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252- 30 million do Veganuary in 2026!
0 Playsin 15 hours
Blimey. That's the good news; the bad news is that it takes us 37 minutes to get to some good news this week! Still, knowledge has the potential to empower us, so we stand by reporting on these things. This week Ant is back & joins Shane dissect nine bits of news from the last week in the vegan & animal rights space.
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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.
To help us keep improving the show, you can head over to https://ko-fi.com/ENOUGHOFTHEFALAFEL and make a small financial contribution towards our running costs. Only if you want to and can afford it of course ;)
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This week's stories:
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/480302/trump-slaughter-line-speed-usda
https://www.balkanweb.com/en/u-preken-nga-nje-virus-ngjites-72-tigra-ngordhin-ne-nje-kopsht-zoologjik-ne-veri-te-tajlandes/#gsc.tab=0
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/479784/colorado-river-water-crisis-cattle-beef-dairy
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVJj6tujOTo/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0e5l7ll31yo
https://plantbasednews.org/news/million-participated-record-breaking-veganuary/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c743d9jpw88o
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2r6jqm042o
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/19/why-iowa-farmers-swapped-pigs-mushrooms
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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!
Shane & Ant
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Transcript
Introduction and Vegan News Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello everyone, it's me, it's Shane. Why are we here? We're here to bring you vegan and animal rights news. That's what we do. We've been doing it for nearly three years now, but that is enough of the falafel.
00:00:13
Speaker
Let's get on with it. It's time for Vegan Week. So I think vegans go looking for trouble even when they're not looking for trouble. That's not what butter's used for. Brrr! Take your flat-grown meat elsewhere.
00:00:26
Speaker
We're not doing that in the state of Florida. Should I call the medium and say, hi, sorry. True education. younger generation are getting know how brutal these practices are.
00:00:36
Speaker
That leaves a lot of pizza delivery companies in problems with things. What is this? What kind of movie is this? It's comedy. Go on the media. Any form of social injustice has...
00:00:49
Speaker
As long as you don't get the wee brunions with the horns you'll be alright. Does veganism give him superpowers?
00:00:59
Speaker
cannot fly around the city. I don't have laser vision. Hey everyone this is Shane. Welcome to Vegan Week. Thanks so much for joining us. Indeed indeed. Welcome everyone. Whether it's your first time or you're a regular listener We've got regular listeners now that contribute to our Ko-Fi, subscription thing. Oh, goodness me. We'll tell you more about that later. But yeah, whether you're a new or very regular member of our community, we're really happy that you're here. This is where we talk about about eight, nine, ten stories from the last week or so's animal rights and vegan space. But that's enough of the falafel. Let's hear what has been going on in the news this week.
00:01:43
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.
USDA Kill Line Proposal and Concerns
00:01:55
Speaker
Okay, so we're going to start with Shane's first story. This is coming to us from vox.com. And it's some we've reported, Shane, haven't we, in the last few months about sort of accidental pro-animal rights stuff that the Trump administration seems to be doing in America without necessarily coming from an animal rights point of view. But they're They're making a few changes that happens to be improving outcomes for animals. This is the other side of the coin, isn't it? In that we're we're focusing on slaughterhouse production lines being sped up, being made more efficient. is that
00:02:37
Speaker
I mean, give us some more information. I'd be interested to know whether you think it changes outcomes for animals as well, though. Yeah, I was thinking about how we've been giving the Trump administration a lot of credit. And so um this story is not going to do that. um And as you said, it's from Vox. And I've actually got two stories from Kenny Torella, his newsletter or his column Future Perfect this week in Vox. And honestly, if you're not reading Kenny Torella's articles in Vox, you really should be. He's doing great journalism. His articles are well researched. They're thoughtful. They are covering news you often aren't going to see anywhere else. And in fact, this first story is titled One of Trump's Cruelest Policies Yet Has Received Almost Zero Attention.
00:03:22
Speaker
And the article opens with, last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, that's the USDA, proposed a strikingly cruel policy, even for this administration, speeding up the kill lines at America's chicken, turkey, and pig slaughterhouses. The plan will make one of the country's most dangerous jobs working in a meat processing plant even more unsafe. Now, these are draft rules, but they would allow slaughterhouses to move even faster than they already do.
00:03:50
Speaker
So chicken slaughterhouses would be able to increase kill line speeds from 140 birds per minute to 175 per minute, which is a 25% increase. Turkey slaughterhouses would increase from 55 birds per minute to 60.
00:04:07
Speaker
And pig slaughterhouses currently have a maximum line speed of 1,106 pigs per hour. But under the new rule, there would be no speed limit at all.
00:04:18
Speaker
So just so you understand the scale of this, if the policy is finalized, that rule will apply to 94% of chickens slaughtered, 79% of turkeys slaughtered, and 64% of pigs slaughtered. And this is, of course, in the United States.
00:04:31
Speaker
And i personally, I don't see how the proposed rules won't contribute to an increase in the injury rates of slaughterhouse workers. And that's a big focus of this article. Those workers already have some of the highest rates of on-the-job injuries in the nation. And if you take a look at the article, Torella has a great graph that shows this.
00:04:48
Speaker
But really more importantly for this podcast, the rules would lead to more animal suffering because faster slaughter lines make it more difficult for workers to properly stun animals. And that means that they're often killed while they're still conscious.
00:05:02
Speaker
And I honestly think if there's a theme for this episode today, and and you can tell me if you agree at the end, Anthony, but I think the theme of this episode is corporate greed. And we've got a quote here from the president of the National Pork Producers Council, who says, thank you, Secretary Rollins and the Food Safety and Inspection Service for taking steps to unleash the potential to process pork more efficiently. And I really, i have to assume that he's also thanking the USDA for another proposal, which which is to end the requirement for these slaughter plants to publish annual reports on worker safety.
00:05:37
Speaker
Now, I don't think those two programs are coincidental. There's no way that's a coincidence because I think that they know that increasing the speed of kill lines will mean more injuries to workers, and I don't think they care. And what makes it even worse, if you believe it can get worse than all of this, is that in addition to the Trump administration withdrawing a Biden era rule to reduce salmonella in poultry,
00:06:01
Speaker
And also reducing the number of slaughterhouse inspectors
Public Commentary on USDA Rules
00:06:04
Speaker
last year. So this is all happening in addition to that. That has already gone through. But I mean, as as much as I dislike the Trump administration, I don't want to pile all the blame on them because this has really been this this plan to speed up slaughter lines has been a bipartisan project.
00:06:20
Speaker
It really began, according to Torella in 1997, when Clinton under the USDA allowed a small number of poultry and pig slaughterhouses to operate faster. And then in 2012, President Obama, his USDA proposed increasing the chicken slaughter rate from 140 per minute 175, which is what we're looking at now.
00:06:40
Speaker
um But there was a lot of pushback from food safety groups and labor groups and the agency dropped it. But now everything has just really, really accelerated during the Trump administration. This is not a done deal.
00:06:52
Speaker
You can weigh in until April 20th. And if you go to our show notes and you can see the article and click on the link there to make your voice heard. I think only Americans are allowed to comment on the proposed rules.
Environmental Impact of Slaughterhouses
00:07:04
Speaker
There was more in this article um about mitigating the injuries of workers and when the lines are sped up and so on. But um I can pause there and I'll just toss it back to you, Anthony. I was wondering if you had a chance to look at the article, if there was anything that surprised you, anything that stood out? Well, I... I went searching for this news in other places as well, just to see if if there was any other coverage of it. And I found it covered on foodandwaterwatch.org. And they, as well as that those statistics that you've given Shane and the impact it will have on workers who are human animals too, like from vegan perspective, we do have to focus on the suffering of human animals as well as non-human animals. um But they look at the impact on clean water and public health. And of course, that affects wild animals too. And they're they're basically saying that increasing increasing these processing rates will increase the overall number of animals slaughtered, obviously. But in terms of the toxins and and things like that that are going out into waterways,
00:08:09
Speaker
which affect approximately 60 million people in the States who live within one mile of a slaughterhouse polluted waterway. The end of this misery, it hasn't been arrived at yet. There are all sorts of implications. And like you say, it'ss it's purely commercial greed that it's not the case that they've said, well, actually we've gone 10 years and the accident rate has just come right down. you know So this this current kill line speed seems safe, so maybe we could push the limits a little bit and increase the speed. It's not that at all.
00:08:47
Speaker
it's it's It's purely the the bottom line, which of course is not a surprise to us. It just, for me, paints it as ah as a black and white. Well, people don't care about these things. you know we we we could i don't know. if Might we, in a parallel universe, be reporting on a story where the kill line speed has decreased this week and it's gone from 100 what what is it, 140 per minute for chickens down to 110. Would we be reporting that on the show and celebrating it?
00:09:22
Speaker
I don't think we would. that The fact is that margins like this just show where the focus is on animal ag. I don't know whether it's something to focus on and say, well, that's getting worse. We'd prefer it to get better.
00:09:35
Speaker
i think it's I think the focus for stories like this, for animal advocates like ourselves, is to say, look at how this industry works. You need to have nothing to do with it.
00:09:47
Speaker
And whether you care about the people, or you care about the animals, or you care about both, it's not good for for either
Activism and Protest Legislation
00:09:55
Speaker
of those groups. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
00:09:57
Speaker
So speaking of bad policies and government overreach, Anthony, your ah first story is from a video on Instagram, and it shows what appears to be an arrest of some activists. Can you tell us more about that?
00:10:11
Speaker
Yeah, this unfortunately is, the show does get better listeners, but we we are starting off with heavy hitting news, I'm afraid. We did predict this a few weeks ago. So as of Feb the 11th, there's been new legislation in the yeah UK classifying life sciences infrastructure, basically animal testing and breeding facilities as key national infrastructure. It's key to how the nation works. This despite the fact that the UK government is saying it wants to move away from animal testing, No, the Public Order Act has been changed. So basically, it's it's reducing your right to protest peacefully in a site like this, which has been happening. at Camp Beagle for many years. We've mentioned them on the show many, many times. And indeed I've, I've driven past one time. I was hoping to stop and chat to somebody, but it didn't look like there was anyone there who wanted to be chatted to. Maybe they were having a nap or something like that. Anyway, I digress. In the last week, however, Camp Beagle's Instagram page, which we've given a link to in the show notes, they have released video footage of two arrests that have happened in the last week, presumably because of this change in in the law with regards to people's rights to peacefully protest somewhere. they They're not interfering necessarily.
00:11:35
Speaker
they're not interfering with the running of that place. If they wanted to get in the way of workers arriving at this this place where animals are tested on and and and and things like that, like they could. They are peacefully camped by a virgin. They are exercising their right to protest. But that's not allowed anymore.
00:11:54
Speaker
I couldn't find... many more details about this. So we will keep our ears to the ground and listeners, if you hear any more about this in terms of what they've actually been charged for, would there be a way that they could protest without being arrested? That would be very interesting to know. But yeah, it's a very clear cut bit of footage. The comment section, as you might imagine, is full of lots of people aghast saying, for goodness sake, is this really the best use of of police time. So i don't know if you have a hunch, Shane, as to like the way that this will go. it It seems incredibly harsh to say that you can't just peacefully protest on a grass verge somewhere.
00:12:38
Speaker
Well, I mean, i don't see how it's not a complete trampling of people's rights to peaceful protest. But I mean, and who am I to speak? it' I see that ah every day on the news here. So, um you know, it's not surprising to me. But i what I was really thinking about was why...
00:12:56
Speaker
I mean, I know why people would do this, but why would someone go protest if they knew they were going to get arrested? And then I started wondering if maybe this was intentional because maybe the activists wanted to get arrested so that they could go and challenge the law in court.
00:13:12
Speaker
So I'm just wondering if you thought that might be the strategy behind it, because I know this law was recently passed. So maybe they want to be able to challenge the law and have it declared. i don't know if you can what what you would declare unconstitutional, invalid,
00:13:25
Speaker
Yeah, I think there could be instances where that is exercised by folk. I think probably in this case, like Camp Beagle has been there since June 2021. And I think it's more just the case that people who have been protesting there since then, I mean, so some people have been resident there basically that whole time, whereas a large proportion of folk would turn up for the day. or what have you. But I imagine it's just the case that people are saying, well, I'm not leaving, you know, just because this law has changed. So I don't think it's something they've opted into. But I, yeah, that that there may well be cases where people opt into it like an open rescue sort of thing, and you know, you're going to get arrested. And that's part of the
Zoo Animal Health Crisis
00:14:07
Speaker
protest. But Yes, hopefully hopefully this doesn't have long-lasting impacts on the individual's concern and we can just hope that common sense will ultimately prevail in the long run, though it does seem like ah a bit of a setback in the short term.
00:14:22
Speaker
We are going to move... I said the show's getting more positive. it's to just Hold on, maybe maybe not the next story, but we we will get there. Our next story comes from balkanweb.com, which is not a website we have quoted stories from before. It's not about news from the Balkans. They're reviewing something that's happened in Thailand. not a positive story, but it does exemplify just why zoos are not good places. 72 tigers.
00:14:53
Speaker
have died in recent weeks at a zoo in northern Thailand after being infected with a highly contagious plague virus and bacteria that damaged the respiratory system, according to local authorities. So the Department of Animal Husbandry in Chiang Mai province ah They say that laboratory tests confirm the presence of the virus as well as severe bacterial infections that worsened the condition of the animals. It was a private zoo. Tiger Kingdom. Hmm. Not much of a kingdom anymore, is it? um Apparently a popular tourist park where visitors can hug touch and take up close photo with tigers according to the website there's been no immediate comment from the parks management on the incident shane it's it's obviously clear-cut like a a terrible story how can we respond to this as vegans and as as animal advocates what's the most effective angle do you think to take I think just publicizing it ah like we are doing and also um just maybe using it as an example of to encourage people, hey, if you're going to somewhere, don't engage in these exotic animal entertainments, I guess, you know, because I think what we all know that if. tigers are allowing people to hug them and take close-up photos of them, that they are probably abused or heavily drugged in order to be safe enough so that people would allow them to get that close.
00:16:26
Speaker
I initially heard this story on the BBC World News and I couldn't find it on their webpage. That's why I kind of went looking for it and found it on the Balkan website. But then I did some more research and I found a story from the AP that was um a follow-up on it.
00:16:41
Speaker
And so in this article, it it seems like there are actually maybe two zoos where these tigers died and they were very close together. And the government at first was concerned because they thought that tigers might have died from bird flu.
00:16:54
Speaker
And then of course their concern is that that can be passed to humans and the humans were obviously in very close contact with these tigers. But necropsies revealed that the virus was most probably canine distemper virus plus a bacterial infection. And the Thai authorities said the tigers um being at a confined environment and they're already affected by stress and inbreeding conditions could be particularly vulnerable to viral infection.
00:17:23
Speaker
But one problem, and I mean, there's a lot of problems, is that the veterinarian who did these necropsies posted on Facebook that they never actually determined the origin of the infection. They think it might be the food the tigers ate, but they don't know, so there's just no guarantee that this isn't going to happen again. And again, like they were saying, maybe...
00:17:42
Speaker
The two parks were in close proximity to each other, so they ate like the same kind of food. Humans caged the tigers. They abused them. They exposed them to something that killed 72 of them. And so, I mean, just these places should obviously be shut down and the tigers taken to actual sanctuaries. But again, this was the theme of our episode, which is ah it's all about money and greed.
00:18:03
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. i did i i just want to take a slight digression here and just focus on that the facts of what happens when you cramp animals together more closely than they would naturally. I think we've spoken several times on the show about zoonotic diseases and how animal agriculture exacerbates the impact of you know, infections being transmitted. Obviously animals in the wild can infect one another. You know, it's not the case that oh if an animal is ill, it's because of human intervention. Like, of course that happens in the wild. It always has done.
00:18:42
Speaker
But if you concentrate things together, that's more likely. That's what's happened here. But as well, thinking about like the environmental impact of animal ag say, for example, you know, animal poo, animal wee and stuff like that. Like, i I think a lot of people don't understand that when you're cramming animals together, the fact that animals shit and piss everywhere becomes a problem because it's so concentrated. Like, wild animals, like, it there's... There's a woodland about a mile's walk from wherever I live. It it doesn't smell a shit ah because the thousands and millions of individual organisms that live there are spread out in a natural way that works. and And so it's an ecosystem that works. An animal farm, a zoo, it's not an ecosystem. It's not balanced. It's never meant to be that way. And so that's when we have things like environmental disasters, because there's just like so much ammonia in the air from all the animal wee or whatever it is. I think folk understanding that a little bit better might, for some, raise more questions about like, oh gosh, we just, we shouldn't be doing this. And it's no good saying, oh, a small zoo would be fine. Oh, a small animal farm would be fine. Like there's 8 billion people on the earth. Like we can't have small zoos for everyone. We can't have small farms for everyone. Like it doesn't work.
Deer Culling in the UK
00:20:15
Speaker
The reason these things are done in industrial scale is because it's trying to meet the needs of 8 billion people who will want this stuff. It just doesn't work. And I apologize, that's a slight digression from this. But it like this is, for me, the main headline here is, look what happens when you cramp animals together in a way that just would not happen naturally. No, you'd never in nature have 30, 40, 50 tigers, 72 tigers all living that close together. Of course, it's going to stress them. Yeah, apex predators are not renowned for ah their conviviality, are they?
00:20:52
Speaker
And this, I mean, this just all goes back to The End of Medicine, which is the movie we reviewed not long ago, and about how pandemics are, one reason we have these pandemics and these illnesses, ah like the bird flu and all this, is because we're cramming these animals together in unnatural and unsanitary conditions. So it's, like I said, it's not surprising that this would happen to these tigers. Yeah.
00:21:16
Speaker
I do not think that we, the good news isn't coming yet because your next story is about killing deer in the UK and making it easier. But there's a good story after this one.
00:21:28
Speaker
Well, not mine, but yours, yes. um um Anyway, it's about killing deer in the UK, making it easier. And I mean, honestly, I would have thought it's pretty easy to kill deer already. So I'm just, why does it need to be easier? And why do they need to to kill, or as they like to say,
00:21:46
Speaker
cull the deer in England. I'm a little confused by this article. Let's let's give the facts and then we'll we'll give our opinions on it. So basically this this comes to us from the BBC. Deer culling to be made easier to protect trees and crops. This is apparently a long awaited government 10 year plan to deal with a population explosion that threatens woodlands, newly planted trees and farmland. There's thought to be more than 2 million deer in Britain. This is not a balanced article. The BBC's reputation for producing balanced reporting is completely not been abided by here. They said, there are thought to be more than 2 million deer in Britain. Just picture them now, the 2 million deer.
00:22:31
Speaker
which have damaged one third of English woodlands and left farmers with costly crop losses. That's not what people think of when they think of deer. Like, what what an interesting angle to take. So yeah, the government's unveiled a deer management strategy that will identify priority culling areas. make it easier to carry out licensed nighttime and closed season shooting. Farmers could also be given new legal rights to shoot them but to protect their crops. I don't know why this is happening now. I don't know whether there's just like a public acceptance of, you know, we've been hearing the rumblings for the last couple of years and we've been commenting on the on the show of of like it's being more and more widespread to be like, oh yes, we're rewilding, but...
00:23:20
Speaker
rewilding, but we're going to have to do something about these animals. you know god i mean, we we're fine with you being wild, but only within these strict human-laid parameters. They're just eating.
00:23:34
Speaker
They're just eating. And do you know what? if If we spend a bit of money on fences instead of bullets, what are they going to do? that we were going to need to put a new fence up every year? No. like that the The fences will last...
00:23:49
Speaker
For multiple years, surely, i know I'm not an ecologist, I know, you know, my understanding of these things is is minimal, but that there's more than one way of doing these things. Spokespeople from ah people for the ethical treatment of animals have have said the same thing. It's not going to resolve the problem of overpopulation. They point out the fact that actually, if you temporarily reduce the population, then the animals that are left have got more food available. So actually, that could increase the breeding rates in survivors. So it's so it's a really naive way of doing things. And I think, I reckon if you canvassed 100 people on the street in the UK, I
00:24:33
Speaker
I reckon a lot of people wouldn't know that this is happening, that this is acceptable. And i think they'd be pretty pro-deer. you know what mean? Like it we shouldn't be specist speciesist. We shouldn't encourage speciesism. And poor animals like rats and you know other unfashionable creatures have a real tough time of receiving people's natural compassion towards animals. Deer do not have that problem.
00:25:02
Speaker
It's very few people that see deer as a pest. And i I think if people knew quite how readily they are to be shot and apparently fed to prisoners and people in schools and hospitals. know if you saw that, Shane, likewise. I did. What a ridiculous thing to say. Like, oh, well, good news. We can shoot them. That will save the trees from being eaten. um And then we can feed the venison, which is apparently lower cholesterol than other meat.
00:25:34
Speaker
If people don't want to eat deer, like they don't want to eat deer, it just feels like they're just shoving it in stuff without people knowing. Generic meat pie. i just I think that the author of this article, whose name is Malcolm Pryor, he just really twisted himself in knots trying to make this the slaughter of deer okay. Because you know the arguments, there's so many arguments. It's for the crops. No, it's for the woodlands. No, it's to support a domestic market for venison. No, it's for homeless shelters and food banks. I mean... It's, i let's just say the truth is so people, hunters can shoot more deer because really it's not a secret, even to someone like me who lives in a city with very few deer around, that killing deer isn't a strategy to control the population. And PETA is 100% right to point that out.
00:26:21
Speaker
The article also mentions that there are six deer species in Britain, I guess, that are contributing to this millions of overpopulation, but only two are indigenous species.
00:26:32
Speaker
So then I thought, i wonder where all those other deer came from. Could people be responsible for bringing these deer? Could they have possibly brought them to England to hunt them or to populate their royal estates? And now it all got out of control. And then who's paying the price for that?
00:26:48
Speaker
The deer. And, you know, I thought what makes this article even worse is that they're trying to act like killing these animals is, you know, a good thing. And it was just really gross, really gross.
00:26:59
Speaker
Yeah, it it is. And I think the more that we can shine a light, not just on this practice, but the organizations and institutions that think this is okay.
00:27:10
Speaker
i I think that yeah I think it's fair to assume that any country estate that has deer on it will engage in this practice. That won't be the case in every time, but if you have that as your blanket assumption, then then let, you know, if you want to go and visit a national trust house, assume that they cull their deer, if there are deer there, If you want to get in touch with them and find out facts contrary to that, and then you feel comfortable going, then great, that's fine. But I think more and more calling out of this, it's we can't grade animal exploitation in terms of you know what is more hideous than another. But I reckon 99% of people
00:27:58
Speaker
are opposed to the beagle testing laboratory that um folk are protesting outside of and currently getting arrested of for doing so. It can't be far off that percentage of people that think deer are beautiful, majestic creatures that are not deserving of a bullet in the head just because they're eating some trees and You know, ah but there was a whole thing in here about, oh goodness, 70,000 deer involved in collisions with vehicles each year. So ah Malcolm opens with that line and you're thinking, oh gosh, that's awful. Poor deer. Killing between 10 and 20 people and injuring more than 700. He doesn't mention how many of the deer survived. I'm assuming pretty much all 74,000 didn't
Water Scarcity and Agriculture
00:28:51
Speaker
survive. Like it is the least balanced BBC article I've ever read. And just for goodness sake, like, can we just think about these poor, like innocent, beautiful herbivores that are just trying to live their life in in the very limited space that as humans, we now afford them. Yeah. Goodness me. Maybe very cross this one.
00:29:13
Speaker
And if Malcolm is listening, I'm just, you know, I'm sorry, but I just don't think that was good writing because he was just all over the place. He didn't have a coherent thesis, you know, and he did not prove why this should be happening. But I love what you said. I think everybody go to Chatsworth and on the tour be like, oh, and hey, are you killing all the deer out there? You know, bring it up.
00:29:33
Speaker
See what they have to say. Make them make them have to explain it. So that I love that idea. Absolutely. ah Vox, second story for you, Shane, from Vox. yes Why the Western US is running out of water? I did not know this, that the Colorado River is a main source of, ah ah as well as a source of beauty, a wonderful, majestic, natural thing in itself. it's It's relied on by a lot of folk, but it's not as abundant as it once was, this article points to, well, there was less snow than than usual. There are environmental factors, but actually there's a bigger factor, and that's why we're reporting it on this show, that is, initially it's labelled all agriculture, but then when you zoom in even more, it's animal agriculture, isn't it?
00:30:24
Speaker
Yeah, Malcolm Pryor should read Kenny Torello's articles because his are so well done. It's it's our second story from our friend Kenny Torello. Yeah, if you don't live in the U.S. or if you haven't been paying attention, the Colorado River is drying up.
00:30:38
Speaker
And the Colorado is the river that runs through the west, and it's the river that carved out the Grand Canyon, you know, over like what a millennium probably. But we humans have somehow managed to use it up in just a couple of hundred years.
00:30:51
Speaker
And not because of AI databanks or golf courses or watering lawns. It's all because of agriculture. So Torella tells us that farming accounts for 75% the annual Colorado water usage.
00:31:06
Speaker
And of the crops grown, animal feed accounts for 47% of all the water that's pulled from the river. There are also millions of cows in the West, which, I mean, no one would ever come look at the West. It's a desert in many places and say, oh, yeah, we should put a millions of cows out there who need water and and grass to eat.
00:31:28
Speaker
So you would think that people that are living in and the West would demand an end to farming and cattle raising. But the real reason for the water shortage, I mean, it just really isn't being talked about. And instead, the cities are being forced to spend millions of dollars on water saving infrastructure.
00:31:44
Speaker
People are told, you know, turn off the water when you're brushing your teeth, get low flow toilets, don't take long showers. I mean, all of those things are great for everybody to do, but they're really they're not going to put even a dent in the problem.
00:31:57
Speaker
And Torella actually gives one example that I just, that really brought it home to me, which is that one California irrigation district that grows mainly alfalfa for cows alone uses more water than all of the state of Colorado uses for everything. It's just crazy.
00:32:17
Speaker
I think one reason that um no one's talking about agriculture is because, honestly, there's nothing they can do about it. In the West, um unlike in the East where water rights are more egalitarian, the West rights are set by what's called the prior appropriation doctrine.
00:32:34
Speaker
And it says that whoever uses the water first lays claim to it, and they hold the rights indefinitely as long as they're still using the water. And so then the article, and this is what where what I have heard on the news, is basically about the negotiations going on between the states. And I had assumed that the water shortage had something to do with agriculture, but they they weren't.
00:32:57
Speaker
The news the stories that have been covering it haven't talked about that. They've just been talking about how these states have been negotiating. And that it's not going well at all. So it's really hard to have any hope that the river can be saved. You know, people are literally going to just keep eating meat until the land dries up. And, you know, they have to, I don't know, move, die along with it. I don't know. I mean, again, I'm sorry. we That is another not happy story. The next one is going to be good. But Anthony, you have any thoughts on this story or did did you look into this at all? Well, I mean, all of this was news to me. So again, I've been sort of trying to learn more about this from other sources too. Many of us on the show have expressed our scepticism towards AI and over-reliance on it, which I know is not a hot take, but there are several of us independently saying, hmm. don't think that could be trusted all the time can it and i i just bashed into a search engine why is the colorado river drying up and actually like agricultural demand like it it does feature in there as one of the the reasons but it's it's not the it's not the top reason and again it's just like oh how frustrating that actually that this thing that's
00:34:12
Speaker
routinely having an impact. Yes, there's there has been like a drought that's not just one year's drought. That is a factor which we can attribute back to to animal ag, but I understand how that that might be ah a stretch for some people. But actually, yeah, the fact that water is being regularly taken from that river,
00:34:35
Speaker
for something like that could stop tomorrow if we wanted to couldn't we? you know And i I think that's the the key thing here. There are things in in life that we can't impact and there are those that we can. And i think that's, again, apologies, because I'm i going to digress from your story again, Shane, as I did with the last one. But I think that's one of the beautiful things about veganism and what it can do for your sense of agency is that by being vegan, when we're not saying that by doing what we're doing as individuals, that stops all the suffering for animals. It it doesn't.
00:35:14
Speaker
We need to be into no illusions. But we do know that we're definitely not contributing to all sorts of horrid things that that
Veganuary Movement Growth
00:35:24
Speaker
go on. and And there's more that we can do you know Veganism isn't isn't the cure to everything. It's not the... the most that we can do it's arguably the least that we can do being vegan but um yeah it's it's another one of those things that it makes me glad that we're we're doing this show because uh you know the more we can learn about things like this the more that we can advocate for it and um education is the key here isn't it really
00:35:48
Speaker
And it's really the answer just is so simple because if we don't pull so much water for crops, that for animals to eat, then we could eat the crops and then we wouldn't have to use all that water and everybody would win.
00:36:03
Speaker
So, you know, it's just veganism is just the answer as it usually is. Alphalfa sprouts are delicious, I will say. like i think I don't think animals are are fed you know the tiny little microherbs that I'm talking about. um I don't think I would like what they're eating, but like the tiny little fancy things that you can grow in a little sprout or microherb things, all delicious. Yeah, but nobody's eating you know fields and fields of that.
00:36:31
Speaker
mean We're just like you know dropping a little bit on our our salad or whatever. ah Okay, finally, listeners, we get to the good news. And um this is about all about Veganuary. I think the statistics for Veganuary are in and Anthony, your story is about that. Yeah, absolutely. this is ah ah we've We've reached the point now in the show, folks, where of the four remaining stories, only one of them, I would say, is negative. like the The other three are really positive. So well done. You've got to this stage. Your reward is some some positive hope. And we're not even covering the Green Party's by-election win this week. So there you are. There's there's a fourth story to feel happy about. But yeah, 30 million people...
00:37:16
Speaker
reported to have participated in a record-breaking Veganuary 2026. Now, that is not 30 million confirmed sign-ups. They've done the thing where they've kind of like taken a sample of, I think it was about a thousand or so folk and sort of extrapolated that out. So I i think back in the days when Matthew Glover was running Veganuary,
00:37:42
Speaker
they would do their exit poll and they would literally cite exactly how many people signed up via their website. And I don't think it's a complete correlation, but since they're a new folk heading up the the charity, they have different ways of reporting the numbers. Maybe it's a clever way of making sure that the numbers increase each time. um In that, I suppose the more that Veganuary becomes a cultural fixture in the calendar,
00:38:13
Speaker
rather than, oh there's this one organisation and there's their logo and here's what they do every year. And if you want to do it, you have to sign up. You are going to get more people saying, oh yeah, I did that. We could debate for half an hour or more as to, well, does this mean that people have actually stuck to it for the whole month? Does it mean they're going to stick to it beyond? Generally, Veganuary focuses on food. And as we know, um you know, veganism, the The food is part of it. Following a plant-based diet is part of being vegan, but it's by no means the end of it. We've covered those discussions on the show before. I'm not going to get into them now.
00:38:54
Speaker
I think this is the story that I needed this week, not because I just needed anything positive, but actually what has been causing the the the problems that have led to the stories we've reported on thus far in the week. It's the norm of...
00:39:10
Speaker
capitalism and khanism, I think. Like, it's just those two things. um ah I don't think if the world goes vegan, that's that's everything solved. Because if we're still living in a really capitalist way, we'll still deplete the Earth's resources, we'll still pit people against one another. I don't think veganism is the only thing. But actually, those two things have caused all these problems that we've been reporting on just this week. And actually, if there's millions and millions of people who are considering veganism, who are trying elements of it out, even if it's just for part of the month of January, you know, even if we're taking this at its absolute worst and saying, well, probably it's not 30 million, it's probably 20 million and probably half of them aren't, you know, sticking to it for the whole month and and blah, blah, blah. even if we you reduce it down, there's loads of people. That's loads of people. And probably I'd say 10 years ago is when Veganuary really started to become a fixture in the UK.
00:40:13
Speaker
So like, goodness me, in such a short space of time, that's real grounds for hope. I think there was like 2000 people signed up the first year. If, if that, you know, it was, it was piddly little numbers. So we, we need hope in, in, uh, The Green Party in the UK, their leader, Zach Polanski, he talks about hope all the time. And I think that's partly what led to them winning a ah ah small little local election this week that lots of us are very pleased about. We need hope. and
00:40:45
Speaker
And this this is it, isn't it, Shane? I mean, do do do you look at those numbers and think, ah, they've just exaggerated that? Or or or is it just like, nah, come on, this is something we need to focus on? No, I mean, from my perspective, it seems like it's really become like a tradition in the UK and that stores and restaurants lean into it and they bring out new products and they offer new ah menu items. And, um you know, this this isn't really something that happens in the US. s I mean, I'm sure there are people that sign up for Veganuary, but it seems to be something in the UK that really a lot of people get involved in. And and everybody knows, you know, that, oh, it's Veganuary. Because I mean, I've seen people complaining about it. So um yeah, I mean, I think it's great. And I think it'll keep going. And I hope it continues to be so successful.
00:41:36
Speaker
to To folk that will understandably say, well, doing veganuary is not enough or you know following just a plant-based diet is not enough, I don't think it's claiming that it is. you know If you see someone on the road in a car driving at 22 miles an hour with a learner badge on on the front and back of their car,
00:42:00
Speaker
you You don't stop and go, what are you doing? You're not a real driver. How dare you even call yourself a driver? No, no. It's part of the process. You know, you get in the car and you give it a go. And hopefully there's folk around you that can, you know, model how to do things and help you have things go a little awry and anticipate problems so that you don't have to fall in those same pitfalls that us early adopters fell into. Like, it's fine.
00:42:27
Speaker
I don't think any of us are saying that this is... the end goal. It's just a hook to get people started. And, you know, I've said on the show before, like when I was vegetarian, I went through a phase where I was like, i need to get organic milk.
00:42:42
Speaker
If I get organic milk, then that will be okay. Cause I've heard bad stuff happens to cows. So I'll get organic milk. Well, of course that's a folly. Of course that was naive, but it got me starting to think like, Oh, I need to be conscious about my choices. And I think probably within about a year, I was vegan. So vegan is not the end destination.
00:43:02
Speaker
We shouldn't think that it's trying to be. It's all okay. People will get there in the end. Let's support them. I reckon. We've been talking a lot, Shane. People have been listening a lot. We should take a quick break. Afterwards, it's pick of the week time. And Shane has got a wonderfully positive story. And I'm going to try my best not to grumble too much about mine.
00:43:25
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 shows.
00:43:45
Speaker
So to access any of these written transcripts, head over to zencaster.com forward slash vegan week. i'm 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.com forward slash vegan hyphen week.
00:44:11
Speaker
And then each transcript is embedded with any of the shows that you click on.
00:44:17
Speaker
Okay, Shane, kick us off then. We've not heard from the plant-based university campaign for a little while.
University Plant-Based Initiative
00:44:24
Speaker
there was There was a moment a couple of years ago when it was all the rage. Then it all went quiet.
00:44:29
Speaker
But they're back in the spotlight on the BBC and it wasn't Malcolm reporting on it. So the world is good. So my stories were a bit heavy this week, and I wanted my pick of the week to be more positive. And this story ran in the BBC News, and it comes from the University of Southampton, where the student union, which I assume is like ah a student government or a student council, voted to make plant-based meals the default option at cafeterias.
00:44:55
Speaker
And this change begins next year, so the 2026-2027 school year. And what this means is that plant-based options are the standard option at the university.
00:45:06
Speaker
But students or teachers can still choose meat options. They just have to opt in for those, which, again, I'm assuming means they have to do what vegans usually must do, which is ask for the non-standard option, in this case, meat.
00:45:21
Speaker
And one student said the decision, quote, recognizes the devastating impact of animal agriculture and the need to move towards a plant-based food system. And one other piece of good news is that Southampton Student Union joins more than 20 universities across the country that have opted for the vegan option, and it follows a campaign by, as you said, plant-based universities.
00:45:44
Speaker
However, when I was looking at this news, I was looking at some stories on like Facebook and Instagram, and apparently not everyone agrees that this is good news because I made the mistake of looking at the comment section. Shame. I know. And and there were some usual there were the usual detractors on this. Mostly, they seemed to be commenting that the decision was pushed on the university, which It's not true. There was a vote after a petition was launched at the start of February, and that petition was so popular that it received 950 signatures in one week.
00:46:19
Speaker
And then people in the comments also said, oh, this is hard for farmers and it's unfair to carnivores. But again, meat options are still available.
00:46:29
Speaker
And if I'm not mistaken, farmers do grow plants. So, you know, all they have to do is opt in. This is not a hardship on these people. This is also a policy despite the quote that I gave. It's a policy that seems to be in response more to climate change than animal rights. A professor from the university said that the decision aligns with scientific evidence that shifting to a plant-rich diet is essential for cutting emissions, protecting nature, and securing food for future generations. But again, do we care why they're doing it? No, they're doing it and that's the good news.
00:47:01
Speaker
I mean, I felt like this article, the BBC News covered pretty fairly, um but the reaction of carnists, I was, you know, it's really just a reminder that we're going to get pushed back on even small changes like this.
00:47:14
Speaker
Vegans really have to just keep pushing for them and look forward to the day when they're the norm. Well, yeah, and that that would be my response to any carnist who is saying that any kind of vegan or vegan forward, even if I'd say this is a vegan forward move rather than being completely vegan, isn't it? um If you feel that that is having opinions pushed on you, try just living as a vegan for a week. like and and And see just how much of everyday life is is the carnest ideology being pushed on you. I do a lot of driving and if I stop to refuel or what have you and think, oh, should I just grab something to nibble on while I carry on the remainder of my journey? There's flipping animal abuse pushed on me. but like You have to so carefully seek out something to...
00:48:10
Speaker
something that doesn't involve that. um And, you know, that that the examples are ah countless, like, and that's a ridiculous thing to say, isn't it? mean, we've said this on the show before, you know, it's ironic how many of the people who will call vegans snowflakes then went, when, when,
00:48:29
Speaker
everything isn't going completely in and in their favor. They they start going, oh, it's not fair. It's like, no, come on, look, nearly a thousand people have signed this petition in in the course of a week. And as you say, Shane, it's not even completely reduced removing the option for you to have animal exploitation on your plate if you insist. You just have to look beyond the first item on the menu. like It's a really... moderate move, like calm yourself down, calm yourself down.
00:49:00
Speaker
But I would assume like if you're going through a cafeteria line, so you're going through and they have, let's say spaghetti, then you you know, it might just be a sauce that isn't a meat sauce. And so that's what's offered. But then you could say, oh do you have the meat one with the meat sauce? And they'll say, oh yeah. And then, you know, they give you, we'll play with that. I was at a luncheon last week for Planned Parenthood. And when I went into the luncheon, it was it was huge.
00:49:24
Speaker
ah On the plate was already on the table were all the plates already. All the food was already on the table. there It was like a chicken salad. And ah what was a salad with chicken, not chicken salad. And um so, you know, I looked at it and I just kind of pushed it away. And immediately somebody came over to me and said, is everything okay with the food? And I said, well, I'm vegan. i'm I don't eat chicken. She said, oh, oh, oh, let me check if we have that option. And Two minutes later, you know, took that plate away. Two minutes later, brought me a vegan plate. So it it was not difficult. And as I looked around, there were a lot of speeches and I looked around and there were people that had little cards at their seat that said vegan or vegetarian. So, you know, this isn't something that's difficult. This is something that if I can do it, a meat eater can do it. You know, it's it's just small change. Yeah. it's It's a small change on the face of it. We have reported on the show previously about studies that have been done. Again, I think they were in university or certainly college cafeterias where they did this change and actually...
00:50:30
Speaker
just changing what the default option is, like it was incredible the impact it had. It was it was something like 60 or 70% of people were choosing the plant-based option, whereas when it was the third or fourth option, maybe be only 10% of people were choosing it. So in terms of accidentally improving outcomes for animals.
00:50:53
Speaker
Fantastic, fantastic move. And if people have to, you know, primarily lead with a ah climate beneficial argument, then then that's fine, isn't it? You know, i i I don't think that matters. Like, ah the we do need somewhere to live that's not burning or completely depleted of resources. So ah ah it's a fair argument to lead with. But i i I wonder if at that luncheon that I was at, what if they had just the default had been the vegan option and all of the salads had just not had the chicken.
00:51:24
Speaker
i mean, I wonder how many people would have even noticed that or cared. I was i mean, that it wasn't just lettuce. There was like couscous. There were chickpeas. So, i mean, it had protein and stuff in it. I think very few people would have said, is there a chicken option? Or can I get chicken added to this? I think most people would have eaten it and not thought another thing about it and not cared. Which is is part of the tragedy of of animal abuse, isn't it? It's like the fact is that the vast majority of people, even in the carnest indoctrinated world that we live in, like you think of all the conditioning people go through um to feel that they need animal products on their plate. At every
Fast Food and Chicken Welfare
00:52:03
Speaker
meal, Yeah. The fact is that if you just serve up food that is without it and it's and it's appealing and it's it's tasty, which of course is completely possible, most people are just completely fine with it and don't even notice. They don't even realise. It's a real tragedy and cause for hope.
00:52:21
Speaker
Cause for hope it proves we can do it, doesn't it? Yeah. Well, that was a positive story. We've got one more negative story and then we're going to get the grand finale, which will be a very positive story. So Anthony, this is a story about fast food chicken restaurants ah not honoring their pledges.
00:52:41
Speaker
It said, mentioned KFC and it mentioned a place called Nando's, which we do not have over here, but I assume that's like ah a chicken restaurant as well. I don and don't know. Tell us more about what's going on with them.
00:52:53
Speaker
not goingnna tell you much more about Nando's other than it's a despicable place. I think, so I'm going to change the focus here. i'm I'm not going to say this is a negative story. I'm going to say what this does is this really clarifies, in my opinion, what we need to be focusing on as vegans. You're allowed to disagree. You're allowed to think that animal advocacy should be done in a different way to what I'm gonna suggest. So I'll give you some of the facts to start with. So we've been reporting elements of this over the last 12 months, but there are few things that have changed quite recently.
00:53:26
Speaker
Eight restaurant groups, which also include the owners of Burger King, and Nando's, KFC are in there too, have left the Better Chicken Commitment, the BCC, in which they had pledged to stop using fast-growing chickens. Often they're referred to as Franken chickens. They eat they reach slaughter size and weight round about 30 days. So they live basically for a month and they are in horrible pain for much of that.
00:53:57
Speaker
um they They can't do much other than barely breathe, and then their miserable lives are ended. um So there was this Better Chicken commitment that was saying, come on, we shouldn't be doing this.
00:54:09
Speaker
Loads of the big players in in terms of brands that center themselves around exploiting chickens. What what wonderful organizations. They'd said, yep, yep, we'll sign up for that. i don I don't know what led them to do this because they've all pulled out now. So I don't know whether someone spiked their drinks at some you know dinner like the one Shane was talking about or what. you know Maybe it was at Christmas and they were feeling charitable or something. But that they've more or less all pulled out. There are some organisations that haven't. Marks and Spencers, Waitrose, Pret...
00:54:46
Speaker
Greggs, they're still members of the Better Chicken Commitment. Obviously, these are still organizations that profit from the exploitation of these innocent animals, but their chickens live for a few days longer.
00:54:58
Speaker
So that's a really negative thing. We have seen instances where there's been calls for boycotts, there's been protests. There was some talk of KFC drive-thrus being ah disrupted and blocked because of this. So we'll see whether there'll be some of that going on. There's a new forum called the Sustainable Chicken Forum. So many of the businesses that have left the Better Chicken Commitment have moved to the Sustainable Chicken Forum. This is industry-led business.
00:55:33
Speaker
So I suppose that's slightly different from the the Better Chicken commitment, which wasn't necessarily led by the industry themselves. You've got Wagamama, Popeyes and Wingstop amongst those who are part of this Sustainable Chicken Forum. They say that, ah sorry, that the Sustainable Chicken Forum say that businesses no longer believe The BCC, the Better Chicken Commitment, is the right framework to drive the next phase of progress on welfare due to the requirement to source only slower growing breeds.
00:56:09
Speaker
Okay, I'm just going to stop there. Listeners, make up your minds for yourself. Can you ever imagine... this network of gumph resulting in a situation in the future, whether it's five years or 50 years time. Can you imagine all of this being untangled so that chickens live wonderful lives?
00:56:31
Speaker
Can you imagine that happening? I can't. I really can't. I do understand those who feel that improving the welfare of animals in the immediate term is something that is worth focusing on. And of course, if that's the only option and I can press a button or I can tick a box or I can sign a petition, of course, of course, why wouldn't you? It would be a bit of a dick move not to. However, things like this, as well as like the corporate greed that we've seen in many,
00:57:02
Speaker
of the stories this week already. It just shows that what needs to happen is that individuals, not organizations, not networks, not forums, not better chicken committees or whatever they're called, individuals need to decide, I don't want to be part of that. I can't be part of that.
00:57:22
Speaker
That is not going to be something that is going to approve of its own volition. It's not going to improve because that's a nice thing to do or because a government has said, oh, well, we need to improve this by 5%.
00:57:35
Speaker
What needs to happen is it it needs to be avoided. It needs to be boycotted. Don't go anywhere near it. Don't think that Marks and Spencers or Waitrose... I mean, Greggs are members of the Better Chicken commitment. um I don't know whether you have Greggs in the stage, Jane. It's the epitome of processed food such that nothing... when you walk I think the only thing inside of Greggs that looks like the original thing that it was... is that they do an iced bun and it has a cherry on top. That's the only thing in there that looks like the original piece of food that it came from. Everything else is beige, processed. like A couple years ago, me and Alex like bought their vegan festive bake and it just made you depressed to eat it. like it you You could just feel all sorts of terrible things happening to your nervous system. And you looked inside it and it's like,
00:58:32
Speaker
what is this? Like, what is this? Is this even trying to be anything that was once a whole food? It's it's absolutely not. You know, I'm not being snobbish on people that do choose to do those things. I'm just saying that it is not an uplifting place to go in and and nourish yourself. So if they're part of the Better Chicken Commitment, I think that says quite a lot about the efficacy and the integrity of the Better Chicken Commitment. What we need is what we were talking about a few stories ago. We need people to consider veganism, to try veganism, and to take those steps. Really unlikely people go vegan.
00:59:14
Speaker
Really ardent meat eaters, people who've never considered animal rights. I i managed about, oh, it was about 10 years ago, actually, someone I worked with. I worked with them really closely at the time.
00:59:26
Speaker
And two years previous, they'd given up smoking in January. The year after that, they started doing what's called couch to 5k. So you you go from never having done any running to being able to run five kilometres, just over three miles. They did that in January. And this was about November time.
00:59:44
Speaker
And i so I said to them, oh, have you got a challenge for this January? And they're like no, I haven't got one yet. Actually, I should do one because I have done the last couple of years. And I said, well, why don't you try Veganuary? They'd never even considered anything. They knew I was vegan and I would bang a bang on about it from time to time, but they never even considered it. And within a couple of months, they were an ardent animal rights activist and they still are 10 years don't hardly had to say anything. I helped them out with a couple of practical things and that's it now. They've they've eschewed chicken consumption.
01:00:22
Speaker
That is what makes a difference to these chickens, not these quangos and ridiculous boards that are led by the industry themselves. I mean, am I being am i being harsh here, Shane? like is is there Is there some hope for improvements for animals from these things or is it is it just dancing around in circles? I was dancing around in circles. And I mean, I wouldn't even hold out hope for Greg's because who knows, they'll probably go back on their pledge as well. You know, i this I feel like we've seen this coming and we've done stories about this. and At the start of the year, I covered a story about the international protest against Marriott because they hadn't made good on their pledge to use only cage-free eggs. But now these other pledges are starting to come due and we're just going to see more of this. And you were saying, well, I don't know, maybe they're feeling charitable at Christmas and that's why they made these pledges. No, they made them because they were good for publicity.
01:01:17
Speaker
And, you know, did they ever intend to keep them? I don't know. Maybe they thought that people would forget about it in 10 years or whenever they were coming due. But just as obviously they're not making the change because treating animals better would you know would cut their bottom line. And animal farming is all about profit. It's not about the welfare of animals. And you know what's really disgusting is that these companies are claiming they won't make this change because staying with the frankenchickens is good for the climate.
01:01:49
Speaker
And they're saying that slower growing chicken breeds produce more greenhouse gases. But if they really cared about the climate, they wouldn't serve chicken at all because animal agriculture is one of the, if not the, leading causes of climate change.
01:02:05
Speaker
So it's just, it's ridiculous. And also in reading the article, I was thinking that it's kind of, it's really kind of a chicken and egg, which is potentially a non-vegan phrase, but it's kind of like a chicken and an egg issue. Because farmers aren't raising slow growing chickens because there isn't demand.
01:02:21
Speaker
And then the restaurants aren't demanding the slow slower growing breeds because it costs more to raise them. And then they say, well, there's not enough supply. So, I mean, basically the whole industry is corrupt. It's sordid. It's greedy. And, you know, you're right. We cannot rely on these people to do anything they say unless it's going to make them more money.
01:02:44
Speaker
Yeah. And um I mean, that the how disingenuous it is to say, well, actually, frankinchickens are ah better than for the environment. That's the epitome of of how these people think and how how they talk. Like, how dare you claim that like, oh, well, we're doing this because it's better for the environment. Like, you don't care about anything. other than online that's a despicable thing to say i am i quickly um bashed into a search engine shane i was looking for vegan versions of the phrase is a chicken and egg situation there's there's three that came up to start with i would let you judge which you you know you're no stranger to uh turning a phrase and writing literary excellence it's a tofu and soy scenario i don't like that one i don't know i don't think that works Maybe soybean, if they said soybean, because you can see like where that's coming from. Yeah, but so still tofu doesn't lead to soybeans, does it? like That's a one direction thing. that Okay, yeah. Okay, this one. Which came first, the acorn or the oak?
01:03:46
Speaker
that's That works? Okay, yeah. Yeah. um And the final one, it's a plant-based conundrum. That would cover a multitude of of ah of situations. so yeah Yeah, that's a good one. We could rename the podcast that perhaps. Who knows? That should be our episode title, a plant-based conundrum. Plant-based conundrum. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding.
01:04:08
Speaker
Sounds like a murder mystery. Yeah. So Shane and I have got the bit between our teeths and and and a given our opinions there on on those first eight stories. um We do know that you out there listening will have your opinions too. If you don't want to express them, that's absolutely fine. You can consume this podcast however you like. But if you like sharing your opinions on these things, if you follow us on Facebook and Instagram,
01:04:35
Speaker
We post a lot, if not all, of our news stories from Vegan Week on Facebook these days during the week. So you can very easily click on the article, but you can comment on them as well.
Transitioning Farmers to Plant-Based Agriculture
01:04:46
Speaker
If you want to send us a direct message, you can do that on social media, but email might be a better medium, particularly if you've got quite a few things you want to say to us, whether you agree, disagree, or otherwise. So here's how to get into To get in touch with us, just send us an email at enoughofthefalafel at gmail.com.
01:05:12
Speaker
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.
01:05:23
Speaker
Go on, send us a message today. enough of the falafel at gmail dot com Okay, last story of the week. It's a lovely one. It's from The Guardian. It is hope that people who historically have been making their money and their livelihood from animal exploitation might not always have to do that.
01:05:49
Speaker
Shane, did you share this story with us on our little WhatsApp group or am I making that up? i I don't think I did because I don't think I'm typically reading The Guardian, but I had heard of this story before, this initiative before. I don't know if I'd specifically heard of this.
01:06:07
Speaker
And um I love the name. It's called The Transformation Project, and it's spearheaded by Mercy for Animals. And I think you know As vegans, we get angry and we're always saying, oh, livestock farmers should just do another job. they should Why don't they just get another job? And this is the kind of program that makes that possible. I'm sure you're going to talk him a little bit more about the story, but in the story, you have some former pig farmers who are now growing mushrooms. And I feel like the mushrooms are kind of niche and
01:06:38
Speaker
Is it something where every farmer could switch and do that? No, I don't think there's a big enough market. But the idea is scalable and there's other areas that farmers could expand into.
01:06:49
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'd i'd encourage listeners to to follow the link and to read the the whole story. it's um It's not technically something that has happened in the last week. It's just this write-up has come up in the last week. This farm, they're sixth generation farmers in Iowa in the States. um They were a family livestock farm housing more than 8,000 pigs each year and like Shane says they're now growing lion's mane and oyster mushrooms and yeah this transformation transformation project at Mercy for Animals is the non-profit that helped this family make the switch and set up their new business. um There's pictures of them holding these
01:07:37
Speaker
wild and exotic mushrooms. Like you say, Shane, my takeaway, well, one of my observations in this was like, that's great. And you're doing this. I don't, I don't know whether exotic mushrooms are a niche thing anymore, but that, you know, they're not a staple part of everyone's meal in the way that potatoes are. For example, you know, for vegans, maybe chickpeas are on our plate quite a lot But that you know the the fact is that it shows that folk can go from one mode of farming to another. And I mean, so ah in terms of my work career, the first 10 years or so out out of university was working in education with young people. And then myself and my wife at the time, we started up a vegan cafe. Now, you might think well that those have nothing to do with one another. the number of transferable skills from being a teacher to then running a business was remarkable actually. like that that There's there's so much that kind of the nuts and bolts might be different, but it's about the attitudes, your work ethic and things like that. And that has been the case since. So now i I do still work with young people having sold those businesses, but it is it is different from education. So it's kind of ah another career change I've had. And again, the transferable skills from running a business and running a cafe, they transfer to to what I'm doing now, working more in in woodland scenarios with with young people. And like that's the thing, isn't it? is Is that if you are able to be an animal farmer, as much as we might think it's it's a deplorable outcome and process for innocent sentient beings, you're likely to be someone with skills.
01:09:24
Speaker
aren't you? And transferable skills and people still need to eat, don't they? That's that's the bottom line here. it's It's a real nice case study, isn't it? Yeah. And they have the most important thing that you need, which is the land to, to grow the mushrooms on. And I believe when I feel like I have, I heard somebody from Mercy for Animals talking about this initiative, or I saw something about it and they give the, the farmers a lot of training as well. They, they teach them how to do this and um support them, you know, at the startup. So,
01:09:57
Speaker
you know This is something that they're really invested in and which I think is a a great idea and I hope more organizations can do things like this. Yeah, and you would have thought from an economical point of view, the amount of subsidies that animal-based farmers currently receive, you wouldn't need...
01:10:16
Speaker
much of a percentage of those to be spent as a one-off to change the focus of your farming. I wouldn't have thought you'd need that level of subsidy year on year. You'd perhaps just need it one year if you were completely changing your operation from farming animals to farming whatever, you know arable crops,
01:10:37
Speaker
that that you're doing, even if your scenario is not set up perfectly for it. I i had a um a radio debate with a sheep farmer several years ago. And one of the things that he was saying was like, well, where sheep live, like that's the only thing that could grow there. Like you either there's you can't just plant crops. To which I said, well, that's nonsense. Like people in their gardens have greenhouses. Like I grow i grow herbs in my house. Like what what do you mean? That's the only thing that can grow there. it's It's not like the air has got some weird quality to it. And if anything other than a sheep is stood in this square meter of of land in the countryside, that it would just instantly die. Like, come on, we're ah we're an adaptable, curious species. Like we can we can make this work if we want to, can't we? Absolutely.
01:11:34
Speaker
i hope more people do. Yes, indeed. Well, we've reached the end of our stories, folks. We're really glad that you've joined us. We hope you've enjoyed it. We have got a small but growing community of people who choose and are able to share their appreciation for what we do via our Ko-Fi page. If you have a sense of humour that's similar to mine, you you might just enjoy looking at our Ko-Fi page, even if you are not in a position or don't want to contribute some money to it. in terms of what the money goes on, we're currently saving up for new microphone new microphones. That error was just me misspeaking. That wasn't the microphone's fault. ah But many of our contributors, um you know, we're we're all using equipment that we had already. So some of us have better microphones than others. So that's ah currently what we're saving up for, but this isn't lining our pockets or anything like that. So if you're interested in that, follow the link in the show notes. You can also do stuff like sharing and commenting and things like that. So here's Carlos and Kate with more details.
01:12:41
Speaker
If you've enjoyed today's show, we'd love it if you could take just a few seconds to share it with someone else you think might enjoy it too. We don't have a marketing team or a budget to spend on advertising, so your referrals are the best way of spreading the free Enough of the Falafel Joy further still. And if you haven't already, we'd be really grateful if you could leave us a rating on your podcast player.
01:13:06
Speaker
That will also help the show pop up when people search for vegan or animal rights content online. Thanks for your help.
01:13:17
Speaker
Thank you for listening, everyone. The next Enough of the Falafel episode is Vegan Talk, which is available Thursday, March 5th. It features Anthony, Julie, and me discussing whether cats should be kept indoors or allowed outdoors and asks, what is the vegan thing to do?
01:13:34
Speaker
This was a very spirited discussion and I hope everyone will listen whether you have a cat in your life or not. Yeah, yeah, it's it's a good one. It's a good example of the right way to have a conversation about things where you might disagree with one another. um And And indeed, from my point of view, how to participate in a conversation where you have no practical experience of what's being talked about, but you're surrounded by people who do know what they're talking about. So yeah, I do a lot of shutting up and listening. Anyway, ah that's enough of the falafel for this episode. Thank you, Shane, for being part of this show and everything you're doing to contribute to falafel land at the moment on the socials and everything. Thank you everyone for listening.
01:14:18
Speaker
I've been Anthony and you've been listening to Vegan Week. from the Enough of the Falafel Collective.
01:14:28
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.
01:14:39
Speaker
We use music and special effects by zapsplap.com. 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.
01:15:09
Speaker
This episode may have come to an end, but did you know we've got a whole archive containing all our shows dating back to September 2023? twenty three That is right, Dominic. There's over 100 episodes on there featuring our brilliant range of different guests, people's stories of going vegan, philosophical debates, moral quandaries and, of course, around a dozen news items from around the world week.
01:15:34
Speaker
week so check back on your podcast player to hear previous episodes and remember to get an alert for each new episode simply click like or follow and also subscribe to the show thanks for your ongoing support wherever you listen to us from