, 10 minute tofish and white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake.

Mel Rodgers, vegan chef of Mel’s Kindness Kitchen, wowed people with her Two Cheezes for your Cheeseboard! – by demonstrating how to make two quick and easy (and delicious) vegan cheeses.

Brett Cobley, Epivegan vegan chef, demonstrated delicious sandwiches from his book, What Vegans Eat. Robbie Lockie, of Plant Based News, talked persuasively about Bringing Down The Tree of Carnism – how a mental shift within us can transform how we advocate for animal rights, transforming the attitudes of others.

Lex Rigby, Viva!’s campaigns manager, talked about what it’s really like to go undercover for animals, why we do it and how we take the results directly to people on the streets across Britain with our Face Off campaign.

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Celebrate everything vegan

14 – 15 March, 2020 Alexandra Palace London N22 7AY

veganlifelive.com

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‘s 25th Anniversary Awards

To celebrate Viva!’s special anniversary, we are giving Awards for excellence and innovation to people, products and places of your choice.

Results will be announced at our 25th anniversary dinner on September 21, 2019 (to find out more or to book a place at the dinner, go to page 19).

Please vote online at viva.org.uk/awards by August 15, 2019.

Viva!’s Action for Animals Awards These Awards will be given to people who have turned words into ACTioN and have represented Viva! in exceptional ways on a local level!

They are called Viva!’s Action for Animals Awards.

Nominate your choice online now!

Categories include (this is a partial list – to see the full list, go online). you don’t have to vote in every category, just choose the one(s) you feel strongly about Í Best vegan caterers Í Best vegan restaurant Í Best hotel/B&B for vegans Í Best pub for vegans Í Best new vegan product Í Best vegan meat product Í Best vegan cheese product Í Best vegan dessert Í Best vegan confectionery product Í Best vegan snack bar Í Best vegan drink Í Best vegan toiletries/cosmetic products Í Best food shop for vegans Í Best vegan footwear Í Best green energy company Í Best blogger and best vlogger

Animal Snap Be a part of our crucial work for animals by entering our Photo Competition to celebrate the animals we are fighting for. we are looking for high-quality photos of farmed animals – no matter what the setting. it could be images taken at home, a sanctuary, outdoors or an intensive, indoor farm – anywhere. They can be sad or uplifting, amusing or enraging but it is the animal we want to see. you can email us as many photos as you like, colour or black and white. if you use a phone camera, email it at the highest resolution.

AGE The competition is divided into three age categories: under 11s; 11-17’s; and 18 and overs.

PRIZE overall 1st prize: your photo will be on the cover of Viva!life , plus you’ll receive £50 of Curry’s gift vouchers… and there are plenty of runners up prizes.

ENTRY AND CLOSING DATE Please send your entries at hi resolution (minimum 2MB) to photo@viva.org.uk by october 30, 2019. viva.org.uk 17

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Stand up for Come and have a great night at our first ever comedy gig THE GLEE CLUB, BIRMINGHAM, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2019 Join Viva! in Birmingham at our first-ever Viva! Vegan Comedy Night on the exact date that Viva! was founded 25 years ago! Celebrate our 25th anniversary with us in style for a good laugh and a cheeky tipple.

Headlining we have the fantastic Carl Donnelly, star of Mock the Week as well as appearances on Dave’s One Night Stands, Russel Howard’s Good News and Stand Up for the Week (we interview Carl on page 13).

Carl is laugh-out-loud funny and one half of the hilarious podcast Two Vegan Idiots – the other half being Julian Deane.

Supporting will be Adele Cliff, from the Edinburgh Fringe, and Andrew O’Neil.

Adele is a one woman joke machine whose hilarious lines were picked for Dave’s Funniest Jokes of the Fringe in 2016 and 2017.

Andrew O’Neil is an alternative-alternative comedian – a black metal-obsessed, dark artsdabbling, vegan anarchist, who also fronts a chaotic hardcore steampunk band … He has ways of making you laugh!

Our MC for the night is Matt Hoss, who describes himself as a fat vegan comic (pleasantly chubby would be more accurate). He is an incurable romantic and hosts the regular comedy night, Viva Las Vegans. He’ll certainly warm you up!

Advance tickets – £15 Doors open 8.00pm Last entry 8.15 pm Book through booking.glee.co.uk/16055 For more info go to viva.org.uk/25/comedy-night

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You’ve gotta laugh!

Carl Donnelly

Andrew O’Neil

Adele Cliff Matt Hoss

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Celebrating

w i s t r h a V e i y va!

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Anniversary fund-raising dinner on the Thames with Patrons heather Mills, Michael Mansfield QC, wendy Turner webster, Jerome Flynn and Peter egan

Saturday 21 September 2019, 6.30pm-11pm When I started Viva! in 1994, I promised we would do everything we could to save animals. I truly believe we have kept our word and for that reason I really hope you’ll be able to join me, Viva! staff, supporters and five of our patrons for our 25th anniversary dinner celebration.

This is no ordinary dinner for we will be aboard the beautiful Thames cruiser, the Elizabethan as it glides beneath Tower Bridge, past spectacular London landmarks and out towards the Thames barrier.

You will be greeted with a glass of Prosecco as you step aboard, before being seated in a resplendent setting for a gourmet, three-course vegan dinner. There will be after-dinner speeches by me and five of our patrons followed by an auction and raffle. I will review Viva!’s extraordinary range of successful campaigns and show our 25th Anniversary film. Winners of our Special Viva!

Awards will be announced.

I can promise you, it really will be an evening to remember – as Dr Paul Divall says: “Gina and I have attended seven Viva! fund-raising dinners. They are the most amazing opportunity to celebrate with likeminded people the wonderful work of Viva!. We come away feeling uplifted and renewed”.

Please join us to celebrate our achievements and raise more funds for more successes for the animals. I really look forward to sharing it with you.

Juliet Founder & Director

GUEST SPEAKERS: “Congratulations Viva! on your 25 years of spearheading the vegan revolution. Can’t wait to be with you at this special dinner.”

Apart from being the fastest disabled women on skis at 104 mph, Heather has overseen the extraordinary expansion of her vegan food company, VBites. “i’m really looking forward to celebrating Viva!’s 25th anniversary – it’s going to be a great night. 25 years of saving animals! i hope to see you there!”

Peter Egan, actor (Downton Abbey, Ever Decreasing Circles, Midsomer Murders, Home Again, Grantchester) “Viva! woke me up to the horrors of factory farming many years ago. i admire your work and i am honoured to be a guest at your 25th anniversary dinner.”

Jerome Flynn, actor (Game of Thrones, Ripper Street) “My favourite fundraising dinners are Viva!’s! i never miss them because they are an incredible night out for an incredible charity.”

Wendy Turner Webster, TV presenter/ producer (Crafty Beggars, Pet Rescue) “Viva! is an amazing tour de force shining the vegan light for the world. i’m honoured to be a guest speaker and look forward to every minute of this special celebration.”

Michael Mansfield QC, criminal defence barrister (cases include Stephen Lawrence, the striking miners, Bloody Sunday, the Marchioness disaster, Hillsborough and Grenfell Tower).

Book now

Tickets cost £130 and are first come first served. Book online at viva.org.uk/dinner or phone 0117 944 1000

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t i e k a Sh ke it SShhaake it …the Viva!Shakes way

Our Viva!ccino tour across Bristol, Birmingham and Leeds, distributing free vegan cappuccinos in partnership with Oatly, was a huge success. And so we’re hitting the road once more to Shake it Up. The target this time is seven university campuses across England to show students just how tasty dairy-free milkshakes can be and dispel any lingering myths that plant milks are anything but delicious and indulgent and that veganisam is best for animals, the planet and our taste buds. So, if you know anyone who’s going to Warwick, Sheffield, Manchester, Nottingham, Bristol, Southampton or Cambridge University this autumn, spread the word!

We will have stalls at each university fresher fair, when thousands of new students engage with societies, businesses and charities. We’ve no doubt that the two words, ‘free’ and ‘milkshakes’ will go down extremely well among students, who are always hungry for both. Their choice will be from salted caramel, breakfast berry, chocolate cookie and peanut butter-banana shakes, all doled out from our wonderfully colourful stall, manned by our knowledgeable campaigns team. Viva! and veganism may well gain legendary status in a matter of days amongst the students of England.

This tour marks the start of a great new campaigning approach where part of our team will focus on 18-24 year olds. Scientific research tells us that this is the age group most consistently open to veganism and willing to make lifestyle changes. This is the time when young people suddenly realise they’re going to need to cook and fend for themselves.

Viva! will be there to engage with them, to raise awareness of the inherent cruelty farmed animals have to endure and to make sure they’re aware of the environmental destruction that animal agriculture creates.

Plus, we’ll provide the answers to all their vegan questions.

With leaflets and guides on veganism plus a specially-designed guide for student cooking on a budget (oh yes, and free milkshakes), the Viva!Shakes stall is bound to be a studentfriendly, vegan-positive hit.

The number of university vegan societies is growing rapidly and our Viva!Shakes campaign will be a great way of engaging with them to plan future campaigns together.

Viva!Shakes will mark just the beginning of our presence on university campuses.

We reckon that welcoming new students with a delicious vegan milkshake, backed up with knowledgeable information from our bright campaigns team, is a great way to set students on the road to saving animals and our planet.

WHERE WE WILL BE • Warwick (September 21) • Sheffield (September 22) • Manchester Metropolitan (September 23) • Nottingham (September 24) • Bristol (September 25) • Southampton (September 27) • Cambridge (October 8 and 9)

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V-Biz

The latest businesses to join our Supporter’s Discount Scheme or to carry a Viva! Vegan Symbol. Join Viva! to get these great discounts at viva.org.uk/join

Botonique

botonique.com Botonique – Botanical Dry Drinks for Wine Lovers – offer a dry, crisp complexity, minerality and long finish (normally only found in good wine) – but without alcohol. Unique flavours derived from a host of botanicals.

They are delicious and totally vegan. One Champagne flute contains up to 75 per cent of the RDA for B12. Botonique say that the Prelixir nutrients replace what alcohol depletes, are alkalizing, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, detoxing, hydrating and digestive. Phew!

DISCOUNT: 10% WITH CODE VIVA!

Patifu

patifu.co.uk Patifu distribute, import and export natural gourmet foods, including delicious Patifu tofu pâtés produced by Veto Eco, a Czech company specialising in plant-based pâtés, steaks, sausages and deserts. DISCOUNT: 20% PLUS FREE DELIVERY ON SIX OR MORE. CODE: VIVA20OFF

Viva! is proud to work with like-minded people to promote a cruelty-free lifestyle and bring you the latest info on vegan products and services – plus amazing discounts

FLIP

Gooseberry

gooseberrygiftsuk.simplesite.com etsy.com/shop/gooseberrygiftsuk Gooseberry make eco-conscious gift baskets and ‘nappy cakes’ – the perfect gift for new parents and ideal for baby showers. Products are biodegradable, organic or sustainable and everything involved is either biodegradable, reusable, or recyclable (including the Cellophane).

DISCOUNT: 15%. GET IN TOUCH TO APPLY DISCOUNT

flipfood.co.uk Serving simple, yet exquisite dishes and selling delicious deli treats for you to take home. “Proud to be working with many of Bristol’s small, local artisan food producers and with the environment close to our heart, we aim to be plastic free”. All takeaways will be in compostable or reusable packaging. DISCOUNT: 10%

Tusk Baltic

tuskbaltic.co.uk Tusk Liverpool restaurant offers gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan options.

Donations to an elephant sanctuary are given on certain purchases. Tusk were the first to offer carbon free dining and paper straws. DISCOUNT: 10% OFF EVERYTHING, ANYTIME

Want to partner with Viva! to offer your vegan products and services to new audiences?

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Viva! and The Save Movement Few people have ever looked into the eyes of an animal who is close to death. But this is exactly what impassioned activists of The Save Movement and Viva! do when they bear witness to the dairy industry’s mass slaughter.

June 14 was International Live Transport Awareness Day and, along with The Save Movement, we chose that day to launch our latest campaign video. It was to raise awareness of how animal lovers are coming together to bear witness at slaughterhouses and Face Off against the injustices of factory farming.

We know from our public opinion polling that most people are simply unaware that dairy cows need to be made pregnant and deliver a calf every year in order to produce milk. Like us, they have a nine-month pregnancy – unlike us, each time they give birth, their babies are cruelly taken from them. Because of the huge physical and emotional demands made upon them, exhaustion comes quickly – often after just two or three years of calving.

Once that happens they are labelled ‘spent’ and are loaded onto transport trucks bound for the slaughterhouse. Some travel long distances and most will be alone and frightened at the end of their life’s journey – discarded pieces of trash just like their babies.

Viva! exposes the shocking reality of British dairy farming and promotes veganism becaue it is the only way to truly save animals.

It’s why we support The Save Movement and their moral courage in not averting their gaze but facing the barbarity. So join us, bear witness and choose a kind and healthier diet – choose vegan.

To watch our video and to order a pack of new leaflets supporting The Save Movement, visit: viva.org.uk/the-savemovement. For more information about vigils near you see: thesavemovement.org.

Back to the meat?

Never trust a vegan relapse!

A big problem with veganism getting popular is the number of chancers clambering aboard its plant-built chassis.

There are now endless Instagram accounts with gurning, skeletal models and barely-qualified influencers, with carefully retouched paradise photos of themselves gulping down raw drinks.

They may look aesthetically pleasing (slightly) but in the long term, they’re quite damaging. No one can ever attain the perfect lifestyle they’re pedalling and the whole notion of snooty perfectionism is just not really helping to keep our furry friends alive.

It’s the kind of thing that really pisses off the fence sitters.

The ‘um’ and ‘err’ crew who fancy the idea of meat-free but see this too-perfect grimacing as unobtainable. Veganism can only win when it becomes normal and it’s already doing that through its own strong ideas. Even in the sweaty, stinking gym world of my local weight room, the notion of veganism is no longer seen as the devil’s work. A few of the bigger, lumpy muscle heads have actually opted for that lifestyle.

Recently, some of the Instagram influencers have hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Their devout munching of one gooseberry a day, washed down by squeezed Goji berry juice, has unsurprisingly made them quite ill. They blame their fatigue on veganism and not their own stupidity.

Their lack of fibre – both moral and food-wise – has pushed animal welfare from their minds and they have gone back to meat.

Now, there is nothing weirder than someone who gives up eating dead flesh only to return to it with arms and drooling mouths wide open. And then they make half a career shouting that veganism is ‘bad for you’.

It is the lowest of the low in the diet wars, creating a whole bunch of negatives and fake news stews out of a beautiful positive. Next time you want to set yourself up as an unqualified diet expert, look at food as something more than an aesthetic aside.

Please do some research. Please do some reading. Food is one of the great pleasures in life – one that doesn’t have to be balanced with pain for the poor animals.

Also, if you opt back into the pointless world of eating flesh, don’t make a song and dance about it.

Veganism isn’t the pernicious perpetrator of fatigue, that is vanity, self-obsession and stupidity.

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Photo © Melanie Smith

Media man, punk-bred John Robb

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Doctor’s Notebook

BY DR JOSH CULLIMORE

A ‘Great Food Transformation’ is needed Poor diet – low in wholegrains, fruit, vegetables and nuts – now kills more people than smoking, alcohol and illegal drug use combined.

As a GP, I am seeing first-hand the explosion in chronic diseases that are now our biggest killers. As a result, I am passionate about empowering my patients by encouraging them to change their diets, improve their health and even save their lives.

When I talk to them about their diets, I realise there is still widespread confusion about what constitutes a healthy diet. Some even try to reassure me by saying they ‘eat lots of meat’. Truth is, the evidence is now crystal clear that the less meat and other animal products you eat, the better your health is likely to be.

Vegan diets are associated with significantly lower rates of many chronic diseases, such as ischaemic heart disease, strokes, hypertension, obesity, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers. For example, the rates of cancers overall are up to 19 per cent lower in vegans. As a result, the World Cancer Research Fund encourages people to follow a mostly plant-based diet and the World Health Organisation advises people to increase their consumption of fruit, vegetables, legumes, wholegrains and nuts. Chronic diseases that result from a person’s lifestyle are all driven by inflammation and wholefood, plant-based diets are rich in phytonutrients which reduce this inflammation by a variety of mechanisms. Mortality rates are 15 per cent lower in vegans.

Some communities are living examples of this. ‘Blue Zones’ are five regions in the world where people live much longer than average and have the highest number of centenarians. They all share six key characteristics that account for it: strong family connections, social engagement, not smoking, constant physical activity, predominantly plant-based diets, and significant legume intake. One of these Blue Zones is Okinawa in Japan, where 70 per cent of their diet is sweet potatoes, 12 per cent rice, seven per cent grains, six per cent soya and legumes, and less than four per cent is animal products.

A recent international collaboration of 37 scientists from the world’s biggest medical journal, the Lancet, concluded that a ‘Great Food Transformation’ is

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required to improve human health and save our environment from catastrophic damage. Their mostly plant-based Planetary Health Diet, rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes, wholegrains, nuts and unsaturated plant oils, would prevent 11 million people from dying prematurely each year and prevent the worst effects of catastrophic climate change.

I have seen several remarkable improvements in the health of my patients who have followed my advice and adopted a wholefood, plant-based diet. For example, one 45 year old man with type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure was keen to stop his medication due to side effects.

He was initially confused when I advised him to adopt a plant-based diet, assuring me that he only ate white meat and eggs. I spent 10 minutes outlining the evidence to him, gave him a copy of Dr Michael Greger’s book How Not To Die, directed him to some good recipes

Dr Michael Greger is a scientific adviser to Viva! and runs the global, free, public health website, NutritionFacts.org.

His book, How Not to Die, is available from the Viva! shop (Vivashop.org) £9.95 plus £3.95 p&p)

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and advised he take a supplement containing vitamins B12 and D and iodine.

He seemed very motivated to make the changes so, rather reluctantly, agreed to stop his blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetic medications. (Important Point – do not stop or change your medication without first seeing your doctor). When he returned four months later, he said he had adopted a 100 per cent wholefood diet and started going to the gym.

I was astonished by the results: not only had his blood pressure dropped from 143/92 to 119/71 and his cholesterol from 4.8 to 3.5, he had completely reversed his type 2 diabetes, bringing his HbA1C (the key measure of blood sugar control, which should be under 42) down from 58 to 26. Both the patient and I were over the moon! He was so excited about how much better he felt that he had started trying to turn his friends vegan too!

Another recent patient weighed 112kg and was classified as obese. He, too, was motivated but doubted he had time to read How Not To Die so I recommended he watch the documentary, Forks Over Knives and used Michael Greger’s Daily Dozen app, which identifies the

a strong knowledge base of nutrition should be core for every doctor important foods you need to eat each day (available from the App Store).

A few months later he came back and I almost didn’t recognise him! He had lost a whopping 18kg! He was ecstatic that he had so much more energy and was able to run and play with his children without quickly becoming short of breath. Successes like this really do make my job worthwhile.

Other resources that have helped my patients include the books The Plant Based Solution, by Joel Kahn, and Undo It, by Dean and Anne Ornish, and the app 21 Day Vegan Kickstarter.

So why aren’t more doctors recommending plantbased diets to their patients? Partly it’s because they simply don’t have enough time to discuss lifestyle measures in sufficient depth but it’s also both a lack of knowledge and a lack of confidence in advising on diet.

When I was at medical school, we had approximately four hours of teaching in nutrition in five years and unfortunately, things have not improved much since.

The medical school I teach at still has only eight hours of nutrition in five years but I am trying to encourage them to increase this, in conjunction with the studentled national medical organisation, Nutritank. Those doctors who do know more about nutrition have usually gained their knowledge through their own reading and research, from postgraduate training or, as I did, with a Masters degree in Public Health.

I believe that a strong knowledge base of nutrition should be core for every doctor. In the meantime, whilst some doctors are playing catch up, I highly recommend that everyone takes their health into their own hands by adopting a wholefood plant-based diet in order to feel better, reduce their risks of chronic disease and add years to their life.

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Discover WITH VIVA!’S MARYANNE HALL

Vegan(yes,Preaallryi)s

rance has never been seen as a top vegan destination but in true Parisian style, veganism has emerged, understated and cool, permeating an entire district before anyone really noticed.

The shift has been gradual but it’s certainly not lacking passion, drive, creativity and variety. You can find an abundance of choices – cafés, restaurants, fine dining, junk food, health food, concept stores and even VeggieTown, a whole area dedicated to meat-free living.

I was able to eat my way around vegan Paris courtesy of France écotours, discovering the secret side of my favourite city – one of the most enjoyable holidays ever.

Even the wonderfully friendly, shabby chic Zazie Hotel where I stayed was ethically driven (3, rue de Chaligny 75012 Paris).

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We enjoyed seitan steak with peppercorn sauce, thickcut homemade chips, faux gras, vegan steak tartare and lasagne. I’ve never tried the meat versions of these dishes but I was told there was a likeness. The cheeses looked incredibly inviting but were a bit too strong for my taste.

They were followed by a quartet of desserts, including a mini raspberry pavlova, lemon financier cake, biscuits with hazelnut praline and mini cheesecake. They were heavenly but unable to finish them, I proudly requested a ‘sac de chien’ and everyone laughed. It turns out the French say ‘doggy bag’ too… of course they do.

Hoping to get some tips for Vegan Recipe Club, I asked Olivier the secret to his incredible dishes. In true Parisian style, and with a hint of mischief, he responded with one word… ‘love’. The experience was complete and I felt a strange nostalgia for a life I’ve never lived.

Comptoir Veggie (75, avenue Ledru-Rollin 75012)

Le Faitout Restaurant (23, av Simon Bolivar 75019 Paris) A traditional French bistro with house wine, soft French bread, plates of charcuterie, cheese platters, melt in the mouth truffle dip… all vegan.

Sophisticated-looking couples were dining al fresco while family groups were inside creating charming, Gallic havoc. More surprisingly, conservative countrymen were drinking wine, smoking cigarettes and eating seitan steaks!

The restaurant was not originally vegan and owner, Olivier, didn’t want to lose the taste of traditional cuisine so created seitan charcuteries and strong cheeses using a two a month fermentation process. He initially had to give the food away free in order to entice people in.

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In total contrast to Le Faitout, breakfast at Comptoir Veggie was healthy indulgence, inspired by Californian cafés, with a minimalist but cosy interior. Owner Justine was down to earth, warm and hugely welcoming. With her battered Levis, colourful head scarf and gold Converse, she exuded alternative chic.

Homemade waffles were on offer with sweet and savoury fillings. I opted for the house special of scrambled tofu, fresh guacamole and homemade barbecue sauce. The cappuccinos were overflowing and there was an array of cheesecakes, carrot cake, chocolate gateau and brownies.

Like most of the vegan business owners we met in Paris, Justine was primarily vegan for the animals but also acutely aware of the environment, she has focused on healthy, organic, seasonal options.

This holistic outlook seems to have been embraced throughout the vegan scene in Paris, none more so than the concept store we went to next.

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2019

VG Pâtisserie (123 Boulevard Voltaire, 75011 Paris) Picture the most tantalising, mouth-watering traditional Parisian bakery but all vegan! I had to have the most iconic cake, le frasier… double cream, moist, fluffy sponge, marinated strawberries topped with fresh, zingy jelly. Delicious!

Jay & Joy (5, rue Paul Bert 75011 Paris)

Today Tomorrow (42, rue du Chemin Vert 75011 Paris) I’d never been in a vegan concept store and it’s a pretty special place. The founders wanted to encapsulate the whole vegan lifestyle under one roof, including café, ethical clothing, footwear, beauty products and groceries. If someone came in wanting to buy some cool, ethical clothes, they might then be drawn to the delicious burgers, salads and cakes and be introduced to veganism this way.

The store also hosts conferences, workshops, training, events and gigs. I was pretty impressed and wondered why we didn’t have anything like it in the UK. Raphael, the co-founder, positively oozing Parisian cool, described how he wanted to ensure the store was affordable for everyone. They’d sourced footwear from all over Europe, including Wills and Vegetarian Shoes from the UK. Crowd funding helped them to start up 18 months ago.

Les Petites Patisseries Next door to the store was an exquisitely-beautiful Parisian cake shop called Les Petites Patisseries. I lusted after its mille-feuille, fruit tartlets, macarons, brownies and gateaux in vain, knowing that France’s obsession with baked goods hadn’t progressed beyond eggs, butter and double cream.

To my utter amazement, this little gem was in fact 100 per cent vegan and completely raw!

After the slightly overpowering cheese experience at Le Faitout, I braced myself for the sampling session at Jay & Joy – a tiny vromages factory in the heart of Paris’s 11th arrondisement run by husband and wife duo, Marie Carmel and Eric. Marie Carmel explained that her objective was to create a cheese outlet that was the happiest place around, hence the name. I did feel joyful and inspired! She explained that cheese is the biggest obstacle to people embracing veganism in France, “Whenever you go to a social event, restaurant or party you’re expected to eat cheese in the form of sharing platters and there’s a stigma attached to rejecting these offerings.”

The business idea started when she decided to take her own cheeseboard to an event so others could see the potential of vegan cheeses.

I tentatively took a bite of the first cheese on offer – a ‘goat’s’ cheese – and couldn’t believe how incredible it was, and I mean another level of good!

Everyone in the group was blown away and even the non-vegans said they couldn’t tell the difference between that and goat’s cheese. It was a game changer, made from cashew nuts and sunflower seeds.

Marie Carmel had difficulty in obtaining the yeast, bacteria and mould she wanted from Roquefort because they didn’t believe it would work for non-dairy cheese. But she persisted, they gave in and the evidence speaks for itself! At five Euros for a pack of this heavenly stuff, it’s pretty affordable in the world of artisan, nut-based cheeses.

I also bought joie gras – a vegan version of ‘fat liver’.

I’ve never (thankfully) eaten the original so while I can’t vouch for its authenticity, I can vouch for its deliciousness – an array of spices and cloves in a rich alcoholic base. Jay & Joy are currently supplying over 900 stores and eateries around France and are moving to bigger premises due to demand. All I can say is – please start selling in the UK! 

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BrEAThe (16, rue Henry Monnier 75009 Paris) It doesn’t get any more sophisticated than a former 19th century tea room with gorgeous original features. An old haunt of Baudelaire, this was Paris at its opulent best. One of the owners, Laeticia, explained that she transitioned into veganism gradually after watching the documentary Earthlings. She feels optimistic about veganism in France and now, even her (meat-obsessed) father cooks plant-based meals.

The laid-back and fun restaurant provides creative, fusion cuisine with an Asian/Parisian twist, plus tapas and cocktails in the evenings. The highlight has to be the onsite traditional pastry chef who has shifted his focus to vegan pastry.

Association Végétarienne de France (84, rue d’Hauteville 75010 Paris) The Association is really succeeding in encouraging veganism in France and getting vegan options in to schools. Jean-Benoit (head of the Association) explained that eight in 10 French people now eat less meat, more than 40 per cent want vegan options and 11 per cent of 16-25 year olds are vegetarian or vegan. And, like the UK, their motivation is largely for the animals. As we were told at Jay & Joy, refusing food in France is not part of their culture and managing this deeply ingrained expectation is concerning for French vegans.

Veggie-Town (between the 9th and 10th arrondisement) Yes this really exists – with vegan cafes, restaurants and lifestyle shops springing up everywhere (make sure you get a map!). After wandering around like kids in a sweet shop, we ended up in the artisan chocolate shop, Ala. I didn’t know chocolate could taste like this!

The hot chocolate is supposedly the best in Paris so of course we tried it… rich, sweet liquid velvet with the highest quality cocoa beans and all ethically sourced.

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Aperitif dînatoire (and vegan food & wine pairing) with Double V 11 (rue Lepeu 75011 Paris) Arriving at a ground floor studio with exposed brick and contemporary artwork, we saw the table of delights awaiting us.

Claire Brachet, Oenologist (specialist wine maker) and author of Des Vin Vegans et Vegetaliens, treated us to an evening of wine pairing with tapas. With a family background in wine and restaurants, it’s obviously in the blood. When she turned vegan, she wanted to continue the socially important combining of wines and foods, tastes and flavours. Her book highlights over 100 wines from 50 different French estates, their production techniques and tasting notes.

I had to miss the final day of our tour but it involved more incredible treats. There was a guided tour of the King’s Garden at Versaille by the head of its arboriculture team and a great fan of permaculture and agroecology. Depending upon the weather, a picnic in the gardens of Versailles and then a stroll to St MichelNotre Dame, Ile de la Cité and the Halles district.

There was also a visit to the Véganie cosmetics shop (96, rue Quincampoix 75003 Paris) – an essential addresses in the Parisian vegan lifestyle – and a meeting at the vegan fashion boutique, Manifeste 011 (14, rue Jean Macé 75011 Paris).

This was a truly remarkable trip, on top of all the other reasons for visiting Paris! It seems the UK is revered as a vegan haven by the French so it’s nice to see we’re doing something right in the eyes of our close neighbours. France écotours were exceptionally sensitive to everything that a vegan, veggie or v-curious would want to see, taste and experience.

French vegans are taking tentative steps towards veganism as they are highly sensitive to the country’s deeply-rooted gastronomical culture and its resistance to anything too sectarian. The Parisians we met were approaching the issues softly and subtly, first encouraging people to relax and then raising awareness of their vegan ethos – and it may just be working.

To take part in this trip or one of France écotours other incredible vegan adventures, visit their website france-ecotours.com. They have my recommendation.

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e r m t … i e m m Su

Some gorgeous delicacies for outdoor dining

If you’re heading out into the sunny countryside (we hope) – or even the back garden for that matter – there’s no need for deprivation. Viva!’s whizz with the whisk, and royalty with the recipes, Maryanne Hall, has some lovely palate pleasers for your day outdoors. All tried and tested – and photographed – by her, they will be failure-free and sure to please.

One, of course, is a barbecue, for what is summer without puffing and blowing on reluctant charcoal?

Summer Pea & Mint Soup

Serves 4-6 | 35-40 minutes (serve warm or chilled) This recipe comes straight from our Here Comes Summer recipe guide: 25 sun-drenched recipes to cook and share over the summer months (or just about any time of year!). Chill it, pop it into a container and take it with you. vivashop.org.uk/here-comes-summer-recipe-guide l 1 bunch spring onions, trimmed and roughly chopped l 1 medium potato, peeled and diced l 1 garlic clove, crushed l 850ml vegetable stock l 900g young peas in the pod or 250g frozen peas l 4 tbsp chopped fresh mint

l Large pinch sugar l 1 tbsp fresh lemon or lime juice l Vegan buttermilk. In a jug, mix 150ml unsweetened soya or other plant milk l 2 tsp of ONE of these: lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, or white vinegar l Stir with a fork or whisk

1 Make the buttermilk and set aside.

2 Put spring onions into a large pan with potato, garlic and stock. Bring to boil, turn down heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until soft.

3 Add peas and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Don’t overcook.

4 Stir in mint, sugar and lemon/lime juice, cool slightly then blend to preferred consistency. Stir in half the buttermilk and season.

5 Serve in bowls with remaining buttermilk and top with fresh mint, croutons and toasted mixed seeds (optional).

From our new Here Comes Summer guide.

Available from vivashop.org.uk

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Tofu Tikka Kebabs Serves 4 | 25 minutes (plus 1 hour chilling time) l 420g firm tofu l 5 tbsp soya sauce l 200g plain soya yoghurt (unsweetened) l 3-4 tbsp vegan tikka paste l 1 tbsp gram flour, sieved l 2 green peppers, cut into bite-sized chunks

Leek, Mushroom & Blue ‘Cheese’ Quiche Serves 8 | 60 minutes

Pastry l 1 sheet ready roll shortcrust (eg JusRol or supermarket own brands) Filling l 2 medium leeks, trimmed and thickly sliced l 150g mushrooms, sliced (around 0.5cm thick) l 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped l 1 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped or use dried parsley l 350g firm tofu l 150g vegan cream cheese l 110ml plant milk

l 3 tbsp nutritional yeast l ½ tsp turmeric (more will increase the yellow colour) l 1 tbsp lemon juice l 2 tsp syrup (eg agave or maple etc) l 1 tbsp Dijon mustard l 1 tbsp corn flour l 1½ tsp salt (alternatively use black salt/Kala Namak – it has an eggy taste) plus more for seasoning l Pinch black pepper l 250g vegan blue cheese (eg Sheese, supermarket own brands, Violife)

1 Preheat oven to 190˚C/375˚F/Gas Mark 5.

2 Roll out pastry block to fit a large flan dish (25-28 cm/10-11 inch) and spread evenly with your fingers.

3 Roll a rolling pin over top of pastry to remove excess.

4 Refrigerate.

5 Heat some oil in a lidded frying pan on low/medium heat, and add leeks.

Pop lid on and leave for 5 minutes.

6 Remove lid, add mushrooms and turn up heat.

7 Stir frequently for a few minutes.

8 Add garlic, parsley and season to taste. Cook a further 2 minutes and turn off heat.

9 In a blender, add tofu, cream cheese, plant milk, nutritional yeast, turmeric, lemon juice, vegan syrup, Dijon mustard, corn flour, salt and pepper and blend until very smooth. Taste and add more of any ingredient as desired.

10 Remove pastry case from fridge, spoon a little of leek/mushroom mixture over the bottom. Crumble half of the blue cheese over. Add half tofu mix, evenly spread. Repeat this stage again until all vegetables, tofu mix and cheese have been used. Finish with a cheese/vegetable layer.

11 Cover with foil or baking parchment and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil/baking parchment and bake for a further 15-20 minutes or until golden and bubbling.

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l Pinch of salt and pepper l 1 tsp lemon juice (optional) l 1-2 tsp syrup (eg agave, optional) l 1 serving of our raita recipe

1 Drain liquid from tofu, pat dry and slice into 2-3cm cubes.

2 Lightly fry tofu in soya sauce until liquid is absorbed and tofu is soft, not crispy.

3 Remove from heat and leave to cool.

4 In a bowl, mix together yoghurt, tikka paste, gram flour, salt, pepper, lemon juice and vegan syrup.

5 Stir tofu into the mixture, thoroughly coat and refrigerate for one hour.

6 When barbecue (or grill) is ready, thread tofu and green pepper onto skewers.

7 Cook on both sides until lightly charred.

8 Serve with raita, salad and vegan naan or flat bread.

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Vegan Raita Serves 4-6 | 10 minutes

l 250g natural vegan yoghurt (unsweetened) l ¾ cucumber, finely diced or grated l 2 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped l ½ tsp ground cumin l ½ clove garlic, finely diced l 1 tsp lemon juice l Salt and pepper, to taste 1 Mix all the ingredients together and season to taste.

Portable Picnic Cheesecakes

Makes 6 x 250ml jars or 12 x 125ml litre jars | 20 minutes (plus 2 hours setting time) Base l 100g vegan spread l 2 tbsp coconut oil l 300g digestives (McVitie’s Lights, some supermarket brands are vegan) Filling l 500g vegan cream cheese l 2 tsp vanilla paste/extract l 2 tbsp lemon juice

l 100g ground almonds l 90g coconut oil, melted l 150g caster sugar Topping l 150-200g blueberries l 2 tbsp berry (any) jam l 250g icing sugar, sieved l 1 tsp lemon juice

Base 1 Grease inside of jars with coconut oil.

2 Gently melt spread and coconut oil on low heat.

3 Blitz digestives or bash with a rolling pin in a clean tea towel until fine.

4 In a bowl, mix together melted spread and coconut oil with the biscuits.

5 Place small amount of mixture in bottom of each jar and press down firmly with back of a spoon.

6 Place in fridge.

Filling 1 Blend all ingredients until smooth.

2 Remove jars from fridge. Add 5 tablespoons of filling to 250ml litre jars or 2.5 tablespoons 125ml litre jars.

3 Replace in fridge to set for 2 hours or more.

Topping 1 Once cheesecakes are nearly set, make topping.

2 Place blueberries and berry jam in medium saucepan and heat on low-medium until the blueberries are soft and squishy.

3 Add sieved icing sugar and lemon juice, stir thoroughly for a minute or two.

4 Sieve mixture into a jug and pour thin layer over each cheesecake.

5 Decorate with blueberries and mint (optional), place back in fridge until wanted.

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Strawberries & Cream Cupcakes Serves 10 | 45 minutes

Cupcakes l 250g self-raising flour l 250g caster sugar l ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda l ½ tsp baking powder l 100ml flavourless oil (eg rapeseed) l 1-2 tsp vanilla extract l 250ml soya milk l 5 tsp cider vinegar

Icing l 100g vegan margarine l 100g vegetable shortening (eg Trex… found in most supermarkets) l 1kg icing sugar, sieved l 60-85ml plant milk l 1 tsp vanilla paste/extract l Few drops red, vegan, food colouring

Cupcakes 1 Preheat oven to 180ºC (fan)/350ºF/Gas Mark 4.

2 Line muffin tray with muffin or cupcake cases. Makes 10 large cupcakes (pictured) or 15-20 smaller ones.

3 Mix soya milk and cider vinegar in a bowl. Set aside for 10 minutes.

4 In a mixing bowl, stir together all dry ingredients.

5 Add soya/cider vinegar mix, oil and vanilla to dry ingredients. Combine wet and dry ingredients just before placing them in the oven.

6 Combine everything together by stirring briefly with metal spoon.

7 Tap the bowl onto work surface to stop the raising agents working too quickly (a tip courtesy of the amazing Ms Cupcake!)

8 Fill cupcake cases to ¾ full and tap tray again.

9 Place in oven and bake for 15-25 minutes – until slightly golden.

10 Remove from oven and cool before icing.

Icing 1 Whisk together margarine, vegetable shortening and vanilla.

2 Add icing sugar a quarter at a time, along with plant milk until combined.

3 Add more icing sugar or plant milk if icing gets too wet or too dry.

4 Separate icing into two and place in two separate bowls.

5 Add red food colouring to one of the bowls to get desired colour.

6 Add your favourite cupcake nozzle to a piping bag (from supermarkets, online and kitchen shops) and fill with one colour of icing.

7 Ice half cakes with white icing, half with pink.

8 Decorate with strawberries, freeze-dried raspberries/strawberries and strawberry sauce (eg Askeys).

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From our new Dairy-free guide available from vivashop.org.uk

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Help end the

Cage Age Farmed Animals continue to suffer behinds bars Viva! joined a host of animal organisations and celebrities on March 11 and called on the government to End The Cage Age for farmed animals. Well-known faces included Joanna Lumley, Peter Egan, Evanna Lynch and Deborah Meaden, Right now, more than 16 million farmed animals are trapped in cages all over the UK. Their suffering from confinement and being unable to express their natural instincts is immense. Up to 80 egg-laying hens are packed into each ‘enriched’ cage while pregnant pigs are confined in steel barred crates little bigger than their bodies. Unweaned calves are forcibly separated from their mothers and restricted to solitary hutches devoid of all contact.

Government responded to the first 10,000 signatures

by March 22, preening themselves over past changes which prohibited battery cages, sow stalls and veal crates. These came about through campaigns by animal rights groups but were only ever a starting point. Just as then, ministers refuse to recognise the wealth of scientific evidence demonstrating how so-called ‘enriched cages’, farrowing crates and calf hutches continue to compromise animal welfare and are hugely detrimental to the well-being of farmed animals.

Undercover investigators for Viva! Campaigns have filmed the shocking reality of the UK’s ‘high standards of [animal] husbandry’ time and time again and have encouraged the British public to view the reality and Face Off against these industries.

We’ve found as many as 80 egg-laying chickens crammed into cages that provide less than a postcard size of extra space than the banned battery cage; pigs confined in metal crates and unable to move a step forwards or backwards, let alone turn around. We have filmed frightened, unweaned calves, in solitary plastic hutches without ‘visual and tactile contact with other calves’. In one case, they had been there for four months – their entire life!

The maximum penalty for domestic and farmed animal abuse is six months and the government intends to increase this to five years. Very few farmers are ever charged and even fewer are found guilty so it will make little difference. When farming systems are inherently cruel yet are approved by government, it offers no hope

at all for farmed animals.

To trigger a parliamentary debate on the use of cages for farmed animals the petition needs to obtain 100,000 signatures and at the time of writing we’re at 105,150, smashing the September 1st deadline.

Cages are cruel, outdated, and just plain wrong.

Instead of confining animals, government should confine cages to the history books. Please – add your signature now to our demand for a debate in Parliament to end cage cruelty – visit viva.org.uk/endcages. NOTE – Your signature will not count unless you click on the link in the follow-up verification email.

Of course, the most powerful action any individual can take to end animal suffering, protect the environment and improve their health is to go vegan.

For all the help and support you need to make that change visit viva.org.uk/easyvegan and order a FREE ‘Everyone’s Going Vegan’ pack.

For help with going vegan please contact Viva! at info@viva.org.uk or ring 0117 944 1000

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Viva! Poland – fighting on all fronts With its wide remit to save animals, Viva! Poland continues to show why it is the pre-eminent animal group in the country

Jail Sentence for Fish Abuse

Huge Success for Veggie (vegan) Week No 13 Up to 36,000 people have watched Viva!’s specially-produced video Go Veggie for 30 Days when it was shown in 11 Helios cinemas in seven cities around the country. Poland’s largest cinema chain also became one of our main partners in this year’s Veggie Week (May 19-26). At their Warsaw Blue City cinema, they hosted our Polish premiere of Michał Siewierski’s latest feature-length, English language, documentary film, Diet Fiction.

With its high production values and stark message about how meat and dairy are destroying our health, contributors include many of Viva!’s old friends – Doctors Michael Greger, Neal Barnard, Dean Ornish and Caldwell Esselstyn. Michał Siewierski is a Polish-born, US citizen who has won a string of awards and his previous blockbuster film, Food Choices, is available in almost every country in the world, in 20 different languages and is on Netflix.

IKEA also became one of our partners and its Bistro and Cafe hosted our opening event of the week by showcasing its delicious vegan hotdogs, which we had worked with them to introduce. These have

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now become an established part of its increasingly plant-based menu.

One of Warsaw’s headline chefs put on a vegan cooking demonstration at the popular Caffe Miasto, turning three of Poland’s regional meat recipes vegan. It generated huge interest. At the same event, a new (and delicious) vegan cheese was introduced – Bez Deka Mleka – and is now on sale in retail stores.

A public debate by doctors and dietitians at the SGH Warsaw School of Economy exposing the negative health effects of dairy consumption and grabbed the headlines. Plant-based dairy products were available for tasting.

Just as in the UK, YouTube vegan influencers have become famous and we held a public meeting with eleven of them, including Karolina Sobańska, Juszes, Olur, Healthy Omnomnom, Orestes Kowalski and Anna Sudoł. The huge number of fans who attended could do all the usual highfiving and selfie-taking with their heroes and five won a vegan supper with them at the Leonardo Verde restaurant.

Viva! Poland made Polish legal and animal rights history when it successfully prosecuted a farmer for cruelty to fish. The man was keeping live carp in a bucket and with each sale, killing them with a blunt cheese cutter in a crowded marketplace which included children. His defence was that he was unaware that fish had first to be stunned. He was sentenced to three months and fined 1,000 zloty (about £200).

Huge numbers of live carp are sold in Poland for Christmas Eve dinner and Viva! has been campaigning for several years against the dreadful conditions in which they’re kept but so far all prosecutions have failed. The fish often gasp and struggle in trays with just a few centimetres of slimy water and are put in plastic bags without water for customers to take home and kill. With this case as a precedent, we will be trying even harder to end the abuse.

This landmark verdict hit the headlines all over Poland and will strengthen our negotiations with the big supermarket chains, including Tesco, to withdraw live fish entirely.

Help us keep doing all this amazing work in 2019.

Call 0117 944 1000 or go to viva.org.uk/donate to make a donation

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Prosecutions for Horse Cruelty Viva! seeking three-years imprisonment for carriage drivers Historic charges of extreme cruelty face two horse cabbies who drive tourists in the Tatra Mountains Nation Park up to a lake at Morskie Oko. The road is seven kilometres long and steeply uphill and some 320 horses are involved in this exhausting trip. The heavy carriages carry 12 passengers and an investigation has revealed that they weigh a tonne more than two horses can comfortably haul.

Maks was a seven-year old horse and had worked the mountain trail since 2013. In the winter of 2016, a tourist reported that he had a painful cracked hoof but the cabbie forced him to continue hauling people up to the lake and back. Maks was clearly in great pain but the cabbie claimed he did not know that the injury was painful. He was suspended from work but the park authorities did not inform the prosecutor’s office. Maks never returned to the mountains and we don’t know what happened to him One February afternoon, also in 2016, Shane and Okaz were hauling a carriage – Shane was nine-years-old and had worked the road for about a year. Doing one trip up to the lake and back is exhausting for the horses but on this

day, they were forced to make the journey three times without a rest. Shane collapsed, was unable to stand and was finally taken down the mountains in a horse transporter. Okaz had to complete the journey on his own. Following our complaint, the cabbie retired and the two horses never returned but again, we don’t know their fate.

It is a barbaric trade and horses rarely last longer than two years before total exhaustion, when they are usually sold into the horse meat export trade.

We have finally been able to pressurise the District Prosecutor’s Office into issuing indictments for both men and we will act as prosecutors when the cases come to court.

Viva! has demanded a total ban on horse carriages in the park and is more than willing to adopt all the horses to save them from the slaughterhouse.

New products boom There has been such an extraordinary boom in vegan products recently that Warsaw is now ranked amongst the world's most vegan-friendly cities. The biggest area has been in alternatives to meat and dairy products and the big producers have been quick to react.

Major refiner and petrol retailer, PKN Orlen, have introduced vegan hot dogs at its petrol stations – and, of course, IKEA have done the same. Flora’s new, 100 per cent plant-based margarine is widely available while Bavarian-based Develey, one of Europe’s biggest producers of sauces, dressings and mustards, has introduced a plant-based mayonnaise.

This latter product was a result of encouragement by Viva! Poland. It has been a huge success and more launches are anticipated. It carries Viva!’s ‘V’ sign, bringing the number of Polish products that now carry our symbol to 500.

Eager to establish popularity in the vegan market, most companies have been keen to supply us with samples for taste testings.

A major development is that one of the largest Polish dairy cooperatives, OSM Łowicz, has introduced a 100 per cent vegan cheese called Bez Deka Mleka, based on coconut oil. We introduced it to the public during our Veggie Week.

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Hogwood

the Movie

Viva! launches Crowdfunding Appeal for a documentary film that will expose UK animal farming

omething hugely important is happening across Britain – across the globe. A fifteen year old girl took environmental concern and thrust it determinedly onto the political agenda. Extinction Rebellion appeared from nowhere to pick up that environmental baton. And Viva! has thrust the vegan revolution ever forward by exposing the cruel treatment of farmed animals and explaining the role they play in environmental destruction.

Not all the dots have yet been joined up by other groups but we are at a watershed. We can change the world, because we have to. Our latest, and hugely ambitious project, is to use our experience, research and eyewitness recordings to make a full-length documentary film to be shown all over Britain.

One word sums up much that is wrong with our society and that is Hogwood. Our experiences with that place are a metaphor for all that has to be changed to save our planet. Hogwood will be the focus of our film.

It will reveal the death and cruelty that is denied by government, the indifference to suffering exhibited by producers and it will expose the lies unscrupulously used to keep people consuming meat.

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It’s impossible to explain the emotional turmoil our team of investigators felt when they saw the suffering at Hogwood. For people who love animals, watching filthy, overcrowded pigs cannibalising each other through stress takes a massive toll. Seeing a gleam of hope in the eyes of little creatures who have never been offered any, tears at the soul. Witnessing the piled up, maggot-ridden bodies of victims who couldn’t even make it as far as the slaughterman’s knife, fills you with disgust.

Our brave investigators cope only because they know that the story and pictures they bring back are instrumental in changing the diet of millions of people.

They save animals! But please be clear, Hogwood is not an aberration, the one bad apple, it is the system, it is how pigs are farmed and there are thousands of Hogwoods across Britain. And that is why this film is so important.

Without our undercover work, most of Britain would have no idea what goes on in the big, system-built sheds that we refer to as farms but are, in reality, factories. We know this by the reactions of people on the streets when we show them footage of Hogwood as part of our Face Off campaign. Some pull the headphones off and look away; many cry silently as they watch the images; some swear; some call out involuntarily; hold on to each other. Everyone is deeply affected and cannot believe that this is farming in Britain today.

Who is responsible? I guess it’s consumers and their freedom of choice to select the foods they want. But freedom of choice is utterly meaningless without freedom of information and there is a concerted effort by all involved to ensure there is no freedom of information where farming is concerned. A whole edifice of lies has been constructed to keep people consuming meat and our experience at Hogwood has exposed it. Our film will show millions the profundity of these lies.

Tesco’s website on animal welfare leads in with a big picture of free-range pigs in a massive open space – not even meat pigs but breeding sows and one, of course, is interacting with a smiling, kindly farmer. “We aim for high animal welfare standards. All farms adhere to our robust Tesco Livestock Requirements.”

They say they follow the five freedoms required by the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC): freedom from hunger and thirst, from discomfort, from pain, injury or

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disease, freedom to express normal behaviour and freedom from fear and distress. This could have been written by George Orwell in his book 1984. Yes, they are fed – the same boring, unnatural dry pellets day after day – but the rest are lies.

If they care so much, why didn’t Tesco immediately react to our distressing footage? They simply repeated something else from their website; that they work with their suppliers to improve welfare “…in a manner that is achievable for our supply base”. In other words, if the farmers say they can’t afford it, don’t have the staff or simply don’t give a damn, they’re off the hook.

And the owner of Hogwood, Brian Hobill, summed up this nonsense in a Dispatches interview in January this year, about us and Hogwood (The Truth About Vegans) when he said that his farm offered better conditions than many nursing homes. And he said it with a straight face!

An insider informed us that Tesco ignored our footage because they are terrified of creating a domino effect – reject one supplier and they’ll have to reject them all.

An ‘independent’ industry vet gave his views in the same Dispatches programme – plenty of healthy animals, nothing to worry about, old chap, they’ve got food and water and somewhere to sleep! Vets are as complicit as everyone else for if they were to adhere to their equivalent of the Hippocratic oath there would be no factory farming. They are paid by farmers and he who pays the piper … But we have our own pig industry vet who is horrified by the inherent cruelty.

And so to government! I would be rich if I had a pound for every time a government minister has claimed that we have the best animal welfare in the world.

Surely the conditions inside Hogwood must be illegal?

Here’s the cop out – there is no legislation to protect farmed animals, merely recommendations and these have no force of law. Much of what we exposed is legal.

No minister wants to take on the industry because there’s the potential to lose votes.

Finally, we come to Red Tractor: “Having high standards of animal welfare is one of the cornerstones of Red Tractor assured food”. And yes, Hogwood was Red Tractor assured! This cynical little scheme was started by farm owners such as Brian Hobill and is run through the bodies that represents them, the NFU and Dairy UK. Standards are rock bottom and there are no fines or sanctions for breaches, merely a word in the ear.

Juxtapose this litany of deceit, aimed at keeping meat sales buoyant, with the reality we face. Livestock

production is at the centre of the gamut of environmental catastrophes that threaten us – species extinction, deforestation, loss of soil fertility and on and on, including global warming.

Meat and dairy are also primary contributors to the degenerative diseases that afflict and eventually kill most people in the affluent West.

The conduct of our elected leaders, farmers and all the other chancers involved in meat and dairy production is betraying all our futures. But our exposé of Hogwood has touched the hearts of millions and turned many vegan. Our patron and brilliant actor, Jerome Flynn (Bronn in Game of Thrones and Sgt Bennet Drake in Ripper Street), was sickened when he saw our Hogwood footage.

“When you look at such acute suffering on such a large scale it is both sickening and depressing. And then, when you realise it is happening all over Britain, it makes you angry and determined to change things”.

We are delighted to announce that Jerome will be the presenter of our new documentary.

Our film will be called Hogwood – a modern horror story, and once we have raised the funds to produce it, it will add a new level to our successful call for people go vegan.

There is one answer to massive issues of health, environmental collapse and animal cruelty that can transform the situation – GO VEGAN. And that is the message our film will carry to new audiences everywhere.

By helping to fund this film you can play a direct part in the vegan revolution that is beginning to transform Britain and offer real hope – at last.

This campaign will be launched soon and will be one of our biggest ever. Sign up to Viva!’s emails to make sure you’re the first to hear. Don’t miss out viva.org.uk/emailme. Donate to Viva! at viva.org.uk/donate.

“When you look at such acute suffering on such a large scale it is both sickening and depressing” Jerome Flynn

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Team Viva!’s Fundraisers

Nick Does the IoW The Isle of Wight is a lovely, relaxing place to visit – unless you’re Nick Tuck. Over the May bank holiday he undertook the IoW Challenge to raise funds for Viva!’s campaigns. It sounds a doddle – a saunter around the islands coastal path, along the top of beautiful white cliffs and past the iconic Needles. And then you discover it is up steep hills and down dales, is overnight and covers 106km! That’s why it’s called a challenge and no wonder Nick, who happens to be a runner and walker, said it was more arduous that he was expecting.

So what was the worst bit of this gruelling 24-hour walk? “It was probably the last mile. They say it’s the longest and it was – it seemed to last forever!

“Walking at night was very peaceful and as the organisers recommended, we formed little groups. I buddied up with a French man, a Bulgarian woman and a bloke from Huntington, so a mini United Nations!

“With so far still to go, I was feeling a bit despondent at the halfway point and my feet were sore. Two things helped – medics adjusted my laces, which took the pressure off my toes; and my amazing vegan girlfriend, Cathy, rang me throughout the night to encourage me and that gave me massive motivation.”

Nick raised over £600 for Viva!’s campaigns – but it’s not too late, you can add to it! Show your support at viva.org.uk/nick-2019.

One Planet – One Marathon Mike and Joe Hill are the father and son team behind the UK’s first vegan, frozen pizza company – One Planet Pizza.

Their awardwinning pizzas, with their new, revolutionary, melty vegan cheese, have become huge favourites. Be as good for the animals, planet and body as you possibly can - is One Planet Pizza’s ethos – and they’re as passionate about pizza as they are about sustainability and animal welfare.

This May, Mike and Joe helped to raise awareness of Viva!’s #MooFreeMay campaign by taking to the streets of Liverpool for its Rock’n’Roll marathon. Completing the run in an impressive time of 4h 20mins, they raised some serious dough and documented their journey every step of the way on social media.

Joe said: “We’re incredibly proud to be helping Viva!. As a sustainable vegan company, who are passionate about animal welfare, we are elated to be supporting such an influential vegan charity.

Your inspiring work helped motivate us through the difficult moments of the run! We officially ran until the cows came home!”

Mike and Joe are now gearing up for their next fundraising adventure and to boost the vegan pizza market!

Follow them on social media: @OnePlanetPizza Text PIZZA 5 (or any amount you like) to 70085 to sponsor Mike and Joe with £5 now (texts cost std network rate + donated amount).

For more info about text donates, visit viva.org.uk/mike-andjoe-2019

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life

Viva!’s media blitz for the animals

BY TONY WARDLE, EDITOR

Vegan CampOut 2019 Viva! is again sponsoring the big vegan camping extravaganza this year and the livestock industry has found something else over which to whip itself into a frenzy. The land for Camp-Out is rented from the Newark & Nottinghamshire Agricultural Society – and how dare an agricultural charity rent land to an anti-farming movement? That was the cry from the Countryside Alliance in a large piece in the Daily Telegraph. It’s clearly escaped the Alliance’s attention that vegans eat – they eat quite a lot as it happens; they love eating and most of what they eat is grown by, yes, farmers. No beef there, mate!

Naturally, as sponsors, Viva! was singled out for special shock, horror attention: “The group has campaigned against dairy, pig and poultry farming, claims that dairy cows are ‘raped’ and last year held a talk at the festival entitled ‘Face Off against the meat and dairy industries’”. Makes a change to be reported accurately.

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When Juliet Gellatley was the Pride of Britain Twenty years ago, Viva! received an invitation for director Juliet Gellatley to attend the very first Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards as a guest. When we arrived at The Dorchester Hotel in London’s Park Lane, we realised that Juliet was probably more than just a guest.

Sitting at our table was Viva! patron Michael Mansfield QC and his wife and boxer Frank Bruno and his wife, the latter two being so put off by our veganism that they didn’t speak to us again for the next three hours.

Just about every celeb you could imagine (for then) was there. Chris Evans dashing around saying: “We have to get this on TV next year”.

And he did. Piers Morgan acting like an overgrown school boy in the

presence of Paul McCartney. Two of the Spice Girls chatted to us briefly while Richard Branson, one of the sponsors, beamed constantly.

When proceedings got underway, Carol Vorderman announced that the Linda McCartney award for Animal Welfare went to Juliet Gellatley of Viva!. That was it, and Juliet walked up to the glittering podium to collect it from Paul. It was one of those nights that you never forget.

This May, the Mirror revisited those first awards to see what had subsequently happened to the recipients, which naturally included a piece of Juliet’s successes with Viva!. How time flies!

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BBC RADIO 2 AND RADIO 6

The Jeremy Vine Show It hit the headlines when a primary school teacher at a Pudsey Primary school, Yorks, sent its two piglets to slaughter. Headmaster Peter Harris had encouraged the young pupils to feed and interact with the Gloucester Old Spot piglets to help them understand where their food comes from. There was understandably an outcry, not least from Viva!.

This comes at a time when the world is beginning to understand that we cannot go on abusing animals and that for our own survival if nothing else, we have to wean ourselves off animal products. All the usual trite excuses were trotted out

by Mr Harris – we gave them a good life, it will help children to understand animal welfare, they

always knew they would be killed – the most bizarre excuse of all was this: “A key element of the project is an emphasis on the need to reduce meat consumption”. Despite offers to give the pigs a permanent home in a sanctuary, Mr Harris was determined they should die – and so they did.

Fortunately, a big piece in the Independent linked to other stories outlining the horrors of modern pig farming.

Viva! naturally went into action and several titles ran our comments while Juliet Gellatley did a long piece on the hugely-popular Jeremy Vine Show, with a listening audience of millions. She was up against a man who had raised and killed five pigs. To be honest, it was game, set and match to Juliet.

Best West Women The Bath Chronicle ran an article of the women who provide inspiration across the West of England. Needless to say, director Juliet Gellatley was among the chosen few.

Keep on Writing Our campaigners are continuing to write several features a month for the vegan consumer magazines, such as Vegan Food and Living, Plant Based News and Simply Vegan. Our street actions, festivals and Vegan Recipe Club have been pulling in media coverage all over the place, constantly reminding people that they can save animals so easily – by simply not eating them!

How not to be an Environment Secretary Michael Gove, environment secretary and failed Tory party leadership contender, has recently announced to the press his appointment as the country’s first food tsar. Restaurateur and food writer, Henry Dimbleby, will lead the first major review of the UK’s food system in nearly 75 years and he seems to have solved the climate crisis on his first day!

Giving up meat, fish and dairy products is not necessary to save the planet, according to him – it’s ‘prescriptive and nanny-state-ish’. Odd, when every major researcher is saying that this is precisely what we must do to avert global warming, deforestation, loss of wildlife, water shortages, world hunger, rising sea levels and the ecological breakdown of our oceans because livestock for meat and dairy and fishing are at the heart of all of them. If this is nannyish then welcome back Mary Poppins.

All you need do is choose better quality meat, our new food tsar reckons. Odd, considering Oxford University has just carried out a massive study of 40,000 global farms and found the opposite. Grass-fed cattle and other free range animals are responsible for much greater greenhouse gas emissions, fresh water use, water pollution and acidification than plant foods. Lead

researcher, Joseph Poore, summed it up by saying: “A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth”.

The real corker is Mr Dimbleby’s comment that a vegan diet isn’t good for health. I can only assume he’s short-sighted as there’s a mountain of research to show that vegans weigh less, have lower blood pressure and cholesterol, have lower rates of heart disease and cancer than meat-eaters.

The Tory heartlands are rural farming areas so would it be cynical to think that Mr Gove’s appointment has more to do with saving the Tory vote than saving the planet?

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lifeSCIENCE

Viva! Health unravels scientific research and makes it easy to understand.

Here we update you on the latest findings…

BY DR JUSTINE BUTLER, VIVA! HEALTH RESEARCHER

Take heart Vegans have a lower risk of heart disease and stroke Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the main causes of death and disability in the UK but it can be prevented with a healthy lifestyle. A study of 650 adults from the US and Canada found that those avoiding meat had significantly lower levels of risk factors for CVD. Researchers looked at four diets: vegans, vegetarians, fish-eaters and meat-eaters and found that obesity, blood pressure and cholesterol levels were all lower in those avoiding meat, with vegans coming out best.

Vegans tended to weigh less than meateaters and this contributed to their lower risk. However, even when they compared blood pressure and cholesterol levels of vegans with those of meat-eaters, matched for weight, vegans still came out healthier.

The authors suggested that further research needed to be done to work out how best to promote plant-based diets as protective against CVD. Why wait when you can just ditch meat and dairy and considerably lower your risk?

Matsumoto S et al., 2019. Association between vegetarian diets and cardiovascular risk factors in non-Hispanic white participants of the Adventist Health Study-2.

Journal of Nutritional Science. 8 e6.

No safe level Red and processed meats are putting even low consumers at risk People eating red and processed meat increase their risk of bowel cancer even if the amount they eat falls within government guidelines.

Published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, the study followed half a million men and women over a five year period and found that those who kept close to the guidelines – around 76 grams of red or processed meat per day – had a 20 per cent higher risk of bowel cancer compared to those eating 21 grams a day. The risk increased by a further 20 per cent with every extra bacon rasher or lamb chop eaten per day.

The government recommends that people should not eat more than 90 grams a day and even they should try to cut down to 70 grams.

It’s like telling people to cut down on smoking rather than quitting!

Around one in every 15 men and one in every 18 women born after 1960 will develop bowel cancer. You can significantly cut your risk simply by changing your diet.

Bradbury KE, Murphy N and Key TJ, 2019. Diet and colorectal cancer in UK Biobank: a prospective study. International Journal of Epidemiology. [Epub ahead of print]

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Deadly diets

Got a gut feeling

Poor diets kill more people than tobacco

How vegetarian and vegan diets affect your gut microbiota

In 2017, 11 million deaths around the world were related to poor diet, even more than smoking, according to this major study.

Heart attacks and strokes were the main diet-related causes of death, followed by cancers and type 2 diabetes.

The authors blame diets high in salt and low in fruit, wholegrains, nuts and seeds. They suggest that eating and drinking more sensibly could prevent one in five deaths globally.

Writing in the Lancet, they call for a global shift in policy to promote vegetables, fruit, nuts and pulses (peas, beans and lentils). Co-author, Professor Walter Willett from Harvard University, said that the findings were consistent with other recent research showing the benefits to heart health of replacing red meat with plant sources of protein.

GBD 2017 Diet Collaborators. 2019. Health effects of dietary risks in 195 countries, 1990-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet. 393 (10184) 1958-1972.

Diet and diabetes How going meat-free can help lower your risk The huge EPIC-Oxford study looked at the links between diet and the risk of hospitalisation or death with diabetes in over 45,000 British adults. They were followed for an average of 17 years during which time over 1,000 developed the disease. Results showed that low and non-meat consumers had a much lower risk of developing diabetes. Results from previous studies have found the risk to be 40-50 per cent lower in those consuming a meat-free diet.

This study shows the double whammy effect of diet, with diabetes risk affected not only by what you do eat, but also by what you don’t eat.

The lower risk among vegans and vegetarians is partly due to the fact that they tend to weigh less but it is also

helped by their higher consumption of plant foods, including pulses, nuts, fruits and vegetables, with both fibre and plant proteins being linked to lower risk.

The increased risk among meat-eaters is partly due to their tendency to weigh more but may also be linked to substances in meat. Nitrites in processed meat, for example, can damage insulinproducing cells while high levels of saturated fat and iron are both associated with increased insulin resistance. This study adds to a large body of evidence linking meat to a higher risk of diabetes.

Gut microbiota, previously called gut flora, is the name given to the trillions of microorganisms living in your gut. They can have a profound effect on your overall health – for better or worse.

The difference in gut microbiota between vegans, vegetarians and meat-eaters is well documented, with plant-based diets promoting a significantly more healthy population of gut bacteria.

Fibre is one of the main contributors in a vegan diet and it helps to increase beneficial lactic acid bacteria and reduce harmful Clostridium and Enterococcus species. It also encourages the growth of bacteria that break down fibre into compounds that help our immune system, provide energy and regulate some critical functions in the body. Polyphenols, also abundant in plant foods, increase bacteria which combat unhealthy bugs, have anti-inflammatory effects and have even been shown to protect heart health.

Research shows that plant-based diets are effective in promoting a diverse ecosystem of beneficial bacteria to support both your gut microbiome and your overall health.

Tomova A et al., 2019. The Effects of Vegetarian and Vegan Diets on Gut Microbiota. Frontiers in Nutrition. 6, 47.

Papier K et al., 2019. Vegetarian diets and risk of hospitalisation or death with diabetes in British adults: results from the EPIC-Oxford study. Nutrition and Diabetes. 9 (1) 7.

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Go Hemp...

Registered Charity No. 1122303

/DeanFarmTrust /deanfarmtrust.org.uk E. info@deanfarmtrust.org.uk

New, Beautiful & Vegan

Hi Top Hemp Sneaker

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Order Direct:

vegshoes.com | 01273 691913 | info@vegshoes.com

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FOODTALKSINFORMATION

OVER 50 STALLS SUNDAY 4 August 2019 10am - 4pm

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Dean Farm Trust actively campaigns to promote compassionate living, educating people so they can make cruelty free choices as part of their everyday living.

The Dean Farm Trust team give dedicated care and attention to ill treated, neglected and unwanted animals who arrive at our sanctuary.

Please visit our website to sign up for our free enewsletter to receive regular campaign and sanctuary updates and find out how you can help.

www.deanfarmtrust.org.uk

Please help promote compassionate living

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s k n a h n c i e t r e s r u O

A massive thank you to the incredibly enthusiastic and hard-working Viva! stall volunteers who have helped represent Viva! at events so far throughout 2019 and raised valuable funds for our campaigns. We ❤ you!  Huntingdonshire Vegan Activists – Harlow Vegan Fair, April 14 – £172.20

 Aby Mason and friend – Horsham Vegan Festival, Feb 23 – £449.60

 Beth and Willow – Dorchester Spring Vegan Market, March 31 – £120.67

l Pierre Fox, Miranda Munroe and husband – House of Veg, Bristol, Feb 23 – £110 l Amrit Patel and Kinga – Ealing Animal Charities Fair, March 2 – £221.48 l Vicki and friend and Anne Falconer – Scotland Vegan Festival, March 9 – £336 l Viv Pickering and Emma Wattam – Rugby Vegan Festival, April 28 – £113.78 l Susan May and Hanfia Ilyas – Great Yorkshire Vegan Festival, May 12 – £180 l Nicky Robinson – Naturally Pure Health and Vegan Festival, June 1-2 – £292.69  Viv Pickering and Tracie Baxter – Leicester Vegan Festival, March 23 – £275.07

We would love YOU to be a Viva! stall volunteer – it’s, friendly, fun and important to us. We have a calendar of events throughout the year so if you’re interested , email merchandise@viva.org.uk Or see viva.org.uk/viva-stall-vol to find out more.

 Liz Nicolay and Lori Bee – Essex Vegan Fair, March 2 – £123  Susan and Dena Bywater – Skegness Vegan Festival, June 8 – £186.78

Save the date Don’t miss out on fantastic vegan events ever again! Get on down to myvegantown.org.uk, where you’ll find our handy online events calendar. Plus loads of listings for vegan-friendly places to eat, shop and stay!

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It couldn’t be more simple – let animals live free and without suffering.

Shop the range – vivashop.org.uk/dontmess 46

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k c o l b e h t n o New kids Some of our delightful new foody items new in stock – treat yourself! vivashop.org.uk Manfood – Buffalo Sauce and Fake Bacon Relish Manfood was set up by two fridge-raiding men in search of delicious snacks – and these new entries on the market are bound to satisfy that hunt! The Buffalo Sauce is rich and fruity (and gluten free) whilst the Fake Bacon Relish is a smoky maple relish that’ll liven any sandwich. 190g. £3.95

Livia’s Kitchen Nugglets Chocolate-coated squidgy nugglets of heaven – their words not ours – but boy do we agree! These lovely little snack-packs are guilt-free treats made mostly of dates and raw chocolate and, depending on the flavour, roasted almonds, oats or cacao butter. Raw and gluten-free and comes in three flavours – Raw Cookie Dough, Raw Choc Brownie and Salted Almond Butter. 35g. £1.79

Just Wholefoods – Vegebears and Fruity Froots Organic, no artificial ingredients and delicious!

These bears and fruity sweets are a real treat and are made with natural fruit flavourings. The Vegebears come in two flavours – sour and plain.

The Fruity Froots are sugar-coated. 100g. £1.70

Just Wholefoods – Jelly Crystals We couldn’t resist stocking these great jelly crystals once we’d given them a try! A perfect consistency that’ll do nicely in any dessert (trifle anyone?!).

This little cupboard staple is quick and easy to make, organic, free from nasties and comes in two flavours – Lemon and Strawberry.

85g (each packet serves 4). £1.35

Lemon Meringue and Mochaccino Goupies Moreish new flavours in our Goupie range – we can’t resist these new contenders. The Lemon Meringue has a wonderfully cakey crunch, and the Mochaccino is a coffee zinger! 180g. £4.25

Livia’s Kitchen Raw Millionaire Squares Date caramel, dark chocolate and oaty-based goodness. These little treats are unbelievably tasty and all natural – and raw to boot! Come in three tempting flavours – Chocolate Orange, Salted Peanut Butter, and Salted Caramel. 60g. £1.79 each

Shop our great range of the best and most delicious chocolates, sweets and foodie treats at vivashop.org.uk/food or call 0117 944 1000 (Mon-Fri, 9-5) to place an order. viva.org.uk 47

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WE CHOOSE NATURE

We Choose Nature is an online platform to create awareness for a more sustainable way of life. By giving global and local initiatives the opportunity to present themselves to the world and share news, information and tips we inspire everyone with respect for nature to start to take action. We are proud to say the rst initiative we are supporting is Justdiggit. We Choose Nature – A BIOCANNA initiative

www.wechoosenature.org

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Restaurant reviews

Haute Cuisine and Hooray Cuisine Vanilla Black A gem, hidden away in the historic back streets of London between Fleet Street and Holborn, Vanilla Black is somewhere to go for a special treat – a very special treat. Smart yet relaxed, staff are attentive but not overbearing. Food is creative, bursting with flavour and beautifully presented. They use a foam maker and a dehydration machine but avoid being pretentious.

The five-course vegan menu (£55) started with an amuse bouche – a shot of foamy, virgin Bloody Mary, delicately light yet packing a well-pitched punch.

Perfect! Warm sourdough bread was served with an unusual smoked thyme oil and I could have dipped bread in it all night!

Cucumber, sticky rice and ginger purée looked like a fish finger but tasted nothing like it. Inspired by sushi, toasted rice coated a soft, sticky rice filling flavoured with seaweed and rice wine vinegar. Served with charred cucumber, pickles and ginger purée – I loved all the flavours and textures.

Next was baby fennel, creamed lemon and toast with a fennel granita – a beautifully light dish that was a fresh spring day on a plate. Malted barley potato cake and greens provided a good balance to the previous dishes.

A hearty fried shitake, pine nut purée and crispy enoki dish was packed with woody and smoky flavours – autumn comfort food.

Coconut sorbet with toasted rice mousse and coffee sponge dessert was good but a bit outshone by the previous dishes.

Vanilla Black is a glass of something different – clever cooking at its best! Justine Butler Vanilla Black, 17-18 Tooks Court, London EC4A 1LB. Tel: 020 7242 2622. vanillablack@btconnect.com

The Umbrella Café Every café should be like this – community focused, as inclusive as you can get and the most extraordinarily luscious vegan cakes possible, made fresh by Jenny (Ankles) Freer, one of the partners. Old and lonely, young mums, people with disabilities’ dogs – roll up, roll up, you’re all welcome. Oh, and there’s a menu in braille and gluten-free choices. Its other bonus, of course, is that it’s in the gorgeous little seaside town of Whitstable, Kent.

The Umbrella Café is attached to the local Community Care centre and its whole ethos is about sustainability and caring about people.

It’s a couple of years old and is a Community Interest Company, operating on a not-for-profit basis – any profits, when they start to make them, going back into the community. Through CIC, they work to support young people with learning disabilities and ex-offenders to find community placements.

I think this is brilliant – the café operates a Pay-it-Forward scheme.

Leaving a quid or two on top of your bill, or by making a donation, you are funding a meal for someone who really can’t afford one.

All the drinks, infusions, beer and wine and goodies you might expect from a good café are on offer and while not wholly vegan, its ethos is everywhere. You can lunch on Sicilian veg stew, butternut and potato gratin or potato cashew cream tart, along with a load of other goodies. Amongst the snacks is their famous creamy mushrooms on toast, made with oat cream – and that’s seven days a weeks, inside or outside in the gorgeous gardens.

They use the Fareshare scheme which is working to eliminate food waste by using perfectly good food that would otherwise go to the dump. This charity delivers a box of food, all paid for by the cafe and in date but they have no idea what it might contain. “A bit like Ready, Steady, Cook!” says Jenny. For me it is ready, steady go there!

Tony Wardle The Umbrella Café, Oxford Street, Whitstable CT5 1DD.

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lifestyle

Product p

With so much choice on the vegan marketplace these days, we took a scattershot approach to picking which products to showcase – from beauty to clothing to food, we’re getting spoilt for choice. Here are some of the products we’ve tried and enjoyed recently!

BY LIAM NOLAN

Annabelle Minerals This recent addition to the UK market is a natural and vegan cosmetic brand. They pride themselves on minimal ingredients, with all of their products being based on four core ones. These powder-based cosmetics are light and great for coverage on oily skin types.

We tried three of the eyeshadows – Americano and Ice Tea (both clay based) and Margarita (mineral based). Each of them had good pigment and a longlasting colour – perfect for an all-day look! The Nude mineral blush added an authentic tone to the skin and the Diamond Glow mineral highlighter had an incredible shimmer.

Try them for yourself! RRP £9-£18, available at eshopannabelle.com.

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Vans Vault – Endangered Species Collection Vans have had a decent vegan range of shoes for years. They’ve now teamed up with Ralph Steadman for a collection of footwear, apparel and skate decks based around animals who are nearly extinct.

This is a stylish and creative way of highlighting the plight of wildlife around the world – including bees, tuna and orangutans, to name a few – and is something we can get behind!

Their online presence also gives some information about the threats that the animals face. Only available from selected Vans Vault stockists (12 in the UK) – head to vans.co.uk/vault/ralph-steadman.html to find out more.

RRP £39-99.

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Just Like Me, by Stanley Foo

If you’re ready to die of cuteness, then we thoroughly recommend picking up this wonderful new children’s book by Stanley Foo. Beautifully illustrated and utterly charming, this simple little book makes a clear point – animals are just like me!

There is an accompanying colouring book to keep the fun going – described as ‘a minicolouring book for mini-vegans’ – it has the artwork from the main book as well as a section of little vegan posters. It’s the perfect gift to any tiny ones in your life – compassion starts from an early age after all. Suitable for ages 2-5, available from stanleyfoo.com RRP £6-12.

Rhythm 108 These wonderful biscuits deserve to be sung about and come in six lovely flavours – Chocolate Hazelnut, Lemon Ginger, Almond Biscotti, Coconut Cookie, Double Chocolate Hazelnut and Lemon Ginger and Chia.

Crunchy, well-flavoured, organic and with no refined sugars, these are high quality vegan biscuits everybody will enjoy! There’s a bit of a war at Viva! HQ as to whether the Almond Biscotti or the Coconut Cookie flavour is the best – but every last crumb of all six disappeared, with no complaints! RRP £1.29-2.99, available from vivashop.org.uk.

Vegummies – Vegan Pic’n’Mix OK, we do have an actual pick and mix store! The fantastic Vegummies is an online vegan sweet store that stocks all your favourites – from flying saucers, to cola bottles and a whole host of other sugary attractions. Where flavour’s concerned, we can vouch for every single sweet – a personal fave is the mini rainbow belts!

As a Viva! Affiliate, the guys at Vegummies generously donate five per cent of profits to us – so you can satisfy your sweet tooth and help fund our animal-saving campaigns at the same time.

Win win!

Prices range from RRP 15p-75p per 50g of sweets when you create your own bag; or you can get premade pouches (RRP £5) or gift boxes (RRP £10-15). Available at vegummies.co.uk.

WAKEbag This product has definitely already been trending but once we saw it in real life there was no way we could resist including it here! This stylish little rucksack is made from paper fibres, spun and bonded together to give the look of a brown paper bag but with the thickness of a normal rucksack! It’s quite ingenious – and waterproof into the bargain.

A great little accessory for gentle, everyday use, it has a laptop pouch and ‘secret’ pocket to keep your valuables safe. RRP £33, available from globalwakecup.com.

Want your product to be featured here?

Send an email to liam@viva.org.uk viva.org.uk 51

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If you haven’t already been to a Viva! Vegan Festival, you really don’t know what you’re missing! Our line-up of festivals is guaranteed to have something for everyone and we want you, your friends and family to come and see what all the fuss is about. Whether they’re herbivore or omnivore if they like good food, they’ll love our festivals!

This is our 15th year of running vegan events across the UK so we know a thing or two about putting on a good show. Come and spend a day with Viva! and experience first-hand the amazing benefits a vegan lifestyle can offer…. l Delicious hot street food l Homemade healthy bites and sweet snacks (did someone say cakes and doughnuts?) l Expert nutritional advice and takeaway factsheets l Fascinating talks and cookery demonstrations l Huge range of ethical fashion, gifts and cruelty-free cosmetics l All your favourite Viva! merchandise and materials!

For more info and to buy your tickets today, please visit viva.org.uk/festivals GET INVOLVED If you’re interested in becoming a stall holder, giving a talk or cookery demo or volunteering at any of these events please email sophie@viva.org.uk

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2019 Find your nearest festival...

SATuRDAy 3 AuguST 2019 – 10.30-17.00 Coventry Viva! Vegan Festival Coventry Cathedral, £3 Entry SATuRDAy 7 DECEMBER 2019 – 10.30-17.00 Bristol Xmas Viva! Vegan Festival Anson Rooms, £3 Entry VIVA! ALSO ATTENDS EVENTS ACROSS THE uK; SEE MYVEGANTOWN.ORG.UK/VEGAN-EVENTS

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Heavyweight entrants to the bookshelves

One perk of the rise of veganism in the UK is that there really are some great titles now available on everything to do with veganism. Here we sample some of the biggest entries onto the book market in recent times – and what a delight they are. Of course, the best thing about the rise of veganism is all the animals that are being saved – long may that continue!

Dirty Vegan The Secret World of Farm Animals This rather beautiful non-fiction title is an absolutely charming read. Jeffry Masson delves deep into the world of farmed animals – he looks at their emotional lives and complexity, and by meandering through anecdote, scientific study, philosophy and more, manages to capture the connection we should have to the wonder of nature and the wonder of animals. He focusses here mainly on pigs, chickens, sheep, cows and ducks – but the connections are clear for all animals. Through looking at modern farmed animals ancestors’, he explores behaviour and social interaction, and rather beautifully makes a case for not eating animal friends. This book makes a great compassionate gift, but is a recommended read for yourself too!

By Jeffrey Masson. Paperback.

320pp. £9.99

Former Dirty Sanchez daredevil Matt Pritchard is now an ultra-athlete, pro-skater – and a passionate vegan cook. He loves nothing more than proper, tasty, delicious plant-based food, so much so that he is presenter of the BBC’s first ever vegan cookery series (also called Dirty Vegan). This companion cookbook is a fantastic addition to any kitchen collection – an eclectic mix of mouth-watering, healthy (without seeming like it!) recipes from various culinary traditions, it collects some truly ‘banging’ plant-based food staples and introduces a range of new ones too. The goal was to provide a cookbook that suited anybody new to vegan cooking and anybody well-versed that wants some tried and tested, easy to follow and ‘non-nonsense’ recipes as well. We think Matt Pritchard has achieved just that! Sections include Rabbit Food (proper salads!), Quick Hits & Gobfuls, and Proper Main Mush. Recipe highlights include Korean Sticky Mushrooms with Kimchi Greens, Blueberry Drop Scone Pancakes, Celeriac Steaks and Red Wine Lentils, and Rum-Roasted Pineapple with Coconut Cream. Also includes many vegan staples – from Hummus to Vegan Cheesecake – this is definitely an all-rounder!

By Matt Pritchard. Hardback. 208pp. £20

BISH BASH BOSH! The second instalment from the hugely popular BOSH! guys is bound to be a hit in the kitchen.

These social media and cookbook faves are on a mission to show how versatile, quick and entrancing plant-based cookery can be, and they’ve made quite a name for themselves doing so! Quick (for the time pressed), Big (for the hungry) and feasts (for the hosts). Highlights include Piri Piri Coriszo Bake, Cheeseburger Dough Balls, Sushi Cupcakes and Mini Banoffee Meringues. Both inspirational and good for beginners.

By Henry Firth and Ian Theasby. Hardback.

288pp. £20

All Viva! Vegan Book Club choices are available from vivashop.org.uk/books Tel: 0117 944 1000 (Mon-Fri, 9am to 5pm) viva.org.uk 53

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Classifieds HOLIDAYS | FRANCE

HOLIDAYS | ENGLAND

La Maison du Vert vegetarian & vegan hotel & restaurant

Our hotel & restaurant is set in a stunning Normandy valley within 3 acres of beautiful gardens.

• Delicious vegetarian and vegan gourmet menus • Naturally grown produce, organic wines, ciders and beers • Visit Camembert, Monet’s garden, Mont St Michel, Hon eur, D-Day landing beaches, Bayeux • Walk, cycle, relax! Free WIFI

eat

rest

Debbie & Daniel Armitage

61120 Ticheville, Normandy, France 00 33 2 33 36 95 84 mail@maisonduvert.com

www.maisonduvert.com

see

EAST SUSSEX

LAKE DISTRICT

LESAIGLES VEGETARIAN & VEGAN SELF CATERING HOLIDAY APARTMENT

For Viva! news, info, merchandise and much more visit us online at viva.org.uk PRODUCTS & SERVICES

www.taxreturnonlineservices.co.uk Financial Accounts Preparation • Self Assessment Tax Returns Rental Accounts • Business Tax Advice 5% donation to VIVA!

Tel: 01485 601499 54

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Mirabel-aux-Baronnies, 26110, France +33 (0)4 75 26 47 18 +33 (0)6 77 75 97 14 bookings@lesaigles-veggies.com www.lesaigles-veggies.com

get noticed!

To book space at a great rate, see viva.org.uk/advertise-vivalife, email liam@viva.org.uk or call 0117 944 1000

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Listen to the monthly Viva! Podcast for all the latest vegan news, views and interviews!

You can listen to a range of past interviews, including with George Monbiot and Jerome Flynn. Upcoming interviews include comedian Carl Donnelly and Bella Lack, environmental youth ambassador. Also listen out for Peter Egan, Evanna Lynch, Heather Mills and superchef Rick Buckley

Available now: viva.org.uk/podcast

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Nationwide tour to hand out free vegan hot dogs in UK city centres!

Viva!'s nationwide No Porkies tour will be kicking off next month (August). Viva! staff will be handing out free mini vegan hot dogs to Britain’s shoppers (they can never resist free food) whilst talking to them about the pig industry and encouraging them to go vegan.

The No Porkies tour will be visiting major city centre locations including Manchester, Birmingham and London (final dates TBC). These street actions always need volunteers to support Viva!’s campaigners, so if you'd like to be involved keep an eye on viva.org.uk/streetaction for more details or email campaigns@viva.org.uk.

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Ready steady feast!

Up-market vegan dining to your door We’re not all master chefs and we don’t all want to cook every night! So it’s just as well that there’s been an avalanche of vegan ready meals over the last couple of years. But if it’s something special you’re after, or a dinner party stand-by, then The Brook’s new frozen offerings might tickle your fancy and they’re delivered to your door in eco-friendly packaging – wood, cardboard and recycled denim (that’s what they say!).

Founder Thea Brook loves her food and has created traditional tastes and veganised them – what about Seafood Stew for a start?

How you get nori, sweetcorn, leeks, bean protein, fennel and oat cream to combine into a creamy sauce that tastes like a restaurant seafood stew is anyone’s guess but that’s what she’s done.

The creativity continues with jackfruit and vegetables in a spiced umami sauce with pomegranate and pear combining to create Rich Bourguignon – as it says, rich and meaty.

To view the range go to the-brook.co.uk There’s a choice of nine mains, including Mac & Cheese with balsamic caramelised onions and lightly wilted kale; a hearty Jackfruit Rendang; and Sausage Casserole laced with red wine and gravy. All are big enough for two if served with the usual trimmings or one if gorged by itself.

Desserts are big enough for up to six people and include Banana & Pistachio Loaf, Vegan Brownie and The Brook’s signature dish, sublime Sticky Ginger & Caramel Pudding.

Meal boxes cost £48 for eight dishes and there’s a Vegan Feasting Gift Card available from £10.

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CONTINUED FROM P9 my education was secondary modern and I failed my 11 plus so left school at 15. My mother was a char and my father was a painter and decorator who then educated himself to become a quantity surveyor. Drink totally controlled his life and as a consequence he was an unhappy man and we were an unhappy family. I did not go to public school or university and I’m not upper class. I’m like Frankenstein – I’ve been created. I created myself! I’m my own Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

What did he do for a living? “I was a mortuary porter but it was a dead end job!”, he says with a straight face.

Peter decided to become a film extra but didn’t get a single part but it did lead to him answering an ad in the Stage for help with the Ladbroke Grove amateur theatre group.

“They forced me to audition for Romanoff and Juliet and I asked ‘What’s an audition?’ There was an American character in the play, and the only actor I was familiar with was Marlon Brando. I did this terrible, mumbling impersonation and the director’s mouth dropped open as if to say, what the f*** have we got here?! I didn’t get the part but they let me help with stage management and design”.

At the tender age of 16, Peter played a small comedy part in Arsenic and Old Lace and became utterly fascinated by theatre – he was hooked.

“At 17, I made one of the best decisions of my life and auditioned for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) and was accepted”.

Since then, Peter’s biog is impressive, with many TV serials to his credit – the sex-and-cinema-obsessed Seth Starkadder in BBC’s Cold Comfort Farm; the acidthrowing gangster, Hogarth, in the controversial Granada TV series, Big Breadwinner Hog and many others. Later, he took the starring role as John Everett Millais in the BBC’s The Love School and as Oscar Wilde in the serial Lillie. More recently, he played Hugh ‘Shrimpie’ MacClare in ITV’s Downton Abbey. One of his favourite roles was as Magnus Pym in the BBC dramatisation of John le Carré’s A Perfect Spy. “I loved the first comedy series I ever did which has become a classic, Ever Decreasing Circles. It was magical because Richard Briers was a fabulous person to work with. It was very funny and Ricky Gervais’ favourite comedy series ever, which I think is quite a compliment. It’s repeated all the time and I’m amazed when young people recognise me from it!”

Peter has won five awards, including BAFTA’s highly esteemed Most Promising Newcomer back in 1973 – playing Captain Hugh Cantrip in the film The Hireling.

The morning after he got the award, he was offered a film by Disney, The Land That Time Forgot, playing a German U-boat Captain.

“I thought it was terrible so I turned it down – and I didn’t get offered another film for seven years!” But he did work with the most prestigious companies such as The Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. His favourite theatre role? Hamlet!

Despite his huge success, it is in the last 15 years that Peter says he has found his true calling.

“I now more fully understand why I’m on this planet.

I’ve had an incredibly fortunate life; born into poverty but becoming a professional actor when I was 20. I’ve never been an international star but I have been acting successfully for 53 years. But for 40 of those years I didn’t really know why I was here.

We are proud to announce that Peter has agreed to become a Patron of Viva!.

Peter says: “I’m honoured to become a patron.

Viva! is at the forefront of the vegan revolution, investigating animal cruelty, launching campaign after campaign and tirelessly promoting the enormous benefits of change”.

“Even after a huge success I would still feel… what’s all that about? I thought I was looking for more success but really, I think my subconscious was saying there’s got to be more than this – why are you on this planet?

And maybe being brought up as a Roman Catholic – born into ‘mortal sin’ – you carry an abiding cloud of guilt with you throughout life. It’s only when you blow that away that you realise life is about something else.

“Since then, I’ve dedicated my life to raising awareness of the enormous destructive problems facing our planet and all its species. I now understand why I’m here and I’ve never felt happier, because I know what I’m doing.

I’m pleased to say that having reached the grand age of 72, life has never had more meaning for me”.

Peter is acutely aware of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warning that we have about 11 years in which to limit catastrophic climate change. Will people switch to veganism en masse in time?

“I remember resisting wearing seatbelts. I used to refuse to go to people’s houses if I couldn’t smoke.

Cinemas and pubs were filled with fog and it’s hard to believe that people smoked on planes! I stopped smoking when I was 50 – change can happen quickly”.

I point out that those behavioural shifts happened partly due to changes in the law. Does Peter see a time when animal products will be banned?

“Eating animals is not sustainable so I think laws will be implemented. Not only are we the most destructive species, we are also the most adaptable, the most inventive and have an extraordinary ability to survive.

We’re at the end of the beginning of change and veganism is growing exponentially.

“There’s going to be major changes in the next 15 years. Apart from the die-hard idiots, humans are very savvy and once we get our heads into saving our world… Will it be solved in that time? I’m not sure but I think it will be by the middle of this century”.

I’m honoured that Peter agreed to be a patron of Viva!. “Viva! is at the forefront of the vegan revolution, investigating animal cruelty, launching campaign after campaign and tirelessly promoting the enormous benefits of change”.

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Explore hundreds of vegan-friendly places to eat, sleep and shop – then champion and share your fave finds!

Support

Viva!’s new vegan directory for all things vegan and wonderful MY VegAn Town and help us celebrate kindness

to animals, people and the planet myvegantown.org.uk | viva.org.uk | mvt@viva.org.uk

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We’re recruiting

Charity V for Life is pleased to announce two exciting new job vacancies:

Vegetarian Roving Chef (Midlands)

Help us make a difference to the lives of older vegans and vegetarians

• Working from home/in the community, predominantly in the West Midlands.

Vegetarian Roving Chef (South) • Working from home/in the community, predominantly in Greater London.

Both vacancies are part-time, in the region of 20 hours/week.

Please contact us by email or phone to request the job description and person specification for either vacancy, or to request further information.

The closing date for applications is Sunday 18 August 2019.

jobs@vegetarianforlife.org.uk | 0161 257 0887 Registered charity number 1120687

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It’s a big surprise that millions of British homes are powered by electricity and gas made from animals or their by-products. These are secret ingredients that you might want to know about.

They come from factory farming, which means anything from animal slurry to slaughterhouse waste are used to make energy in Britain. It’s not just The Big Six energy companies doing this – small suppliers are too, and even those that call themselves green.

If you’re vegan, vegetarian or care about animal welfare, this will matter to you.

To find out if your supplier is affected, visit ecotricity.co.uk/viva.

We’re the world’s only officially vegan energy company, registered with The Vegan Society for our animal-free energy.

No animals are harmed in the making of our power.

VIVA! will receive a donation of £60 when you switch your electricity and gas to Ecotricity Visit ecotricity.co.uk/viva or call us on 0808 123 0123 (quote VIVA)

ecotricity.co.uk/viva 0808 123 0123 (quote viva)