VEGAN NOW

Back with a bang

Senior Campaigner Will Sorflaten reports on the re-launch of Viva!’ s vital campaign to help save the Earth

Eating 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.

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.