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260- Ethical dairy? Now this I've gotta hear...
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You know that great long list of things that makes the dairy industry an abomination? Well apparently, if you change one of those things slightly, you get to call the whole thing ethical! Compassion in World Farming are celebrating the release of 'A Dairy Story' this week, but Julie, Mark & Ant are less sure.
However this isn't the onlyt bit of vegan and animal rights news from the last 7 days that they're covering. Hold on, because there's eight others to whizz through in sixty minutes.
Like what we do? Want to help it sound even better? Join our KoFi gang here: https://ko-fi.com/ENOUGHOFTHEFALAFEL
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Enough of the Falafel is a community of people who love keeping on top of the latest news in the world of veganism & animal rights. With the Vegan Week podcast, we aim to keep listeners (& ourselves) informed & up-to-date with the latest developments that affect vegans & non-human animals; giving insight, whilst staying balanced; remaining true to our vegan ethics, whilst constantly seeking to grow & develop.
Each week we look through news stories from the past 7 days in the world of veganism & animal rights.
If you spot any news stories that might catch our fancy, or have an idea for a discussion topic, get in touch via enoughofthefalafel@gmail.com.
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This week's stories:
https://www.facebook.com/share/18ZxcpzkVL/
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce84vm147ryo
https://ecopolitic.com.ua/en/news/schools-will-teach-compassion-and-empathy-toward-animals-the-ministry-of-education-and-science-has-approved-a-program-to-this-effect/
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/catholics-may-receive-organ-transplants-animals-vatican-says-2026-03-24/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/mar/23/shooting-restricted-six-british-wild-birds-halt-population-decline
https://www.veganfoodandliving.com/news/moby-to-speak-at-vegan-camp-out-2026/
https://kmph.com/news/local/four-animal-rights-activists-charged-after-taking-ill-baby-goats-from-stratford-dairy
https://www.farminguk.com/news/uk-food-supply-at-risk-of-catastrophic-failure-by-2030-report-warns_68225.html
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/mar/26/labour-pledges-ban-trail-hunting-public-consultation
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Thanks everyone for listening; give us a rating and drop us a message to say "hi"; it'll make our day!
Julie, Mark & Ant
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Transcript
Introduction and Show Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello everyone, if you're on the hunt for animal rights and vegan news, then you don't need to look any longer because you're in the right place. We're the vegan news people, we're enough of the falafel. We is Anthony, Julie and Mark, but that is enough of the falafel. It is time for Vegan Week.
00:00:17
Speaker
I think vegans go looking for trouble even when they're not looking for trouble. That's not what butter's used for. Brrr! Brody. Take your flat-grown meat elsewhere. We're not doing that in the state of Florida.
00:00:29
Speaker
Should I call the medium and say, hi, sorry. True education. The younger generation are getting to know how brutal these practices are. That leaves a lot of pizza delivery companies in problems with their fingers.
00:00:41
Speaker
What is this? What kind of movie is this? It's comedy. Go on the media. Any form of social injustice.
00:00:51
Speaker
As long as you donna get the wee Brunions with the horns you'll be alright. Does veganism give him superpowers?
00:01:00
Speaker
I cannot fly around the city. I don't have laser vision. and Hello everybody, it's Julie here. Welcome to the show. Thank you very much for joining us. Hi everyone, this is Mark Humanity here. This is our news show where we look through last week's vegan and animal rights news. But that's enough of the falafel.
00:01:19
Speaker
Let's hear what's been going on in the news this week.
00:01:24
Speaker
For more details on the upcoming news stories, including links to our original source material, check out our show notes for this episode, available on your podcast player.
Ethical Dairy Farming Debate
00:01:36
Speaker
Well, we have got a great bunch of folk who are part of the Enough of the Falafel Collective and we've got a cheeky little WhatsApp group where we send each other all the news snippets that we find and this first story that we're going to talk to Julie about caused quite a stir on our group. it's I've got to say, it is not something I have heard of before. This is from Compassion in World Farming, who are celebrating. They're saying, this is fantastic. Look, look at this new thing that's going on. It's even in a film, a dairy story. It spotlights the farm that is keeping dairy calves with their mothers.
00:02:17
Speaker
but they're still being milked. So they're still being used in that industry, but calves aren't being snatched away from their mothers. Is this a game changer? Is it just the same stuff in a different shade of the same colour? Hmm. Well, this is really close to you geographically, Julie, and you've had a close look at this. Are you able to give us some more details and your take on this?
00:02:39
Speaker
Yes, I can. It's a farm in, it was called the Reintan area, Dairy is in Dumfries and Galloway, so it's quite far away from where I am. It's down the bottom of Scotland, very far south Scotland.
00:02:55
Speaker
This couple are dairy... Well, the woman has sadly died since, but the couple were dairy farmers. and they were increasingly under pressure to have a sort of zero grazing system, and they didn't want to do that. So they they stopped that, but they also wanted to do things differently for their cows. So they, in 2012, tried to do this calf with a cow thing. It didn't work out. They tried again, 2016-ish, and they've made it work commercially. So they call themselves on their website, The Ethical Dairy,
00:03:31
Speaker
Of course, in our view, they are not ethical. Yes, they do keep the cows with their calves, but more of that in a minute. I'll explain how limited that contact is. but So what they do, they still use the female calves as dairy cows, and they actually slaughter the male calves for meat.
00:03:53
Speaker
So they've got a breed of cow that they can you know have produce a ah ah meat calf. from a dairy cow, they've cross-bred them in order for that to happen.
00:04:04
Speaker
So they're in cahoots with Compassion and World Farming, who some people get confused and think they're an animal rights organisation. They are not. They're an um animal welfare organisation. And they're basically, they exist. They were started by dairy farmers, by the way, in the UK.
00:04:22
Speaker
And they are about, they want to stop factory farming. They want farming. They just want it to be not factory farming. So they're not vegan. They don't pretend to be. So they're not, you know, on my kind of good list at all in any way. But there we go. So that's that's why this film, it's a documentary, it's coming out and it's being premiered, I think.
00:04:48
Speaker
Today as we record. Somewhere in England it's being premiered. I'm not going to watch it. I'm not interested. don't But I think this so-called ethical dairy in Rainton, I would like to get trading standards onto them because I actually don't think you can call what they do ethical. When they say that they keep the cows with calves, you are shown the calves and the cows just wandering in beautiful lush green pastures as if they're just left naturally to their own devices.
00:05:20
Speaker
Oh no, they are not. So for the first six weeks of their life, I don't even know if they're indoors all the time at that time, but certainly after six weeks, they are separated at night so that the cows can be milked in the morning.
00:05:34
Speaker
And during the day, they are within touching distance, but there's a rail between them so the cows can't suckle. When they get to five or six months, just before the wee boys get killed, They're out with their mums or around their mums with big plastic tabs in their nose so that they cannot drink from their mums just in case they steal that precious milk.
00:05:59
Speaker
And there is a line on their website about a fair share for all, you know, a fair share between us and the calf. It's not a fair share. It's not your milk. You're not a blooming calf.
00:06:11
Speaker
So, yeah, it's horrible. I think it's more... sinister when people are kind of pretending like that. It is a dairy story. That play on words is right. it because It's a flipping fairy story that any of this is ethical, kind or whatever. And they keep repeating on their website about treating the animals, the land, our environment and the people who work here with respect and kindness.
00:06:42
Speaker
Well, if killing people because you want to eat them, it's kind.
00:06:50
Speaker
And squishing their tits till milk comes out of them, it's kind. Then, yeah, um ah yeah they're weird. Yeah, I'm just a bit worried that some people out there who might be teetering on the brink of saying,
00:07:05
Speaker
Actually, you know, dairy, that is really cruel. I don't know if I want to be part of that. That's not me. I'm not what that person might just breathe a sigh of relief and go, oh, I'll just get my stuff from there then. Oh, no, no, they can do. a cheese subscription we're good you know oh yeah well and credit to you julie and indeed anyone on that i noted on the the facebook post on on compassion in world farming there is a fair amount of dissent on there they've not deleted comments and you know we need to see past this and we need to we need to expose it and we need to persist i think sometimes when you when you're a people pleaser like me it it
00:07:44
Speaker
it It can feel a little churlish to sort of say, well, no, that's not enough. That's not enough. But it's not enough. It's not enough
Oat Milk Advocacy and Organ Transplants
00:07:51
Speaker
for those animals. We do need to fight past that people-pleasing instinct and and and continue to call things out. Yes. If they cared about cows, they would be growing oats for oat milk. In Scotland, what a seller that would be.
00:08:06
Speaker
Yeah, indeed. They are great at growing oats here. We've got the exact climate for it. Yes, indeed. Yeah, thank you for that one, Julie. A very important story to start the show with and to ah issue some corrections from that Compassion in World Farming PR job. Now, we have Mark to thank for finding this week's stories. He's edited the the show notes and and put together the running order for us. And I did smile when I saw his first story. We're going to have to put a strict time limit on Mark here. Because not only is he talking about veganism, obviously a subject he's passionate about, but Catholicism is in there too. So the headline from Reuters this week, Catholics may receive organ transplants from animals, Vatican says.
00:08:54
Speaker
Mark, over to you. Okay, so but mark my my two favourite subjects, um ah animal rights and the demise of the Catholic Church. Right, so regular listeners to the show may may may recall my odd rant against the Catholic Church. Obviously, I'm Irish. I was brought up in a very Catholic environment for very many years. As a result, I'm a staunch atheist, but I thought it was hilarious. When I came across this, I couldn't leave a go. One of the big philosophical objections that Catholics have towards animal rights is that the fact, as they see it, that the only animals that have souls on this planet are humans. Therefore, non-human animals...
00:09:35
Speaker
on a philosophical, theosophical level, don't really matter because they're there as part of the background to human existence, like, say, trees or the clouds. They don't really have any merit or the requirement to be given much forethought by humans for what humans do to them because they haven't they they lack the soul, okay? So they don't have a soul. They won't go to heaven to meet Jesus and his dad after they die. So therefore, for some reason, they... Therefore, that sort means that they aren't worthy of any sort of real realla compassion or or certainly any rights.
00:10:11
Speaker
So I thought it was hilarious when and the Catholic Church and have now decided that it's okay for a humans to be given and non-human animal transplants like bifurc.
00:10:24
Speaker
bits of pigs' bodies put into humans' bodies to make the the the humans' bodies last longer. So that means that the the the human getting a pig a pig organ transplant isn't fully human anymore because it's got part of a non-human animal inside its body, maybe even the animal's heart.
00:10:43
Speaker
I mean, pigs are so similar to humans on a ph on a physiological level that we can take bits of their organs and and put them into dying humans and save that human's life. We are that close to them. But this also means that so a human who has died and is ah trying to get his or her way through the pearly gates into heaven has to now explain to Jesus or to Saint Peter that even though they're they have parts of a non-human animal in their body, they are still ah fully human and therefore have souls. So it sort of blurs the distinction between, the distinction that the Catholic Church have always maintained between ah humans and non-human animals now that we're taking parts of their bodies for for our own health. So I thought it was it was a wonderfully typical ah U-turn that the Catholic Church have made subtly, hoping that no one noticed that the whole soul issue isn't as important as it once was now that we're using bits of soulless animals in our bodies in order to survive. And I wonder how they're going to argue their way out of that one, if if indeed they they ever enter enter into an argument about it. haven't met a priest in years. so but But the next time I do, I'm going to bring this up with them and ask them on a theosophical level, how does this work?
00:12:04
Speaker
Yeah, well, I mean, hopefully for the sake of that priest, they will have the 88 page document providing ethical guidelines for such transplants that the Vatican has put together. It sounds like a very defensive document, but let's see if we can get our hands on it in the next few weeks. Perhaps we can do a vegan talk episode on it. i think it's the animal concerned who's giving their organs. If they attend church for maybe a period of 12 months or so and receive Holy Communion, they might be okay.
00:12:35
Speaker
Sort of like getting oh your wedding bands read out in church, something like that. Yeah, interesting. think there'll be something like that you can do. Yes. So last week, ah David, on his first, going to say performance, his first appearance on Vegan Week, told us about the decision to ban greyhound racing
Animal Rights Victories in Scotland
00:12:58
Speaker
in Scotland. a Great bit of news that was. And we have reported... from the BBC this week, news of a legal challenge to this ban that has been put there by the Greyhound Board of Great Britain. They claimed the consultation before the bill was brought in had been rushed and was unlawful.
00:13:19
Speaker
Goodness me. However, I'm delighted to tell you listeners that two Hype Court judges ruled on Friday that it was lawfully introduced and therefore it would be inappropriate for the courts to interfere in a democratic process. So the greyhound racing ban stands.
00:13:37
Speaker
Great news, Julie. good Good to have this, you know, stress tested, isn't it, really? Yes, absolutely. There was only one track remaining in Wales, but it's good to know.
00:13:48
Speaker
and And I don't think it was even in use before the ban came in. But what this ban is about is about preventing it coming back. That's the main thing. So, yes, it is good news. It's a good start.
00:14:04
Speaker
And you've got to feel sorry for a Mark Bird in the article. The arguments were of of a purely academic nature, apparently, in his opinion. like And he came out with this other, you know, that the sport he said was welfare-driven.
00:14:25
Speaker
oh really? With prize money of £175,000. It was welfare-driven, well-regulated. Oh, no. And it will only destroy family-run businesses and desperately needed jobs.
00:14:46
Speaker
in service of animal rights activists. Well, read the because people signing the petition, there was thousands, you know, tens of thousands of them.
00:15:01
Speaker
I wish there were that many animal rights activists in Wales, but I don't think there will be. So, yes, the people have spoken. and I'm glad that this is what they have said.
00:15:15
Speaker
Races involving horses would be a very logical next step for some bands in different places. But in terms of animal suffering and animal rights, of course, but there's just too much at stake for that to be next. But love to see that happen.
00:15:33
Speaker
Of course, we we don't, as you know, as just mentioned, we we don't have greyhound racing in Scotland. So In a way, though, it's going to put some pressure on England because if it cannot go on in Wales and it cannot go on in Scotland, then there are only 18 stadiums, stadiums.
00:15:56
Speaker
in England left and they're actually quite far apart. So, you know, for people to sort of manage to justify having these dogs that cost a lot to keep and have in kennels and things like that, they need to raise them quite a lot and they need to have places to do that. So I'm hoping they'll be kind of a bit like in war tactics, the kind of pincher of it that, you know, with these other countries around England with bans, that the the pressure will be on England then to just naturally degrade and also for people to go, well, we think it's wrong too.
00:16:36
Speaker
Yeah, my experience of of working alongside activists outside Greyhound Stadia is that a lot of people there doing that aren't necessarily vegan. They are dog lovers and they can't stand this being done. And I mean, something I didn't know was that a lot of Greyhound tracks share their facilities with Speedway, which is kind of kind of like a motor racing sport. They they use the same facilities and the same circuit, if you like, obviously not at the same time. And there were several people there protesting alongside me who were Speedway fans, but they absolutely detested the fact that dog racing was going on there. They they they weren't vegan at all. And so like you say, Julie, the people that really care about this
00:17:24
Speaker
as soon as it's shut down in Wales or in Scotland, then then there's a good chance they will move on to the the next closest target. Go for go for them too. So we we can only hope, can't we? Fingers crossed. Let's let's see how that progresses over the coming months.
00:17:40
Speaker
Our next story is also from the UK. We've got it from The Guardian here. The headline, shooting restricted for six British wild birds to halt population decline. So woodcocks and poachard, pintail and golden-eyed ducks are among the threatened species protected by these proposals. So this is a proposal. It is not in law yet. and The proposal would see hunters being banned from shooting rare and beautiful ducks under new proposals to halt the decline of six British wild birds. and The article talks about how these were once a a regular site but now they are in decline. The resident British breeding population of woodcock is now red listed as a high conservation priority by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. and So these proposals would extend the closed season, so that's the period of year during which they're protected for woodcock, across England, Wales and Scotland. The Wildlife management like this is a devolved matter so that for for non-British listeners, coordinated action in Westminster, England, Holyrood, Scotland and Senedd, Wales would see changes to Schedule 2 Part 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
00:19:08
Speaker
Mark, this one's an interesting one, isn't it? In that on the face of it, we're saying, well, that's great. Animals are being protected. However, if someone wants to go out and shoot birds, if you say you can't shoot birds A, B, and C, they're just going to move on to birds D, E, and F, aren't they? It's... It's just changing the animals that are being persecuted, arguably. Yes, it's the management of extinction. It's the manager it's the it's the management of annihilation. So as soon as the year hunting fraternity have shot their way through one or two or three particular species of animals that they enjoy shooting... they will then they will move they will move on to the next most abundant series of species to to es shoot. so And also the ah point to bear in mind here is that only when they're forced to do so by the state. So yeah you had a very similar um situation back in the mid 1970s, I think, when the population of otters, of wild otters in the UK was in serious decline in large part because of the amount of hunting.
00:20:10
Speaker
that There was done them and the state brought in with with with the help of the air League Against Cruel Sports, the state brought in a ban on the hunting of otter. The otter was elevated to the status of ah of ah of a of a protected species. So in an immediate pivot, all the otter hunts around the country, the couple of dozen or so that that existed at the time,
00:20:34
Speaker
changed to hunt mink. and they And they suddenly decided within a couple of days that otter were're were were werere fine after all, but now we need to hunt mink because they're the ones that are causing the problem. And this is this is our way of managing the mink population, whereas the mink population had never been a problem up until the ban on hunting otters. So it just shows the mindset of these people All they're interested in is what they perceive as fun and what they think fun is, is killing small animals. they don't They don't care about the population decline. They will happily continue shooting those protected birds until they are all gone, unless they were forcibly stopped by the state. And then they would move on to the next series of species to kill. So just shows, as i say, their outlook and their mindset. They have no interest in in conservation or the countryside. They don't love animals. They love shooting animals.
00:21:25
Speaker
and and that's all they love doing everything else is window dressing so it's good that the state is bringing this in but it's only bringing this in but as a response to the amount of annihilation that was going on prior to this it'll it'll probably pass and you you can bet your bottom dollar that the hunting fraternity will then target other species which up to this point have been completely ignored and they're not considered to be an an issue at all, suddenly these new species will be a massive issue to the farmers and to the well-being in the countryside, and they will need to be hunted again to the point of extinction until the state steps in. The mink hunting season is starting very, very soon in the in the UK. it's It's a summer a so-called sport, and the hunt sabbaturals will be able to full force to stop them as they do with the fox hunting during the winter months.
00:22:09
Speaker
So, and yeah, so that's my thoughts on that. Yeah. Yeah. Isn't it strange? Can you imagine like an alien coming to visit our planet and you've got one group of people who for their hobby learns all about birds, recognizes their calls, goes, travels, you know, around the country to see them in their natural habitat, maybe ticks them off on their list, learns all about them. And then you've got another group of people that for fun shoots them and kills them.
00:22:37
Speaker
Like what what a baffling array of of different ways to interact with with nature and wildlife. Goodness me. Yeah. Good on everyone who is rallying against that.
00:22:48
Speaker
I'm really interested in our next story.
Educational Programs and Activism in Ukraine
00:22:50
Speaker
I don't think we have had a story from Ukraine necessarily, but perhaps. I mean, i think it points maybe german yeah during during the war. We've focused on animals being rehomed and that sort of thing. Is that what you were thinking of, Julie? No. No, I was thinking about the horse that collapsed in the street. yeah um I think there was a Ukraine story about a horse pulling a carriage that collapsed. And Ukraine, you animals, sorry, that we're about to talk about were involved in a ban coming into effect while they investigated these carriages, I think.
00:23:31
Speaker
Does that ring a bell with you? Yeah, it does. There's definitely lots of good folk campaigning on behalf of animals in the country. And as Julie says, you animals have been doing it again. headline for this story from ecopolitic.com, where we're taking this one from,
00:23:48
Speaker
Schools will teach compassion and empathy towards animals. The Ministry of Education and Science has approved a program to this effect. So this is a certified program from you animals where teachers will can now teach children to treat animals and nature with compassion and responsibility. I will just interject here and say, I don't think children need to be taught that unless people in their lives have taught them the opposite. I think instinctively, most children don't need to be taught compassion. However,
00:24:26
Speaker
you know, fantastic that this is being sort of further normalized, I suppose, through formal education. UAnimals believes that animal education is key to eradicating cruelty in the future. The Compassionate Education and Volunteering Project has received official approval from the Ukrainian Institute for Educational Development under the Ministry of Education,
00:24:50
Speaker
and science. Julie, you've taken a look at this story. It seems really, really positive. and And there's, you know, there's more details here, aren't there? There are, there are. I'm going to temper the positivity, I do apologise, with a little bit of cynicism here. but there you go. So it is you animals. I don't know whether to call them animal rights or animal welfare. because they're kind of in the middle of those two. They're neither one nor the other. But remember, the context that they're operating in is they're living in a country that is at war. So they are doing lots of things that we don't have to focus on in some in some of the countries that we're listening from. I know I'm you know, talking to you from Scotland and things that we have the privilege of focusing on other things when it comes to animals. Whereas you animals are focusing on saving animals affected by war. a lot of their work is that.
00:25:49
Speaker
But they do other things as well. But they're not fully animal rights, I will say. So they are doing this educating and they have produced this programme in cahoots with another organisation who happen to be, oh dear, a huge national pet product distributor in Ukraine with a portfolio of their own brand. So lots of animal body parts and cans going out all over Ukraine. So they are there. there
00:26:22
Speaker
And as we all know, the pet food businesses are, in cahoots with the slaughter, the sort of slaughter for human consumption business. So that isn't anything to do with animal rights. It's everything to do with promoting their brand and pet food, etc. So now that we've got that little kind of commercial interest out in the open, this was an attempt to address the fact that apparently since 2025, animal cruelty in Ukraine is at a record high.
00:26:55
Speaker
for that country, risen fourfold apparently. So they wanted to do something about that. So this program isn't animal rights based. That is not the underpinning values at all.
00:27:09
Speaker
and It's to understand animals' needs and body language. to be aware of the responsibility that comes with having a pet and to see the connection between human impact, animal welfare and the ecological state of the planet. So it's still very much, you know, humans are in charge and we are treating these little lesser beings a bit more kindly. rather than a relationship of equals and of respect and all the rest of it. But, well, it's a start. But yes, I'm not hugely enthusiastic. I would have hoped these things were getting taught to children in schools in the first place, to be honest with you. None of that seems hugely groundbreaking to me. But I don't know, because don't live in Ukraine, I don't know what things are like there for families and animals and all the rest of it. But if this is a huge improvement and it makes a difference for animals, then great. Yeah, I mean, it's it's not teaching the opposite, I i suppose. But um we shall see, won't we? Maybe there'll be some sort of impact study that's conducted in five years' time and they can point to what a positive impact this has had or not. Our last little story before we hear Julie and Mark's pick of the week We don't often cover celebrity-based news, but possibly due to a scepticism as to how long certain celebrities are going to stay vegan or indeed plant-based as they possibly are a lot of the time. However, i don't think I don't think there's a risk that this next person is going to renege on their animal rights stance. We are talking about Moby and it has been announced that Moby is going to be appearing at Vegan Campout 2026 as the festival marks its 10 year anniversary. So the festival is taking place from the 14th to 17th of August in Nottinghamshire. This time, like i say, it's celebrating its 10th anniversary and mark, it's is's difficult to think of many people who could pull in a crowd at a vegan event
00:29:20
Speaker
more than Moby. Yeah, I must say I have a soft spot for him Moby. The first time I became aware of him was in the early 90s and I was in my local library and his album, his newest album was out.
00:29:33
Speaker
This is just before Play came out that sent him into the stratosphere. And it was an album called Animal Rights, and I was naturally drawn to the album cover. And I borrowed from the library, expected... I had heard Bits of Mobile before, I expected more electronica, but this album, Animal Rights, which was, I believe, his second album, was straightforward, a sort of thrash punk.
00:29:56
Speaker
And I really didn't expect it at all. And I was delighted because I love straightforward thrash punk. And it wasn't just punk. It was really hardcore stuff. And really heavy and fast and shouty and melodic and punchy. And it had nothing to do with animal rights whatsoever. I couldn't really make out the words, but it was more... You know, it wasn't particularly ideologically coherent ah delivery of of ah philosophy of animal rights at all. but the eight but the But the energy behind it was great. And there was loads of linear notes which were extolling the virtues of veganism and and so on. And then obviously he he released Play, which which ah about a year later, which is nothing like ah sonically like the animal rights album.
00:30:39
Speaker
at all and from there on he he was huge and now he's sort of he's sort of retired he lives in la the only time he gigs now is to raise money for for animal rights groups so yeah i i just thought i thought i'd i pop this in because i'm quite a fan of mobi and i'd love to go to the vegan camp that sounds amazing You sort of need a population with a certain amount of critical mass to be able to finance something like the vegan camp out. It isn't something that we have here in low population New Zealand.
00:31:08
Speaker
But if I was anywhere near that in the UK, I would be there and in an instant, I think. And if mobile was showing up as well, well, then even better. He he he isn't a particularly inspirational speaker. His sense of humor is ah is a little bit bland, but he puts his money where his mouth is and he devotes a lot of time and finances to animal rights causes. And he's even got animal and then rights written on each of his arms. If I had his money, I'd get such a better tattoo than something that looks basically like someone's drawn on his arms with with the sharpie pen or something like that he can afford something a lot more illustrious than something like what looks like graffiti on his arms but uh he's putting his money where his mouth is and his tattoos where where his arms are and he's Certainly behind the calls. He isn't fly by night. He isn't doing this for publicity or simply for his health. He's been a stalwart behind animal rights for decades. He sort of comes from the DIY punk background, which is closely aligned in itself with
00:32:09
Speaker
animal rights so yeah i thought it was great that he's coming over and more power to vegan camp out they seem to be getting bigger and better every year uh in terms of their capacity to pull in headliners and all of this so uh it's it's great to see it happening it's the glastonbury of animal rights festivals as far as i'm concerned and unlike glastonbury i'd pay to get into this one i wouldn't break them this Indeed. Yeah, no, it's ah it definitely appeals to a lot of folk to to get together, doesn't it? And yeah, if if you're inspired by, you know, superstar vegans, then that is certainly the place to be. But I'm going to say we value everyday vegans, just like you listeners and just like Julie and Mark. So up the revolution of the people as well as the superstars is is my opinion there. Thank you for that one, Mark. We're going take a quick break. When we get back, we're going to hear Julie's pick for the week. and mark's pick for the week and i'm gonna say with like this really shows the variety of the vegan and animal rights movement because we are focusing on the uk's food supply and you know systemic collapse and catastrophe and we're also focusing on the liberation of two baby goats
00:33:24
Speaker
As well as producing these audio-based shows, our podcast hosts at Zencaster also provide the written transcript for each show. This is AI generated, so it might not always be 100% correct, but nonetheless we hope that this will increase the accessibility of our show.
00:33:44
Speaker
So to access any of these written transcripts, head over to zencaster.com forward slash vegan week. going to spell it all for you. Zencaster is Z-E-N-C-A-S-T-R.com and then a forward slash and then the word vegan, V-E-G-A-N, then a hyphen and then week.
00:34:06
Speaker
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00:34:17
Speaker
Julie, we're coming to you first. We're going to the micro for you first. We'll come to the macro for Mark later. I say the micro, but for these two sick baby goats, this is their whole life, their whole world, isn't it? So what a fantastic thing they've been liberated. it seems to be that open rescue is the flavour of the month at the moment in in the animal rights world. Yes, and the whole point of this rescue, yes, it was about these two little babies, and yes, it was about a bigger action against this enormous factory farm, but it's also part of the Direct Action Everywhere's work that they are trying to, well, they are challenging the legal system as it stands at the moment in order to bring about um animals having personhood. So they are trying to get cases into court so they can win them, so that they can have test cases. So they're they're really happy to be in court. and So I can't give their wonderfully put to arguments. I can't do it justice. But that's the kind of thing behind that. I saw they've got a lovely video on their website that I just watched the ones and I'm not explaining it very well. But this is this is symbolic and it's important for these wee babies at the same time. So to go to the story, May 27, 2025, animal rights activists from direct action everywhere, two little baby goats from dairy farm in California.
00:35:56
Speaker
It's called Vera's Goat Dairy Farm. It sounds really cute, doesn't it? But it's actually... A ginormous factory farm with 9,000 goats on it. If you look at their website, it doesn't look like a factory farm. Their website is an absolute fabrication, but that's what it is. It supplies milk to Mayenburg, the largest producer of goat's milk in the US. To give you an idea of the scale, they process 25 million pounds of milk every year.
00:36:32
Speaker
and they supplied big companies like Whole Foods Market. So these four individuals are going to be up in court. They might be facing six and a half years in prison for these terrible crimes they have committed of something grand theft and conspiracy to this and that. can't remember the charges now. It was an open rescue.
00:36:58
Speaker
And they had already raised concerns with the authorities about conditions in this factory farm and that hadn't led to anything. So they had, they started off, they used a drone actually and they looked at it from above and found this great big pile of dead goats. That was before they went in there and that's illegal.
00:37:22
Speaker
and And they had been visiting and monitoring, you know, from then on in and found goats with untreated illnesses. And they also carried out necropsy tests on some of the dead goats that they they could easily access from this pile because it was just out in a field. And the results of that was, ah you know, were very, very disturbing. The illnesses that the little baby goats and the other adult goats had had, the fact that some of them had died from asphyxiation, some of them had died through just hunger it looked like from the results of the test. So just neglected, malnourished, emaciated little animals. And they also did some filming as well. And so there's some footage on the Direct Action Everywhere's website you can have a wee look at.
00:38:10
Speaker
So that's the story. They have taken these wee babies out of there because they were unwell. They had eye infections and respiratory infections and they were emaciated in a vet's opinion.
00:38:23
Speaker
So that's what they've done and that is a crime and it should be the other way around. It should be a crime to have these little animals incarcerated and treated like that.
00:38:34
Speaker
No doubt The dairy facility itself will try to claim huge damages, loss of income and all the rest of it from this as they do in these cases. But in actual fact, all that's happened is some very unwell little baby animals have been taken away and given veterinary treatment.
00:38:55
Speaker
So they should be sent the vet bill at the very least as well as being fined for having these animals on their premises in the first place. It's probably saved them money, in fact, because taking these little animals who had infections away from the others has probably saved some more getting unwell as well.
00:39:13
Speaker
There we are, the animal activists are kind of doing their job for them. But it is part of this bigger campaign to have animal rights recognised in law. If in America mountains can have personhood, then I'm sure animals can have it.
00:39:29
Speaker
If you would like some calls to action, I love a call to action as you know, you can go on the Direct Action Everywhere's website. There's a couple of petitions on there. You can ask that you can sign a petition that is asking for leniency when it comes to the treatment of these four activists. You can also sign a partition a petition for Kings County Animal Services Department to investigate that premises and have a look at the disease and the neglect and the high mortality at that Vera's goat dairy farm.
00:40:13
Speaker
And that's another action you can take. You can also go on the Whole Foods website and ask them to drop Mayenberg dairy and to stop marketing factory farms as humane And, you know, that's that's three things you can do right away. In summary, big love to Sally, Carla, Taj and Joseph. That's the activists that remove these wee baby goats.
00:40:45
Speaker
And to all of the Direct Action Everywhere activists, more power to you. Yeah, it was it was very interesting reading this story because we've taken it from Fox News and it felt like they were begrudgingly having to be positive or at least not be negative in that how can you report on the story of people...
00:41:08
Speaker
liberating ill animals from a facility like you you can't paint that in any way other than a oh well done good on you for for doing that it felt know if you got this julie but reading it it felt like there were a couple of pointed questions so they're saying oh when asked about how they felt about the fact that they trespassed Here's their response. So it felt like there was a bit of a tone of like, oh, these dangerous animal rights activists. But because of the clever way that Direct Action Everywhere does this, and they're focusing on sick animals, I mean, i so I assume pretty much any animal in there, you could point to things that they've got wrong with them. It's really hard, even for a news outlet like Fox News, to come down too hard on it really, isn't it? And I know at least one of the activists is a qualified vet.
00:41:59
Speaker
So do know I mean? These are not just kind of unemployed people as people like to paint animal activists as always. You know, they don't have jobs and they're just being absolute punks and taking the law into their own hands. These are all of them. All four of them are professionals. One of them is a qualified vet. They know ah loads about animals, about animal health and all the rest of it. So they're in a great position to judge here.
00:42:29
Speaker
So yeah, that that facility is lucky that they were the one that was picked. I'd just like to put just a small bit of historical context onto this. The idea of Open Rescue and first started, maybe not first started, but it was popularized in the mid 1980s in the UK with the Animal Liberation Leagues, as opposed to the Animal Liberation Front.
00:42:52
Speaker
And ah we've done, in fact, we've done a deep dive into that from about a year back where I talk about the evolution and demise actually of this tactic in the UK. there were They were suppressed by what were considered at the time to be massive prison sentences on the activists taking part. But yes, certainly by going in in broad daylight without covering your face, admitting to your crime, in fact, going to the police afterwards to admit your crime and these sort of things takes the sting out of the tail of the right-wing media backlash who love to portray us as balaclava clad.
00:43:25
Speaker
anarchists, some of of which there are some amongst our ranks. But if you can adapt your tactics to sort of ah deny them that opportunity to sort of paint you in a certain way, then it sort of it it it pushes the issue forward. It takes it off you as an activist and and places it back where it belongs, which is the the animals being sort of center stage on this.
00:43:47
Speaker
Yeah, no, absolutely. Thank you for that one, Julie. I i wanted to ah weigh in with a a little digression on on the fact that very often animal rights activists have get a job thrown at them, which is an interesting one, isn't it? I can think of lots of people, don't know, the king, who who don't have a job and nobody questions their integrity, but apparently... Being unemployed is a terrible sin, which we should all be shamed for, if you know whether it's true or
Food Supply Challenges and Hunting Bans
00:44:16
Speaker
not.
00:44:16
Speaker
Farming UK is the source of Mark's pick for the week and the headline UK food supply at risk of catastrophic failure by 2030 report Mark, I'm intrigued as to why this one is your pick of the week. When I read it it, seems to be really focusing on arable farming rather than animal ag. But have I got the wrong end of the stick? Do you want to tell us a bit more about why you've chosen this one to focus on?
00:44:43
Speaker
Yeah, I focus on this because in large part, the reason that we're in this situation we're in now is because of farmers, not all farmers, but particularly animal agricultural farmers. Not that you'd know that by by reading this article, that there is a a quote here from it saying, i quote, climate change is now probably the biggest risk to global food production, according to Tom Lancaster from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit.
00:45:10
Speaker
he's wrong there. Global food production is the biggest risk to future global food production that we face now. Climate change is a result of our current system of global food food production. So it's it's It's a recognition without ah accepting any blame. And that ah that's why I was i was sort of drawn to the to this article. Vegans and environmental movements have been screaming from the rooftops for decades about this, about the oncoming collapse of global food systems caused as a large part as a result of how we produce our food. And there's no sense that the farming community here sees themselves as involved in any of this at all and it's almost good going on to despite them and not because of them but yes they've they've they've hit they've hit a nail on the head by identifying the massive risks that we face as as I say a result a large extent of how we produce our protein and so on via animals instead of via plants so
00:46:13
Speaker
They are recognizing the shit that they're getting getting us into, but they aren't prepared to do to do anything about it. well one One of the biggest, and I'm not sure if it's the most immediate, but one of the most significant threats to um ah Ireland and the UK is the switching off of the AMOC moderating influence on Ireland.
00:46:32
Speaker
the climates in these countries. So the AMOC is the warm water that is carried from the Gulf of Mexico up to places like Ireland and Scotland and England and so on. And it moderates our climate to the to the point that we can farm all year round. even though we're on the same ah longitude as places like ah Labrador over in over in Canada. So our winters should should should be a lot colder than they are, but because of this AMOC influence, and they're they aren't. So this is is switching south because of the melting ice caps up in the Arctic.
00:47:08
Speaker
sorry if I'm getting into the long weeds here, but we we face massive problems because of the farming industry and they'll be that they'll be hitting into us between 2030 and 2050 is when we can expect to see this really take off. and So I thought it was interesting that they're right they were identifying the problem, but but theyre but but but they weren't prepared to accept any responsibility in what they do. The reason but we're that we're at risk is is is because of these people.
00:47:35
Speaker
and at risk of catastrophic failure. Unless and until they decide that they're partly to blame for this, then we will experience this catastrophic failure within our lifetimes. I thought it was interesting the the way they deflected any sort of sense of blame from themselves and their activities.
00:47:51
Speaker
Yeah, and and it really is a choice in terms of how we use land for for certain food. I had a a debate on ah a BBC radio series of a few years ago with a sheep farmer, and his argument, or one of his arguments, was that, well, you know, that this piece of land, the the only...
00:48:12
Speaker
The only thing that this could be used for, the only food that could be grown here is lamb, which is said is a nonsense. i'm It's a mental thing to say, right? And and it's it's a thing that all the farmers over in the west of Ireland say as well. if If we didn't farm sheep here and cows here, then there would be nothing here.
00:48:33
Speaker
and And they seem to genuinely believe that. They they believe their own ah propaganda. if though In the west of Ireland, in a place called Connemara, there's hardly any trees. there It should be a rainforest. It used to be a rainforest until the farmers got in there. Now it's it's a barren to tundra almost. And people think that when they're looking at these empty wastes of landscape with a few sheep sort of dotted here and there, that that is nature. It's not. It's the elimination of nature by these sheep.
00:49:04
Speaker
and they' and And they'll happily blame wild deer for eating all the all the saplings and and ah and preventing trees from growing, but never look at the sheep that they breed as as as being a problem as well. So it is a nonsense for a farmer to say that. And it shows how ignorant a lot of them are around the true nature of nature, you know?
00:49:23
Speaker
Yeah, indeed. Indeed. Thank you for that one, Mark. i It's obviously not a positive news story to focus on. i do take heart at how quickly nature can bounce back if given the chance. So I think there there is hope there, isn't there? There is hope. Yeah. So yeah, sometimes we need alarm bells, don't we, to to trigger action. Thank you for that one. Listeners, we've put together a show with with stories that Mark has sourced for us this week and different shows will have different people putting together the stories. But we really love hearing from you too. And if you spot a bit of news, you can just forward it to us. um Our email address is coming up. You can also get in touch with us on social media. You don't even need to say hello. You could just be like, oh, that's an interesting one. I wonder what...
00:50:10
Speaker
you know, Mark, Julie or other contributors have have got to say about that. When you can forward it away, that's absolutely fine. Or indeed, you can send us longer correspondence. We do have our regular mailbag shows. So we love hearing from you, whether it's on Facebook, Instagram, or by email. Here comes our email address.
00:50:28
Speaker
To get in touch with us, just send us an email at enoughofthefalafel at gmail.com. We see ourselves as a collective. Our listenership stretches all around the world and everyone's opinions, questions, feedback and ideas are what helps shape the show.
00:50:47
Speaker
Go on, send us a message today. enough of the falafel at gmail dot com Okay, we're going to spend a moment to just focus on one last story. We'll just dip our toe in it because it's it's the it's news we've heard before, but it's sort of a... Well, I mentioned alarm bells just before the break. It's it's just a ah a reminder that this is now coming into play. So the...
00:51:14
Speaker
ban on trail hunting that the Labour government in the UK promised when they were campaigning two years ago to the day, pretty much. um they've They've nearly been in power for two years here in the UK. One of their promises was to ban trail hunting.
00:51:32
Speaker
They are opening The public consultation right now, in fact, Thursday of this week. So if you're listening to this episode in a timely fashion, just a few days ago, the Guardian described this as as a long awaited public consultation on how to implement the ban. Note, not whether to implement it, how to implement it. which will apply to England and Wales. ah The League Against Cruel Sports, which has long campaigned against trail hunting, as well as many other organisations too, of course, said that animals were being deliberately targeted at at the moment, despite the fact that fox hunting is supposed to be banned from August 2025 to the 25th of March, 2026, the most recent fox and cub hunting seasons.
00:52:26
Speaker
The charity, the League Against the Cruel Sports, League Against Cruel Sports, said it recorded 488 reports of foxes seen being pursued and 1,220 reports of antisocial behaviour inflicted on rural communities by fox hunts. Pre-laid trails were recorded being made at only 4% of hunt meets attended by monitors. The League Against Cruel Sports said Obviously, the Countryside Alliance have weighed in and tried to to to fight back. ah Tim Bonner, who was the chiefer chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, said, this is nothing more than the government attempting to distract from the real problems facing British people.
00:53:16
Speaker
You think that's what they're doing? and Voters care about the countryside, the food on their table, and cheaper energy bills, not toxic culture wars. It's basically like he's just saying, look the other way. Look over there.
00:53:30
Speaker
Look, there's a war. Look, your energy bill's gone up. Quick, hunt the foxes while they're looking. um Anyway, ah the Countryside Alliance has also told its supporters to hold off responding to the public consultation, which will run until the 18th of June, until they themselves can circulate coordinated guidance.
00:53:53
Speaker
what do you make to that, Julie? Julie? Julie, waiting to, like, coordinated guidance. Is that just going to be like a template email like Peter send around? or Well, it tells you everything you need to know about the esteem they hold their supporters in, thinking, you know, listen, you just hold off, you know. We'll take it from here kind of thing. you trust own initiative yeah We don't trust you plebs to write anything for you. that we wouldn't to We want to school you first.
00:54:27
Speaker
Yeah, that same that tells you everything you need to know. that yeah Absolutely. I mean, I think in my simple head, just go ahead and ban it. Don't ask us how to implement it. Just do it. Do you have to ask us how to implement other bits of legislation? I don't know. I've never been aware of that one before. Just do it.
00:54:49
Speaker
maybe it's to say, well, look, we did do a consultation. you know we We're not imposing this. Maybe it is ah a defensive Labour government who is afraid that people are saying, oh, this is a culture war, blah, blah. But Mark, I thought it was a a really interesting turn of phrase by the League Against Cruel Sports to say that there've been 1,220 reports of antisocial behaviour inflicted on rural communities by fox hunts because so often... People like Tim Bonner will say, this is this is a war against the countryside and rural people.
00:55:24
Speaker
Whereas that they're pointing out, no no, no, like these things, these events are ah causing havoc amongst rural communities. Yeah, I've i've always reckoned that the ah death of something like fox hunting is going to come about more because of the arrogance of the fox hunting fraternity than it is concerned about animal welfare or animal rights. I mean, as much as people profess to be concerned about the welfare of animals. When it comes down to it, most people probably aren't that too pushed, but they do get pissed off when they see the arrogance and the intimidation tactics of the fox hunting for eternity. Is there any other group other than the ruling class in the UK that could get away with breaking the law so openly for so long?
00:56:10
Speaker
and have no rep and have no repercussions at all. They've been flouting the law for almost a quarter of a century in the middle of the day on horseback with with loud red outfits blowing horns as they galloped past police stations in in rural communities. And the police still don't have enough evidence to do anything about this. So it it'ss it illustrates the sort of the rigid class system in Britain, how ah deferential the police are towards the ruling class, um how much the ruling class can get away with things as long as they have the confidence to do so.
00:56:44
Speaker
So as i say, it's taken about 20 years or so of gathering evidence by people like the Hunt Saboteurs Association and the League Against Cruel Sports using drones really effectively to go out and gather evidence as to how clearly and blatantly the law has been broken here. And I think that sort of pushed it to to where we are now. It's the arrogance of the hunt in the way they think that they can they can get away with everything.
00:57:06
Speaker
i remember when trail hunting back in the pre-ban days was ah heralded as the obvious and agreeable alternative to a fox hunting. In fact, i um I remember once it was the last day of the hunting season back in the late nineteen ninety s and to emphasize drag hunting, i.e. trail hunting, as opposed to live animal hunting, we all dressed up in drag. So all the female SABS put on sort of like suits and all the male SABS were wearing dresses and wigs and all the rest of it. so so So we went in drag to the...
00:57:39
Speaker
where the hunt were at meeting with a big huge banner saying, hunting makes us cross and then in brackets dress. And we were emphasizing drag hunting over ah like live animal hunting, not really realizing at the time that the ban would ever be implemented and that this would be the case where drag or trail hunting was now the the only sort of legal thing to do.
00:58:01
Speaker
We didn't really understand how easy it would be to use that as a loophole to actually chase down and kill a lot ah live animal. So now the year debate has moved from what why don't you do trail hunting to now we're banned like live animal hunting. We're about to ban trail hunting as well because you guys cannot be trusted with anything. So it's it's about time. it It took a while, but it's good to see it finally happening. And it puts a modicum of trust back in this disastrous Labour government that they are doing something right, finally.
00:58:33
Speaker
Wow. Believe it when I see it. I believe it when I see it. There's still time for a u term or or U-turn or something to happen. But yeah, it does seem like we're on the precipice. And I wonder whether this ah hunting of the clean boot that you you see being publicised at the moment where you get people saying, oh, I'm a runner. And actually what I really like to do is to be hunted by people on horseback. I i wonder if that will be the new thing that ah that gets abused. And, um you know, it turns out that that's a smokescreen for actual hunting, but I'm sounding very negative. This is a positive story that is off the back of countless people's hard work and campaigning. So hooray for that. Hooray for that. Can we pretend to be hunt supporters, perhaps? And can we get in ahead of before all the guidance comes out and put in some really crappy opinions and things and just really mess it up? Yeah, yeah. Just to just to watch Tim's blood pressure raise a bit more. Yes, good idea, Julie.
00:59:37
Speaker
I'm from the Countryside Alliance. Yeah. Yeah.
00:59:42
Speaker
yeah Yeah, why not? Why not? If you've got some free time, that could be an entertaining thing to do. um Well, we, of course, hope that you have enjoyed our show. We're about to tell you lots of things that you can do to help us out if you're so inclined. One that we've not got in our current jingle is to contribute to our Ko-Fi page. That's where, if you are able... and want to, you can give us a small or large one-off or recurring donation, which is going towards a little campaign that we've got at the moment to invest in some better tech so that you can enjoy enough of the falafel productions even more. So there's a link in the show notes for that.
01:00:26
Speaker
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01:00:40
Speaker
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01:00:56
Speaker
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01:01:06
Speaker
Thank you, everyone, for listening. We absolutely would not do this without you. So thank you, every single listener out there. Hooray, up the vegans, up the animal rights movement.
01:01:17
Speaker
And of course, thank you, Julie. And thank you, Mark. The next Vegan Talk episode is coming out on the 2nd of April and that will feature Anthony and Shane and they will be talking about the latest vegan plus bacon phenomenon.
01:01:36
Speaker
It's a real thing, Julie. It's a real thing. Anyway, that's enough of the falafel for this episode. Thanks to Julie and Anthony for your contributions. Thanks again, everyone, for listening. I've been Mark and you've been listening to Vegan Week from the Enough of the Falafel Collective.
01:01:57
Speaker
This has been an Enough of the Falafel production. We're just a normal bunch of everyday vegans putting our voices out there. The show is hosted by Zencaster. We use music and special effects by zapsplap.com.
01:02:12
Speaker
And sometimes if you're lucky at the end of an episode, you'll hear a poem by Mr. Dominic Berry. Thanks all for listening and see you next time.
01:02:38
Speaker
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01:03:13
Speaker
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