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The number of news found: 26.

05/31/2017 THE POPE GIVES TRUMP A CLIMATE CHANGE WAKE-UP CALL

During last week's visit to Vatican City, Trump and Pope Francis customarily exchanged gifts. Trump brought the Pope first editions of five books written by the late Dr. Martin Luther King. In exchange, the Pope presented Trump with a clever gift—three of the Pope's works, including a 192-page paper entitled "Laudato Si," in which Pope Francis outlined the necessity for political and religious leaders to jointly address the issue of human-created climate change on a global level. While Trump said, "Well, I'll be reading it then," upon receipt of the Pope's gift, he has publicly committed to withdraw from the Paris agreement, removed all climate change information from the White House website, and signed an executive order to rehaul former president Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan in March. Conversely, world leaders are speaking publicly about the link between emissions produced by the animal agriculture industry and climate change. (vegnews.com)

05/30/2017 VEGAN LEATHER INDUSTRY TO REACH $85 BILLION BY 2025

New research conducted by business consulting firm Grand View Research (GVR) found that the faux leather industry will be worth $85.05 billion by 2025. GVR revealed that China, India Brazil, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam will drive the demand for animal-free leather due to rising interest for affordable footwear in those countries. GVR identifies polyurethane as the fastest growing material in the sector due to its durability, low cost of production, and water-resistant qualities. In recent years, car manufactures such as Tesla and Ferrari have developed vegan interiors due to customer demand for cruelty-free options, and companies such as Piñatex—which creates faux leather materials from pineapples—have created innovative alternatives to animal hides. (vegnews.com)

05/30/2017 PRINTING COMPANY WORKING TO VEGANIZE ENGLISH MONEY

Printing company De La Rue announced this week that it will debut tallow-free polymers that can be used to print English banknotes. Last year, the Bank of England (BOE) confirmed that its £5 banknotes contained tallow—or rendered animal fat—and that £10 denominations would also contain the animal product due the bank’s polymer supplier Innovia Security. Outrage from animal-rights groups and religious sects alike prompted the bank to halt printing of its £20 notes and search for animal-free alternatives. "We are working to produce two versions of the polymer note so that customers will have a choice," De La Rue's CEO Martin Sutherland said. Sutherland hopes to debut the new notes in the coming months, allowing citizens to use English money without forcing them to use animal products. (vegnews.com)

05/29/2017 JAMES CAMERON TO RELEASE VEGAN DOCUMENTARY

Award-winning director and vegan environmentalist James Cameron executively produced new vegan documentary The Game Changers set for release this year. The film is a collaboration between Cameron, director Louis Psihoyos (who also directed Oscar-winning Japanese dolphin slaughter documentary The Cove), and mixed martial arts champion James Wilks. The Game Changers will feature a wide array of elite athletes, special operations soldiers, scientists, cultural icons, and everyday heroes who are all thriving on a plant-based diet. In recent years, Cameron has become an avid advocate for veganism and appears alongside actor Samuel L. Jackson in Eating You Alive—a new documentary that focuses on the adverse health effects of consuming animal products. (vegnews.com)

05/25/2017 LEONARDO DICAPRIO INVESTS IN VEGAN CHICKPEA BRAND

Award-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio and investment firm Strand Equity Partners invested an undisclosed amount for a minority stake in vegan snack company HIPPEAS this week. HIPPEAS makes vegan chickpea-based puff snacks in flavors such as Vegan White Cheddar, Sriracha Sunshine, and Far Out Fajita, which are available at 20,000 stores across the United States, including Starbucks. DiCaprio's investment in chickpea-based products is a smart move, as a new report compiled by research firm Packaged Facts revealed that sales of chickpea snacks increased by 150 percent in 2016. (vegnews.com)

05/25/2017 US DAIRY STOCKPILE HITS ALL-TIME HIGH

According to stock market media outlet Market Watch, surplus dairy in the US is at an all-time high. Currently, the US has 800 million pounds of cheese and 272 million pounds of butter in reserve—the highest amounts since 1984 and 1994, respectively. When it comes to milk, Market Watch reports that this year, dairy farmers in the Midwest and Northeast alone have dumped 78 million gallons of milk—up 86 percent from last year's purge. The dairy industry has struggled to resolve the problem in several ways, including funding studies aimed at disproving the negative health risks associated with animal-derived milk in hopes of increasing consumption. While dairy consumption has dropped significantly in recent years, the plant-based milk industry is predicted to soar to $35 billion by 2024—which has enticed large corporations such as Danone, General Mills, and Dean Foods to expand their portfolios with more plant-based brands. (vegnews.com)

05/23/2017 EUROPEAN POLITICIANS GO VEGAN TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE

A group of Danish parliament members—from both the Alternative and Red-Green Alliance parties—recently pledged to go vegan for 22 days to raise awareness about how animal agriculture is devastating to the environment. "Going vegan for 22 days is not going the save the world in itself," Red-Green Alliance’s environmental secretary Maria Gjerding said, "but it's a great opportunity to put focus on Western consumption of animal products and the environmental and animal welfare problems it causes." Stateside, a group of politicians in San Diego abstained from meat in April as part of the VegWeek campaign launched by animal-rights group Compassion Over Killing to encourage people to ditch animal products. (vegnews.com)

05/23/2017 VEGAN SURF CAMP MAKES WAVES THIS SUMMER

Vegan Surf Camp kicks off its 2017 session in the Southwest of France on Moliets Beach from June 24 to September 2. Guests will stay at a bio-vegan camp and enjoy organic vegan meals including a Japanese miso soup for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and a buffet-style dinner designed to recharge surfers for the following day. Reservations are made on a weekly basis and the base price includes all meals, tent accommodations, and a cooking workshop. Yoga sessions and surf packages can be purchased separately. New vegan summer activities this year include a wellness retreat in Hawaii courtesy of vegan chef Matthew Kenney and a vegan cruise that sets sail for the fjords of Norway in September. (vegnews.com)

05/22/2017 HOSPITAL STAFF IN CALIFORNIA GO PLANT-BASED FOR PATIENTS

Staffers at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fresno, CA have recently taken on a 21-day plant-based eating challenge. The medical professionals are tasked with eating at least one plant-based meal per day and some are embracing it full-time. "If I'm trying to teach my patients how to eat, I need to be doing the same thing," registered nurse Tammy Barigian said, adding "So, if you eat a high-saturated fat diet, you're going to have heart disease sooner or later, so you need to focus on low-saturated fat and eating as many fruits and vegetables as possible." The hospital is offering demonstrations, cooking classes, and support programs to help interested parties continue eating a plant-based diet in an effort to encourage them to be healthier at home and pass information down to their patients (vegnews.com)

05/19/2017 GOVERNMENT TO BAN DOG MEAT SALE AT YULIN FESTIVAL

Yulin's newly elected Party Secretary Mo Gong Ming has initiated a ban on the sale of dog meat during the Yulin Dog Meat Festival in China that will take effect on June 15. The ban is not permanent and only applies to the festival—scheduled on June 21—but the animal-rights groups involved in pushing for the ban, including Humane Society International (HSI) and Chinese group Duo Duo Animal Welfare Project (DDAW), are hopeful. HSI, DDAW, and several other animal-rights organizations and celebrity animal activists (such as the late Carrie Fisher) have fought for years to persuade the Chinese government to shut down the festival and intend to continue to push for a permanent ban on the sale, slaughter, and consumption of dog and cat meat in the region. The ban will be strictly enforced during the festival and violators will be fined up to 100,000 yuan ($14,500) and face arrest. (vegnews.com)

05/19/2017 VEGAN SOCCER CLUB REACHES LEAGUE STATUS

After winning the conference play-off final against Tranmere at Wembley stadium in London last weekend, the UK's first vegan soccer team Forest Green Rovers (FGR) were promoted to the English Football League for the first time in their 128 year history. FGR's owner Dale Vance removed all animal products from the team's New Lawn stadium in 2015—in addition to installing solar panels, a chemical-free lawn, and a solar-powered lawn mower. Players have since dined on meat alternatives from Quorn, plant-based pizzas, and veggie burgers. "It is an unbelievable achievement to put a village team in the Football League," FGR's manager Mark Cooper said of the victory. "As we grow, we will gradually attract more supporters and become even more sustainable," Cooper said before revealing plans for a future expansion to an all wooden, more eco-friendly stadium. (vegnews.com)

05/18/2017 NORTH FACE AXES FUR, ANGORA, AND EXOTIC LEATHER

VF Corporation, the parent company of footwear and apparel brands The North Face, Timberland, Vans, Wrangler, and Lee, released its first-ever Animal Derived Materials Policy. The new policy—developed with the help of animal-rights organizations The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and Humane Society International (HSI)—effectively prohibits the use of fur, angora, and exotic leather materials in all of its brands' products. While VF will continue to use other animal products–including leather sourced from animals not deemed "exotic"—in its brands, HSI Vice President Kitty Block says the new policy is a step in the right direction.  Several major brands—including Dutch, the parent company of Joie, Equipment, and Current/Elliott—have recently made similar commitments to phase out animal products from their brands. (vegnews.com)

05/16/2017 BENTLEY REVS-UP VEGAN INTERIOR PRODUCTION

British car company Bentley is working on bringing a vegan interior option to its luxury vehicle line in the coming months. "You can't sell an animal-containing product like a Bentley, with 20 leather hides, to someone with a vegan lifestyle," Bentley's Director of Design Stefan Sielaff said during the recent Financial Times Future of the Car Summit. "We've been talking to these customers, in California especially, and they're asking us what can we give them. We do a lot of custom-made and coach-built solutions, in conjunction with our colleagues at Mulliner, and therefore we want to satisfy these customers because they are the peak of a trend." Sielaff promised a forthcoming vegan option made from mushroom leather, along with options made from other "proteins and jellyfish materials." Once launched, Bentley will join several luxury car companies—including Ferrari and Tesla—in offering cruelty-free car options. (vegnews.com)

05/15/2017 OBAMA SAYS DROP MEAT TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE

Former President Barack Obama delivered the keynote speech at the Seed & Chips Global Food Innovation Summit in Milan, Italy last week. The former president was joined by White House chef Sam Kass in a discussion about how meat consumption affects the environment. "People aren't as familiar with the impact of cows and methane," Obama said, adding that "as people want to increase more meat consumption, that in turn is spiking the growth of greenhouse emissions coming out of the agricultural sectors." Obama stated that the increase in meat consumption in areas such as China, India, and Vietnam will continue to push global meat consumption up and urged citizens to find innovative alternatives to meat. "What it does mean is that we're also going to have to find ways to produce protein in a more efficient way," Obama said. (vegnews.com)

05/15/2017 FRANCE BANS BREEDING OF CAPTIVE DOLPHINS AND ORCAS

Last week, the French government passed a ban on the breeding of cetaceans—which includes orcas and dolphins—at all of the country's marine animal parks. The new legislation also bans acquiring new porpoises, whales, and dolphins and holding them in captivity. Additionally, the ban requires marine animal parks to halt activities wherein people come in direct contact with marine animals, such as swimming with dolphins. Vegan ocean conservation organization Sea Shepherd—which teamed up with four other animal-rights organizations to fight for the ban—praised France's Environment Minister Segolene Royal for signing the historic legislation. However, Sea Shepherd said in a statement that it would continue to fight for the rights of cetaceans still held in captivity. All French marine parks have six months to comply with the ban and three years to expand holding areas for existing marine animals. (vegnews.com)

05/12/2017 MEAT PROCESING NAMED MOST DANGEROUS JOB IN US

A new report compiled by the National Employment Law Project (NELP) ranked the country's most dangerous jobs. NELP relied on data provided by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that accounted for severe job-related injuries reported by employees across 29 states from January 2016 to September 2016. The NELP report pointed to Bureau of Labor Statistics which revealed that workers in meatpacking plants were twice as likely to be injured, and those working within the poultry processing industry stood a 1.6 higher risk of injury—rates were much higher than other industries, including construction. After considering the 17,533 injuries reported from 14,000 companies, NELP discovered that smaller poultry and meat processing plants ranked fourth and sixth as the most dangerous places to work. (vegnews.com)

05/12/2017 MAJOR ITALIAN FOOD SUPPLIER LAUNCHES VEGAN LINE

Italian private-label food company Selex Gruppo Commerciale recently launched its Vegetale 100% Selex line of vegan products. According to food industry outlet European Supermarket Magazine, the line includes dry ingredients such as seeds, fruit, and nuts, a range of prepared products such as soy-based ice cream, fresh and frozen soy-based burgers, tofu, and condiments. Selex was formed in 1979 as a consortium of companies with the mission to evolve its brand in line with market trends. In a statement, Selex explained that it developed its vegan line to "meet emerging consumer trends." In the UK, plant-based brand Bute Island Foods recently gained distribution of its vegan cheese across two competing supermarkets, Tesco and Sainsbury's—which reported that its vegan cheese sales exceeded expectations by 300 percent within the first month after launching the line. (vegnews.com)

05/11/2017 MELANIA TRUMP DUMPS FUR

The White House has confirmed that First Lady Melania Trump no longer wears fur. "She does not wear fur," Trump's East Wing Communications Director Stephanie Grisham told CNN last week. At a gala in January, actress and animal-rights activist Pamela Anderson voiced that her primary concerns with the Trump administration are conservation and the environment, prompting her to send Trump a vegan faux fur coat. "I very much appreciate your sending the beautiful eco-faux fur from Only Me," Trump wrote in a note addressed to Anderson. "I am grateful for your support and encouraging words; they mean a great deal. Together, we can empower more women to stand up for their beliefs." Anderson is spreading the vegan message in many ways—including making vegan curry to help feed residents of the Calais Jungle, a migrant community of more than 7,000 refugees in France. (vegnews.com)

05/09/2017 CNN SAYS GERMANS ARE LEADING VEGAN REVOLUTION

In a recent feature, media outlet CNN posed that Germany is leading the way for a vegan revolution. Writer Meera Senthilingam justified her position by pointing to the exponential growth of vegan products being released in Germany—a whopping one out of 10 of all new products introduced in the country in 2015 were vegan. Senthilingam reveals that Germany launched 18-percent of all global vegan food products in 2016, mostly comprised of meat alternatives. Senthilingam turned to Thomas Sanders, emeritus professor of nutrition and dietetics at King's College London, for insight about the growing trend. "Some of this stems from animal rights... and the green movement, (which) is very strong in Germany," the professor noted. "I see a growth in ready meals that are vegan, or vegetarian, coming in," Sanders said. (vegnews.com)

05/09/2017 CNN EXPOSES SLAVE LABOR AT CATTLE RANCHES IN BRAZIL

A recent exposé published by news outlet CNN revealed rampant human slave labor on Brazil's cattle ranches. As a routine practice, ranch operators lure farmhands with the promise of paid work but instead entrench them into a debt system where pay is docked for meals—of which they receive one per day—and squalid accommodations. One such worker, 69-year-old Luiz Cardoso da Silva, has not received a paycheck for two years. Out of the 50,000 Brazilian workers rescued from modern slavery across industries since 1995 by mobile sting units organized by various groups, Campos revealed that one-third (or 16,816 people) originated from cattle ranches. In addition to human slave labor, a recent report compiled by environmental organization Mighty Earth revealed that companies that source feed for animal agriculture from soy plantations in Brazil—particularly Burger King—are actively contributing to the vast deforestation of the Amazon rainforest and native grasslands. (vegnews.com)

05/05/2017 FISH PROCESSING PLANT FINED $3.2 MILLION FOR POLLUTION

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently won a settlement—in the amount of $3.2 million—against sea life processing company Westward Seafoods after the company repeatedly violated the Clean Air Act (CAA). Employees at AK fish processing facility Westward's Unalska disabled air pollution controls two years ago and filed false records to hide their actions. The EPA estimates that Westward's failure to operate in accordance to the CAA resulted in the emission of nearly 105 tons of nitrous oxide—a toxic gas that can cause serious illness and aggravate respiratory conditions of local residents. Westward is required to spend $1.1 million on pollution reduction projects, pay $1.3 million in civil penalties ($280,000 of which will be paid to the state of Alaska), and $800,000 in other injunctive relief. As this is not the first time the company has violated the CAA—it paid $570,000 for similar violations in 2010—the EPA now requires that Westward be monitored through an electronic system and a third party auditor annually. (vegnews.com)

05/05/2017 GUINESS GOES VEGAN AT LAST

Irish beer brand Guinness has phased out animal products from its filtration process. The brand's parent company Diageo confirmed that all Guinness stout sold on tap worldwide will now be vegan, with canned and bottled varieties to be vegan by the end of the year. "The brewery is delighted to confirm that this phase of the project is complete and all Guinness Draught produced in keg format at St. James' Gate Brewery and served in pubs, bars, and restaurants around the world, is brewed without using isinglass to filter the beer," a spokeswoman for the brand said. Guinness initially announced plans to remove isinglass—a fish bladder derivative commonly used to filter yeast from beer—in 2015 by replacing the process with a high-tech filtration system that does not rely on the use of animal products. (vegnews.com)

05/04/2017 YALE BECOMES FIRST UNIVERSITY TO OFFER BEYOND BURGER

315-year-old Ivy League institution Yale partnered with plant-based company Beyond Meat to become the first university to offer the company's Beyond Burger on campus. The all-vegan burger will be served on a locally crafted bun with lettuce, tomato, and a "secret" sauce at all 13 dining halls on campus. Yale Hospitality's senior director Adam Millman said the addition of the plant-based burger is in tune with student demands. "With eating trends taking a turn toward plant-based alternatives, we found it prudent to meet our students' desires with the addition of the Beyond Burger to our on-campus menus," Millman said. "Providing this option reflects an understanding of the up-and-coming generation's evolving dietary preferences in which animal-based protein, while important, plays a less prominent role." (vegnews.com)

05/04/2017 US COAST GUARD SUSPENDS LIVE ANIMAL MILITARY TRAINING

The US Coast Guard recently became the first branch of the national military to ban the use of live animals in military training. With support from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif) pushed the Coast Guard to consider the ban—which will last six months while the Coast Guard investigates alternate methods of training. As documented by a 2012 undercover investigation conducted by PETA, animals used in live military training are shot, stabbed, have their organs removed, and are eventually killed in an effort to simulate combat conditions. If enacted, recently reintroduced legislation Battlefield Excellence through Superior Training (BEST) Practices Act (H.R. 1243/S. 498) would effectively replace animals with human relevant models in all branches of the military—such as the Marines, which currently use live pigs and goats for combat training. (vegnews.com)

05/02/2017 ENTIRE TOWN GIVES PEPPERONI ROLL A VEGAN MAKEOVER

Every bakery in Marion County, WV has pledged to veganize their traditional pepperoni roll by May 2018. The pepperoni roll—a white bread-based roll stuffed with pepperoni and mozzarella cheese—has been an iconic West Virginia snack since the 1920s and was originally made as a portable lunch eaten by the state's miners. "Basically, it's a nutritionist's nightmare," a county Health Department board member told local media outlet the Montgomery-Herald. County bakeries have bound together to adopt a recipe that removes animal products from the pepperoni roll, replacing them instead with vegan soy-based meat and plant-based cheese. While the vegan roll still contains processed ingredients, the county believes omitting animal products will be a more nutritious option for the community and visiting tourists. (vegnews.com)

05/02/2017 NEW STUDY FINDS PLANTS SLASH DIABETES RISK BY 18 PERCENT

A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Finland and published in the British Journal of Nutrition found that diets highest in plant-based protein minimized the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The findings are part of an ongoing study that began in 1984 called the Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Study, and focused on 2332 male participants with no incidence of type 2 diabetes. After 19 years, researchers found that 432 participants—those who consumed the highest amount of meat, including fish—had contracted the disease. Researchers further found that swapping just one percent of energy intake from meat for calories derived from vegetables slashed type 2 diabetes risk by 18 percent. This study builds on a growing body of evidence that links plant-based diets to lowering the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, treating symptoms of multiple sclerosis, aiding in maintaining a healthy weight, and decreasing the risk of contracting heart disease. (vegnews.com)

The number of news found: 26.

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