life a Baby
Published by Viva! the vegan campaigning group
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Billboard blitz reaches millions
Issue 77 Summer 2021
Menopause and diet The links
What’s new?
Latest Vegan Products
Get Sporty WITH VIV A!’S GRE AT NEW SPO RTS GUIDE
Interview with Matt Donnelly of
Don Broco Jim Mellon The billionaire backing bio-meat
Tony Wardle An old man and the sea
Pete Paxton
Going undercover for animals
It’s
PARTY TIM E
Recipes to raise a cheer
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VEGAN fOR ALL LIfE Viva!’s fight is a fight for life – for ourselves, animals and the planet. Humankind’s abuse and exploitation of animals lies at the heart of most of the planet’s accelerating problems. The crushing number of farmed animals slaughtered every year impacts on almost every ecosystem and is the driving force that has propelled planet Earth into its sixth mass extinction. The tens of billions of victims of this massacre are brushed aside by governments across the world. Viva!, however, is constantly revealing the abject conditions in which they are forced to live by secretly going inside factory farms. They are not only cruel but provide stinking reservoirs of disease where antibiotic resistance flourishes, deadly superbugs mutate and pandemics take root. Over the years we have captured the headlines with our exposés, triggered the decline of meat, fish and dairy consumption and spurred the vegan revolution forwards. Viva! is a registered charity (1037486) viva.org.uk
Contents
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JIM MELLON INTERVIEW Meat – but not as we know it
10 SAVE A BABY Campaign to prick the conscience
13 VEGAN NOW
ON EVERY fRONT Viva! has four sections which are displayed on our new website – a mass of verifiable information on why veganism is imperative to the future – everyone’s and everything’s future. Viva! Animals provides fascinating information on all the species exploited for food in the UK and fun facts about their private lives. You can, however, also witness Viva!’s brave undercover investigations that show the shocking reality of the UK’s meat, egg, fish and dairy industries. Viva! Planet explains why animal farming is the driving force behind all the world’s environmental crises. It also explores the solutions. Viva! Health is science based and exposes the link between animal products and ill health; but also why varied vegan diets protect us. It takes you through the A to Z of diseases and the A to Z of nutrients. Viva! Lifestyle is packed with advice on how to go vegan, plus has hundreds of recipes. Our V7 and V30 programmes make it easy for anyone to go and stay vegan.
Campaign with a simple message
14 VIVA!’S VEGAN HEROES Supporters who know no bounds
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16 TONY WARDLE Our oceans – past, present and future
20 MATT DONNELLY Don Broco drummer talks to Viva!
27 IT’S PARTY TIME Cookery for coming together
32 UNDERCOVER SECRETS Legendary Pete Paxton reveals all
34 VIVA! POLAND
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Anti-fur message swamps Poland
38 ORACLE Spectacular short film – with a warning
40 MENOPAUSE AND DIET Dr Justine Butler reveals the science
44 SPORTS NUTRITION
HOW TO GET THIS MAGAzINE Join Viva! for just £15 to get your copy of Viva!life magazine three times a year. 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.
Vegans reign supreme
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5 Lifelines 22 Life Science 24 Podcast 26 John Robb/Calvesley 31 New foodie products 36 Lifestyle 42 Media Life 46 Merchandise 51 V Biz 53 Book reviews
viva.org.uk 3
Welcome
VIVA!LIfE MAGAzINE
I hate jargon but there’s no shorthand way of saying that people are contradictory in what they say and what they do and so I’ll go with ‘cognitive dissonance’. They coo and ahh over the beauty of baby lambs piglets and chicks – and then eat them simply because most other people do. And so our great new billboard, Save a Baby, highlights that contradiction by displaying the image of a beautiful little lamb with the reality, ‘Some people eat them!’ It’s followed by the reminder, ‘But you don’t have to!’ These messages are appearing all over the North West of England and will be seen by an estimated 10 million people. It’s extraordinary when you think that for decades there have been no countervailing views from authority to the one that eating animals is normal, acceptable and universal. Promo leaflets dropping through your front door, magazines, TV programmes all present meat and dairy as commonplace. Well, we’re still fighting back against accepting gross animal cruelty and environmental destruction as ‘normal’ (see page 10). We’re all now well aware that vegan plant-based products and bio-meats are going through an extraordinary period of evolution and the question is, flash in the pan or brave new frontier? My interview with billionaire entrepreneur, Jim Mellon, leaves little doubt as to where he stands – animal slaughter will before too long become almost a thing of the past. Yeah, but words are cheap! In the case of Jim Mellon, however, it isn’t just words as he’s putting his money where his mouth is and has selected 16 companies for investment opportunities in this field (see page 8). Film making can have a profound impact on people’s understanding of critical issues and our Hogwood – a modern horror story is just one example. The latest is Seaspiracy, a superb documentary that reveals the all-out war on our oceans and their inhabitants. On page 16, Tony Wardle reviews the film through the eyes of someone who grew up in what was the largest fishing port in the world. On page 32, our Head of Investigations, Lex Rigby, talks to a kindred spirit in the form of Pete Paxton, the nom de guerre of a man who has spent a couple of decades successfully exposing, amongst other things, puppy farming in the US. It’s fascinating delving into the mindset of people who willingly put themselves in harm’s way, both physically and emotionally. Having been inside plenty of places myself over the years, I don’t think I could ever take on the demanding physical regime Pete Paxton recommends for undercover investigators! Every issue of Viva!life reminds me of how the long and arduous task of establishing Viva! Poland was so well worth it. Yet once again they have come up with a success that fills me with admiration. Having helped to marshal an Amendment through the Polish parliament that would have outlawed fur farming – only to have it overturned on a whim by the de facto prime minister – they have not given up. At over 600 sites across the country, huge billboards remind Polish people of the cruelty that’s being dispensed in their name – and they did it at a fraction of the true cost. Well done indeed. Yours for the animals Juliet Gellatley Founder & Director juliet@viva.org.uk facebook.com/juliet.gellatley
Viva! Founder & International Director Juliet Gellatley Executive Assistant Jess Nunn Editor Tony Wardle Head of Investigations Lex Rigby Head of Communications Faye Lewis Campaigns & Outreach Laura-Lisa Hellwig, William Sorflaten, Louisa Kendal, Siobhan Dolan, Alice Short Viva! Health Dr Justine Butler, Veronika Charvátová Office Manager & Supporters’ Liaison Laura Turner, Beata Rzepecka-Wilk, Renata Rzepecka Merchandise, Business & Events Emily Coster, Siobhan Dolan, Charlotte Heath, Lucy Constable Food & Cookery and VRC Maryanne Hall, Dani Lawton Design The Ethical Graphic Design Company Ltd Web & IT Roger Peñarroya i Zaldívar, Conor Haines, Jeremy Ludlow Podcast Presenters Helen Wilson, Faye Lewis 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
lifelines Cheesed off over Brexit The dairy industry has been among the biggest losers from Brexit so far, with milk and cream exports to the EU down 96 per cent – from £24 million to just £900,000. Cheese hasn’t bucked the trend either, exports being down by 65 per cent, according to the New European. Just in case the dairy industry thought it had drawn the short straw, chicken and beef sales to the EU are also down – by nearly 80 per cent. And there’s no luck with the Irish either; dairy and meat sales to that country are down by almost two-thirds. Didn’t see that on any buses!
EU to End the Cage Age In a momentous and long-awaited decision, the European parliament has voted overwhelmingly to support a European Citizen’s Initiative (ECI) to end the caging of farmed animals, to include caged hens, farrowing crates, sow stalls and calf pens. The initiative was organised by 170 NGOs and signed by 1.4 million people. It is not yet law and there are still lots of hoops to jump through but it is anticipated that legislation will come into force in 2027. The motion also calls for a ban on the force-feeding of ducks and geese for foie gras production. These changes will not now, of course, apply to the UK. Defra Minister, Victoria Prentis MP, said the government is examining the use of cages for laying hens and is committed to ending the use of farrowing crates. Not much sign of it though. The wonderful Kerry McCarthy MP opened up the debate. She highlighted several countries including Germany and Austria have already taken steps to remove cages from their farming systems.
Co-op’s Vegan Food Pledge The Co-op is to invest more than £1.7m in reducing the cost of 29 of its own-brand vegan products to match that of the equivalent meat products as part of its plan for its own product range to be fully carbon neutral by 2025. They say it is to help customers who see price as a barrier to choosing a plant-based diet. Thank you Co-op!
How to Oppose Planning Applications Preventing an intensive rabbit farm and an animal incinerator are two of Viva!’s recent successes in opposing animal farming applications. Objections are always more effective when they come from local people who will be affected by the plan. Should you want to object to a planned development, we can help. Viva!’s senior campaigner, Will Sorflaten, has written a blog of essential information. viva.org.uk/blog/fightingoff-a-farms-planning-application
Vanilla Black Once a top-of-the range vegan and vegetarian restaurant off London’s Chancery Lane, Covid caused the closure of Vanilla Black but all is not lost. Chef Andrew Dargue and Donna Conroy are to run pop-up vegan and vegetarian cookery schools aimed at professional chefs and aspirational home cooks. There are eight places for the London class costing £175. vanillablackhome.myshopify.com/collections/ cook-learn-day-course
LA Not So Confidential Huge congratulations to Viva! supporter and artist Karen fiorito, who was determined to get the message out in Los Angeles that most emerging infectious diseases are from animals. She designed billboards based on our 3 in 4 campaign and had them installed at 10 locations across the Eagle Rock neighbourhood of LA – but what a battle it was. Karen eventually raised the funding for the project to show people that we must go vegan but what she didn’t count on was that, one after another, ad companies would refuse to accept her design and copy for fear of upsetting people. This censorship of basic facts led to months of delay but made her more determined and at the fourth attempt, she found a company who would display them. Thank you Karen. theartfulactivist.com/2021/05/10/know-your-zoonoses
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lifelines Two Momentous Court Verdicts Against Shell Earlier this year, six people stood trial in Southwark Crown Court, charged with causing criminal damage to Shell’s London headquarters in April 2019. The building had been damaged and the identity of those involved was not in doubt but still the five men and one woman pleaded not guilty. Ranging in age from 41 to 62, the six defendants were only allowed to tell the court why they had a moral imperative to try and prevent climate change. Each gave the court a different but compelling testimony, with one of the defendants describing himself as a ‘conscientious protector’ while another said that the damage to the Shell building was nothing compared to the damage to the planet. Judge Gregory Perrins instructed the jury that moral justification was not a lawful excuse to cause criminal damage. Despite this, the jury found all six defendants not guilty. And to add to Shell’s woes, a Dutch court has ordered it to cut its CO₂ emissions by 45 per cent by 2030. This is another landmark finding against the company which cuts through its constant attempts at greenwashing its activities. Roger Cox, lawyer for friends of the Earth and its 17,000 co-plaintiffs called on organisations across the world to “pick up the gauntlet”, and take legal action to force multinationals to play their full part in tackling the climate emergency.
Row, Row, Row Your Dirty Vegan Boat While we were all moaning about lockdown, Matt Prichard, BBC TV’s Welsh vegan chef and former pro-skateboarder and prankster with Dirty Sanchez, was rowing the Atlantic. He and his three mates did it in the hope of raising £20,000 to be split between men's mental health charity, Humen, and our close neighbours and dear friends Dean farm Trust.
Great News – Animals Can Feel Hooray, animals in the UK are to be recognised as sentient! “Vertebrate animals will be recognised as sentient beings for the first time in UK law thanks to the introduction of the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill”. Oh, just a minute, for the last 13 years we recognised animals as being sentient when it was written
into EU law in 2008/09. The UK is also to ban live animal exports for slaughter and fattening and is ‘exploring’ a ban on the sale of foie gras. Sadly, there’s no intention to ban live imports. And finally, a loophole is to be closed that allowed individuals to import up to 20kg (44 lbs) of dried sharks’ fins ‘for personal use’.
Europe Slaps Down Dairy Industry forget free markets, the climate emergency and honesty. Instead, save our bacon, was the demand from Europe’s dairy industry. And the way to do it, they said, was to stop those radical vegans from using packaging for milk or margarine that looks anything like dairy packaging. • Prevent them from showing pictures of swirling oat or soya drinks that look like dairy milk. • Ban them from making accurate claims such as plant milks produce far less carbon emissions than dairy. • Silence them from providing essential allergy information such as saying ‘does not contain milk’.
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• And don’t let them dare use useful descriptive terms such as ‘creamy,’ ‘buttery, ‘use like cream’ or ‘vegan alternative to yoghurt’. Through the European Parliament’s AGRI Committee, they tried to introduce Amendment 171 to ban all such claims but they didn’t reckon with objections from nearly half-a-million consumers, ProVeg International, Greta Thunberg, Oatly and a string of others. The European Parliament, Council and Commission all rejected this nonsense from a flailing industry. British dairy producers take note!
Viva! Contributes to Diabetes Study for years, people with type 2 diabetes have been encouraged to opt for ‘low-carb’ diets – those based on higher protein and fat intake from animal products – and to restrict carbohydrate intake from plant foods. In 2020, The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN), under Public Health England, launched a public consultation on the impact of these low carbohydrate diets. Viva! Health made a submission against low-carb diets and supplied evidence supporting wholefood vegan diets, including unrefined carbohydrates, and how they could being effectively managing type 2 diabetes, even reverse it. A whole string of bodies was involved – Diabetes UK, the British Dietetic Association, RCP and RCGP. They concluded that there is a distinct lack of convincing data to support low carb diets and while they might help achieve ‘slight’ weight loss in the short term, people should consume wholegrains, fruit and vegetables.
Trees and their Wood Wide Web
Surprise, Surprise – Cows Don’t Like Lockdown zero grazing – where cows never go out to pasture – is increasing in the UK. Research by Queen’s University Belfast confirms what we all know – the cows don’t like it. Published in the journal Nature – Scientific Reports, researchers found that it isn’t just humans who suffer from lockdown. Working with a group of dairy cows, they tried to establish whether they responded very similarly to humans when kept indoors and were deprived of grazing. Lead Author, Andrew Crump, said: “Our results indicate that pasture is a more rewarding environment for dairy cows, which may induce more positive emotional wellbeing than full-time housing”. Now, who’d have believed it?
If your heart was warmed by the ‘Home Tree’ in James Cameron’s film Avatar, then you should know that the idea almost certainly sprang from the work of Prof Suzanne Simard of the University of British Columbia. from forester to forest ecologist, she has made some extraordinary discoveries about trees, starting with their dependence upon millions of species of fungi and bacteria who swap nutrients between soil and the roots of trees, forming a vast, interconnected web of organisms throughout the woods. This ‘wood wide web’ has now been mapped with a database of more than 28,000 tree species across 70 countries. But now there’s more! This labyrinth of underground forest connections act like a brain that allows trees to form societies and recognise and look out for their own young. They can communicate throughout the entire forest and lessons they have learned in the past can be transmitted as a form of learning from older trees to the younger. Suzanne Simard explains the key finding from her research: “Trees are in a connected society, a physical network and they trade and collaborate and interact in really sophisticated ways as a cohesive, holistic society. We thought that plants were solitary and compete to acquire as many resources as they can but that’ wrong. They don’t simply compete – they collaborate!” Why aren’t we surprised?
Lifelines continued on page 50 viva.org.uk 7
It’s meat Jim,
but not as we know it! Why the meat-alternative food revolution is unstoppable and why British billionaire, Jim Mellon, is ‘in’! BY JULIET GELLATLEY, VIVA! FOUNDER & DIRECTOR
ultured meat recently made its historic debut in Singapore. Eat Just, a US start-up company, launched the lab-grown chicken at the chic 1880 restaurant. It is the first in the world to make cultured meat commercially available and its brand, GOOD Meat, was used in three dishes: bao bun with crispy sesame cultured chicken and spring onion; phyllo puff pastry with cultured chicken and black bean purée; and a crispy maple waffle with cultured chicken with spices and hot sauce. Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of Eat Just, told Viva!life: “This historic step, the first-ever commercial sale of cultured meat, moves us closer to a world where the majority of meat will not require tearing down a single forest, displacing a single animal’s habitat or using a single drop of antibiotics.” Most of the CEOs I’ve contacted in the cultured meat arena are similarly motivated by ethics. My interest in cultured meat is, of course, for the animals. Seventy-five billion farmed animals were killed last year across the globe and most were intensively farmed in pitiable conditions. Feeding these poor creatures is ravaging the world’s wildernesses as they are ripped up to make way for grazing and animal fodder. Animals from the sea fare no better, with almost all salmon factory farmed and trillions of other fish wrenched from the oceans, which are ecologically collapsing (see page 16). With meat consumption growing in China and India, cultured meat is an incredibly long lever to pull to quickly reduce the numbers of animals slaughtered worldwide; it may be the only way – and I mean by tens of billions – in our lifetime.
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With these thoughts in mind, I attended a webinar Protein Reimagined: Transforming the Global Food System, run by the Good Food Institute in Spring 2021. Within six years, the number of cultured meat companies has grown from two to over 60 worldwide and with investments of over $450 million, they have made huge strides in commercialising not only cultured meat but also fish, prawns and shrimp, foie gras, dairy products (including infant formula), pet food and leather. As the Founder of Vitro Labs, Ingvar Helgason, told me: “A single painless biopsy from one cow can make millions of handbags.” Curious to discover how cultured meat is made, I visited Mosa Meat in Maastrict. This was the company co-founded by Dutch scientist Mark Post who unveiled the first cultivated meat burger on live television in London in 2013. A tiny sample of cells is painlessly taken from an animal and are then fed a broth of nutrients, growth factors and water on which they multiply into trillions and are grown into meat or other products using a bioreactor. From start to finish, the process by Eat Just for chicken takes about 14 days. Other companies take up to two months. One of the stumbling blocks has always been the medium used to grow them – foetal bovine serum (FBS). It contains serum taken from the hearts of living calf foetuses – and yes, it is as horrifically cruel as it sounds. Mosa Meat, however, say they have developed a medium that does not contain any animal components and Didier Toubia, co-founder at Aleph Farms in Israel, wrote in an email to me: “Our growth medium does not include any component obtained from animals”. Other companies have now achieved this, too.
Who is investing in cultured meats and is it really going to trigger a new Agrarian Revolution? To find out, I wanted to meet someone who truly understands the world of investment and cultured meats and who better than British billionaire Jim Mellon? Jim gained his masters degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford; trained as an investment manager and was a multi-millionaire by the age of 28. He has set up Agronomics Ltd (agronomics.im), an investment company focussed on cultured animal products and is just about the only way non-rich folk can invest in this sector. I had heard him speak on the urgent need for food reform and wanted to find out what it was that motivated him to champion cultured meats? We set up a Zoom and he told me: “I’m involved in the biotech industry and my partners and I have created a number of biotech companies for human health. The process by which cell ag. products are produced is largely a biotech process and I could see there was a buzz around the whole cell ag. area that was beginning to get real traction. I looked at the reasons behind it and decided to dive in.” But what were those reasons? Jim was refreshingly outspoken: “Number one is a reduction in the abhorrent industrial slaughter of animals that are so very badly treated. This is something to which you and I completely relate and it is my number one motivating factor.” I’ve seen Jim speak against factory farming – he is passionate, persuasive and articulate – but was there a lightbulb moment? “No, it was just a gradual realisation that sentient beings are slaughtered in abjectly awful conditions without most of us knowing about it yet eating the products of their artificially-produced bodies. I just couldn’t abide it anymore and gave up meat. I have to admit that it’s a relatively recent conversion, six years now and no meat here! And that’s my number one motivation.” And the second reason? “Food security. Neither of us was around in the Second World War but we all know about the sea convoys and the near-starvation of the British population because of the sinking of supply ships.
Britain then imported 40 per cent of its food but now it’s increased to a half. We have to improve food security in these uncertain times and we have to improve its quality so we don’t run the pandemic risks that Viva! quite rightly identifies in its 3 in 4 campaign.
”There is no excuse for the intensive farming of animals. None! It’s on a declining trajectory” “There are places in the world which are much more food insecure than the UK and where some countries import nearly 100 per cent of their food – Singapore and Hong Kong, for example. This will provide the driving force for the cultured meat sector to grow – and it’s also a motivating factor for me. “Third, of course, is the environment. The food that’s being produced by plant-based and cell ag. companies is so much better for the planet. There is no excuse for the intensive farming of animals. None! It’s on a declining trajectory and will probably go in the next 20 or 30 years.
Continued on page 49
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Some people actually eat them… Campaigns manager, Laura Lisa Hellwig, proudly reports on the launch of a powerful new campaign hat more adorable sight is there than baby Spring lambs playing in the fields? They leap in the air, chase and play with their friends. Sadly, their joy is short lived. At six months old, they’re transported to the slaughterhouse, killed and sold for meat. Staggeringly, every year in Britain, around one billion baby animals are killed behind the closed doors of slaughterhouses for human consumption – including 15 million lambs. And death often comes in an horrific way. Chicks born into the meat industry live for just six weeks, piglets are killed at about five months old and tens of thousands of male calves born into the dairy industry are shot at just a day old. And all this is part of UK farming. We’re constantly told that Britain is a nation of animal lovers and yes, most of us do adore baby animals – a cute little piglet, a joyful lamb, a fluffy chick. However, there is a big disconnect between the meat on people’s plates and them acknowledging where it came from. Are
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your area and told us how powerful the message is. And out on the streets of Manchester, numerous people told us how grateful they were that we’ve opened their eyes. Only a very few knew how short is the lives of farmed animals. We were able to appeal to their compassion, told them what life is like for one billion animals in this country of animal lovers and we offered them the only effective solution – GO VEGAN. One shocked person told us: “I’ve never thought about it in that way. When I eat meat, I don’t think about who had to die for it. Only now do I realise that animals have to suffer for my dinner… It’s not worth it. I’m going vegan”. Our hard-hitting campaign video, directed by Tony Wardle, opens with happy baby animals – but then a time stamp thumps onto the screen with the age at which that particular animal is killed and interrupts the idyllic scene. What comes next is a brief glimpse of the cooked meat that this baby creature becomes. We know that meat eaters think it’s powerful, that it has made them think – because they’ve told us so! These are the reactions we want because every person who changes their diet saves animals. It has been viewed in full by 125,000 people in just two weeks. Hundreds of you ordered our Save a Baby leaflets and distributed them in your local area. You are central to this campaign and we thank you. Together, we have educated millions of people and helped to drive the vegan revolution even further forward.
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Back with a bang Senior Campaigner Will Sorflaten reports on the re-launch of Viva!’s vital campaign to help save the Earth ating animals is disastrous for the cow, pig or chicken but the impact goes far wider than that. Meat and dairy eating is contributing to the world’s sixth mass extinction and hurtling us towards a catastrophic temperature rise of up to 5°C by the end of this century. And that’s why we launched our Vegan Now campaign back in 2019, to show people that their obsession with animal products is catapulting all of us into a climate crisis the likes of which humankind has never before witnessed. National newspapers went hysterical, you may remember, when Viva! patron Michael Mansfield made a public statement saying that eating meat could become illegal. Our short, viral Vegan Now film was stunning and reached over one million people. A huge number of them made the connection that a beef burger is simply not worth our planet’s destruction. Fast forward two years and our planet is still in peril, even though more and more people are waking up to the climate and other environmental crises and the urgent need for action. Yet still millions of Brits are unaware of what that action should be. Too often, the media portrays saving the world as turning off lights, recycling or wearing a jumper instead of turning up the heating. Valid points, of course, but not enough to stave off global warming! So again, Viva! is urging people to ditch animal products as the best way of protecting the world as we re-run our Vegan Now campaign. As always, our warnings are backed by peer-reviewed studies and leading experts. And it’s not just us saying this stuff – the University of Oxford conducted the most comprehensive, worldwide research on agriculture in 2018 and concluded overwhelmingly that going vegan is the most effective action we can take. Vegan Now launched on Earth Day, April 22 – what better day to remind everyone how simple it is to protect the only planet we have? Since the launch, over 100,000 more people have seen our Vegan Now film, and our week of digital action was a huge success.
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It’s always fascinating to see what resonates most with our supporters and our Greta Thunberg graphic was by far the biggest winner, followed by Brian May’s powerful quote urging us to reconsider our relationship with animals. Infographics – simple charts that outline the unsustainability of our demand for animal products – were also widely seen. The most chilling was the one that showed how unbalanced the world has become – if you calculate the weight of all the mammals on Earth, 96 per cent is made up of humans and livestock. A big thanks goes to the supporter whose generous donation paid for 10,000 Vegan Now leaflets to be distributed across the Exeter region. Also our thanks to supporters who hosted stalls and door-dropped. Our literature has gone nationwide. Next, we are going on a vegan burger van tour (see p50). It’s not too late to get involved. Find out more at viva.org.uk/campaign-with-us or email us at info@viva.org.uk for more info.
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Photo © Phil Cannings
Viva! Heroes Take a Bow
first up in our Viva! Heroes roll call is the truly remarkable 14-year-old Henry Read-Denness. Henry is raising money for our campaigns by walking an aweinspiring 1,000 miles! He is also fasting one day a week from 9am to 5pm “to symbolise the animals left without food and water for hours”. Henry went vegetarian in April 2019 for environmental reasons after seeing climate protests in the media. He then saw Viva!’s social media posts, amongst others, revealing how badly animals are treated in the meat, egg and dairy industries and that persuaded him to go vegan three months later. Henry got his dad to take part in this year’s Veganuary and says although he’s changing his diet, he’s “too lazy to do it full time!”. Dad doesn’t like cooking so Henry often cooks vegan meals for them both which he very much enjoys! Henry decided to fundraise as the volunteering component of his Duke of Edinburgh Award and after ordering our free Everybody’s Going Vegan pack, and then watching Hogwood: a modern horror story, he decided we’d make the perfect recipient for his fundraising efforts. Thank you, Henry! You can hear Henry talk about his fundraising on our June Viva! Podcast minisode and he will also be featured on our new Viva! Gen pages on our website to inspire other young vegans. To see Henry’s progress or to donate in support of him, visit his Just Giving page: justgiving.com/fundraising/henry-read1
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Action Challenge run a series of exceptionally demanding fundraising events and in January this year, we partnered with them. We have had some truly incredible fundraisers sign up to these challenges for Viva! for summer 2021 and we can’t wait to cheer them on! Paul Youd, Alex Passmore and James Gibson – all from the Runner Beings running group – will be taking part in the gruelling South West Coast 2 Coast Challenge on July 24-25, and Simon Chappell will be joining them for the Exe Valley Half Marathon. Paul Youd – who is just shy of his 84th birthday! – is an absolute powerhouse and inspiration. He simply has no off switch when it comes to raising money for good causes. Last year he raised money for our friends at Dean farm Trust by running 100km around his back garden during lockdown. He also raised £800 for the YMCA and another local homeless charity by doing 1,000 press-ups in an hour! If you want to support the inimitable Paul, please donate via his Just Giving page: justgiving.com/fundraising/paul-youd3. fellow Runner Being Alex Passmore says: “Having had no experience running, my good friend Paul Youd convinced me to sign up for an Ultra Marathon (102km) over two days. Through incremental gains, I hope to show the health benefits of a plant-based diet and raise money for Viva! – a charity that saves animals.” Donate on Alex’s Just Giving page: justgiving.com/fundraising/alex-passmore1 Another Ultra Marathon runner is James Gibson, who says: “I’m completing this testing run for Viva!, whose cause is close to my heart. I hope that by completing this Ultra we will be able to raise some vital funding for their campaigns”. You can show James some support by donating here: justgiving.com/fundraising/james-gibson33
Inspired by Paul, Alex and James, and as a keen amateur runner himself, Simon Chappell is running the Exe Valley Half Marathon, which coincides with the final leg of the Coast 2 Coast Challenge, so they can cross the finish line together! Simon has been vegan for the past couple of years after completing Veganuary with his family and watching several documentaries to remind him of the truth about farming and the impact it has on the environment – the original spark for which he credits to a Blue Peter book when he was a child! Simon is also a GP who advocates for vegan diets and is part of the Plant-Based Health Professionals organisation, spearheaded by Dr. Shireen Kassam.
We also have supporter Michelle King taking part in the notoriously demanding Tough Mudder Challenge in August. Michelle says: “In the past few lockdowns I started to really reflect on my lifestyle and decided to be proactive with my physical activity and healthy eating as I'm partial to all the delicious vegan junk food available! I've lost 30lbs so far. Tough Mudder Challenge is another way to push myself.” Incredible work Michelle! Thank you so much for deciding to support Viva!. If you’re able to make a donation to support Michelle, her facebook fundraiser page is bit.ly/3jWjc2i
Aside from these very physical fundraising challenges, we also have hugely generous donors Kit and Isabelle who are donating their wedding fund to us! This is the wonderful message on their fundraising page: “Our wedding is far from being a traditional one so it would be inadequate of us to ask our guests for a conventional wedding gift. Help us end animal cruelty by giving to Viva!, a charity dedicated to promoting veganism. We know that all of you may not yet believe in such [a] cause, but remember that you’re doing it for us." Kit and Isabel have raised an incredible £868 for us and we are so grateful. A big, sincere thank you.
If you’d like to become a Viva! Hero and think you have a great fundraising idea, please get in touch! Just email Jess at jess@viva.org.uk and she will work with you to help your fundraising challenge or event become a huge success!
finally, we also want to say a huge thanks to all our amazing Viva! Heroes for your time, your hard graft and dedication. This includes our social media birthday fundraisers, our stall volunteers, raffle ticket sellers and everyone else who is fundraising for us to help keep our vital work going. We couldn’t do what we do without you – every penny is appreciated by us and the animals. viva.org.uk 15
An Old man and the Sea Above: The largest trawler in the world – at the time. Photo courtesy of Grimsby Evening Telegraph
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Tony Wardle takes stock of humankind’s relationship with the sea – how it was, how it is and how it has to change unny old place Grimsby. Comedians love the name and when you tell someone you come from there you can almost see a little flicker of sympathy flit across their eyes, despite them never having been there. Sacha Baron Cohen certainly had great fun with it in his movie Grimsby, even if it was filmed in Essex. You can’t go to Grimsby on the road to somewhere else like you can call in at Nottingham on your way to Sheffield as it’s stuck out on its own on the bulge of North Lincolnshire, on the estuarial bank of the River Humber. It’s the end of the line – in more ways than one, some would say. Fish, that’s what it‘s famous for – fish and Grimsby go together like… well, certainly not peaches and cream but it’s where I grew up in the 40s and 50s (yes, I am that
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old). I was part of a community that was held together by the gravitational pull of fish and fishing. It was the principal employer, the inescapable, all-pervasive influence whose connective threads bound everyone captive in a tapestry of mutual interest and understanding. In our alley, my next-door neighbour Carl Jorgensen skippered a Seine netter, named after his baby daughter Marcia, and his sons – my friends Johnnie and Tommy – would also eventually go to sea, Johnnie joining his dad on the Marcia. Mister Over on the other side worked on the docks. On warm days, Mrs Rowbottom would sit out in her back yard braiding nets. And across the road lived the blonde, willowy and beautiful Greta Sorensen, who I worshipped from afar, and whose father was also a Seine net skipper.
There were mornings when I was awakened in the wee small hours by the clank clank clank of clog irons striking pavement stone as lumpers – catch handlers – made their way to work. Decades earlier, my own miserable grandfather, John ‘Sparrow Jack’ Wardle, had worked on the docks for the wonderfully named The Great Grimsby Coal Salt and Tanning Company Ltd (still there but now called just Cosalt), devising ways of preventing oil navigation lamps from sooting up in heavy weather and other inventions. Our street was a featureless Victorian terrace and it ended at the railway lines that ran atop a high bank that kept the sea at bay – well, until the 1953 East Coast flood disaster when it ignored all obstacles and came crashing over. On the corner of the street was the Bethel Mission, my Sunday school and the fishermen’s church. Its stained glass windows featured some vessels that had been lost at sea, the pulpit was a ship’s binnacle that had once housed a compass and every service ended with the hymn For those in peril on the sea, always sung at full volume with heart-felt meaning. And in peril they were. Most lost fishermen were just that – lost. But from one vessel that went down they recovered eight bodies and as usual their funeral services were held at the Bethel Mission. Oh what a dreadful sight it was that moistened the eyes and chilled the soul, as eight hearses moved slowly down our street, each preceded on foot by a black-clad undertaker and each followed by a cortege of wives and children, mothers and fathers, leaning on each other for support as their unrestrained tears flowed; each now facing the reality of a potential event they had always dreaded but had tried to ignore. One hearse after another passed slowly by in a seemingly endless train of human misery while we and other residents of the street stood silently on our doorsteps out of respect, as was the way – some with loved ones still out there on the sea. Life at sea was brutal. A tiny, cramped and overcrowded space that was never motionless; sleep obtained in short snatches; working often in sub-zero temperatures with gutting gloves that froze solid, until the cook delivered buckets of hot water for hands to be dipped in to thaw; and the regular cry of “Water” that sent crew scrambling into the lea of the forepeak as solid green sea water came crashing over the bow. They would be away for up to three weeks, two days at home and then away again, their money linked to the profitability of the catch. During their absence at sea, wives would queue at the dock offices for a sub against their bloke’s meagre earnings, to keep them going. A poor catch would mean the men ‘paid off’ in debt – owing the company money despite what they’d endured. Apart from a few skippers, fishermen were not rich. But… when education was centered more on the cane than learning, when job opportunities were scarce and when you could wrap yourself in the warm cloak of tradition that offered you some pride and a measure of respect, of course lads went to sea. In my father’s day there were over 700 vessels sailing out of Grimsby and an almost similar number from
Hull, their bitter rival across the river. In my childhood, the quantity had reduced to about 170 but bigger, more destructive and further reaching. It still enabled Grimsby to proclaim itself as the biggest fishing port in the world. Smaller vessels headed for the Dogger Bank in the middle of the North Sea while distant-water trawlers ploughed the seas off the Faroe Islands, Norway and Iceland, with bigger vessels heading up to the Arctic circle and beyond. Most were trawlers and their huge and heavy trawl boards kept the mouth of the nets open to scoop up fish and in the process, remorselessly ploughed the sea bed and all its unwanted creatures into oblivion. Collectively, they brought back fish in such huge quantities that a class of railway locomotive was designed especially to service the trade. Known as LNER B5 Fish Class, 14 were built to ferry the iced fish (no freezing in those days) to London and other big cities. Sometimes the market was glutted with fish and trawlers discharging at times like that got nothing for their catch no matter how big, which was ferried down the road to Fison’s fertilizer factory at Pyewipe. Thousands of animals slaughtered for nothing. Even then there were a few quiet voices warning of the irresponsibility of plundering the seas with such abandon but they were lost in the clamorous arguments about need and employment and tradition. So where am I going with this? It isn’t just a trip down memory lane but an attempt to offer an understanding of why people do what they do to our planet, who ultimately bears responsibility and what we can do about it. The ones who do the dirty work, the catching and killing, often have deeply precarious lives and are themselves exploited along with the fish.
Continued on page 48
Midshipman Tony Wardle 1956 aged 17
Below: The Ross Tiger is typical of 1950/60s trawlers. It is now open to the public as part of the Grimsby Fishing Heritage Centre and well worth a visit to understand the town’s old fishing culture
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(& THE REVOLUTIONARY MINDS)
(DEREK SIMNETT)
TICKETS FROM VEGANCAMPOUT.CO.UK ADULTS = £60 | KIDS = £30 | 0-3 = FREE VEGANCAMPOUT
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Viva!’s Vegan Sports Nutriłion guide This healthily comprehensive, easy to read guide will equip you with all the latest scientific know-how to make your diet the best fuel possible for your athletic endeavours. It explains not just how and what to eat for different levels of activity and sports but also why being vegan offers a range of performance and health advantages. It explores why plant-based foods make your body work better, speed up muscle recovery and give you more energy. Viva!’s Vegan Sports Nutrition Guide also offers sensible, practical advice, including meal plans!
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Viva!’s Sports nutrition website viva.org.uk/sports offers all the same gems as the guide, explains why a vegan diet is the best fuel for athletes, what advantages it offers, what to eat and where to get all the important nutrients you need. It also has meal plans for different levels of sports activities, tips for transitioning to a vegan diet and also has a section Nutrition by Sport with key points for each main sport, a Vegan Athletes page for inspiration, vegan sports nutrition fAQs, Nutrient Cheatsheets for nutrition tracking, recipe ideas and video interviews with vegan sportspeople.
Costs £3 from vivashop.org.uk/ sportsguide
viva.org.uk 19
Two top-10 UK albums, famed for their conceptual, high-production music videos, which rack up millions of views, they are one of the biggest rock bands in the UK. Now, back with their fourth album, Amazing Things, it’s …
Don Broco
The band’s drummer and backing vocalist, Matt Donnelly, talks to Faye Lewis about his journey into veganism att Donnelly caught up with Viva! to tell us what it’s like to be a touring band that can’t tour and his ‘non-traditional’ route into veganism. He is a warm-hearted guy and when we discussed his latest album Amazing Things, he is definitely in an upbeat frame of mind. “I’ve really learned to take each year as it comes,” he laughs, “because if you make too many detailed plans, at the end of the year, you look back and laugh because they didn’t happen. It’s the same with music, which is so unpredictable and you never know what’s around the corner – but that’s also the beauty of it.” Matt’s desire to make music was seeded long ago and took root with the band when they were still in school. They grew coltishly from teenagers who travelled to London together to watch gigs, to becoming one of the most exciting hard rock bands in the UK. Anyone who has listened to Don Broco’s musical canon will hear three-to-four-minute reasons why people love them and their songs. “We are a heavy guitar, rock band but when you watch us you’ll see our sense of fun, hope and joyfulness. There is a seriousness behind our lyrics but our music is essentially about uniting and bringing people together.” They seem to play something for everyone – the angry and cheerful alike. Despite having catapulted to the major-league rock stratosphere, Matt reflects on how very grounded they are as a band. In fact,
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increased popularity has only made them appreciate what’s really important. And to Matt, health and veganism are two of those things. His route into veganism was anything but traditional. In September, 2017, the band were on tour, playing sold-out shows across Europe and the US, when suddenly Matt found himself experiencing cramping and abdominal pain. “If I was playing energetic shows or if I was going for a run, basically anything which caused my heart rate to be elevated, I would experience these pains,” he says. “After I returned to the UK, I went to get myself tested and was diagnosed with a rare blood condition called Aceruloplasminemia, a disease which is horrible to spell and even more horrible to have. “There was a period of six to eight weeks where we weren’t sure of my eligibility for certain treatments so I went on a personal journey… I had already wanted to
cut down on my meat consumption and this was the real motivation for me to do something about it.” Matt was supported on this journey by his then girlfriend, Lauren, now his wife. “It became fun – our friends and family got us a lot of cookbooks and we became adventurous in cooking, finding new recipes and veganising existing ones. I didn’t transition through vegetarianism but decided to go straight to veganism and I’ve never looked back.” For the band, the changes made were subtle, but sensible; keeping the international touring schedule in place but incorporating better planning around where they would source food in each city. “Even though I’m the only vegan in the band, when on tour we go for Thai, Ramen, Mexican and Japanese places where I can eat comfortably and the band support that. I can’t imagine as a touring musician how hard it must have been in the 90s to find vegan food and still today, some countries have difficulty appreciating what veganism is.” Of course, the conversation turns from Don Broco’s previously hectic touring schedule – supporting bands like Linkin Park – to life offstage, fitting in song-writing whilst adapting to ‘the new normal’. “The last year has brought a really unique set of challenges. At the start of the pandemic, we had plans to go into the studio to record so thankfully our touring schedule wasn’t disrupted like many other bands. But after months of Zoom sessions we were [finally] able to get into the studio.” They decamped to Suffolk’s Decoy Studios at the end of last summer and enlisted the help of producer Jason Perry (McFly, Fatherson), who had produced the band’s second album Automatic in 2015. “It was a welcome oasis being in the studio. We formed our own bubble and had our own feeling of safety in the countryside and were really able to just focus on the album,” says Matt. Listening to the new album, Amazing Things, reveals an escape route from the world so what emerges is the music. “There’s a greater sense of letting off steam in the lyrical content, which is natural as we were all using music as an outlet and therapy for the madness of what was going on. Early on in the pandemic, I lost three uncles in a short period of time and other people I know were hospitalised. It felt like we were receiving daily phone updates on their health. It was a tragic time for my dad who lost three brothers in the space of a few weeks.” Death is a raw material of life itself and the impact of this can be felt on the track, Easter Sunday. Unsurprisingly, it’s a suitably poignant song even if you can – shock horror – hum along to some of it. “Rob, our lead singer, was watching an online church service and for the lyrics and song idea, he was struggling with the juxtaposition of the sermon, God having a plan and the tragedy befalling my family. He was finding it difficult to put the
two things together and was searching to find a way of remaining optimistic in that situation.” Despite the tragic events of Matt’s personal life, the album is coloured with different emotions and sounds – anthem-loud choruses, the raw aggression of Rob’s vocals, softer, lilting moments on tracks like Anaheim. Plus we mentioned the remarkable creative flair in their videos, right? But don’t take our word for it, Google ‘Don Broco, Manchester Super Reds No. 1 Fan’, and see for yourself.
“The younger generation will grow up not really knowing any different and that’s brilliant” The album is a full-bodied work and in my view their strongest to date. Looking back fondly on their time in the studio, Matt laughs: “One of the highlights was that when we were recording, one person took on the cooking duties each day, so we played Come Dine With Me and secretly scored and rated each other’s dishes.” And how did the band rate Matt’s dishes? “Well, I didn’t come first,” he laughs, his affability shining through again. “But they were all happy to be fed vegan food. Veganism isn’t as niche as it once was because even mainstream restaurants now have the word ‘vegan’ on the menu – it’s regarded as a commonplace lifestyle choice. What’s even better, the younger generation will grow up not really knowing any different and that’s brilliant. That’s why I’m really supportive of what Viva! are doing because of the important message they’re spreading!” We concur on that.
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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, RESEARCHER & WRITER VIVA! HEALTH
Too much pressure? A vegan diet can help reduce blood pressure Changing your diet is an effective way to lower your blood pressure and there is robust evidence to show that a vegan diet can help to do that. Many studies, including the EPIC‑Oxford study, found that vegans have lower levels of high blood pressure than meat-eaters, fish-eaters and vegetarians. Vegan diets probably work via a combination of factors, including the beneficial effects of fibre, vitamins A, C and E, antioxidants, polyunsaturated fats and minerals – phosphorus, calcium, magnesium and potassium, in particular. Moving from animal to plant‑based foods can also alter the gut microbiota, decreasing production of toxic metabolites. So-called nutraceuticals, such as beetroot juice, magnesium, vitamin C, catechin‑rich beverages (green tea) or soya isoflavones may also help. Another review, looking at 15 studies with over 800 participants, also found that vegetarian diets significantly lowered blood pressure – a vegan diet was even more effective.
Green chemoprevention! Could broccoli protect against cancer? Compounds called isothicyanates in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage and pak choy are known to have anti-cancer properties. Broccoli in particular contains many of these compounds and one, called sulforaphane, is found to be effective in preventing cancers of the prostate, breast, colon, skin, bladder and mouth. Scientists call this ‘green chemoprevention’ and say that eating these vegetables in the right amount on a regular basis can promote health and reduce the risk of cancer. Also rich in vitamins, minerals, fibre, polyphenols and antioxidants, broccoli should be a regular feature of your diet. Nandini DB, Rao RS, Deepak BS et al. 2020. Sulforaphane in broccoli: The green chemoprevention!! Role in cancer prevention and therapy. Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology. 24 (2) 405.
Strilchuk L, Cincione RI, Fogacci F et al. 2020. Dietary interventions in blood pressure lowering: current evidence in 2020. Kardiologia Pollska. 78 (7-8) 659-666. Lee KW, Loh HC, Ching SM et al. 2020. Effects of vegetarian diets on blood pressure lowering: A systematic review with meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis. Nutrients. 12 (6) 1604.
Meat health warning … and it comes from a study of half-a-million people We know that red and processed meat increase the risk of bowel cancer but new research, from the University of Oxford, shows that it also increases the risk of nine other serious illnesses. Scientists looked at the health records of half-a-million UK adults and found that higher consumption of red and processed meat increased the risk of heart disease, pneumonia, diverticular disease, colon polyps and diabetes. Higher consumption of poultry increased the risk of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, gastritis and duodenitis, diverticular disease, gallbladder disease and diabetes. It’s quite a list! Papier K, Fensom GK, Knuppel A et al. 2021. Meat consumption and risk of 25 common conditions: outcome-wide analyses in 475,000 men and women in the UK Biobank study. BMC Medicine. 19 (1) 53.
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Breathe easy A healthy vegan diet may combat asthma
Improve your gut health Plants foods are best for your microbiome Our guts are inhabited by trillions of bacteria, collectively known as the microbiome. An imbalance in your microbiome can contribute to obesity, type 2 diabetes and other health problems. This study examined the effects of a low-fat, vegan diet in 168 overweight adults over 16 weeks. Half the group were given a vegan diet and the other half continued eating their regular diet, which included animal products. The vegan group lost, on average, 6.4 kilograms (a stone) of weight compared to just 0.5 kilograms in the control group and their insulin sensitivity increased significantly. This wasn’t just the result of a lower calorie intake; the vegan diet induced significant changes in people’s gut microbiota. High-fibre diets increase the production of short-chain fatty acids in the gut, which have a positive effect on weight regulation and cardiometabolic health. The positive effects of a vegan diet on the microbiome may be one of the reasons why vegans have a lower risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
A review of current evidence looking at the links between diet and asthma in children and adults found that diets rich in fruits, vegetables, grains and pulses, with little or no animal products, may reduce the risk of asthma. Antioxidants, fibre, vitamin D, saturated and polyunsaturated fats are all likely, they say, to affect how asthma might develop. Plant foods may protect against asthma via their effects on inflammation, oxidation and microbial composition – it’s that microbiome again! Additionally, increased fruit and veg, reduced animal products and weight management could mediate free radical damage, cytokine release and other immune responses involved in the development and course of asthma. Clinical trials identifying the mechanisms involved could lead to the potential use of nutritional therapy in the prevention and management of asthma. Alwarith J, Kahleova H, Crosby L et al. 2020. The role of nutrition in asthma prevention and treatment. Nutrition Reviews. 78 (11) 928-938.
Kahleova H, Rembert E, Alwarith J et al. 2020. Effects of a low-fat vegan diet on gut microbiota in overweight individuals and relationships with body weight, body composition, and insulin sensitivity. A randomized clinical trial. Nutrients. 12 (10) 2917.
Message in a bottle Why dairy milk signals trouble Studies show a link between cow’s milk and increased birthweight, higher body mass index (BMI), early onset of periods, increased childhood growth rates, acne, type 2 diabetes, breast and prostate cancer, neurodegenerative diseases (Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s) and mortality from all causes. This study suggests there is a common mechanism that links milk to these adverse effects – a growth regulator called mTORC1, which triggers protein synthesis. Cow’s milk is designed to turn a calf into a fully-grown cow in just over a year. It relays sophisticated maternal signals for mTORC1 activation to the ‘milk receiver’. It’s no surprise then that such a powerful signalling pathway, directing rapid growth, produces adverse health effects in people consuming cow’s milk. Melnik BC. 2021. Lifetime impact of cow’s milk on overactivation of mTORC1: From fetal to childhood overgrowth, acne, diabetes, cancers, and neurodegeneration. Biomolecules. 11 (3) 404.
More on health and nutrition at viva.org.uk/health viva.org.uk 23
The Viva! Vegan podcast & news minisode What’s coming up on The Viva! Vegan Podcast
with:
JULY – We meet the incredible Kate Strong, a world record holding vegan triathlete AUGUST – Ben Meades, the founder of Bristol’s own tempeh producers, Tempeh Meades SEPTEMBER – Matt Donnelly, drummer in top rock band, Don Broco OCTOBER – Olivier Mankondo, the wellness coach who has transformed his life and health with a vegan diet
helen & faye viva.org.uk/podcast
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Check our new website:
veganrecipeclub.org.uk It’s luscious, it’s lovely, it’s lip-smackingly scrumptious
Learn how to go vegan, download the app, search for your favourite recipe… Search by recipe type, category, ingredients, course, difficulty, dietary needs, family, guest chef, international cuisine, season, national celebration
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Defying dystopia with positive ideas
Morrison’s Pig Farm Closes due to Viva! Exposé A year after our shocking investigation into Winterbrook Farm Partners, tenants of Calvesley pig farm in Wiltshire, an eviction notice was issued and they were forced to close. We returned to check on the progress and found the site had been completely emptied and work on demolishing the buildings had begun. Calvesley Farm was a breeding unit, home to hundreds of female pigs (sows) who were routinely impregnated and forced to birth countless litters of piglets. Confined to cruel farrowing crates, the sows churned out a staggering 400 piglets a week – who were transported to another Winterbrook Farm Partners rearing facility, called Whiteshoot Farm in Oxfordshire, when just five weeks old. These farms supplied Morrisons’ supermarkets. Footage taken from Calvesley Farm in 2020 revealed disturbing examples of animal cruelty - farm workers thumping young piglets and killing them by slamming their tiny heads onto the concrete floor and dumping the bodies. Although shocking, this savage act is entirely legal. Yattendon Estate, who own the land occupied by the farm, were so shocked by what we filmed, and the national publicity it achieved, that they served the farm notice to quit. Councillor Carolyne Culver, who represents the ward where the farm is located, said: “I’m glad this case has been resolved. It’s essential that whenever there is evidence of animal cruelty it is dealt with urgently. “Concerned residents contacted me when they saw the media coverage and Yattendon Estates took action”. To read about our 2020 investigation, visit viva.org.uk/morrisons-pigs.
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Whilst governments are (generally) rushing us helter skelter into a Bladerunner future, we are greening up their effluent flow with positive visions and putting the diss into dystopia! This week I helped to soft launch a green and eco apprenticeship scheme called the Green Britain Academy, along with Dale Vince of Ecotricity (Viva! patron). If the future is going to be green we need a green workforce and the Green Britain Academy is proud to play its part in this, running alongside the ever increasing vegan consciousness that sees hatchet faced TV chefs doubt their addiction to dead flesh and jump onto the post-corpse diet bandwagon that they once disdained. Creak! creak! creak! the barn door of a fuzzy post-plague normality has slightly opened and peering into a hopeful postpandemic world with the added bonus of scraps of flickering sunshine, life feels better! Of course, all the human-driven disasters, from climate crisis to pandemic, are still at the top of the agenda. At the beginning of the crisis, there was talk of a green future yet progressive leaders and mayors are still grappling with how to make this work, defying the belching, monolithic beast of stink-breathed capitalism and its enticing matrix that we are all trapped into. One of the great points that crops up in debates about saving the planet is the fact that it’s not the planet at all that needs saving, it’s the human race that needs saving from the human race! If we were to obliterate everything, old Mother Nature would happily move on. Within a couple of years, it will have stabilized but in a different direction, just like it did during the last great extinction, when the lumbering dinosaurs saw their millions of years of dominance collapse within weeks of a random asteroid crashing to earth. At least they could claim this was not self-inflicted. Could we be the first species on the planet to be stupid enough to destroy everything and yet smart enough to know that we were doing it? Could we get as smart as we should be and become the first species to say no to our basic impulses, like ripping the heads off smaller species and eating them in lunatic frenzy? Yup! the pandemic may have paused our relentless rush into the dollar empire but it already feels like that relentless, blindfolded sprint is about to recommence. And yet there are literally green shoots of recovery. Low carbon power is rising rapidly, electric cars are no longer talked about as a luxury but a necessity and veganism and plant based are now part of the parlance and are expanding into the mainstream, embracing a murder-free future! Solutions that once seemed far out are now within reach. Green populism is now the only pop culture that matters. Welcome to the future!
Photo © Melanie Smith
Media man, punk-bred John Robb
It’s
Y R T PA E IM T
WORDS AND PICTURES BY MARYANNE HALL, FOOD AND COOKERY MANAGER
With lockdown retreating and friends hopefully calling round – we think it’s high time for a summer party! The mood is lifting and it’s time to celebrate! Share and enjoy all the delicious recipes on offer, to help bring everyone back together in style. Our watermelon, feta and pumpkin seed salad is a perfectly fresh and zingy accompaniment to liven up any barbecue dish or savoury summer pie. (Violife Greek White Block and Green Vie Greek Style are both incredible ‘feta’ alternatives – non-vegan friends definitely won’t know the difference!) The pizza twister is the ultimate sharing dish! Light fluffy dough with balsamic-glazed vegetables and lashings of melty vegan cheese. And whatever else you do, make our strawberry galette – simple, beautiful and gorgeous. Guest chef for this month is the fantastic Bianca Zapatka – Germanbased author, food stylist & photographer, recipe developer and blogger/Instagrammer with more than 692K followers on the platform!
Watermelon, Feta & Seed Salad Serves 2 | 5-10 minutes
l 400g watermelon, cut into (roughly) 1 inch chunks l 70g vegan feta (approx.), crumbled (we used Violife Greek White Block) l 8-12 black or Kalamata olives l ½ red onion, finely sliced into rings l 50-60g rocket or mixed leaves
l 2 handfuls (approx. 10g) fresh mint leaves, finely chopped plus extra for decoration l 2 handfuls toasted mixed seeds (shopbought for speed) l Drizzle extra virgin olive oil l Salt and black pepper to taste
1 Arrange all of the ingredients on a large serving plate in any way you fancy. 2 Drizzle over olive oil and season. Voila!
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Pizza Twister Serves 6 | 70 minutes Dough l 500g strong bread flour l ½ tsp salt l 7g sachet of yeast l 325ml tepid water Filling (Get creative and maybe devise your own filling). l 1 tbsp olive oil l 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar l 15g/½ bunch fresh basil, leaves torn roughly
l 150g cherry tomatoes, halved (mixed colours look pretty) l 1 courgette, finely sliced l 8-10 black olives, stones removed and halved (olives with stones have more flavour) l 1 tsp dried oregano (optional) l 150g vegan red pesto (eg Sacla, Biona, some supermarket own-brands) l 150-200g vegan mozzarella (we used MozzaRisella) l Salt and pepper
1 Preheat the oven to 190°C (fan)/375°F/Gas Mark 5. 2 Sieve the flour into a large bowl and add salt. 3 Mix yeast and water with a fork until dissolved. Add pinch of the flour before adding yeast mix to the bowl. 4 Gather the mixture together with your hands and form into a dough. Knead well on a floured surface until silky, smooth and elastic 9around 5 minutes). 5 Place dough into an oiled bowl, cover with damp tea towel and leave to doubled in size (about an hour). 6 Mix the olive oil and balsamic vinegar together in a bowl, add all vegetables, oregano and a pinch of salt and pepper. 7 Go back to the dough and knead for 30 seconds on floured surface then roll into a large rectangular shape (about the size of a tea towel). 8 With your hands, rub red pesto over all the dough. Add vegetables and ‘mozzarella’ evenly over the base. 9 Roll the dough up lengthways like a Swiss roll and cut into 12 chunks. Place swirl side up in an oiled oven-proof frying pan (approx. 26cm) or baking tray. Cover with a tea towel and leave to prove - around 30 minutes until doubled in size. 10 Place in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until golden. Check for burning after 25 minutes.
Vegan Spinach & Walnut ‘Ricotta’ Pie Serves 4-6 | 60 minutes Walnut ‘Ricotta’ l 250g cashew nuts, soaked l 150g walnuts, soaked l 175-200ml water l 1 capsule of strong probiotic bacteria (optional) l 2 tbsp nutritional yeast l ½ tbsp lemon juice l ½ tsp salt (or more to taste)
l Good pinch of black pepper Other ingredients l 5-6 sheets filo pastry l 250g young spinach (you can use frozen) l 1 onion (finely diced) l 2 cloves garlic (crushed) l ½ tsp grated nutmeg
Walnut ‘Ricotta’ 1 Soak the cashews and walnuts for a minimum of 4 hours or overnight. 2 Rinse thoroughly and blend with 175ml of water until smooth and creamy. If necessary, add more water bit by bit as you want mixture as thick as possible. 3 (Optional step) Add the probiotic capsule and blend again. Cover the cashew mix with cling film and leave to ferment (at room temperature for minimum 4 hours.
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4 Rinse walnuts and chop finely. 5 In a large bowl, add walnut pieces, cashew mix add remaining ingredients. 6 Stir together and check seasoning. Other ingredients 1 In a frying pan, fry onion until golden, add garlic and fry for a further two minutes. 2 Add spinach and cook until wilted. 3 Remove from pan to a sieve and squeeze out excess water. 4 When cool, stir in the ‘ricotta’ mix and then the nutmeg. 5 Use a 20cm loose bottom cake tin, greased with olive oil. 6 Lightly brush 4-5 sheets of filo pastry with olive oil. 7 Place one sheet on the bottom of the tin, excess pastry can fall over the top. Layer another sheet at 90º and continue until you’ve layered 4-5 sheets. 8 Spoon mixture into the pastry-lined tin, fold the corners of the pastry into the middle. 9 Fill any gaps in pastry with a scrunched up sheet of filo. 10 Lightly brush or spray the top of the pastry with olive oil and place in the oven for approximately 30 minutes or until lightly golden.
Strawberry Galette Serves 6 | 45 minutes
l 320g/1 sheet ready to use puff pastry (eg Jus-Rol or some supermarket own brands (Jus-Rol has a GF version). l 800g fresh strawberries, hulled (you can leave them whole but halving or quartering makes themd nicer to eat)
l 2 x 200ml tubs Oatly Creme Fraiche (or you can make our coconut cream whip or the sweet version of our cashew cream – you will not need to add lemon juice, icing sugar and vanilla extract listed below) l ½ tbsp lemon juice l 6 tbsp sieved icing sugar (plus extra for dusting) l ½ tsp vanilla extract or paste l Optional decoration: fresh mint sprigs, dusting of icing sugar, chopped nuts
1 Preheat oven to 180ºC (fan)/350ºF/Gas Mark 4. 2 Place puff pastry on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, prick with a fork and cook for 15 minutes or until golden. 3 Remove from oven, turn pastry over and gently press to flatten and return it to the oven for a further 5-10 minutes. 4 Remove from oven and leave to cool for minimum 15 minutes. 5 Liquidise 100g of the hulled strawberries then sieve to make a smooth paste. Refrigerate until needed. 6 In a medium sized bowl, mix the Oatly, lemon juice, icing sugar and vanilla extract until smooth. 7 Spread the cream evenly over the cooled puff pastry sheet. 8 Place the fresh strawberries evenly over the layer of cream. 9 Top with the liquidised strawberry paste, a dusting of icing sugar and mint.
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Cheesecake Brownies Serves 16 | 55 minutes
For the cheesecake mixture l 225g vegan cream cheese l 125g soya yoghurt l 40g sugar l 1 tbsp cornflour l ½ tsp vanilla extract For the brownie batter l 2 flax eggs (or 100g unsweetened apple purée) l 120g vegan butter (or margarine/ coconut oil)
l 120g vegan dark chocolate l ½ tsp vanilla extract l 120g plain flour (or gluten-free flour) l Pinch salt l ½ tsp baking powder l ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda l 150g brown sugar l 60ml/5 tbsp plant milk (or hot coffee) Toppings l 85g vegan chocolate chips
1 Preheat oven to 175°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. 2 Lightly grease a square 21cm (8 inch) cake tin and line with baking paper, leaving some hanging over the sides (makes for easier lifting when cooked). 3 Prepare flax eggs by mixing 2 tablespoons ground flax seeds with 6 tablespoons hot water. Leave to stand for 5–10 minutes. 4 While waiting, place all cheesecake ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix to a creamy consistency preferably using an electric hand mixer. 5 Melt the vegan butter, chocolate and vanilla extract in a saucepan. 6 In another bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and sugar. Add the flax eggs, plant milk, melted butter and chocolate mixture. Mix to a smooth, creamy batter. 7 Pour a third of the brownie batter into the prepared cake tin to cover the base. Add alternate heaped tablespoons of cheesecake mixture and brownie batter, creating a marbled effect, until both mixtures have been used. 8 Bake the brownies for around 40 minutes or to your preferred consistency (the longer you bake them, the drier they will be. For gooier brownies, don’t bake them too long). 9 Once baked, leave to cool then lift out of tin using the excess paper. 10 To slice, dip a sharp knife into hot water, quickly dry it and use the warm knife to cut the brownies into squares. 11 For the best results, warm the brownies up for a few seconds in the microwave before serving to make them gooey and creamy.
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Guest Chef Recipe: Bianca Zapatka biancazapatka.com
Find out all the latest vegan foodie news with our resident chef, Maryanne!
s w e n e i d o o Lates ł f Things I’ve tried recently that get a big thumbs up Taste & Glory Quarter Pounders – these burgers are incredible! Great texture and taste, widely available and reasonably priced. Non-vegan friends have tried them and said they’ll never buy anything else! English Cheesecake Company Vanilla Cheesecake with Lotus Biscoff – this is such a mouth-watering treat! Creamy, light, fluffy and moreish – I had to double check the packet to make sure I’d got the vegan version. Nurishh Plant Based Alternative to Camembert – the best way of eating this amazing cheese is with Ritz biscuits and chutney. I also highly recommend baking it with rosemary and garlic with a big chunk of warm sourdough for dunking! Find it in Sainsbury’s. Oatly Creamy Oat Spread – this new range of vegan cheese spread is delicious – rich, fluffy, melts on your tongue and you can eat it straight from the tub!
Plant Pioneers No Prawn Tempura – I bought chips and mushy peas from the chip shop and then added this tempura to the plate – worked a treat!
Things I’m still waiting to try (but can’t seem to find anywhere!) I finally got my hands on the vegan Bounty but it was a little disappointing – it’s a shame they haven’t made a vegan version like the original Bounty bar – fingers crossed! The new Dr Oetker Ristorante vegan pizza – looks very tasty, it’s had positive reviews and it doesn’t have a gluten-free base.
What I’ve been cooking at home
I’ve made the Rose Elliot frangipane tart for so many birthdays now and it’s gone down a treat every time! My friend and I eat the Vegan Mega Burger together once a week now as a bit of a ritual, washed down with our favourite reality show… shhh! Now that I’m feeling more summery, I’ve made the Vegan Recipe Club vegetable paella several times over the last few weeks – it’s really colourful and hearty with a lovely combination of flavours – great as a sharing or party dish!
Tips
I’ve been camping a few times recently and rather than cooking the usual camp stew, I made ‘duck’ pancakes, one pot pad Thai and pulled jackfruit with slaw and avocado and all on a single gas stove – my friends were very happy! Have a look at our camping blog on the Vegan Recipe Club site to posh up your next adventure. If you haven’t tried the Vegan Recipe Club farinata then you really must. Made from gram flour and filled with Mediterranean veg, it makes for the ultimate sunny delight. You can use the base for lots of other dishes too – I once made a breakfast farinata, filled with potato, tomato and vegan sausage, for guests on a yoga retreat and they loved it. Make up a batch of our ultimate tahini sauce and use it on salads, stews, tagines, roast vegetables and even pasta to add depth and richness to your dish – not to mention protein and calcium too.
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Viva!’s Head of Investigations, Lex Rigby, interviews a man with whom she has a lot in common
Infiltrator of the Secretive World of Animal Exploitation t was in a Zoom webinar for Sentient Media called Reporting on Life at Sea that I first met Pete Paxton. My contribution stemmed from my seven years at sea with Sea Shepherd, Pete’s from his time on US commercial fishing boats trying to expose cruelty. He sat behind dark glasses and a baseball cap, to keep his true identity hidden. And, of course, Pete Paxton is not his real name; it’s a pseudonym he uses to shield his identity and which enables him to speak out about working undercover, infiltrating abusive and exploitative animal industries and exposing them. Over the last two decades, Paxton has worked in more than 700 puppy mills, factory farms, slaughterhouses and companion animal stores, as well as onboard commercial fishing boats to document the pervasive animal cruelty. His work has resulted in important change. Several US states are banning sales of cats and dogs in ‘pet shops’. A mandatory scheme has been introduced to buy back fishing permits from destructive drift-net operators in California’s waterways. The illegal practice of selling companion animals to vivisection laboratories has been stopped. Anyone involved in this kind of work has a tale to tell about how it came about. Growing up in the US, a young Paxton was drawn to the idea of law enforcement – the bottom line being, “I just thought it would be cool”. Like most of us, he had no exact idea about what he wanted to do with his life, just that he wanted to have an effect on the world. Since art was his only natural talent, he dabbled with ‘thought-provoking’ paintings that didn’t provoke too much: “No-one ever understood what I was trying to say”. By age 16, Paxton had started looking into various agencies connected with law enforcement – including the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) – and stumbled across John Douglas’ non-fiction crime book, Mindhunter. Douglas was a unit chief with the FBI and one of the first criminal profilers - he examined crime scenes to try and describe the habits and characteristics of criminals and attempted to predict an offender’s next move. It was revolutionary and exactly what Paxton had been looking for – the FBI’s Behavioral [sic] Science Unit. Around the same time, Paxton also discovered vegetarianism and began recognising correlations between the worst injuries serial killers inflict on their victims and the mass mistreatment of animals for food, fashion, entertainment and companionship. At 19 he went vegan and, driven to help animals, fell into a career that aligned this goal with his passion for investigations. “I’m 49 per cent driven to help animals and 51 per cent driven by a passion for investigations”, he says.
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We move on to talk about the attributes an undercover investigator needs and what virtues can make them more successful in the field and for me, this is one of the most compelling parts of our discussion – bearing in mind that the average career of an undercover investigator in the US is one to two years. When talking about investigations we often focus on the ‘secondary-trauma’ narrative – how hard it is to sustain emotionally demanding work and what defense mechanisms we can develop to deal with the PTSD. We rarely hear anyone talk about the excitement of an investigation or the adrenaline rush experienced by an investigator when capturing some heinous act on camera. This is where my chat with Paxton becomes so refreshing. We joke about the monotony of surveillance work and how “most of what you do is extremely god damn boring”. He recounts numerous interviews when people have asked him “what did you do when you got that footage?” He can only respond with, “I continued to stay still, because that’s what I’d been doing for hours”.
For six months, Paxton worked at the kennels, videotaping routine abuse That honesty takes some of the glamour out of investigative work but nevertheless it’s an important part of the job – being as prepared to deal with the boredom as you are the ‘sustained moral injury’ – doing something you don’t want to do, such as killing an animal or allowing another to suffer in order to get the job done. These horrendous things are essential when working incognito or your cover is immediately blown. So how does Pete Paxton filter out the brain noise from such distressing work? “First is to go and listen to Slipknot really loud!” Funnily enough, I’m a Slipknot fan too but heavy metal isn’t for everyone. When in the moment, Paxton says you need to learn how to make every painful emotion add value – when you’re experiencing something unpleasant, you need to see it as a challenge to overcome so that you can become stronger and more resilient in the difficult times. Physical fitness, mindfulness and meditation all play a part. For Paxton, there’s been many difficult times, almost 20 years’ worth of them, but there’s one I’m particularly interested in – his first job for Last Chance for Animals (often referred to as the FBI of animal rights). He introduces me to Martin Creek Kennels, owned by C.C. and Patsy Baird (both 59), who were licensed to sell dogs and cats they had not bred themselves to veterinary
schools and research labs. Unknown to the government, this reportedly included stolen pets. For six months, Paxton worked at the kennels, videotaping routine abuse – from dogs dying of malnutrition to severe beatings and extreme neglect. His investigation led to a plea of guilty by the two owners, a huge $267,000 fine and the closure of the kennels. It became the subject of an HBO documentary, Dealing Dogs, and led to Paxton being awarded the Coin of Excellence award from the US Attorney’s Office of Arkansas. I can tell that dogs are a big love of his and so we talk about his book, Rescue Dogs. Part autobiographical, part how-to guide on adopting dogs, it translates perfectly to a UK audience and includes stories of individuals he’s met during his assignments and how potential adopters can prepare their homes to welcome a dog – even one with problematic behaviour or one that, as Paxton puts it, is “just an ass-hole”. Chatting away about the dogs in our lives, I can see
the passion for them in his eyes (the sunglasses have disappeared by now). So what advice does he have for those who want to emulate his undercover work? The first is to get experience of manual labour – which doesn’t mean landscaping your parents’ garden but real hard graft. “The kind that leaves every bone in your body aching at the end of the day. Secondly, you need to work out. You have to be physically fit and learn how to destroy yourself, to build yourself up. And finally, get used to doing disgusting work”. He suggests volunteering at wildlife sanctuaries to learn how to handle animals who are sick and injured so that you don’t fear death and know what to do when it happens. I really respect his honesty and leave our call inspired.
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Fur Farmer Sues Viva! Poland
Amazing Billboard Blitz Across Poland Anti-fur adverts appear on 630 billboards and illuminated ‘citylights’ nationwide In the largest proanimal action Poland has ever seen, billboards and illuminated posters on bus shelters and other public spaces, appeared in almost 50 cities earlier this year. In both Polish and English, they left millions in no doubt about how shameful and cruel the fur industry is. Last year (2020), Viva! Poland led a coalition of animal rights groups called Open Cages in getting the lower house of parliament (Sejm) to overwhelmingly pass an Amendment banning fur farming. It would have passed into law but for Jarosław Kaczyński, the authoritarian de facto leader of the country’s right-wing government, who dismissed it. This was Viva! Poland’s response! Such a massive advertising campaign should have cost millions of Euros but in fact cost Viva! just 25,000 Euros and this they raised in less than a month by fundraising, with the support of some committed celebrities. This sum was purely to cover the cost of printing the ads and sticking them up as the main cost was waived by several media companies, who threw their weight behind the campaign. The spin-off was huge coverage in other media. This is an extraordinary achievement by Viva! Poland manager Cezary Wyzinsky and his team, who never cease to amaze us.
Bang on cue, a fur farmer is suing Cezary and two of his team for defamation following their undercover exposure of her fur farm over a year ago. She is seeking 34,000 Euros in damages but is also pursuing criminal charges against them. For years our team has faced intimidation from the industry by their spreading of fake news and attempting to interfere with our team’s private lives. This is just the latest attempt to silence them by an obscenely cruel industry that knows its days are numbered. The fur farmer is claiming that statements made following the investigation threaten the trust she needs to carry on her business. Those statements reflected precisely what the team saw and filmed – stereotypic behaviour, mutilations, brutal handling, slaughtering of foxes in full view of other animals by jeering employees who inserted electrodes into their anuses, and string of other observations. Viva! Poland is confident of victory and has already submitted details of this investigation to the prosecutor’s office seeking a conviction for animal abuse. They are, however, fundraising just in case. There is no doubt that should this fur farmer be successful in her challenge, it will open the flood gates to other actions from the fur industry to try and silence Viva! Poland.
! d a b is i it f f a r g L l a t No Vegan graffiti proclaiming V FOR ANIMALS was created to promote veganism in a busy park in one of Poland’s largest cities. Entirely legal, it was an artistic project by Viva! Poland’s Go Veg and Open Cages campaigns. The bright artwork encourages people to choose veganism for the animals and took two days to create. It has been met with enthusiasm by walkers and cyclists who use the park. The aim of this street art is to encourage people to find out more by visiting our website and subscribe to our free, plant-based Go Veg for 30 days challenge. 34
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Lighting up Veganism Vets Found Guilty of Abuse
Since April, the city of Łódź has been treated to some home truths about the importance of vegan diets through the words of prestigious international organisations, such as the American Dietetic Association and the UN. Illuminated adverts in public spaces trumpet the health benefits of veganism for all ages, including potentially preventing heart disease, some cancers, obesity, diabetes type 2 and high blood pressure. The ads also outline the devastating effect that industrial farming is having on the global environment.
Again, Viva! Poland made national history when they initiated a prosecution against two vets for animal abuse and a District Veterinarian for negligence – all three were found guilty. No vet has ever before been charged with animal abuse let alone been found guilty. Viva! had investigated the purchase of lambs at market and their subsequent transportation from Poland to Italy. The animals were crowded together in a transporter and despite many of them being unweaned, there was no milk replacer available and water drinkers were sited on only one side of the vehicle. Not only was it not suitably adapted for such small animals, their maximum transport time of 19 hours was ignored, with the little creatures being on the road for 29 hours with veterinary approval. When our team noticed that one of the lambs needed urgent medical attention, they called out the District Veterinarian who, when she arrived, gave authority for the transport to continue without even getting out of her car. At the Hungarian/Slovenian border the lamb was still suffering but was finally removed from the lorry. The court ruled that it was no excuse to claim that the lambs were on their way to slaughter anyway and this did not justify inflicting additional suffering in on them. All three defendants were found guilty but no punishment was inflicted upon them. Viva! has appealed to a higher court for a fairer and more adequate outcome. It was 68 hours before the 822 lambs arrived at the slaughterhouse in the Italian town of Aquapendente.
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From top to toe and all over – some great deals for your daily needs! By Emily Coster
EVERCREATURES RAINBOW SHORT WELLIES £39 Now that we are coming out of lockdown, these wellies are the ideal candidates for camping and festivals. They are made from 100 per cent natural rubber, are vegan, are 100 per cent waterproof (of course!) and are fully tested to 100k steps. The company claims they are handmade and built for comfort and that they pay their workers a fair wage. This bright rainbow pair are perfect for a dance in the mud at a festival or even for walking the dog. Evercreatures claim they are the world’s first and only plastic-free footwear company! They also say that the natural, sustainable rubber they use is coupled with their unique Evercreatures moulded design and padded inner, meaning their wellies are super soft, and comfortable enough to wear even when the elements are against you! Their packaging is 100 per cent recycled and eco-friendly and they even make wedding wellies! evercreatures.co.uk
LOVERAW CHOCOLATE – CRE&M FILLED WAFER CHOCOLATE BARS 43G £1.75 New to the chocolate scene are these vegan ‘Kinder Bueno’ chocolate bars, filled with hazelnut cream. They are dreamy and come in white chocolate or ‘milk’ chocolate. LoveRaw are on a mission ‘to bring you awesome vegan chocolate using superior ingredients and without compromising on taste’. This UK brand claim to be creating ‘game changing vegan chocolate’ – and I agree, it’s the best vegan chocolate I’ve tasted! They also make buttercups and chocolate bars in loads of different flavours too, which definitely need to be tried as they will not disappoint! Check out the Viva! Shop for the full range. vivashop.org.uk
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THIS ISN’T BACON – PLANTBASED LARDONS – PERFECT FOR A CARBONARA! £3 I have missed the taste of carbonara but This have now brought out plant-based lardons which fry really well and are very tasty! All their foods are fortified with iron & B12 and are claimed to be high in protein. They taste very meaty and without the cruelty of killing an animal. For my carbonara, I fry This pieces, boil the spaghetti and mix up Alpro single soya cream with oregano and a lot of nutritional yeast! Combine them all together and, voila – a delicious vegan carbonara! Look out for their other food items, which include This Isn’t Chicken, Bacon, Nuggets, Sausages and more and you can find them in Tesco, Waitrose, Asda & Sainsburysso super easy to get hold of! this.co
SUPERDRUG – VITAMIN E SKINCARE RANGE – £1.50 – £8.99 I have been using the Vitamin E skincare range from Superdrug for a while now and it is so good, plus it’s affordable! All of Superdrug’s own range is cruelty free and most is vegan too but they have now announced they intend to make all of their own brand products vegan by 2025! They also have a 100 per cent money back guarantee so if something doesn’t work for you, you can return it and no money is wasted! They have recently released a Vitamin E skin care Complete Daily Routine pack to celebrate 25 years of skincare for £15 (you save £8.95)! and they are all full-sized products. They include the most popular products from this collection: Vitamin E Hot Cloth Cleanser, Vitamin E Serum, Vitamin E Facial Mist, Vitamin E Moisture Cream and Vitamin E Night Cream. All great products, perfect for adding vitamins and nutrients to your skin and making it super soft! I recommend the Vitamin E Oil, Vitamin E Serum and Vitamin E Eye Cream! superdrug.com
WILD DEODORANT – REFILL PACK £5 / ALUMINIUM CASE & DEODORANT £12 I had previously written about using a new natural, vegan, plastic free deodorant called Wild as I love using it! Well, now Wild have announced that their products are available to buy in 300 Sainsbury’s stores, making it super accessible and easier to try! It can be truly annoying having to wait on deliveries, especially if you have forgotten to order in advance and are running low! But now you can just pop into Sainsburys! Super easy and your pits will smell great! sainsburys.co.uk
Swimwear BATOKO £50 I was looking for some ethical and sustainable swimwear and came across an independent UK brand called Batoko. Their products are made from 100 per cent recycled plastic, are vegan-friendly and made to last. They produce small batches with the CO₂ offset and send all their orders plastic free – what’s not to love! The swimsuits are made to work for a variety of body shapes and heights, are fully lined with a flattering scoop back. Their cool, bright prints include orcas, sunflowers, lobsters, narwhals, sharks and more. To date, they have recycled the equivalent weight of 300,000 plastic bottles into swimwear! My favourite design has to be the shark print so I will be ordering one soon and will probably wear it as a bodysuit as well! batoko.com
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Want to save the planet? Then meet…
oracle Oracle is an algorithm embedded in the planet’s source code that initiates when humanity is on the verge of extinction – like now!
We’re there due to the climate crisis. Animal agriculture is the leading driver of wildlife loss and produces more greenhouse gasses than the entire world’s transport sector. We are now at the crossroads yet we have the power to shape our destiny. If we fail to do so, the climate crisis will alter the world beyond salvation. If we don’t act now, we will witness an acceleration of the sixth mass extinction of wildlife, ecosystems collapsing beyond repair and potentially the end of the human race. And it’s all our own doing! Oracle is a thought-provoking, short film that combines futuristic visuals with a powerful message demonstrating the urgent need to go VeganNow - to save the planet and ourselves.
Watch it now at viva.org.uk/oracle
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On the streets of Bristol, we wowed people with an incredible stilt walker while the Viva! team dressed in futuristic silver outfits to hand out FREE vegan silver doughnuts – all to promote the message than we need to go #VeganNow to protect the planet and avert climate catastrophe. We immediately had crowds rushing over to ask: ‘What are you doing?’ We quickly went through our 400 doughnut samples, garnering lots of comments about how tasty they were. Despite the growth of veganism and the huge range of products now easily available, it still seems to shock people that plant-based food doesn’t mean compromising on taste. In the words of two chefs, “these doughnuts taste just like normal doughnuts!” We heard the same words over and over again, and conversations then turned to the environmental impact of farming animals for food. More and more, people are in no doubt that the planet is in crisis and that we each have a responsibility to act. But with the media’s confusing headlines and misleading information, it can be hard to know what to do to help. That’s exactly why we were out on the streets, providing people with the peer-reviewed evidence that going vegan is the single biggest way we can help protect the planet – and ourselves. If you’d like to find out more, go to vegannow.uk.
Help us lift the veil on factory farming
The meat industry would have us believe that pigs live happy lives on idyllic farms. Viva! uncovers the truth. But we need your help to do so! Donate or join now:
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Menopause
let’s talk about it!
Finally, we are talking about our hot flushes, mood swings and brain fog and finding out help is available DR JUSTINE BUTLER, RESEARCHER & WRITER, VIVA! HEALTH
omen of a certain age – the change – hot and bothered – too emotional – there’s no shortage of euphemisms for the menopause. Ten years ago, David Cameron jibed ‘Calm down dear’ during a Commons exchange, mimicking Michael Winner’s dreadful advert for car insurance. So now, it’s time to stop skirting around the issue. Menopause is when your ovaries stop producing eggs, periods end and you are no longer able to get pregnant naturally. Symptoms are caused by the drop in sex hormones oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone. In the UK, the average age for a woman to reach menopause is 51 but we don’t just stop suddenly; in the lead-up to the menopause many women experience very heavy, painful periods with increased premenstrual symptoms. This is called perimenopause and can last four to eight years. Menopausal symptoms include hot flushes and night sweats, joint pain, fatigue, insomnia, mood swings, irritability, low mood, anxiety, ‘brain fog’ and loss of sex drive. Hot flushes affect over 80 per cent of menopausal women and are the main reason most seek treatment. Symptoms usually last for around four years after your last period. However, one in 10 women experience them for up to 12 years. Thirteen million women in the UK are either peri- or post-menopausal and research suggests that almost half of those with symptoms feel depressed, while more than
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a third suffer with anxiety. One in five take time off work to deal with symptoms and one in 50 go on long-term sick leave. Most say there’s a general lack of support and advice and women are often mistakenly treated for depression. Too many doctors either don’t know or don’t care enough about the menopause. “It’s a pandemic of injustice that women aren’t given access to this information,” says TV presenter Davina McCall, who recently featured in the Channel 4 documentary Sex, Myths and the Menopause. McCall would like to see more NHS-funded menopause clinics throughout the country and better support for women in the workplace. So, what can you do? Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is an effective treatment for menopausal symptoms – especially hot flushes – and it can also protect against osteoporosis (fragile bones), reduce mood swings and heighten a general sense of well-being. The two main hormones used in HRT are oestrogen and progesterone. Oestrogen can combat a range of
There remains widespread confusion and uncertainty amongst both doctors and patients menopausal symptoms and progesterone protects the lining of the womb. Women who have had a hysterectomy can take oestrogen-only HRT. Most HRT in the UK and Europe contains the oestrogen hormone oestradiol, derived from plant sterols, but the older Premarin range, which is extensively used in the US, contains oestrogen extracted from pregnant mares’ urine and involves terrible cruelty. Obviously to be avoided! Testosterone gel is usually only recommended for women whose low sex drive does not improve with HRT. The British Menopause Society caution against buying unlicensed HRT online or from private clinics. Similarly, it’s not clear how safe or effective alternative treatments are – some interact with other medications so discuss them with your GP first. HRT can slightly raise the risk of breast and ovarian
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cancer, blood clots, deep vein thrombosis and stroke but most experts agree that if it’s used on a short-term basis of no more than five years, the benefits outweigh the risks. However, there remains widespread confusion and uncertainty amongst both doctors and patients. Because of these risks, and because some women can’t take HRT due to other health reasons, attention has turned to lifestyle factors and diet. Research shows that eating less meat, dairy, processed foods and refined carbohydrates such as white bread, biscuits and sugary drinks, can help. Eating more wholegrains, pulses (peas, beans and lentils) nuts, seeds, unsaturated fats, fresh fruit and vegetables may also help. Studies comparing vegans, vegetarians and meat-eaters have found that vegans show fewer and less severe symptoms. This may be because plant foods are rich in fibre and substances with powerful antioxidant activity. Plant-based omega-3 fats may also help. One study found that while omega-3s from plant foods such as flaxseeds helped, omega-3 from salmon was linked to worse symptoms, as was meat. Meat is generally high in fat, especially saturated fat, and research suggests that hot flushes may be linked to high fat and low fibre intakes. Another study found that chicken and skimmed milk increased symptoms, but an increased intake of vegetables and soya milk reduced them.
walking, running or dancing. Good sources of calcium include fortified cereals, dried figs, sesame seeds, tahini, tempeh, wholemeal bread, baked beans, nuts, spring greens, kale and watercress. Plant milks with added calcium contain a similar amount to dairy but without the cruelty or harmful health effects. Whatever your diet, it’s advisable to take a vitamin D supplement in winter. Women with higher body mass index (BMI) may experience worse symptoms so remember that a healthy vegan diet can help you lose weight. Exercise and relaxation techniques can improve mood, reduce anxiety and enhance cognition. Avoiding smoking, and drinking only moderately are recommended ways to reduce hot flushes. There is one more thing you can do to help… share your knowledge!
There is one more thing you can do to help… share your knowledge! There are plant hormones in soya called isoflavones and they can reduce the frequency and severity of hot flushes, protect bone density and may combat psychological symptoms. In Japan, where soya consumption is relatively higher, the incidence of hot flushes is much lower than in the West. Scientists suggest 50 milligrams a day of isoflavones could provide improvements within 12 weeks – that’s two glasses of soya milk, 100 grams of soya mince or tofu or a portion of edamame and a soya yoghurt or take a supplement. As oestrogen levels fall, bone density declines, increasing the risk of osteoporosis. Alongside a healthy vegan diet, you can minimise the risk by avoiding smoking, ensuring you get enough calcium and vitamin D and doing regular, weight-bearing exercise – brisk
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Viva!’s media blitz for the animals BY TONY WARDLE, EDITOR
Calvesley Demolition
UK Animal Welfare Plan
In May, Environment Secretary George Eustice unveiled the UK’s animal welfare action plan, following its departure from the EU. “Our manifesto was clear that high standards of animal welfare are one of the hallmarks of a civilized society”, said George. Plant Based News published Juliet’s response: “Momentum is building. Well done to everyone who has worked tirelessly to achieve the changes announced in the action plan. However, it saddens me to say that the reforms will do little to stop factory farming. “The line that the government will be ‘examining the use of cages for poultry and farrowing crates for pigs’ is disappointing, to say the least, particularly as the EU has announced an end to the cage age. How many more years do they need to be ‘examined’? How many millions of animals will suffer whilst this happens?” Whilst Juliet described the ban of live exports as ‘incredible news’ she stressed that it is ‘vital’ to also ban live imports. Last year, pigs valued at £70 million were imported from abroad. She concluded: “Although pleased by the new measures, it does nothing to reduce the numbers of animals farmed and killed, or to end intensive farming. Veganism is the answer”.
PBN and Newbury Today both covered the story of the demolition of Calvesley Farm following our investigation and exposé. PBN said: “A pig farm supplying UK supermarket giant Morrisons has been shut down after an investigation uncovered a ‘serious’ health risk to the public. Leading vegan charity, Viva! is behind the shocking discovery that also saw ‘disturbing’ examples of animal cruelty.” Newbury Today said that the site was “forced to close following ‘barbaric’ acts of cruelty uncovered on site” and that “An undercover investigation by Viva! Campaigns, the UK’s leading vegan campaigning group, revealed other acts of cruelty at the farm last year.”
Facelift for Viva! Podcast The Viva! Vegan Podcast has had a little nip and tuck and been reformatted into a Vegan News Minisode (a five-minute monthly round-up of vegan news) and the longer monthly Viva! Vegan Podcast now focuses on interviews with prominent vegans. Helen now has a co-host, Viva!’s Head of Comms, Faye Lewis! Over a coffee, Faye and Helen chat to prominent vegans about the importance of veganism and sustainability.
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Save a Baby Viva! founder and director Juliet Gellatley spoke to Mighty Radio – broadcast across North West England – about vegan health, going vegan and the Save a Baby campaign: “Sat in my home office doing a handful of radio interviews for stations in NW England on our new Save-a-Baby.com campaign. So far Mighty, Salford City and Tameside.” Listen to the full Mighty Radio interview here: viva.org.uk/blog/saveababy
VRC Vegan Life magazine published an article on our 5 Top Tips For Cooking The Perfect Vegan BBQ and Good Homes magazine included VRC’s Sticky Barbecue Seitan Ribs recipe in their article, “7 barbecue recipes to wow this bank holiday weekend”! Even urging people to “consider wowing your meat-free guests with these sticky and scrumptious barbecue ribs. A seamless meat substitute, they taste great served with classic barbecue sides, like potato salad and couscous.” Vegan Recipe Club’s Tofish recipe (tofu and seaweed deep fried in batter to produce a fishless chip shop fish) tickled the palates of innumerable food writers, including The Guardian, London News Time, Telegraph, Newscabal, Today Headline and Sydney News Today. Other VRC offerings made it into Your Home Style and the Daily Star while our gorgeous strawberry galette recipe (see page 29) was earmarked as a Wimbledon special by Celebrity Angels.
Viva! Health
Social Media infographics for Vegan Now campaign. These simple sentiments made by people in the public eye are hugely influential in normalising the changes that we know are vital. Our social media graphic on prawn eye ablation, produced with PBN, went viral.
The Viva! Health team have been busy as ever, publishing articles in VF&L and Plant Based magazines on organic foods, lentils, calcium and vitamin D. As well as launching our brand new Sports Nutrition guide! The guide covers everything you need to know about how to best fuel your body with your diet. It is fully researched and referenced so you can find out the leading science behind how and what to eat for different levels of activity and sports and why being vegan makes your body work better, speeds up muscle recovery and gives you more energy! It also offers practical advice including meal plans. Order your copy now from vivashop.org.uk/sportsguide
Our health and campaigns teams continue to reach a wider audience by providing authoritative articles for other vegan magazines. It is a vital part of our outreach that aims to inform, educate and inspire people to be or stay vegan.
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Running on vegan The best sports fuel you can get There have never been so many professional vegan athletes and the numbers are skyrocketing. Viva!’s Veronika Charvátová explains why plants provide the best fuel for your body s more and more people are discovering, a vegan diet can shift your sports endeavours to the next level. There’s no magic to it – a diet based around fruit and vegetables, pulses, wholegrains and nuts and seeds offers huge advantages thanks simply to its nutrient content. Its power lies in these key components:
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Plants provide healthy carbohydrates – essential for sustained energy release and to replenish muscle energy stores. Plants have better protein – easier for your body to digest and a better ratio of amino acids than animal protein. Plants provide healthy fats – all the essentials, naturally low in saturated fats and no cholesterol – great for your heart and blood vessels. Plants are rich in antioxidants – they help you to recover from faster workouts and keep the airways healthy and mucus-free. Plants contain fibre – it helps to keep your digestive system healthy – important to maintaining energy levels. BETTER STAMINA Here’s an interesting point. In game breaks at high level tennis matches, you frequently see players eating a banana – you never see them chewing on a pork chop! And there’s a reason for that. Scientific research reveals that plant-based diets increase an athlete’s aerobic capacity (how much oxygen you breathe in), which improves performance and extends the time before you feel exhausted – important for both strength and endurance training. Other studies have discovered that runners fuelled by plants have increased stamina
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compared to their meat-eating counterparts. The complex carbohydrates from plants provide sustained energy release and the lack of hard-to-digest animal protein makes you less tired. MORE OXYGEN A healthy vegan diet makes your body work better by improving blood flow and oxygen supply to the muscles and that’s because your blood vessels are healthier when you eat plant foods, that are low in saturated fats and high in antioxidants and fibre. They contract and relax better and faster, regulating blood flow more precisely. Your blood also flows more smoothly because it’s slightly less thick (viscous) than that of meat-eaters, leading to a better exchange of oxygen and nutrients between the blood and body tissues. The natural nitrates from vegetables slightly widen your blood vessels, meaning more blood supplied to the hard-working muscles, improving your efforts. They also stimulate faster energetic recharging of muscles and delay fatigue. FASTER RECOVERY When you’re physically active, your muscles naturally suffer micro-damage, which your body immediately starts to repair and a plant-based diet with its antioxidants, phenols, polyunsaturated fats, protein and fibre helps your muscles to heal faster. Even better, it limits the extent of the damage in the first place! And there’s more! Wholesome vegan diets lower the levels of inflammation in your body, which is important for muscle recovery. Many meat-eating athletes take antioxidant supplements but when you go vegan, you don’t need the extra help. Plant foods also make you sleep better, which helps muscle regeneration. Complex carbohydrates – those that your body breaks down slowly as opposed to sugars – from wholegrains,
pulses and fruit and vegetables are one of the cornerstones of plant-based diets and science shows that a carb-rich dinner makes you sleep better – you fall asleep faster and wake up less often in the night. BASIC RULES At each meal, you should have good sources of carbohydrates and protein, some healthy fats and antioxidants. A recipe for a healthy meal should have these three components: 1
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Wholegrains or starchy vegetables – wholemeal bread, whole wheat pasta, brown rice, oats, quinoa, sweet potatoes or potatoes – you need these for complex carbs, protein, vitamins and minerals. Pulses or nuts and seeds – lentils, beans, chickpeas, edamame, tofu, tempeh, hummus, falafel, bean or veggie burgers, tofu sausages, mock meats, nuts, seeds or nut butters – you need these for protein, complex carbs, healthy fats, vitamin, minerals and antioxidants. Fruit or vegetables – fresh, chopped in a salad, blended in a smoothie or soup, steamed or lightly cooked – you need these for healthy carbs, fibre, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
When it comes to snacks, it’s best to have a piece of fruit, an energy bar or a few dates around 30 minutes before your workout. Your body needs energy to fuel your performance but too much food and it cannot be digested fast enough and can make you feel sick. Post-workout, your muscle glycogen (energy) stores are empty and you have tiny tears in your muscles – and that’s why you need protein for muscle repair and some healthy carbohydrates to replenish glycogen within 45 minutes of training. That could be a plant protein shake and a banana, wholemeal pitta bread with hummus and tomato, rice/corn cakes with peanut butter or a handful of nuts and dried fruit. Depending on your type of training, you may need to increase your protein intake. For all the details, meal plans and sports nutrition guidance, visit our Vegan Sports Nutrition pages at viva.org.uk/sports
COMPLETE PACKAGE The simple guidance I’ve outlined is at the core of vegan sports training – but there’s more! To be at your best, don’t forget to hydrate - it’s absolutely crucial that you drink enough water. Being dehydrated hinders your performance, recovery and your body’s natural detoxification that happens through the kidneys. Top up your diet with vitamins B12 and D, ensure a good supply of omega-3 fats and iodine and your body will work like a dream! Even though the motivation to go vegan doesn’t usually revolve around health, when you run on plants, you’re fuelled in the best possible way. There’s no question that plants do the body good and can make you a better athlete. Order our new Vegan Sports Nutrition guide to learn how to plan your meals to advance your training, where to get all the nutrients and be inspired by professional vegan athletes! Go to vivashop.org.uk/sportsguide or call our office on 0117 944 1000 (9-5, Mon-Fri).
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h o e t l p e s . i . d n a h c mer
a b b y a e v Sa From our latest campaign: ‘Save A Baby’ here are some alternatives to help save a baby from a cruel life. Save a baby calf and choose these delicious vegan ‘milk’ chocolates instead – plus other cruelty-free goodies
H!P Oat Milk Chocolate Bar A new addition to the shop, these deliciously creamy oat milk chocolate bars come in four flavours: Salty Pretzel, Cookies No Cream, Salted Caramel, and Original. This is claimed to be plastic free, ethically sourced chocolate and vegan of course! HiP Chocolate is on a mission to make the creamiest, plant-powered chocolate you've ever tasted, and it’s succeeding! #beHiP £2.99 Original: FO6200 / Salty Pretzel: FO6170 / Cookies No Cream: FO6201 / Salted Caramel: FO6202
Buttermilk Dairy Free Choccy Truffles A thick, chocolatey shell with a rich, creamy truffle centre. These indulgent chocolates are made in Britain and are palm oil free. Each box contains approximately 10 individually wrapped truffles. This Cornwall-based brand have created a range of vegan truffles, fudges, caramel cups and peanut butter crunches – and all can be found in the Viva! Shop. They are all delicious but, in our opinion, the truffles are the best! They are smooth with a melt-inthe-mouth filling and are plastic free, free from artificial colours and flavours, palm oil free and vegan! 150g £4.99 FO6239
Hadleigh Maid MaltybitesMinty Crunchy Chocolate-Coated Malt Balls Box New to the shop are these crunchy peppermint flavoured chocolate-coated malt balls- Hadleigh Maid’s latest creation of their vegan-friendly chocolate honeycombed treat. Sweet, smooth, dark chocolate surrounds a light crispy golden rice and wheat malt ball. Delicious, light and crunchy and oh so moreish! Oh, and they come in orange and original chocolate! 120g £2.99 FO6194
save a piggie …and choose these free-from gelatine sweets Freedom Mallows Vegummies Vegan Sweet Pouch These tasty creations are made by Vegummies: the amazing vegan pick and mix shop! They have created these pouches just for us, made up of four of the most popular pick and mix sweets. Choose from fizzy or non-fizzy gummies. They also come in plastic free pouches! 600g £7.50 Fizzy: FO5953 Non-Fizzy: FO5952
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These mallows are soft and a mallowy melt in the mouth treat! Freedom mallows are soft, fluffy, and just like real marshmallow – but without the cruelty of gelatine! 75g £2.50 Choose from Vanilla (FO4742), Strawberry (FO4741) or Mini Pink & White Vanilla marshmallows (FO4743) to make smores with this summer!
Ella’s Instant Vegan Yorky Yorkshire Pudding Mixture – Plain Yorkshire puddings are traditionally made with eggs and milk and I have missed them but fear not, Ella’s Yorkshire Puds have changed vegan roast dinners! This Yorkshire pudding mix is made in a fully-vegan kitchen in the heart of North Yorkshire! They make 12 Yorkshire puddings in a yorkypud tray, or six larger puds in a muffin tray – or even pancakes! They are palm oil free, Fairtrade, nut free, soya free and use natural ingredients. Just add plant milk and you have fluffy, delicious vegan Yorkshire puddings, perfect for a vegan Sunday roast dinner 130g £2.75 FO6140
Whitakers Dark Chocolate Peppermint Creams These peppermint creams taste just like a certain after dinner mint thins! They have a soft fondant minty centre, coated in rich, dark chocolate, are gluten free, use Fairtrade Cocoa and use all ‘natural ingredients’. The Viva! Shop have these creams in other flavours, which are just as delicious: Salted Caramel, Strawberry, Black Cherry, Coffee. 150g £2.99 FO6198
We also have our Viva!-designed animal tees to choose from, which feature our most campaigned for animals but with new slogans. All of these are climate neutral and made from organic, soft, combed cotton. Choose from:
Living Nature Plush Piglet We have some cute plush piglets, perfect for cuddling, and they include educational facts about piggies. The perfect pal for rooting around in the garden with, this plush Piglet has realistic features such as a super soft body and sweet curly tail, making it an adorable companion. £11 Choose from a black & pink (GI6174) or pink (GI6173) piglet. We also have lambs, cows, chicks, badgers, fawns and much more!
Love animals? Don’t eat them
Vegan For... Animals, planet, health
Our new collection with a new-look slogan! Love Animals? Don’t Eat them. Simple really! This cool print comes in classic colours, is easy to wear and makes a statement at the same time. Available in women’s (White: CL5939 / Black: CL5940) and men’s fit tees (Black: CL5938 / White: CL5937) (£16.99) and a unisex hoody (£29.99 / Black: CL5941).
Viva! ‘Vegan For’ collection – this cute but classic design has been embroidered onto climate neutral t-shirts and jumpers to make a clear statement that vegan is an easy choice for everyone. Available in women’s (Black: CL5944 / White: CL5945) and men’s fit tees (Moss green: CL5942 / Light grey: CL5943) (£16.99) and a unisex hoody (Black: £29.99 / CL5457).
Vegan For The Animals This minimalist, animal design is cute but also powerful. Easy to wear and perfect to pair with your favourite jeans. Featuring four of our most-campaigned-for animals, these cute faces are printed using vegan inks on unisex tees and a jumper. Available in unisex fit tees (Blue: CL5935 / Black: CL5934 (£16.99) and a unisex raglan jumper (Black: CL5936 /£29.99).
Check out the Viva! shop for our pick of the best and most delicious chocolates, sweets, gift ideas and ethically made clothing at vivashop.org.uk, or call 0117 944 1000 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm) to place an order viva.org.uk 47
Continued from page 17 Trawler owners had never thrust a filleting knife into a writhing, living cod in sub-zero temperatures and investors had no concerns over what happened to the people, animals or the environment so long as the returns on their investment were regular and generous. They were the conductors of this destructive orchestra, their rewards and their loyalty trumping all other considerations in the eyes of the owners. It was a pyramid of extortion that served capitalism well – and still does. Little has changed except that the exploitation has intensified, the greed has become more rapacious and the damage has multiplied. The fishing centre of gravity has moved away from Grimsby but all across the world there is an unbridled assault on every possible fishable stretch of water. The scale of this warfare, for that is what it is, is brought into terrifying focus through the camera lens of the brilliant young film maker, Ali Tabrizi. His 90-minute documentary, Seaspiracy, manages to peer beneath the surface in more ways than one. Ali’s investigative reporting leads through almost every aspect of oceanic and fish farm exploitation with some astounding figures, such as five million fish caught every minute. With some extraordinary footage, he exposes the clandestine smuggling of countless shark fins and the industrial hoovering up of the oceans’ wildlife. Big environmental organisations are exposed for their cowardice in failing to tackle this catastrophic tragedy (just like the reticence they exhibited with meat). You have the excruciating, toe-curling attempt by an outfit that certifies some fish as ‘sustainable’ to provide a coherent definition of what constitutes ‘sustainable’.
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It transpires that they rely on the log entries of fishing boat skippers as to the amount of bycatch they have or haven’t caught and discarded. I interviewed Viva!’s Head of Investigations, Lex Rigby (Viva!life issue 75) who spent seven years at sea with Sea Shepherd and off Liberia had monitored just how reliable this record keeping is. One vessel they had under observation claimed in its log that one shark had been accidentally caught and discarded. Lex had counted them throwing more than a hundred overboard. Because of oppression in Myanmar, Thailand has a large number of stateless refugees and Ali secretly interviews some who are involved in the fishing trade that provides food for the massive prawn industry. It is heartbreaking and shameful that these people are virtual slaves, worked almost to death, beaten and even killed and thrown overboard – easy as there are no records of their existence. There is so much in this film that just has to be seen and I urge you to watch it but the conclusion is stark – despite a plethora of excuses, we have to stop eating fish. My own reminiscences have a sad post script. Although I moved away from Grimsby it was almost inevitable that I would go to sea. Aged 17, I was preparing to join the merchant ship Freetown, sailing out of Liverpool for West Africa, when I was sent a cutting from the Grimsby Evening Telegraph. In a few lines it reported that the fishing vessel Marcia had foundered in the North Sea and gone down with all hands. This grey expanse had claimed Carl Jorgensen and his young son Johnnie, my childhood friend, just like it had so many others – some 12,000 or so men and boys who never returned home to Grimsby or Hull over a 100 year period.
Continued from page 9 “Ten years ago in the US, only 0.5 per cent of the market was alternative dairy products – it’s now over one fifth, heading to one quarter this year. The big dairy companies are going bust and that’s before products from Perfect Day or Noquo are launched – precision fermented products that replicate whey and casein and are identical in taste and texture to cow’s milk. The dairy product industry is big, worth $750 billion globally and is a complete bummer. “Destruction of the oceans is also appalling but we now have products that are identical to fish species without fish being slaughtered and without the mercury and PCB’s they contain. BlueNalu is the global leader in developing cell-cultured seafood and will have the capacity within five years to be the world’s biggest producer of seafood.” Jim’s company, Agronomics, has chosen 16 of the cultured meat, fish, dairy and leather companies that show most promise and all, he says, use non-animal growth serums. His new book, Moo’s Law, provides a guide to all these new cell ag. companies and lists the top 25. His privileged access to industry leaders provides the insight. The book is fascinating – with an insider’s guide to how cell-cultured products are produced – information I haven’t found in this detail elsewhere. It has many snippets of interesting information such as cultured meat pet food is already being sold in the USA on subscription from Wild Earth. They point out that almost 500 million pet dogs and 370 million pet cats worldwide are largely being fed factory-farmed meat. And that Mosa Meat raised EUR 55 million to launch minced beef from cultured cells in 2025 – and later steaks will be added. Mosa plans to produce two million tons of beef per annum by 2030, which will save 10 million cows. It will also stop the production of 70 million tons of carbon dioxide, free up 19 million hectares of arable land and reduce water usage by 25 gigalitres. You get the point! Why is Jim’s book called Moo’s Law? It is a play on Moore’s Law. In 1965, Gordon E. Moore, co-founder of Intel, made the observation that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles about every two years, halving the cost of computers, and that became Moore’s Law. Jim enthuses: “I thought this will be the same for our industry – as it scales up, the price comes down and it’s unstoppable. It’s like ‘griddle parity’, when the price of solar and other renewables come down to the level of fossil fuel power. The price of alternative meat, fish and dairy foods will reduce to the same price as intensively-farmed food. With plant-based alternatives that’s going to be by the end of this year; with cultured cell ag., we’re looking at about five years.” Veganism is exploding in the UK and Europe and parts of the USA and Australia. The global plant-based protein market is set to reach $25 billion by 2025. Forty per cent of global food giants have launched plant-based products, including JBS, Cargill and Nestlé. Entrepreneurs are launching other successful plant-based food companies like there’s no tomorrow – Oggs (using egg alternative aqua faba) going from concept to sales across UK supermarkets within three years! Within six months of its UK launch in 2019, THIS (soya and pea based meats) had an annual revenue of
£3 million and reports a compound growth rate of 35 per cent, month after month, and its products appear in over 1200 stores and chains around the UK. It is predicted by the food industry that cultured meat will co-exist with plant-based meat, fish and dairy giving consumers a greater choice – particularly encouraging as 75 per cent of Gen Z (16 to 25 year olds) are reducing their meat consumption. Make no mistake, vegans are crucial to this growth and punching above our weight, Viva! has driven the food revolution forward against many odds. We were the first to campaign hard in Britain and Poland on all the vegan issues and educate the public on how animals are farmed and slaughtered in appalling conditions.
”Pragmatically, and looking through the eyes of a farmed animal, it is better for all earthlings if cultured meat, using a vegan medium, replaces animal slaughter” But there is a significant contingent that is resistant to change and for them, cultured meat may be a solution. Pragmatically, and looking through the eyes of a farmed animal, it is better for all earthlings if cultured meat, using a vegan medium, replaces animal slaughter. The key to this is veganism – understanding that the exploitation of animals causes untold damage and pain. As peoples’ hearts and minds are changed, the growth of vegan foods and cultured meats will work in parallel to ensure that our crumbling world, riddled with factory farming and slaughter, evolves into a vibrant new era where we protect and celebrate life. Our motto could be ‘Viva! life’. Moo’s Law is available from Amazon for £10.50, paperback. More information from mooslawbook.com
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New Viva! la Burger Tour
Canada Goosed
Above: This is where our burger van went to spread the news – full report next issue
Our burger van will be touring the South of England handing out free burgers to show people in Brighton, Worthing, Salisbury, Reading and Bath how delicious vegan burgers can be. We’ll also be sharing the shocking truth about animal agriculture’s impact on our planet and showing people how they can make a huge difference by going Vegan Now. It will be linked to plenty of social media events as it trundles along. A huge thanks goes to Taste & Glory who are supplying us with 1,000 free patties and are couriering them to each location. We will give you a full report in the next issue of Viva!life.
Clothing Company Finally Gives up Fur After years of constant campaigning against Canada Goose’s use of coyote fur, particularly on the hoods of its ‘luxury’, $1,000 parkas, the Canadian-based clothing company has finally announced it will stop using fur in its products by the end of 2022. It had tried unsuccessfully to defend its use wild animal fur with all kinds of nonsensical claims such as their fur being environmentally friendly, entirely North American sourced and responsibly caught. In reality it was greenwashing the barbaric practice of catching coyotes in excruciatingly painful leg-hold traps. Why it has resisted making this moral decision for so long is unfathomable considering its share price immediately shot up on the announcement and analysts predicted a continuing rise in sales. But there is a negative. Canada Goose will continue to use cruelly-sourced down.
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Government Committee says Slash Meat and Dairy No more excuses, Mr Johnson The government should urge people to cut their consumption of animal products in order to protect the climate, says its Climate Change Committee (CCC). It goes further and says that people should also do it to protect their own health. It demanded a reduction in meat consumption of 33 per cent by 2050 – nowhere near enough, according to most researchers but it’s something! Committee chairman Lord Deben applauded the government’s statements on cutting emissions but added: “The trouble is that the delivery has not been there. Almost all things that should have happened have either been delayed or not hit the mark”. The CCC’s chief executive, Chris Stark, said he was “very concerned by the gulf between promises and actions”. The committee included other actions that should be taken: sales of new gas boilers should be stopped, taxes should be taken off clean electricity, frequent fliers need to be curbed and people need to be consulted over any changes planned. A government spokesman said: “Any suggestion we have been slow to deliver climate action is widely off the mark. Over the past three decades, we have driven down emissions by 44 per cent – the fastest reduction of any G7 country”. Of course they did!
V-Biz Pips Pips sell a range of tasty vegan snack boxes to meet different desires. Choose from six different snack-box options: High-fibre, High-protein, Gluten free, Zero waste, Nut free or Mixed box. There are also a range of different subscription options, which includes a simple one-off purchase, or even a gift subscription for a loved one! All snacks are from high-quality suppliers and are 100 per cent vegan friendly. Each box contains five or six nutritious vegan snacks, selected from a variety of exciting brands. 15% DISCOUNT WITH CODE VIVA15 eatpips.com
The latest businesses to join our Supporters’ Discount Scheme or to carry a Viva! Vegan Symbol. Join Viva! to get these great discounts at viva.org.uk/join To claim your discounts at shops, take along your Supporters’ card in eligible shops! Viva! Supporter’s Discount Here viva.org.uk
Dolce La Dolce Dolce La Dolce have produced these all vegan friendly, delicious range of flavoured nuts and seeds, which are healthy and don’t compromise on taste! There is a range of very tasty, flavoured nuts and seeds for you to choose from. Flavours include Cherry, Chia & Quinoa Almonds, Mushroom Glazed Cashews, Pink Salt & Pepper Cashews, Oats & Cinnamon Pumpkin Seeds and my personal favourite: the Truffle Cashews! Delish! 10% OFF WITH CODE RV010 dolceladolce.com
Oxford Clay
Lalla Wandavi
Oxford Clay are a studio pottery based in Oxford which specialises in vegan-certified, handmade ceramics. They use vegan-friendly Viva! is proud to materials to create their work with likebeautiful ceramics and This compassionate British fashion minded people to they use 100 per cent line use only natural, plant-based promote a cruelty-free renewable electricity! yarns for their beautiful knitwear. lifestyle and bring you the The owner, Katherine, All are made in the Midlands (UK) latest info on vegan who hand-makes all the and the majority of their designs are products and services – plus amazing pieces, has been making unisex – they say they strive to create discounts pottery for years and has fashion that can be worn by everyone. perfected the art, finding These knitwear pieces are ‘slow’ fashion ways to use ingredients and garments, made with linen, bamboo, and tools which are free from animal organic cotton, and, it is claimed, no yarn is wasted products. Great presents for you, in order to be as ethical and eco-friendly as possible. friends and family – a new plant pot High quality and made to be long-lasting, these for a new plant baby! timeless pieces can be worn for any occasion. Each 10% DISCOUNT WITH CODE VIVA design is inspired by nature – woodland scenes, starlings’ wings, tree bark and the detailing of a dragonfly wing! oxfordclay.co.uk 10% OFF WITH CODE VIVALW10 lallawandavi.com
R6 Stone R6 Stone is a vegan, family-run business specialising in supplying and installing all finds of stone surfaces! They work with companies across the UK and offer trade accounts with top designers, architects and kitchen showrooms bur also work directly with homeowners. They offer a price match guarantee, promising to beat any like-for-like quotation, so you should never pay a penny more then necessary. R6 claim you’ll get the absolute best value for your project and say they provide an excellent service with a personal touch – and they have over 100 recommendations on their review page to prove it! 10% DISCOUNT ON ANY QUARTZ BRAND EG: SILESTONE, COMPAC, NILE, LQS, CAESARSTONE r6stone.co.uk
Want to partner with Viva! to offer your vegan products and services to new audiences? See viva.org.uk/resources/businesses or email business@viva.org.uk viva.org.uk 51
Registered Charity No. 1122303
/DeanFarmTrust /deanfarmtrust.org.uk @dean_farm_trust E. info@deanfarmtrust.org.uk
Jeff and his friends are waiting to welcome you to their beautiful sanctuary home. Visit www.deanfarmtrust.org.uk/events-visits for dates and more information. www.deanfarmtrust.org.uk
Photo © James Gibson Photography
Visit Dean Farm Trust this summer
Please help promote compassionate living
oxfordclay.co.uk 52
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Dirty Vegan: Another Bite – Matt Pritchard
Omari McQueen’s Best Bites Cookbook (star of TV’s What’s Cooking, Omari?) – Omari McQueen From the star of TV’s What’s Cooking, Omari? comes a cookbook full of delicious vegan recipes, from a chef who has won a string of awards – and he is just 12 years old! Here are over 35 plant-based recipes from pizza to pasta, snacks to smoothies. Omari McQueen started cooking when he was seven years old and is the youngest award-winning vegan chef in the UK and is the CEO and founder of Dipalicious – a vegan line of dips and snacks! His book is full to the brim with delicious natural treats such as Happy Hummus, Go-Go Energy Smoothie, BBQ Jackfruit, Rasta Pasta, Rice 'n' Peas, Peri Peri Wedges, Strawberry Coconut Cheesecake and Cherry Brownies. McQueen also has a YouTube channel (Omari Goes Wild) with easy to follow videos showing you how to cook delicious vegan food! £12.99 BK6215
Matt Pritchard has written a second cookbook to accompany the BBC's leading vegan cookery programme, Dirty Vegan. Returning to our screens for a second season, Matt shows just how easy and cheap it can be to go vegan and how the right nutrition can help you perform better in all aspects of life. Discover more than 80 brand new recipes for proper, healthy, vegan food. Matt Pritchard’s Another Bite includes Super Quick Midweek Meals, Comfort Food, Classics and Food with Legs (for when you need that extra bit of energy). Recipes include: Crispy Peking Jackfruit Pancakes, Fast Falafel with Carrot Salad & Harissa Tahini, Winter Root Caesar Salad with Crispy Capers, Roasting Tray Laksa, Tofu Katsu Curry and Spiced Chocolate Cake with Maple and Cashew Cream. Sounds delicious and is delicious. £20 BK6095
The Vegan Guide: Everything you need to embrace the world’s fastest growing way of life Written by a team that includes a nutritionist, a counsellor, a vegan vet, doctors, and campaigners – The Vegan Guide covers most aspects of living vegan! Nutrition, cooking techniques, the psychology of discussing veganism and the twenty different types of vegan (tribes) are in there. There’s vegan food from around the world, cooking vegan staple foods, replacing meat, dairy, and eggs, how to eat vegan on a budget, shopping and eating out, raising vegan children, clothing & more. It even looks at the psychology of explaining veganism to family and friends. The Vegan Guide is perfect for people transitioning into veganism or those who are already vegan but want more information! £5 BK6216
Vegan London Complete, 5 books in 1: Central, East, North, South, West Previously called Vegetarian London, this seventh edition is now called Vegan London and is in colour. Its 800 pages include 260 vegan and 200 vegetarian restaurants, cafes and market stalls, plus 400 more places with vegan menus and 200 shops! It includes vegan markets, cake shops, ice cream parlours, vegan fried chick’n shops, and all-you-can-eatbuffets – in fact, over 1,000 places to get vegan food! There are also chapters of areas to explore, cheap days out, accommodation, alcoholic drinks, eating out with your dog, festivals, going vegan, health practitioners, local vegan groups, vegan pet food, shoes and clothing. It’s colour-coded maps make it easy to find whatever you’re looking for. £14.95 BK6217
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
VEGAN SUMMER SANDALS 30 YEARS of
Lydia Sa Sandal Sanda Sand San
Th The
Classifieds PRODUCTS & SERVICES
www.taxreturnonlineservices.co.uk Financial Accounts Preparation • Self Assessment Tax Returns Rental Accounts • Business Tax Advice 5% donation to VIVA!
karen@taxreturnonlineservices.co.uk Slightly technophobic lady seeks vegan Christian to help get book ready for possible publication. Please phone Nottingham (0115) 9580 961 if you are able to help.
Get noticed!
To book space at a great rate, see viva.org.uk/advertise-vivalife, email emily@viva.org.uk or call 0117 944 1000
S WA N S E A ’ S F I R S T 1 0 0 % V E G A N C O F F E E S H O P Ground is an innovative, inspired vegan coffee bar. We specialise in the finest barista coffee, alongside home-made vegan cakes and savouries.
NEW
We are based within the Sup Hut, Francis St, Brynmill, Swansea SA1 4NH. @groundcoffeeswansea
Toe Post Sandal (Red)
Also in Green, Brown, Black & Silver
Redwood Sandal (Brown)
Paros Sandal (Black)
Wedge Sandal (Met. Sandal) Also in Purple & Black
Also in Navy & Green
Two Strap Sandal (Orange)
Three Strap Sandal (Black) Also in Brown
Also in Blue, Brown, Green, Black & Silver
NEW
NEW
Helena Sandal (Black)
Toe Strap Sandal (Gold)
Dana Sandal (Blue)
Also in Blue, Brown, Red, Black & Silver
All available at VegShoes
vegshoes.com Tel: 01273 691913 info@vegshoes.com Over 200 womens & mens styles! 54
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Viva! Call To Action Wear the Viva! designed Call to Action tees and support Viva!’s fight to end animal suffering. Head to the vivashop.org.uk
ee Fr e lin on t en ev
Virtual Vegan Luncheon Club
4th Tuesday of the month, 1-2pm
Open to vegans, vegetarians and meat-reducers aged 65 and over
Dates for 2021
Find our Facebook group: ‘Virtual Vegan Lunch Club’
22 June – Garden Picnic 27 July – Barbecue 24 August – Cooking with Tofu 28 September – Brunch 26 October – Bake Off 24 November – Pot Luck Dinner
We’ll provide the recipes a week in advance for you to cook on the day. Then join us at 1pm on Zoom to enjoy it, chat about the recipe and all things cookingrelated with our Roving Chef.
For more info please contact V for Life: 0161 257 0887 ellie@vegetarianforlife.org.uk V for Life is a charity registered in England & Wales, number 1120687
0161 257 0887 | vegetarianforlife.org.uk |
VfLUK
@VfL_UK
MAKE SURE YOUR ENERGY SUPPLY IS ANIMAL FREE There’s a secret, shameful ingredient in the electricity that goes to millions of British homes. Animals and animal by-products. They can come from factory farming – animal slurry and body parts. Four of the big six energy companies and four of the leading green energy companies all have animal waste in their fuel mix. If you care about animal welfare, this will matter to you. To nd out if your supplier is a ected, visit ecotricity.co.uk/viva. We’re the only energy company in the world certi ed as vegan by both the Vegan Society and Viva!. No animals are harmed in the making of our power.
VIVA! WILL RECEIVE A £60 DONATION WHEN YOU SWITCH YOUR ELECTRICITY AND GAS 0808 123 0 123 (quote VIVA) ecotricity.co.uk/VIVA No animals were harmed in the making of this advert
