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294- Vegans of prey, hunting down their next target...
108 Plays9 days ago
First it was steak...now bird shows...what will these insatiable pests target next in their bid to remove all fun from the world? William Sitwell has got very upset about Darlington animal rights folk getting a bird of prey show banned and has written about it in the Daily Telegraph, inadvertedly giving Paul, Kate & Shane a good chuckle. The trio also discuss several other news stories in this week's round-up of ten animal rights & vegan headlines from around the world.
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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://herald.wales/national-news/top-academic-to-front-up-ambitious-new-animal-welfare-evidence-centre/
https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/news/cranswick-chair-tim-smith-receives-peerage/721420.article
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c992e8xpep4o
https://nemoskva.net/en/2026/07/17/zoozashhitniki-spasli-bolee-15-lis-i-pesczov-so-zverofermy/
https://www.veganfoodandliving.com/news/green-party-equality-act-vegan-options-law/
https://plantbasednews.org/lifestyle/food/young-indians-are-meat-reducers-vegan/
https://www.donegaldaily.com/news/environmental-agency-reiterates-calls-to-ban-salmon-farms-641814
https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-daily-telegraph-saturday/20260718/282175067884201?srsltid=AfmBOor1q3TlKKfp5j_z4XZZxztXGuyBchKIxJFbHS400ey1_1ayCIvC
https://www.brusselstimes.com/2236530/animal-rights-activists-protest-for-more-pigeon-food-in-brussels
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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!
Kate, Shane & Paul
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Transcript
Introduction and Focus on Vegan Week
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of Vegan Week. If you're looking for vegan and animal rights news, you've come to the right place. I'm Shane and joining me for this episode are Kate and Paul. But that's enough of the falafel, it's time for Vegan Week.
00:00:17
Speaker
So I think vegans go looking for trouble even when they're not looking for trouble. That's not what butter's used 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 media and say, hi, sorry. True education. younger generation are getting know how brutal these practices are. That leaves a lot of pizza delivery companies in problems with things.
00:00:41
Speaker
What is this? What kind of movie is this? It's comedy. Gold, maybe. Any form of social injustice.
00:00:50
Speaker
with another. As long as you don't 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. Hello everyone this is Paul. Welcome to the show and thank you for being here. Hi everybody, this is Kate. It's really great to be here now with Paul and
Animal Welfare and Advocacy Updates
00:01:12
Speaker
Shane. For new listeners, this is our news programme, our news show, and we're going to look through vegan and animal rights news from the last week or so.
00:01:22
Speaker
Yes, and remember that you can read all the original news reports for the stories we cover in the show this week. You just need to check the show notes in your podcast player and follow those links. But that's enough of the falafel. Let's hear what's been going on this week.
00:01:36
Speaker
All right, so as usual, I am going to whiz through a few stories very quickly, and then we will discuss some stories more in depth. Our first story is titled, Top Academic to Front Up Ambitious New Animal Welfare Evidence Center, and it's from the Harold Wales. Dr. Jennifer Mayer has been named Chief of Research for the new organization which will be focused on researching the human behaviors and societal systems that currently drive harm to animals.
00:02:07
Speaker
Our next story is from The Grocer and is titled, Cranswick Chair Tim Smith Receives Peerage. So the notorious head of the disgraced meat producer, Cranswick, has been granted a peerage as one of the last acts of the outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
00:02:22
Speaker
I'm not supposed to give opinions in this section, but I think that giving this guy any kind of honor is pretty disgusting. In contrast to our last story, our next one is titled Gloucester Mural Honors Mayor Who Fought for Animal Rights, and it comes from the BBC.
00:02:36
Speaker
So a mural celebrating an early proponent of animal rights has been unveiled, and the mural is of Gloucester Mayor Ralph Fletcher, who lived between 1780 and 1851, and it depicts him feeding stray cats. He is known for having left money in his will to feed strays, as well as other good deeds for animals.
00:02:56
Speaker
And then our last quick story may be our first from Russia. And the headline is, animal rights activists rescued more than 15 foxes from a fur farm. And I think it comes from a publication called Nemoskva, Nemoskva.net. don't know. It was in Russian, so I couldn't, wasn't sure. A woman battling cancer reached out to activists and she asked to buy foxes from a fur farm. And as a result, the activists ended up rescuing about 17 foxes. So those are all our quick stories. Now let's discuss a few stories from the week in depth.
Green Party's Plant-Based Policy Proposals
00:03:30
Speaker
All right, Kate, I'm going to come to you first. Our next story comes from Vegan Food and Living, and it's about a new proposal that's up for date by the Green Party. Can you tell us a bit about it? Yeah, I can. So I'm quite a fan of the Green Party, I have to say. the Their leader is Zach Polenski, who's an out-and-out vegan and an animal rights person, which I think is a very good start. So apparently these are proposals that have yet to be adopted by the Green Party. And because they're very thoroughly decent bunch, they like to let all their membership vote on policies before they adopt them and put them forward. and But it's been leaked to the Daily Telegraph, I do believe, for some reason. So there's obviously somebody in there who's like...
00:04:22
Speaker
hanging on their every word and going off sneaking off to their little buddies at the Daily Telegraph. So they are proposing that all, well, for a start, all kind of like public bodies, like schools and probably health services, prisons and all that lot, they they provide a standard plant-based food as part of their service. Which is not a out there thing. It's something that's happening even in some private, ah big private companies at the minute, because people are concerned about their climate impact, their ah greenhouse cow house emissions and all of that. so But the Green Party are actually putting this front, well, are proposing that they might put it front and centre of their policies. they're also They're also in the leaked bit. There's something about possibly private restrooms.
00:05:18
Speaker
restaurants and things i don't know how they're going to manage that though, if that really is going to be one of their policies, private restaurants. I think I said any any organization providing a service to the public right would be required to offer vegan foods. I mean, not exclusively, right? So yeah, it could include restaurants, cafes and private caterers.
00:05:38
Speaker
Right. Well, some restaurants, I don't know, they ah only serve, I don't know, something quite niche, maybe. I don't know how they how they'd manage that. I suppose even sushi, you vegan sushi and stuff. But I don't know, you can imagine the the kickback. for that, can't you, really? Yeah, the Countryside Alliance, they've um had a good old moan as per usual.
00:06:03
Speaker
You know, they they said, oh, the public enjoy eating their meat and dairy as part of a balanced diet. But i think that's quite interesting that They haven't kicked back on the health side on that. Well, not that I've seen anyway. They might have done later on or somewhere else. But they're saying it's utterly absurd that anyone vying for government should be promoting any diet over another. Well, it depends whether or not you want a livable planet for a start, doesn't it, really? So, i mean, what do you think, Paul? Yeah, I mean, I think it's quite interesting that the opening line for this talks about radical new proposals. And as you said, Kate, I think the...
00:06:42
Speaker
um the proposal to ensure that there is a vegan option that's provided to the public is is hardly radical in this day and age thankfully given how things have moved forward um I think the question there is who who isn't offering these days an option to vegans um because there are a few places I mean but let's face it well my experience is if you walk into somewhere now that doesn't have a just one vegan option that's a real surprise now i think that's the position that's that's where we're at now certainly in the uk i mean other countries yeah probably very different but that's my impression obviously the more um radical bit i think probably ah but it refers to this overhaul in public sector catering to shift towards a fully plant-based menus and obviously talking predominantly about the um as you said again Kate the sort of environmental aspects again we've seen people touching on that in um various stories you've covered before in different countries that it's certainly the UK and the US councils schools universities etc so is it radical I suppose if they're going to try and make that a more of a legislative thing and the key thing here is that it's meant to align with the Equality Act 2010 as a legal ah reference point. So, I mean, it's not even that radical if you consider that it's alignment to to law. I mean, that has to be proven, but that's it's not like so new statute has to be made here, potentially. so I don't think it's that necessarily that radical. Obviously, ah there's mention as well about them ah making changes in public sectors by scrapping the outdated school food standards. And we talked a lot before about the importance and influence of that. Shane, I know you've talked about the US changes recently that have gone on that have shifted very much towards meat and dairy again. In the UK, there's still this kind of
00:08:32
Speaker
provision of meat three times a week so you know and i don't know what we've got in other countries to be quite honest but that is a very powerful way of dictating that's maybe not the right word guiding the serving of food perhaps yeah i mean so it's interesting and and you know more power to them if they can go forward with it there's obviously kate said there's reference from the countryside alliance which you you come out with this sort of waffle that you'd expect really um not really recognizing their farmers that might be cultivating crops, for example, always seem to be slightly biased towards animal agriculture, which I'd be bit pissed off if I was a vegetable farmer. But yeah, I mean, hopefully they'll make this go forward. There was a bit of a bit at the end where they seem to be pulling back from it a bit, but that's, I guess, just to try and state the obvious, which is, hey, this is our early days. We might not get to go to the members with this, but so it's kind of more a factual thing, I guess. But yeah, promising. We want to follow up, I think, and see how that goes.
Influence of Public Sector Food Policies
00:09:28
Speaker
I looked at the percentages, whether this is correct or not, of the public sector providing meat as compared to supermarkets, butchers, hotels, etc. And the public sector is only between 1% and 2%, so it really is tiny. But like you said, Paul, I think it's really, really influential potentially, especially, you know, hospitals, you know, and I know there is a push for that, isn't there? So, you know, hospitals are pushing it as a healthy alternative, there'll always be a choice. It's like, you know, the Countryside Alliance is as if there isn't going to be any choice. People are going to be, you know, force fed turnips or something. actually, there's about to still be a choice for people. So don't know. They're surely their pro-choice. No, they're not. They just want everyone eating their meat and dairy and rubbish, don't they, really? I think that's a good point. It's not that they're forcing everyone eat vegan food. They're just saying there has to be the option. Yeah, exactly. It's win-win for agriculture because it's not like we're saying don't provide stuff that your farmers need.
00:10:42
Speaker
group won will provide whether, whatever it is. So what's the problem? And Kate, I think that's a good point that you make about hospitals. I've had some relatives in the hospital lately, so I've been there a lot and, you know, helping them order off the little menu. And I started thinking, what if I was in the hospital? I, there was really nothing vegan at all that I could eat, just nothing. So I thought, I don't know what I would do if I was in here. I guess I'd have to have somebody bring food in for me because there were no options. So that's that's something that's, I mean, I think it's a good policy the Green Party is thinking about there. Definitely. Well, don't get sick unless you're in New York, Shane. I'm not in New York, unfortunately. It's a very interesting point with hospitals because i actually, I volunteer at the local trust and one of the boards that I sit on is about the nutrition side of things which I volunteered for quite obviously for vegan reasons and it's quite interesting to see how things have developed there but we you know we also shouldn't lose sight of as well as patience very important but there's been a lot of push certainly in the conversations I've had about nurses and doctors working long shifts not getting to eat lunch then having to go to vending machines and there not being any options there and they You know, that's kind of their last call. And we need to keep the staff as well kind of offered um healthy food as well. So, yeah, there's other aspects to that. But I think we're in a slightly better place in the UK is my sort of assessment. But there is variability across the different trusts, I think. I'll tell you what, if people are in hospital and they are having difficulties, and I know people still do in the UK, although they are entitled to vegan food, Plant Based Health Professionals UK has a website with a fact sheet on it about how to ask for your vegan food. So anyone that is struggling right now, just go there. Kate, say that website again in case anybody missed it. Yeah, Plant Based Health Professionals UK.
00:12:39
Speaker
So there's a load of fact sheets and there's one on particularly on accessing vegan food um as a patient in hospital. So there we are. Advocate for yourself, your friends, your family.
00:12:53
Speaker
Oh, excellent resource. All right, let's move on to our next story. It's from Plant Based News, and it's potentially good news out of India.
Veganism Trends in India
00:13:01
Speaker
And the headline is that nearly 60% young Indians are meat reducers, and 50% are open to veganism.
00:13:09
Speaker
What did you make of this story, Paul? Yeah, a bit of a mixed one on this one, I think. um For analytics that we've kind of ah used before for a few stories, they've surveyed over 800 Gen Z people, which seems very young to people of my age. um And these are people living in India, quite specifically of note here, with their families. um And they were questioned on they their of approaches to or thoughts on meat reduction and veganism. and So i was really interested in why they're focusing on families, because I thought, what what's what's the what's the thing here? But anyway, we'll come on to that. I guess my first thought here is that this is a study in isolation. And it's a shame that there isn't a historic study to go back to to try and give some...
00:13:56
Speaker
um better value to what they found now. Now, OK, if this is the first time this has been done, then that will be that benchmark. But you do wonder about whether the figures being reported here are ah significant in terms of any kind of movement over, say, the last 10 years. But anyway, it's so it's kind of one one stop snapshot. And yeah, basically they're saying that there is 60% of Indians are meat reducers and half of those who are non-reducers are open to veganism.
00:14:22
Speaker
they They're quite wide classifications i think when you start to delve into the um figures which i think faunalytics are kind of a bit guilty of before in the past we've looked at this stuff but yeah so what do we find in here um well basically um gen z um as i say quite 60 them are already um meat reducers and they also delve into um yeah know what are the challenges around this and what's cited here predominantly is lack of information. this comes up This has come up a lot historically and I must admit I so i start to question it now because in an internet connected society that I presume most of these people would would be applicable to, maybe not but that's my assumption. Really i don't think there's i don't think you can really say lack of information, and there's information out there
00:15:13
Speaker
whether you choose to find it is perhaps the the the thing here. So I don't think it's like it doesn't exist. It's out there. There's loads of it, masses of it. So, yeah, um I think for me, the bit that was kind of slightly glossed over that i I wanted to focus in on was the fact that because these people were living with their parents, I was thinking, well, what does that mean in terms of the influence that we'll have now. i've I've got friends who live Indian and live in a kind of family environment and there tends to be, I'm generalising here and apologies if this is not not right, but there tends to be a reasonable hierarchy within the household and the mother and the daughters will normally deal with all of it essentially. um So ah what was quite interesting here, it was saying that 52% believed of these Gen Zers believed that their parents would also likely be open to veganism and that's a classification of being likely very likely or extremely likely to go vegan in the next year so that i found really interesting i think it's a lot harder to change people when they're older so that was that was an interesting aspect some other things here that people saw as barriers ah some of them again a bit weird um one that particularly jumped out me other than the information needing to go food shopping more 53 percent
00:16:29
Speaker
why do you need to go shopping more if you're vegan? Is it because we're talking strictly fresh vegetables? and How often would you go for fresh meat, fresh dairy? Weird one that I don't quite, i can't see how see how that works. But yeah, so a bit of a strange one. um And yeah, I think the other thing, the only question I have around this is what was the distribution of the people that they interviewed in terms of geographic distribution?
00:16:54
Speaker
cover and maybe religious belief because there are parts of india that i i would say are more typically at least vegetarian compared to other areas and again might link to sort of religious beliefs as well so that would have been quite nice to see broken down i mean if we just focused on one area is it distributed i don't know but that would be i think in another additional bit of information i'd like to see okay what did you make of it I if you looked at the report itself, but they did do that they did shut talk about religious side of things. And they also... Yeah, yeah, no, they did. They did.
00:17:31
Speaker
And, you know, I feel i always feel bit uncomfortable talking about things like that because, you know, obviously i I'm very ignorant and just... I have been to India a long time ago, but I don't really...
00:17:45
Speaker
you know I can't claim to to to understand the culture like an an Indian person would. But you know they still do have like the caste system to a certain extent.
00:17:57
Speaker
And apparently there's been historical problems in vegetarianism because it's been perceived as being purist and therefore elitist and therefore putting...
00:18:14
Speaker
people who are not vegetarian down and look down upon. And so, um you know, there is kind of that aspect. So I think what they're saying is they have to be very careful about messaging and stuff.
00:18:30
Speaker
and perhaps not concentrating on the meat side of things so much, but concentrating on perhaps the dairy. And as we know, the dairy industry is a meat industry, is it not? You know, I had to know, i think I mentioned this before, I did some outreach once and there was these two lovely guys from India and watching some footage of ah you know what goes on in the dairy industry here and they were going oh no no that doesn't happen in India and I was like well I think maybe you should go and find out because I think you might find out that it does you know and actually isn't the India one of the largest dairy producers in the world yeah yeah if not the largest I feel like we were talking about that on the pod recently Right, right, right. Yes. So dairy is central to the culture, particularly Hindus, I believe. And, ah you know, they revere cows, but it's only certain types of cows, as we've seen in another podcast that we did. Yep.
00:19:30
Speaker
Yep. And I had, I've got a friend and she said when she was growing up, they had like a family cow and the cow she loved really dearly. It was like a mother to her. There is this like kind of cultural bond.
00:19:43
Speaker
And I think perhaps most people don't realise the horrors of the dairy industry going on there as well. And so I think that's probably something that they can concentrate on. And actually, it's it's a relatively easy switch.
00:19:59
Speaker
And, you know, they kind of align it to because also apparently people are thinking that veganism, it's that Western elitist thing, you know, it's it's got nothing to do with our culture, know, whereas actually, you know, there are so many plant, wonderful, fantastic plant based vegan dishes that are totally Indian and, you know, all the herbs and spices and everything. And it again, it's a relatively recent thing, eating more meat, eating more dairy. And actually, historically, many people were much, much, much more plant based, much more plant based. And so, you know, it's kind of concentrating on making it easy for people to just swap it out the dairy, make it culturally relevant. make it joyful, I guess. And apparently people are one of the, well, two their main concerns are health and taste. So, and they and they have ah apparently they they really value their um health influences as well. And so also they're talking about challenge, ah getting health influences to really promote um healthy vegan food. Because as we know, it's really healthy, know, so it's the way to go So we have some amazing Indian doctors in the yeah UK as well, who are just so brilliant. and And many of whom still have links to India with family members there and stuff. So um hopefully, maybe some of those lovely people can can help kind of get things rolling even more
Messaging and Perceptions of Veganism
00:21:46
Speaker
in India. One thing that I like about Faunalytics is how they often focus on the messaging that would be successful. yeah Because I thought that was really helpful here to focus not on anything to do with class or elitism because of you were mentioning about religion and caste and also because they tend to see vegan diets as Western. So I think that you're right that focusing on like the health and the climate
00:22:12
Speaker
then that's that's important to know but it's it's also interesting because the faunalytics said that they that india has one of the highest percentages of veganism among the population it was saying like nine to fourteen percent so i don't know why it's considered western since western countries have such a smaller percentage of vegans i wonder there i wonder there because we've i don't know if yeah the study actually touches on this cake because you've read it and i haven't but Obviously, there is often reference in, say, China and I think in India and whether it's a generalisation or not, it could be challenged. But this view that it is perceived as Western, but it's also linked to success and wealth and well doing and that therefore consumption of meat. i don't know about dairy so much is is a kind of status item as well. So i don't know they touched on that at all, whether there's like aspirational views amongst Gen Zeders that they would think if they're eating more meat than they have.
00:23:09
Speaker
been more successful in life or something like that. I didn't pick up on that. don't know if you did, Shane. Yeah, yeah. I guess I think there was huge excitement like when McDonald's rolled in, you know, just like elsewhere in the world. But another good news thing I did see was that India is now the fifth leading country in the world.
00:23:31
Speaker
ah from um creating alternative animal products. So I think that's ah also really, really positive as well. So I guess maybe, i don't know, for analytics, they were funded by plant-based products in order to find out where best to focus the ah marketing and advertising and stuff. So Maybe, i don't know, in which case, hopefully this is very helpful for them in how to um promote veganism and their products. The other thing I thought was funny in this article was that they talked about how most people said their mothers, and Paul, you touched on this, were primarily primarily responsible for cooking, 57%, and meal planning, 39%, even when the respondents themselves were responsible for grocery shopping.
00:24:21
Speaker
So it's like, oh, I can't be vegan. My my mom's the one who cooks. But I will say my daughter is Gen Z. She's 16. She's at the young almost the youngest age of the Gen Z. So I mean, the youngest ones are probably like 14, 15 years old. So come on, Gen Z. like You can start cooking your own meals. you're like Most of you are in your 20s. So come on.
00:24:44
Speaker
That can't really be an excuse. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, Paul and Kate, for your comments so far in these stories. Listeners, I would like to remind you that as well as tuning into the show, you can also read the show.
00:24:59
Speaker
Paul, tell us how they can do that. Yes. So you can head over to Zencastr.com slash vegan hyphen week. Any show you click on will have a written transcript beneath it. Those transcripts are AI generated, so they may not be 100% accurate, as they are with most things. um But nonetheless, they make our shows more accessible. And we're delighted that they're available to anyone who's interested in consuming our content in this way. Also, Spotify normally has auto-generated captions when playing the show within their app.
00:25:32
Speaker
All right. Thank you, Paul. Kate, our next story is from Donegal Daily, and it's about a call for a ban on salmon farms.
Issues in Salmon Farming
00:25:41
Speaker
And we've talked on the podcast before about problems with salmon farms. I think we focus mainly on ah the United States and a farm out of Maine. But this is an issue that's going on in Ireland, or it's been talked about in Ireland. What did you make of this story?
00:25:57
Speaker
Yeah, so this is one of our Ireland's leading environmental organisations who are called SWAN or the so state sorry the Sustainable Water Network. And they are a group of 26 of Ireland's environmental agencies are working within the water sphere.
00:26:21
Speaker
And so they're they're not happy with salmon farming. in Ireland and that's for sure. Although they are not vegan organisations, they are concerned, many of them are actually concerned with sustainable fishing. So Ireland, even though It is probably one of the better salmon farming systems in the world world because they call themselves organic. I guess it has organic on the label of the the fish in the supermarket or something. It's still absolutely hideous and destructive and just a vile industry with many of the same issues as any other ah salmon farms.
00:27:08
Speaker
Of course, salmon are carnivorous, predominantly their food has to come from other fish,
00:27:21
Speaker
which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. And in Ireland, apparently the fish are sprats, you know, which are little fish. But um humans have been eating them for quite some time.
00:27:35
Speaker
I never did because they're just disgusting. People eat their heads and fins and everything. But, you know, in my pre-vegan days, I never did it. But it's unregulated. And they have been taking way too much fish out of the sea.
00:27:52
Speaker
And that has a knock-on effect on all the wildlife, the whales, the dolphins, the porpoises, the seabirds, and the other sea creatures that um rely on sprats. So that's one big boo-boo. oh yeah, and and destroying the seabed, destroying the ecosystems, and, of course, pollution. So all the...
00:28:16
Speaker
fish poo, the excess food, and despite being um organic, all the chemicals to kill the sea life. It goes on, it goes on the antibiotics for all the nasty diseases those poor fish get, ah let alone all the, you know, it's the horrible lives these poor, poor fish have to live. You get escapees,
00:28:40
Speaker
of these fish going and interbreeding with the wild salmon, giving them their diseases, giving them their lice. Yeah, it's just absolutely horrible. Apparently there's 14.5% mortality rate of these fish. Wow, that's huge. It is, isn't it? It's absolutely appalling. And apparently wild salmon, 1975, there 1.75 million salmon returning to Ireland. 2022, 170,000.
00:29:04
Speaker
there were one point seven five million salmon returning to ireland twenty twenty two one hundred and seventy thousand Wow. So I don't know what it is now. So that's another four years since then, isn't it? So who knows what that is now. So so much for the organic label.
00:29:25
Speaker
It's a filthy industry. And it's a supposed luxury product. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I could go on. I've got some other things to say. But Paul, would you jump in here. What did you make of the story? Yeah, I mean, we've I think we've covered quite a few stories on farm fishing over the last few weeks. i think ah obviously Scotland in the UK is probably the other big area as well. Interesting with this one, very much from the environmental angle with these 26 organisations, they're not, you know, anti-fishing because their solution ultimately is to get rid of farm fishing and revert to wild farm wild farm fishing. So it's not a kind of a vegan story, but it is a kind of welfare story, I guess, to some degree. It's good that, you know, these these organisations seem to have some power here. you know, they can make policy, which is important.
00:30:24
Speaker
and So I think if you were in farmed fishing, you'd be shitting yourself a little bit about what's going to happen here because they seem pretty intent on making these changes. They're very um they're outspoken about basically saying, you know, this is really bad for the environment. We need to stop it. And yeah, essentially, you know, as Kate said, the organic label is just fluff. It's a bit like a red tractor or something like that. Some people buying some people buy into it.
00:30:50
Speaker
in In a lot of cases, it's just the feed that they have, isn't it? I know for Ran of Animals. So it's it's a load of old tosh, really, but that label does attract some people where they think they're buying into something that's kind of maybe better welfare, for example. so paul yeah Paul, let me ask you, because they were talking about the solution is they don't want to engage in open net salmon and open net salmon farming. So what what did you make as what they want to do instead?
00:31:18
Speaker
Well, I think... Because I was confused about that. Yeah, it's good question, actually. So they do say, this organization say, ah to adopt similar measures implemented by Denmark and Colombia as a use case. They don't actually say, well, that is to be fair. And I must admit, you raise a very good point. I've iving i've interpreted it as not having any farm fishing at all But quite rightly, perhaps this could be a different type of like a contained on land. Yeah, because that's there yes that's what we're seeing. That's what we see in the United States closed tanks. And that's even worse conditions for the fish because very good point a lot of this article seems to focus on the danger to the wild salmon. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. And I think that's a very good point that i hadn't picked up on. So yeah, thanks thanks for that. And we we talked about that with, um was it with prawns and shrimps? I think a few months ago maybe. So yeah, maybe that's the direction. So in which case, not a good news story at all then. So yeah, we I think we definitely have to look at what those other...
00:32:16
Speaker
ah cases were in den Denmark and British Columbia. I can't remember if you've covered those before, whether we'd be able I haven't. And I didn't, I don't know. I didn't look up what their fishing, yeah their salmon fishing yeah policies are. oh It's interesting. They do. I mean, whilst it's not, whilst it's not a kind of vegan story, it's interesting their statements say, we can't let a polluting and cruel practice like this to continue to add to precious fishes decline.
00:32:42
Speaker
Cruelty is a kind of blanket statement, isn't it here? So maybe my interpretation of it being like kind of intensive farming as is probably what that's based on. But one person's cruelty is not the same as another here, is it? So I guess ah I guess it would be interesting to see what happens happens there. So, yeah, I think we something we definitely need to check out. Yeah, I didn't check out those other countries either, but I did. listened to a podcast, so I'm just going to tell you. i happened to listen to. Well, I didn't. Somebody recommended, actually. but and So Ireland produces year.
00:33:20
Speaker
Scotland 200,000 tonnes per year and I think the world's biggest producer is Norway 1.2 million tonnes per year of fish I know. Anyhow where does all this fish food come from because The majority of it is made from ground up wild fish. And, you know, there's also like soya in there, maybe pea and things like that as well. So apparently there's this unholy loop going on from ah the coast of, is it West Africa?
00:33:57
Speaker
Whereby there's these massive factories been built, foreign owned along the coasts. And it's called, they've they've called it, named it food imperialism. or extreme capitalism and it's like colonial exploitation of resources so fish are like hoovered up including bycatch i guess inverted commas bycatch and they're taken to the the factories they are turned into like fish meal fish oil and stuff and then they are shipped
00:34:31
Speaker
huge amounts, especially to Norway. The fish in West Africa, 80% of the population it.
00:34:41
Speaker
for a lot for their own food, for you know businesses, and their livelihoods basically. the The fish meal is then, yeah, like say, goes over to Norway where it's fed to the salmon and I can't remember what proportion, calories in, calories out, but as we know, it will be far fewer calories out than when in. And um of course, all the hideous problems of pollution, et cetera, et cetera there. But then in Africa, because people, you know, they're losing their livelihoods, they're not being able to feed themselves, all the rest of it, many people are being forced to leave.
00:35:24
Speaker
become migrants, make the terrifyingly dangerous crossing across the sea, go to like the Canary Islands, and many of them end up in the south part of Spain, where they are forced, well, they are they're illegal immigrants. They've got no papers.
00:35:45
Speaker
They are basically living in slums, living like slaves, growing all the fruits and vegetables that the British supermarkets buy.
00:35:56
Speaker
So people can be sitting there with like a tomato and some salmon on their plate, both of which part of this appalling, exploitative loop.
00:36:08
Speaker
And if you were if people want to find out more about this, there is a ah website called thesalmonandthetomato, one word,.org, and it it kind of stresses you know both these.
00:36:23
Speaker
it's It's just one tiny example of the hideous way our world as being eaten alive by um these huge capitalist systems. And the exploitation of animals. Exploitation of animals, exploitation of people, yeah you know, and as, oh gosh, who is it on ah the beginning of our podcast? Oh gosh, I know her name. I've forgotten. Nausea, Nausea, Nausea, I'm sorry.
00:36:54
Speaker
I'm sorry. Yeah. You know, one one injustice is linked to another. And there is a prime example of that. And all the all the wild creatures that are impacted as well. You know, that's two...
00:37:10
Speaker
so-called luxury items, out-of-season tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, etc, that have become a staple and a luxury item, as once was, i.e. salmon, which has become a staple. yeah know So if anyone's interested, that i was like gobsmacked with all this. Yeah. I was just going to say, um I've had a very quick Google round following your very good point there, Shane. And sadly, ah Denmark are pioneers of land-based aquaculture. So it looks like you are bang on. And my assumption about it being switching to wild fish, um wild fishing was wrong. So it's very good good to raise that. So, yeah, um more it's one type of intensive farming for another would be the direction.
00:37:58
Speaker
So not certainly not a good, a good case outcome. So even worse for the fish in Ireland. Well, that happened very, very much potentially. So, yeah. And I guess those land fish will be being fed ground up wild fish just the same. Yep.
00:38:14
Speaker
Yep. Let's go to our next story. Paul, this is from the Daily
Critique of Vegan Activism Stereotypes
00:38:20
Speaker
Telegraph. And I'm going to let you summarize it so that you can tell everyone how the militant plant munchers are terrorizing the rest of the population lately. Yes, I found this a very amusing article. I can see this chap having some kind of meet meet breakdown here um it's it was it's almost as if someone's typed into ai can you write an article like a temu jeremy clarkson please um uh it's it's it's laughable i mean yes it might appeal to some people and get them ranting but You read through it and it's it's I'm laughing at him, not with him. Put it that way. um So, yeah, essentially the the big the big crime here is that ah there's there was a protest that was made to Darlington Council. regarding a an event where there was going to be a bird of prey team completing a like a flying display with falcons and hawks and owls, for example. And ah a couple of animal rights organisations protested against this with some very clear reasons why, and they then managed to get that stopped. So well done then. This has triggered this chap quite literally into a...
00:39:39
Speaker
diatribe of about I don't know if it's possible to get so many vegan stereotypes into just you know merely about five paragraphs but he he seems to have a problem if indeed he is a real guy about this basically saying we should just tell vegans to fuck off basically which was a ah very grown up response to the very um reasoned objections to why it was bad to have these um birds performing for for entertainment. So if anything, you read that, you I don't know, it'd be interesting to see what a telegraph reader made of it. They'd probably be in line with him, I guess, but you read it going, this bloke needs to get a life. You know, just even the title is just overly dramatic because he's using the the Bonhoeffer quote. He says, first they came for your steak. Now it's bird shows. Like, like this is like equivalent to the Holocaust or something, you know, it's, crazy it is and you know he's he's full of holes as well because he's saying i the vegans are coming for our little entertainments for children um because and one of the reasons is because all their all their cafes are closing when you say well actually the reality is yes there's been vegan cafe closures but there's been hundreds of uh more or thousands of more uh non-vegan cafes are closed so i mean at least get factual with your uh a comedy routine so yeah it's it
00:41:06
Speaker
It reads just ridiculous. And to be honest, if people carry on writing like this, I think all it does is actually add to our cause because it just reads as plain ridiculousness. And, you know, having that sort of reaction of just, you know, just F off with your with your ah reasoned arguments. It's like, well, if you come up with a a decent counter proposal to it. He even says, oh, these birds are clearly clearly cared for. Okay, on on what basis? I mean, if if you want to make that statement, fine, but you could at least talk about some kind of, i don't know, some certification or bollocks like that that might come back.
00:41:41
Speaker
He's a writer and a bird expert. he's he's a He's a major writer of bullshit. I think that's about it. So, yeah, i said I actually found it quite funny, and I got to the end of it, and I thought, this does nothing for an anti-vegan movement other than show that people are quite worryingly triggered and I think the chap needs to sit down and have a nice cup of tea with oat milk yeah he can have a nice cup of tea with some oat milk when he's finished his bottle of gin or whatever is he's been drinking while he wrote it I reckon oh my god yeah we're all patock wearing our Patagonian ponchos and our Birkenstock sandals
00:42:18
Speaker
I just, yeah, it's hilarious, didn't it? beat All the, um you know, the names we get called militant plant muncher. Moralizing holier-than-thou vegetable obsessives.
00:42:33
Speaker
ah a good And parsnip purists. Yay. so I'll take that. Yeah. But, you know, sort of, I read it through. I just thought, yeah, this is ridiculous. But it was it was getting more and more stupid. But then right near the end, did you notice how he kind of, you know, he put in the, next we'll be demanding that, you know, sheep the farmers turn sheep fields into growing lentils.
00:43:00
Speaker
Oh! oh my god no and then lentils yeah not lentils and then and then and the next thing you'll be they'll be going into the supermarkets and screaming that milking cows is cruel hey so well it's just like just nothing to see here move on it's just those vegans being completely insane that These things here, they're not true at all. It's just those insane vegans don't listen to anything they say whatsoever. They're completely in hit unhinged. And hey, here's a straitjacket for when you find one.
00:43:36
Speaker
but just... Oh, my God. It suddenly reminded me what it reminded me reminded me of. i don't know if you've ever seen, this might not ring anything for you, Shane, but Alan Partridge, the comedian over here, is well known for his um ah taking swipes at farmers, but kind of coming out with ridiculous statements and saying things like, you keep chickens in sheds and they grow to 60 foot high and they really don't like it and kind of just going off into like someone's taking a lot of class a drugs and that is what this reads like basically yeah yeah i thought the the the argument that was the most ridiculous for me was that he just is lamenting about the children now the children can't watch this live spectacle and i just wondered is there some kind of pediatric study that says that
00:44:25
Speaker
Children need to see animals being abused publicly. I mean, honestly, i think most kids would rather be home playing video games or running around with their friends and not watching a bird of prey spectacle. I don't think they're losing any out on anything by not seeing that. You know, they don't kids don't grow up wanting to see this stuff unless we tell them that that's something that they they need to see.
00:44:48
Speaker
So now the children are being, you know, neglected. Yeah, i mean, it's it's the same about, yes it's the same argument around zoos, isn't it? Or any kind of performing animals. It's, this's yeah, absolutely crazy. But if nothing else, it made me laugh, that one. Yeah, it would. It was surprisingly amusing.
00:45:05
Speaker
Thanks, Paul and Kate, for your comments on those stories. If you are interested in reading more about any of these stories that we've mentioned today, we do provide direct links to each article on social media. That's right, Shane. At Enough of the Falafel on Facebook and Instagram. And Facebook and Instagram are coordinated by our very lovely Shane here, who's doing a brilliant job. Thank you so much.
00:45:32
Speaker
um So each of the stories we cover goes up on our accounts. So if you follow us, you'll get these stories in your feed as well. Social media is also a really easy, quick way to contact us. Shane manages our social media and loves hearing from you as do we all.
00:45:52
Speaker
That's right. Thanks, Kate. So our last story is close to my heart as it deals with pigeons. And I just love pigeons. And it comes from the Brussels Times. And Kate, do you want to tell us a little bit about what pigeon activists in Brussels are doing?
Urban Wildlife Protection Efforts
00:46:08
Speaker
I mean, all the stories we have are super interesting, I think. And I'm always learning so much. But this story is it particularly focuses down on Brussels and an animal rights group called Bite Back who held a symbolic protest outside of Brussels Central Station asking for stronger legal protection and clearer food policy for pe pigeons in the Belgium capital. So and this was to mark World Day for the defense of liminal animals. And I didn't even know there was a World Day. for for these creatures and i didn't even know what a liminal animal was actually i have to say and it is animals that live alongside humans in an urban environment for example pigeons i guess rats and squirrels squirrels yeah um all those uh creatures some of whom are
00:47:14
Speaker
More popular than others, I fear. We have foxes as well living in the cities here. don't know if you have them there, fox foxes. Shane, what do you have in the States? sort of Coyotes.
00:47:26
Speaker
Okay, yay. This first started in 2024, I believe, and they they focused on living peacefully with pigeons then. And then 2025, they focused on fighting against glue traps.
00:47:43
Speaker
So this year they are trying to ask people to particularly focus on pigeons. And there have been different activities in different cities.
00:47:56
Speaker
i know French cities, And and peter pigeons are dealt with differently in different countries and different cities as well. So in the UK, they are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, but that doesn't seem to stop them having nasty things happen to them as well sometimes. And in France, ah ah some cities capture them and gas them and others don't. And so there's been protests in different different cities in Europe, um including handing out flyers. and unknown Portugal, somebody I know was with some activists, cutting i' sorry ah catching pigeons and cutting all the plastic and the hair and the string which cook gets caught around their little feet and can sometimes do some terrible damage. so
00:48:48
Speaker
um So they were doing that. And apparently it was started by ah paas who are Paris Animo Zoolopolis.
00:49:01
Speaker
And I'm ashamed to say I haven't read Zoolopolis. Have either of you guys read it? No. No, I haven't. So basically it's a book written by Sue Donaldson and Will Kimleiker. And basically their premise is that animal rights are not enough, that that is the minimal thing. not harming and that they're not property. So that is like the minimal thing humans owe, um liminal animals, city animals. and But actually we owe them more and we should think of them more as our co-citizens.
00:49:40
Speaker
And you you have domesticated animals, which are pets and farm animals. ah You have wild animals that are sovereign communities and they deserve their own territory. and the minimal minimum human interference, and then liminal animals, urban wildlife, and they should be tolerated as residents and given some protections, and that's what they're saying. so But basically, we should be living...
00:50:11
Speaker
in peaceful coexistence with them. So that's what I picked up from that. And i I guess in Brussels, they were protesting and saying they wanted more pigeon food. So it wasn't, ah they feel like it's not enough just to let the pigeons live. They wanted to introduce some sort of, I think I read they want to introduce some sort of birth control, right?
00:50:33
Speaker
Not harmful, but to manage the population and then to provide more pigeon food because they're feeling like there's not enough food for the pigeons. Yeah, I picked that up as well. And ah I think because that you you hear about um birth control for various...
00:50:50
Speaker
supposed problem um animals and I thought I wonder if it does actually work but it does work in pigeons apparently so yeah they they're asking for that aren't they so that you know so that the population is reduced so I guess when there are less of them people get less annoyed and then and there's more resources and then for them so they can have a better life yeah paul what did you make of this article Yeah, i was a little bit confused to some degree because there's a few things i obviously asking for here.
00:51:21
Speaker
And when they said about ah clarification over feeding, pigeons i i wasn't sure if that meant like um whether some places discourage or even ban feeding of pigeons for example i didn't know if there was kind of more looking for more of a clear policy on that or whether it was like you say provision of food maybe even i know there's been some stories over here about feeding certain birds and and indeed because of swans and ducks about certain kinds of foods and there's been arguments about we should you should you be feeding them this should you not be feeding them that kind of thing so there's kind of the health aspect yeah the um quite a you know sensible approach in terms of that contraceptive discussion as well i suppose it's some people would argue that it's kind of humans trying to control population again but they've made a statement as to why they think that's needed and what the benefits would be for both the pigeons and humans which is okay fair enough that seems like a reasonable reasonable thing And, yeah, less likely to become deemed a pest, I guess, plus is what they're worried about. in that you know if there's If there is an explosion in the population, they might start to suffer you know inhumane treatment, slaughter, etc. So I guess they're trying to think tactically there. Again, seems reasonable. But, yeah, otherwise, and, and yeah, obviously, I think the other thing I picked up was obviously about the...
00:52:39
Speaker
injuries that birds receive with um the various building um sort of protections that you see like whether it's spikes or the netting and we have a lot of stories certainly in the uk about um birds getting caught in that netting getting behind it and and starving to death essentially um and uh you know i i think it's high time that that sort of stuff was looked at as to whether that is really ah allowed to be allowed um by by um but because it's again it It kind of comes into that glue trap kind of discussion about, you know, you might be stopping a bird sitting somewhere and like pooing on the floor or whatever like that. But to kill them in that sort of extremely cruel way just for starvation is is is no, there's there's no justification for that.
00:53:23
Speaker
Kate, you were mentioning that group in ah Portugal that was helping pigeons. And um listeners, while you're on Instagram looking at what we've posted and liking and commenting and messaging us, you can also check out at London Pigeon Rescue. It's all one word.
00:53:40
Speaker
And that's on Instagram. And I just love their videos. The activists are, they show them, they catch pigeons. They then have like these little scissors where they remove string, wire, debris caught on the pigeon's feet. They clean their feet, they tend them. And sometimes they give them like a little antibiotic or something if if they've infected And, um, I don't know, for me, it's like so cathartic to watch the little pigeons and, you know, they follow up a few days later and the little pigeons who were sometimes lame or having so much difficulty getting around or are doing so much better. So it's heartwarming if you want to watch something nice. That's so nice to hear. And apparently ah pigeons recognize people's faces and they know if they've been nice or nasty as well. So, you know, ah they probably recognize their rescuers. So, which is a really nice, nice thought. Well, thanks Kate and Paul for those comments and for being on the show today and listeners as much as we love Paul and Kate.
00:54:40
Speaker
Perhaps you, dear listener, disagreed with something that one of them said, or maybe we missed something. We didn't cover an aspect that you know about, or maybe you want to just tell us how great we are and how much you love the show or you want to give us ideas for the show.
00:54:55
Speaker
So we are always thrilled to hear your opinions, and the best way to do that is through email. Paul, what's our email address? So our email address is enoughofthefalafel, that's all one word, at gmail.com. And we do ah read and respond to each every each and every email we get, unless and and we will talk about them on our mailbag shows unless...
00:55:19
Speaker
You specifically don't wish us to do that. And if you just want to help the show, you can donate to our Ko-Fi page. And the link for that is in the show notes. And these funds are being used to help us get better equipment, which will make the show better for everyone. And you don't have to donate a lot. You can donate as little as one pound, one dollar, one euro a month.
00:55:38
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. And you can also rate us and or leave a review on your podcast player. You can subscribe to the show and that tells your podcast player that we're a great show, which we hope we are, even with all the waffle, and as well as giving you alerts when new episodes drop.
00:55:58
Speaker
So you can tell people about the show and please, please do share it. So thank you everyone for listening. The enough next Enough of the Falafel episode coming out will be Vegan Talk and that will be available from Thursday after this recording and that will feature Kate, Ant and Julie and they'll be talking about animal behaviours and how much are we missing when we just look at animals in industrial agriculture. Anyway, that's enough of the falafel for this episode. ah Thank you so much, Shane. And thank you so much, Paul, for your brilliant contributions. um And thank you, everyone out there who's been listening. We really, really do appreciate you. I've been Kate, and you've been listening to Vegan Week from the Enough of the Falafel Collective.
00:56:52
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.
00:57:02
Speaker
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00:57:33
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 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...
00:57:54
Speaker
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00:58:08
Speaker
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