19 minute read
Lifelines
Fur Ban – UK on the sidelines
A major initiative started by Viva! Poland, working with other groups, is to obtain one million signatures under the European Citizens ’ Initiative, calling on the EU to create a Fur Free Europe. It calls for the banning of all fur farms and fur products from the entire European market. Viva! Poland are working hard on this great campaign but sadly we, in the UK, can only sit on the sidelines and do nothing as we are no longer a member of the EU! eurogroupforanimals.org/fur-free-europe
Advertisement
Martin Shaw to Juliet:
uk Climate Change Failure – Official
The government’ s advisers have warned them that they are heading for failure on their plans to limit climate change. The Climate Change Committee (CCC) says that unless policies are radically improved, the government will need to try another tack by persuading people to fly less and eat less meat.
It also cites a “ shocking ” lack of policy to insulate people ’ s homes and criticises the scrapping of previous insulation policies. The CCC also said the environment department, Defra, was guilty of “ magical thinking ” over cutting planet-heating emissions from farms. It issued the stark warning that unless housing and farming are tackled, the UK won ’t achieve its target to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
The BBC’ s environment correspondent, Roger Harrabin, concluded his report on these failures by sitting at a table with a full English in front of him. “Tell people to eat less meat?” he asked as he popped a chunk of bacon into his mouth. “Well, that’ s not going to happen!” What a shameful, dismissive and negative way to end such an important story where failure threatens all our lives.
Bang the DRUM
The Drum awards is a global awards program which recognises best practice, the best companies and the best people from across the marketing and communications industry. And this year Skylark Media picked up three awards for their work with Viva!.
Skylark/Viva! were nominated first for an Animation/Illustration award for This is Fine and were up against BBC Creative and Aardman Animations. We won joint GOLD with Aardman!
Next came a BRONzE for the Online Viral Ad for This is Fine.
To cap the evening off, we won SILVER for best TV campaign for Takeaway the Meat. What an extraordinary outcome for the two very talented teams.
lifelines
A record for Viva!
Spanish guitarist and Viva! supporter, Mark Barnwell, and singer Tamsyn Berry have recorded a beautiful version of the Sting song, Fragile, with profits going to Viva!. Mark is a passionate vegan and wanted to support our campaign on how eating animals is causing a terrifying wildlife wipeout.
Mark told us the intense story behind the recording:
“I first met Tamsyn (Piskie Tams) in August 2018, when we were both playing at the same fund-raising event. I immediately liked her. I watched her duo play and was impressed with her voice –smooth, captivating and oozing luxuriance.
“A year later, after a ‘ virtual rehearsal’ , we covered Fragile and it went so well that I wanted to make a studio recording. But in February 2020, tragedy struck when Tamsyn ’ s car was in a collision with a lorry and she was left in a coma fighting for her life.
“After an immense amount of surgery and lasting injuries, Tamsyn got in touch in 2022 and said she was ready to record Fragile. I so loved Tamsyn ’ s take on this classic – she has such a lovely voice.
“The lyrics are relevant to so many things in the world right now so it seemed appropriate to donate the profits to Viva! for their incredible wildlife campaign and how veganism is central to saving all life. ”
Fragile is available for streaming here: song.link/i/1630687108
And the video (available in 4k) is here: youtube.com/watch?v=KDgkHSNIGkw
Another Viva! Hero
Following our report from Viva! Poland in the last issue of Viva!life, Agata Szczepaniuk was determined to raise money for Viva! Poland, our sanctuary and the incredible work we are doing with Ukrainian refugees and their animals. She walked an astounding 260 miles – from south Manchester, through north Wales to Holyhead, got the ferry to Dublin, walked from Dublin to Belfast, and finally took the ferry to the Isle of Man. Agata said:
“The money I raised will be transferred to Viva! Poland to help them support Ukrainian refugees with companion animals. I will be so glad knowing that we can help them together in the difficult situation they face. ”
It took 12 days, much sweat, many blisters and some tears but she made it and raised £650 in the process! She logged the miles each day using Strava and uploaded footage of the journey on YouTube. It’ s not too late to donate, just head to justgiving.com/fundraising/misssup Thank you Agata!
Pigs to Human MRSA
A highly antibiotic resistant strain of MRSA that arose in pigs thanks to farming practices can jump to humans, scientists say.
The strain has become the dominant type of MRSA among livestock in Europe over the past 50 years but is now a growing cause of MRSA in humans.
A new study found that the CC398 strain has maintained its antibiotic resistance over decades in pigs and other livestock and is capable of rapidly adapting to human hosts while maintaining that resistance.
“Historically high levels of antibiotic use on pig farms may have led to the evolution of this highly resistant strain of MRSA, ” says Dr Gemma Murray, a lead author of the study published in eLife.
Viva! investigators expose the sickening reality of duck egg production and discover…
NO nO WATER liFE
Who doesn’t love ducks? Who hasn’t gone down to the local pond to revel in feeding them? These beautiful animals are designed for life on water –webbed feet for swimming and bills brilliantly designed to sieve out food particles from rivers and ponds – headdipping, swimming, dabbling and bathing. It’s all about water! And yet…
In 2004, Viva! were the first people to expose UK duck factory farming and deeply embarrassed the Co-op and M&S who said they championed animal welfare. We filmed thousands of birds crammed into windowless sheds, the lame, dead and dying amongst the living with no access to outdoors and no water in which to swim or clean themselves.
Just recently, 17 years later, we returned to a duck farm, one that produces eggs, and what did we find? An almost carbon-copy reproduction of 2004. All that’s changed, it seems, is the marketing hype!
We’d received a tip-off from an ex-worker about the conditions on this Lincolnshire duck egg ‘farm’ and despite having countless investigations under their belts, our investigators were sickened – and saddened – by what they discovered.
Again with no water, except from automated drinkers, these beautiful creatures were covered in their own faeces, some were lame, some injured and some dead but left to rot in the filthy, waterlogged sheds. To obtain a clearer picture and gather further evidence, we installed hidden cameras and one of our investigators describes the scene.
“The smell was the first thing to hit me as I trudged ankle-deep through layers of straw, sodden with faeces. It was immediately clear how bad the conditions were –lame and injured ducks were everywhere and had clearly been left to suffer. The cynicism was breath-taking! Under the Animal Welfare Act (2006) ducks are supposedly entitled to have sufficient water to bathe,
VICTORY!
Following our investigation, Lincolnshire Co-op suspended Quack! Duck Eggs and has now made that decision permanent. A Viva! victory for ducks! preen and dip their heads. The only water available here came from dirt-encrusted, bellshaped drinking points.
“Mice and pigeons accessed the ducks’ feed troughs almost at will, making the transmission of deadly viruses such as bird flu, a serious danger. Biosecurity was non-existent.
“As I walked around, the number of injured ducks was staggering, with many pushing themselves along the squalid litter on their bellies. Unable to walk, they were frantically flapping their wings in a bid to move. One had an unusually upright gait and was clearly in great pain. When I looked closer, it appeared that her leg was rotting away. Pecking injuries were everywhere as were burns on feet and hocks from the ammonia-sodden litter.
“I could not help contrasting this humaninduced misery with the pristinely clean, happy and beautiful wild birds I regularly see and it brought tears to my eyes.
“I saw drakes marked with leg rings in amongst the female ducks, with whom they mated repeatedly. One poor lame and immobile duck was continually mounted by different drakes as she was unable to evade them. Our informant told me that initially the drakes and ducks are separated but once they ’ ve mated, the drakes are simply left with the flock which means that many of the eggs on sale will be fertilised and some may contain foetuses.
“Although simple nest boxes are provided for laying ducks, the reality is that they lay eggs anywhere and everywhere on the filthy floor.
“Our hidden cameras recorded some disturbing footage, such as a worker aggressively grabbing a lame duck by one wing before callously dislocating her neck by pulling her head and feet in opposite directions. A different worker lifts a duck by her head and then spins her body round and around, I presumed in order to kill her but when he drops her to the floor she runs away, disorientated. A second worker grapples with her and breaks her neck before throwing her into a corner as trash. ”
Duck eggs are marketed as a luxury food but consumers are being sold a lie! This farm provides eggs to Stonegate, a big player in the UK industry who supplies major supermarkets. The farm also provides the Lincolnshire Co-op with it’s branded Quack! Duck Eggs.
On their website, Stonegate call themselves the “freerange and organic egg specialist, ” painting an idyllic picture of egg farming and saying “the care and welfare of the animals is of utmost importance. ” Oh dear, oh dear!
During our investigation, none of the ducks left the filthy sheds unless dead and our informant confirmed our suspicions. During the seven months they worked at Field Farm, none of the ducks was ever allowed outdoors but the flock spent their entire lives living in their own faeces. When their egg-laying productivity drops and they ’re no longer deemed profitable, they are killed in gas chambers – a death as cruel as their lives.
Stonegate aren’t the only ones to bullsh*t consumers. Field Farm sells under the Quack! Duck Eggs brand and on its website claims: “We have learnt over time that the happier our birds are, the more eggs they lay and the tastier they are, so it is really important to us and our customers that our birds are as happy as can be!”
It would be laughable if this cynical propaganda wasn’t designed to cover up acute mass suffering. They clearly believe that no one has any interest in exposing them – or rather they did. They now know what Viva! can do!
DUCK EGG Campaigner Alice Short reports how a Day of Action in Lincoln shocked consumers ACTiOn
Viva! travelled to Lincoln and joined passionate supporters to demand that Lincolnshire Co-op drop Quack! Ducks Eggs for good!
Viva! Campaigns’ exposé revealed shocking conditions at Quack! Duck Eggs’ Lincolnshire facility, many of which are sold by Lincolnshire Co-op. Our day of action demanded that the giant store should drop the farm as a supplier.
Our supporters sprang into action by emailing and sending postcards to the CEO of Lincolnshire Co-op to highlight the cruelty their stores were supporting. The result was that the Co-op temporarily suspended sales of the eggs at its stores. Not good enough!
We wanted the residents of Lincoln to know the cruelty that was being perpetrated not far from their homes so we organised a day of action outside a Co-op in Lincoln city centre to put pressure on the store to drop the farm permanently!
On Saturday, June 18, we joined 20 volunteers, both local and from further afield, and vegan activist group, Lincoln Animal Rights, for a day of action. Armed with giant posters and a TV screen, both of which revealed shocking imagery from our undercover footage, as well as dedicated leaflets, we lined up outside the store and talked to consumers.
After reading our leaflet, one woman was visibly upset having discovered that factory farmed ducks have no access to water. Another was emotional after seeing the footage of lame ducks helplessly dragging their bodies across the filthy barn floor.
Like many others, they had been persuaded by slick marketing that egg-laying ducks have higher welfare standards than hens. There was a common response to our video from the majority, who said they would no longer buy duck eggs. They were particularly shocked to discover that all this was happening on their doorsteps.
It is actions such as this that allow us to talk one-to-one with people and give advice on the whole factory farming industry and help them along the vegan road by explaining the resources we have that can help them. Typical was the family that first wanted to know more about Viva!’s work and then signed up to our V7 meal plan – seven days of recipes, advice and support.
Bombarded by constant industry and government claims of the ‘best animal welfare in the world’ it’s no wonder people are confused – and we see that when we talk to them. They are often grateful to be shown the truth through the array of information on our website (viva.org.uk) and frequently download our free Vegan Recipe Club app! As we’ ve always said – the only way to save animals from suffering is to stop eating them!
Our protest gained traction in the local media, with a journalist from Lincolnshire Live joining us on the day and a big section on BBC Lincolnshire’s midday news –including putting the managing director of Quack! Duck Eggs on the spot.
A big thank you to all those who joined us on the day.
Viva! talking to locals embarrassed the Co-op who have since announced a permanent ban on Quack! Duck Eggs
BEACON OF HOPE
A man who has proved vegan farming is the way to go talks to Kerri Waters, Viva!’s farming coordinator
When Iain ‘Tolly ’ Tolhurst starts talking, his passion for the land he has worked for the last 40 years is written all over his face. Wisdom and tenacity from weathering the many seasons has given Tolly an interminable zest for life. “We farm for biodiversity – it is not simply a happy by-product of growing food” , he says and that is abundantly clear.
Driving into Hardwick Estate’s Tolhurst Organic Farm you can’t help but notice the stark contrast to the surrounding fields of grazing animals – grass and nothing else. It was the hottest day of the year so far when the Viva! Farming team visited the 17-acre site on the banks of the River Thames in the panoramic Chiltern Hills.
The thick, hot air buzzed with the sound of insects and a gentle breeze rippled across the seas of wildflowers and lush vegetables. An English rural idyll! No wonder the neighbouring Hardwick House was the inspiration for Toad Hall in Wind in the Willows. This thriving habitat and rich biodiversity is achieved while producing 120-140 tonnes of food per year from over 100 different crops… and with no animal inputs.
The soil is classified as ‘low grade’ and not suitable for horticulture, which meant that Tolly had a big challenge on his hands. He explored stock-free organic (bio-cyclic veganic) farming to improve soil fertility without chemicals, pesticides or animal manure and slaughterhouse by-products. Using animal manure –usually from cruel factory farms – adds high levels of antibiotics and other chemical residues and mostly is a product of animal feed imported from deforested land.
“We don’t buy in fertility here. Our soil health comes from fertility-building crops and green manures” , Tolly says. Scooping a handful of soil from the ground, he invited our slightly bemused team to smell its pungent earthy aroma.
Green manures such as lupins, red clovers and trefoils are grown to encourage fertility, fungi and bacteria to the soil. At the end of the season, they are cut down and ploughed back in. They can be undersowed (beneath other crops) or in rotation.
At Tolhurst Organic, the fields are divided into seven blocks in a seven-year rotation where at any one time a third of the farm is under green manure. Stopping in front of neatly lined rows of 3,500 squash in 13 different varieties, Tolly explains:
“Next year this will all be green manure. Not cropping builds fertility and soil structures and the roots
of green manures go deep down into the soil. Chickweed roots, for example, grow up to two metres and move nutrients into the layers of soil beneath us” . There is no need for extra irrigation as fissures in the topsoil help water to penetrate further down.
This way of farming stores carbon and builds biodiversity – the place was teeming with wasps, butterflies, insects and worms. Worms are the primary processors of green material and aid drainage and Tolly ’s farm has one of the highest earthworm counts scientists have ever seen in the UK, at 10 million per hectare, including a species found only in woodland. Tolly also has a small coppice of trees to produce wood chip to sow on crops for extra fertility.
The team at Tolhurst Organic sows one crop per day, staggered to allow for harvesting 52 weeks a year. That includes nine tonnes of onions, 18-20,000 potatoes per hectare and 1,000 kilos of strawberries. Conventional farmers are shocked that such yields can be obtained using a veganic system. The farm provides 120 fruit and veg boxes each week and it’s all done without pesticides or disease control. A similar pasture acreage would produce less than six tonnes of very unhealthy beef!
Tolly explained that disease is linked to soil health and plants can usually cope with disease if the soil is good enough. Iain operates a ‘ whole systems’ approach, with tall, uncut hedgerows, unmown strips of land and lines of ‘beetle banks’ every 40 metres, where insects and wildlife flourish. They are all connected in a kind of biodiversity superhighway! The only serious pests, according to Tolly, are the pigeons.
There is a Tudor walled garden steeped in history that originally would have been worked by 40 labourers and fed most of the estate. Its glasshouses were built during World War Two to increase food production but then laid derelict until Tolly restored them to their current glory. They allow foods to be propagated and grown all year-round. At the gates of the Estate is Lin’s Veg Shed, which sells produce to the public and was the domain of his late wife, Lin.
The packing shed was built by Tolly himself and serves as a hub for the whole estate, hosting events, community meetings and food demonstrations and this community spirit is at the core of Tolly ’s vision for the future of farming.
Growing food isn’t easy and the farm is very labour intensive. Even before Brexit, it was hard to find staff as the job isn’t just labouring and skilled people with growing knowledge are needed. The Tolhurst team live and work on the farm and some have been there for decades – a testament to Tolly ’s inspiring nature.
A beautiful vegan lunch of farm produce under a makeshift gazebo ended our tour but the conversation continued. Tolly explained that food self-sufficiency is low in the UK and declining and the problem is that consumers expect the same produce every time they shop, such as imported bananas. If we want to be selfsufficient we need to start eating seasonal foods that can realistically be grown here.
“Food has been devalued” , Tolly explains, “and a cheap food policy has led to it only representing nine per cent of people’s budget. We are looking at a potential economic and food crash in this country. ” His farm operates on a very tight profit margin and receives no government subsidies. But there is good cheer.
“If we double horticulture output, we could meet current demand for fruit and veg and we could grow protein crops here, especially lentils and chickpeas and breeding programmes could increase potential yields. ”
His glasshouses were part of a wartime scheme that illustrates precisely Tolly ’s point. Food self-sufficiency went from 40 per cent to 95 per cent so perhaps we can fix our broken food system and end animal farming by repurposing the self-sufficiency model from the past?
Thank you to Iain Tolhurst and his team and if you want to support the farm as a customer, go to: tolhurstorganic.co.uk
