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163- Plant-milk for the kids: (some) Democrats & Republicans agree...
79 Plays2 days ago
A new US bill has been proposed & supported by both Democrats & Republicans that would make plant-based milk more accessible in schools. But are Carlos, Kate & Ant optimistic...or will this get rebuffed by raw milk fan RFK Jnr? This- plus eight bits of vegan & animal rights news from the last week- is on the menu in this episode.
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Enough of the Falafel is a community of people who love keeping on top of the latest news in the world of veganism & animal rights. With the Vegan Week podcast, we aim to keep listeners (& ourselves) informed & up-to-date with the latest developments that affect vegans & non-human animals; giving insight, whilst staying balanced; remaining true to our vegan ethics, whilst constantly seeking to grow & develop.
Each week we look through news stories from the past 7 days in the world of veganism & animal rights.
If you spot any news stories that might catch our fancy, or have an idea for a discussion topic, get in touch via enoughofthefalafel@gmail.com.
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This week's stories:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgp6gyvk3no
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250403-sri-lanka-s-crackdown-on-dogs-for-india-pm-s-visit-sparks-protest
https://www.huntsabs.org.uk/mink-hunting-season-is-underway/
https://vegconomist.com/market-and-trends/plant-based-dairy-sales-western-europe-north-america-rapid-growth/
https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/brazil-vegano-survey-meat-beef-health-plant-based/
https://www.theanimalreader.com/2025/04/04/slovakia-to-kill-350-bears-after-fatal-attack-on-man/
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/apr/05/animal-rights-groups-hit-out-at-grand-national-after-broadway-boys-horrific-fall
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy710rv54wo
https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/national-school-lunch-program-whole-milk-plant-based-dairy-act/
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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!
Carlos, Kate & Ant
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Transcript
Introduction to Animal Rights Discussion
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello everyone, welcome to your one-stop shop for this week's animal rights and vegan news. I am Anthony, joining me for this episode as well are Carlos and Kate, but that is enough of the falafel, it is time for Vegan Week!
00:00:15
Speaker
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. We're not doing that in the state of Florida. What your protein and what about your iron levels? Should I call the media and say, hi, sorry? they They're arguing like, oh poor woe is me.
00:00:35
Speaker
Hang on a minute. You always pick.
00:00:43
Speaker
social injustice has connection with another. That's just what people think vegans eat anyway. As long as you didn't get the wee brunions with the horns you'll be all alright. Does veganism give him superpowers?
00:00:55
Speaker
No, I cannot fly around the city. I don't have laser vision. and Hey, hello everybody and welcome to Enough of the Falafel.
00:01:06
Speaker
This is Carlos and thanks so much for being here. Hi everyone, it's Kate here. I've not been here for a few weeks so it's lovely to be back with you. This is our news show, our weekly news show, and we're going to go through last week's vegan and animal rights news now.
00:01:23
Speaker
But that's Enough of the Falafel. Let's hear what's been going on in the news this week.
00:01:31
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.
00:01:45
Speaker
So we've got a wide range of stories to cover this week. I think we've got nine in all and it's quite the challenge to know which one to open up
Animal Cruelty Protest in Yorkshire
00:01:53
Speaker
with. But thought we would revert to type and bring you a story about angry vegans shouting about something that seems like the most appropriate way to kick things off.
00:02:01
Speaker
This comes to us from Northaloton, which ah to the best of my understanding is in Yorkshire, but it's do write in if I've got that wrong. A protest has been held outside a farm near North Allerton where secret filming, seemingly, definitely, showed cows being kicked and dead calves left.
00:02:22
Speaker
in the open. So videos of the actions by employees at Lowfields Farm in North Allerton was captured by the Animal Justice Project, which regular listeners will have heard of before.
00:02:35
Speaker
And following this expose, a I suppose you could call it, more than 40 campaigners protesters gathered outside the site earlier if you follow the link in our show notes you can see a big picture of them there's big banners and quite the site really and it has made the news on the the BBC. The Animal Justice Project says what the footage seemed to show is routine cruelty to cows and calves, unsanitary conditions and a lack of enforcement.
00:03:07
Speaker
There's been the usual response from the company Arla in this case where they've said oh that the the farmer is no longer working at this farm ah so it's okay and And we take these things very seriously. And you know this is completely unacceptable and doesn't meet the high standards that we expect.
00:03:27
Speaker
Carlos, you've been taking a look at this one. quite Quite an impressive turnout, wasn't it, in terms of numbers of protesters? Yeah, there was a quite quite a big turnout of protesters for a farm of this size and for this type of case. But great, great that they've turned out for this and also that for the Animal Justice Project to get to do the investigation and to carry this through to the ends.
00:03:50
Speaker
ah What's, of course, disappointing is that Arla the UK's largest dairy company that they've kind of reinstated the farm after they suspended. And of course, you know, from our perspective as vegans, you know, we oppose the dairy industry. Fundamentally, it's not about one or two people being cruel to animals. It's about the whole system. It's cruel to animals and it's about exploiting and animals and treating them as commodities.
00:04:15
Speaker
So it doesn't matter if John or Jane are kicking calves or not. What matters is is the sheer principle of running a dairy farm, of of treating you know animals as products, as commodities and this this kind of abuse is always going to occur. Yeah, I thought that was the most disappointing thing from the article.
Welfarist vs Abolitionist Perspectives
00:04:35
Speaker
I mean, obviously, it's it's great that this is making the BBC News but and and and a lot of people will just read the headline or look at the picture and that's it. But I was disappointed to read
00:04:46
Speaker
article and I didn't feel like there was anything saying that actually the people protesting it really are just fundamentally opposed to the industry as a whole and I thought there was kind of the impression that loads of people are protesting that someone was unusually abusive but that's not the case is it? Yeah, and and well, that's, so I guess, the the difference between a sort of abolitionist versus a welfarist approach.
00:05:13
Speaker
I think with an institution, well, ah a group like the Animal Justice Project, due to the nature of the work they do, they're always going to be on the welfarist perspective.
00:05:24
Speaker
because you cannot you you cannot, I guess, use the and the the the UK criminal justice system to push for an abolitionious abolitionist agenda. You're always going to have to go about, use the existing laws, and the existing laws are sort of by nature kind of focused on animal welfare, when we're talking about animal products at least.
00:05:44
Speaker
So that' that is not meant to detract from their mission and what they do, because I'd rather animals are treated well-earned even if abused, even if treated as commodities, treated treated better as commodities than treated worse as commodities.
00:06:00
Speaker
But, you know, ultimately, there's there's only so much that this approach can do. And and I guess what happened ah at Lowfields Farm is a clear demonstration of you know of the limitations of the welfarist approach, where the law can only protect animals so much and it cannot go any further. Yeah, absolutely. and and And good on those protesters and, like you say, good on the Animal Justice Project for exposing this footage in the first place.
00:06:30
Speaker
Now for Kate's first story, in fact, for all of Kate's ah main stories here, despite making a living from being a very creative person, we're throwing lots of numbers based stories at Kate this week just to keep her on her toes.
Rise of Plant-Based Dairy
00:06:43
Speaker
So this first one comes from a recent survey, recent study that is showing that there is a profound shift in consumer preferences towards plant based dairy.
00:06:57
Speaker
notably with regards to Western Europe and North America experiencing a rapid growth. So in terms of the numbers, in 2023, the size of the plant-based dairy retail market reached US$11.5 billion. US$7.3 billion 2019.
00:07:12
Speaker
So in just four years, that is awesome.
00:07:16
Speaker
billion u s dollars in twenty nineteen i mean just four years that is o almost increasing by another half. um They phrase this on vegconomist.com where we've got this story from. They frame that as a annual ah so a compound annual growth rate of 12%.
00:07:33
Speaker
twelve percent So it's increased 12% one year and then the new amount, it's increased 12% top of that for the last four years. Now, the growth is primarily driven by plant-based beverages, which make up 60% of the total market, followed by yogurt and cheese alternatives. Interestingly, there's quite a numbers-based um article, this one.
00:07:56
Speaker
they point out that plant-based dairy accounts for about 12% of the total milk market. So we're including cow's milk and presumably goats and and sheep milk in there as well. So 12% of all milk sales are plant-based, but that represents a significant shift. If you want to see the, if you're numbers bod like me, you can follow the link in the show notes to to see all of this. There's some really interesting breakdown in terms of What different countries will spend different amounts. So, for example, Finland spending 34 euros per person per year on plant-based dairy, whereas France spending just under six euros per person per year.
00:08:42
Speaker
Kate, I think whether we want to get knee high in numbers or not, the overall picture here is surely a positive one, even if we're a very anti-capitalist person.
Global Shift Towards Plant-Based Diets
00:08:53
Speaker
That's surely positive. Absolutely. um I can't believe how how things have changed since I first went vegan quite a few years ago when it was really hard for me ah to get hold of plant-based milk at all. it was really hard. Our shops...
00:09:10
Speaker
didn't even have them in the shop over the so um over the winter months um because, ah you know, a local Tesco didn didn't didn't have them at all.
00:09:22
Speaker
And now it's just so common you go into the supermarket there's like shelves and shelves and shelves of all kinds of different plant-based milks, which is absolutely amazing. I'm not really a numbers person.
00:09:34
Speaker
Well, I'm not very good at remembering numbers, but actually these numbers are I think are very exciting. um i mean, 12% is massive, I think. And it's quite interesting because they they've kind of broken down people's attitudes in different countries, haven't they? so I think Germany, they're they're particularly ahead of the game. I think but that and um they found that Germans were were more understanding of the animal welfare issues as well as health and environment.
00:10:05
Speaker
And they're more interested in trying new foods. which is new and novel foods whereas in France and Spain and Italy apparently they're a little bit more skeptical and they've put it down to having long traditions of consuming cheese and other dairy products but surely so is Germany you know um'm I'm just curious if we have any German listeners do they know are they doing right what could we learn from them It's a very anecdotal response to your your question there. But I found when I've been to Germany a few times, there seems to be big thing about veganism in certain cities and certain cities are quite progressive. I mean, Berlin is a stereotypical vegan hotspot, but I'd say it's quite progressive city in many ways. So it's yes, it's progressive in terms of veganism, but in terms of
00:11:00
Speaker
LGBTQ plus rights or in terms of is transport or, you know, lots of ways it's progressive. So maybe they're just future focused people. I don't know. That's just My opinion, ah something I noticed, if you if you follow the the link to this actual survey and conducted by Roland Berger, the top two objections to or barriers to um consuming more plant-based products were unsatisfactory taste or texture and limited availability in stores. I really would have thought it would be the price because generally speaking, plant-based milk is is still much more.
00:11:36
Speaker
than dairy milk. But i so I still hear that and I just think, oh, grow up. What do you mean unsatisfactory taste or texture? Like really, that's enough for a cow to be routinely exploited, is it? so that There was ah another research thing recently about plant-based meats and stuff. And people, when they put them you know together with the meat version,
00:11:55
Speaker
people were often preferring the plant-based version. So, you know, taste is getting there as well, but people are kind of nonsensical, like you say. And, you know, I'll say to people when they don't like their vegetables, 13 tastes and you'll like it, you know. ya good news.
00:12:15
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And good to good to have some transparency on on the numbers there and sort of see where we're at. I think it's good to see where we're at movement. Somewhere where there has not been transparency has been in Sri Lanka recently, where allegedly in Colombo, basically stray dogs or community dogs, as they are generally called, because they're sort of not necessarily seen as stray. They're just like, well, they don't have one owner. The community looks after them.
00:12:41
Speaker
They have allegedly been rounded up ahead of a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Now, ah at the time of recording, this visit will have now happened. So this bit news came to us a few days ago. So ahead of this visit, allegedly, dog catchers have been deployed to impound dogs ahead of the visit.
00:13:06
Speaker
Now, like I say, these a lot of these dogs that that don't have one specific owner anymore are dubbed community canines rather than street dogs, and and they're very well loved and they're very well thought of. And in fact, like our first story, a group of people has decided to protest this, um quite rightly so. They're representing the Rally for Animal Rights and Environment.
00:13:31
Speaker
They waved placards outside the President's office in Colombo after submitting a petition to India's High Commission. One placard read, stop the cruel removal of our community dogs.
00:13:44
Speaker
Another read, how can Sri Lanka promote tourism when we are a country known for animal welfare? cruelty. Carlos, unfortunately, this is not a one-off story, is it? We've heard stories like this with regards to um the Morocco Football World Cup in a few years' time, yeah um as as well as lots of other places. It seems like there seems to be this weird embarrassment that that places seem to have, that there are animals in the streets that don't have an owner, and that seems to be a cause for you know quite drastic, unnecessary action.
00:14:17
Speaker
Yeah, especially because obviously these these animals kind of, you know, they exist, these dogs, they exist in a way that's different from dogs, let's say, in Western Europe, how dogs in Western Europe exist, where pretty much every every dog has a specific family that they belong to, I guess, as opposed to having like this idea of community dogs. I think, you know, you you still get this and in, for example, in the countryside, there's still the concept of ah In Europe, you still get the the concept of kind of community dogs, you know, the dog that kind of lives in the village or maybe a few of them live in the village. Everybody feeds them.
00:14:52
Speaker
You know, they visit the butcher in the morning, then they sleep over in that field somewhere and then everybody gives them scraps and sometimes they have like a place or two they go to during when it's cold to sleep. And and and there's nothing there's nothing wrong with that, essentially.
00:15:07
Speaker
in In fact, one could say that that's probably even... in some ways, a more natural way for dogs to live, like, you know, but more communal instead of being kind of confined to a single family. Well, depending on breed and so on.
00:15:20
Speaker
Let's not get into that. There is this idea that these stray dogs kind of show that a region is uncivilized or backwards, and so they're removed to to make it look better.
00:15:32
Speaker
But In fact, what these protesters are trying to say and what the protesters we saw for the morocco um for the world ah World Cup in Morocco and with a call that happens and is still happening as far as I know in Turkey. In fact, doing this is the is the uncivilized behavior. Doing this kind of call is the uncivilized behavior.
00:15:51
Speaker
And of course, more humane ways, the more humane way to treat these kinds of street dogs would be kind of sterilization programs, vaccination programs. Just treat them humane like you would treat an animal we would not consider a pet.
00:16:05
Speaker
So, you know, if you were living in an area with lots of of birds and those birds, let's say pigeons, and they were struggling, what would you do? Perhaps if there were too many, you know, you sterilize them, you vaccinate them, make sure that they were safe.
00:16:17
Speaker
kind of treated and, you know, there's nothing wrong with that. ah in my opinion. No, I wouldn't say so. And it it just makes me wonder, like ahead of this visit, like what else are they doing?
00:16:29
Speaker
I would have thought it would be more of a poor indictment on the state of a community for there to be human beings living on the streets without homes. Are they being impounded? Like, you know, what what else are they pretending isn't happening? The other thing that's kind of curious is that the protesters submitted a petition to India's High Commission But this is happening in Sri Lanka, which is is kind of a weird thing to happen. I think it's related to the power, kind of kind of the relations between the countries and the influence, like the much bigger in India has on on Sri Lankan politics.
00:17:06
Speaker
Either way, humane long-term solutions, vaccination, sterilization, community education, and, you know, create some kind of infrastructure for animal welfare. Absolutely. And um again, good on the protesters for doing it and good on France24.com that we got this one from. But um getting these things into the press and reported is certainly one of the first steps needed to change this behaviour.
00:17:31
Speaker
OK, let's throw some more numbers at Kate. um You may or may not know, listeners, that Brazil... um is one of the largest beef consumers, beef producers, meat producers in the world. So it is the world's largest beef exporter, the world's second largest meat producer, and actually 80% of all beef, quote, produced in Brazil is actually consumed domestically.
00:17:59
Speaker
two accounting for 12% that seems to be the magic percent today 12% of all global beef intake which makes them the third highest per capita consumer of beef too I think you get the general picture that sounds really awful and of course it is however it might be that the needle is twitching into a kind of direction, of course, still a huge, huge way to go.
00:18:26
Speaker
So apparently 74% of Brazilians are open to reducing their meat consumption out of health concerns. ah new survey has found. And very, very interestingly, ah this this study was was conducted on behalf of the Brazilian Vegetarian Society, polling over 2,000 consumers.
00:18:48
Speaker
Interestingly, the group of people that are, or the two groups of people that are most likely to be eating in a plant-based way or a predominantly plused plant-based way, are older people and indigenous folk.
00:19:01
Speaker
Now, and like I mean, it just shows, Kate, doesn't it? Like, we can have generalisations, we can have these opinions, these stereotypes. If you were to ask me before reading this, I would have thought that older folk and people who have a more traditional lifestyle would would surely be most likely to consume animals. But it shows that the message can get through to anybody.
00:19:22
Speaker
Speaking as an older folk... Speaking as an Indigenous person. Speaking as an Indigenous person, yes, to Norfolk. and Yeah, and talking to and coming from the health side of things quite often, i find that does resonate a lot with older people because obviously...
00:19:41
Speaker
cracking on a bit.
Bear Culling Controversy in Slovakia
00:19:42
Speaker
And in this country, most people over the age of 60 are on probably two or three sets of pills for some health thing.
00:19:53
Speaker
And I guess perhaps the indigenous people are, it's not so long since perhaps they've been eating a more plant-based diet. That is their, you know, and and we did too once upon a time, more plant-based diet.
00:20:06
Speaker
But I mean, the animals don't care. Why people stop eating them. They just, you know, so people are doing it for their health, great. I'd really like to know how, again, misinformation is not clouding people's judgments.
00:20:26
Speaker
You know, it's so hard for people here for a start trying to um decide whether butter is good, butter is not, you know, meat is good, meat is not, you know.
00:20:39
Speaker
So that's so interesting that the health information is actually getting through to people. And 7% say that they're actually vegan there. And apparently we only need about 3.5% of a population in order to for a social justice movement to start tipping towards that social justice movement.
00:21:00
Speaker
So, I mean, I think that's incredible as well. And people are not just concerned with health either either. They are concerned with the animals and they are concerned with the environment. And I guess deforestation there is is right under people's noses.
00:21:17
Speaker
And unlike here, where we've lost all our forests like hundreds and hundreds of years ago, so it's not so obvious, you know, we export our deforestation by importing all our soybeans,
00:21:31
Speaker
to feed the animals here. You know, we're not actually deforesting areas of land here. I just, so I did do a little numbers thing. So the population of Brazil is about 213 million people.
00:21:45
Speaker
So if that is, what did we say? percentage was I forgot it was in this in the article it says seven percent either completely agreeing or partially agreeing with the statement that they are vegan so I don't think we can take it as seven percent of vegan but seven no okay there are almost there Right. Well, always look on the positive side. But anyway, what was it? I worked out, oh, yeah, 158 million people approximately are reducing or eliminating beef, which is more than twice the UK population, right?
00:22:24
Speaker
which is pretty amazing. ah And it's about half the US population. So I just think that's incredible. Again, what can we learn from them? What can we learn from the information that's being put out there?
00:22:38
Speaker
It's good stuff. It's good stuff and a nice... um Antidote to what we heard a couple of weeks ago from Brazil with regards to chopping down a massive bit of rainforest to make a road for a climate summit, that possibly the most bizarre story of the year, um as well as the most tragic one.
00:22:57
Speaker
Let's move on. We've got one more story to hear from Carlos before we hear his pick of the week. And as an active Hunt Sab, only seems right to report on what happens with the change of the season. There's lots of positive things that happen in spring and lots of lovely things to look forward to. And one that is not so great that has been reported in um a lot of detail on the Hunt Sab's website this week has been Mink.
00:23:24
Speaker
hunting as they um word it on the Huntsab's website. It has its roots in the ancient summer blood sports of otter hunting which since 1978 has been illegal. Otter was granted protected legal status and despite the best efforts of the hunting lobby but Interestingly, lots of people who used to hunt otters have now decided that minks deserve to be hunted. So lots of disgusting and despicable things going on at the moment.
00:23:55
Speaker
Carlos, when I was reading this article, as per usual, I didn't know very much about this beforehand, but some of the absurd excuses that people come up with as a justification to hunt for mink and to do so with dogs, which is illegal.
00:24:11
Speaker
They make their mind boggle, really, don't they? Yeah, they were they come up with lots of excuses, like they they're conducting riverbank surveys or controlling thistles. You know, just ah just think incredible, incredible explanations.
00:24:24
Speaker
Of course, what once he said, once he said hounds, which are likely to chase prey ah along a river bank, they will chase otters too, which are the, you know, the the protected animals. Yeah. So it's, it's really mind boggling. And of course they will, you know, hounds will chase anything like this past, uh, fox hunting season.
00:24:44
Speaker
The only kill that we witnessed when we were out was, uh, was when the foxhounds, um, Attack the deer. It just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And and and if you set hounds along the riverbank, if they cannot find minks, they will definitely chase otters or hares or any other animal that they come across.
00:25:03
Speaker
That's not a dog. And maybe some and sometimes even other dogs. i've had I've only ever tried to sap a mink hunt once. And it's a pretty miserable experience for hunt saps because...
00:25:17
Speaker
They're really hard to find. It's usually like two, three people at most with maybe two, three dogs going like deep in the river or the brook. So they're very hard to see unless you're in the brook yourself.
00:25:30
Speaker
And they're so hard to catch and so hard to find. And they make very little noise compared to, I don't know, 30 horses and 30 hounds. So it's pretty hard. Although, of course, once you find them, they just pack up and go home because they can't outrun saps.
00:25:43
Speaker
But it's a pretty miserable experience to try to sab a mink hunt. I would say, though, as miserable as it is, if you do have any information, please do contact the Hunt Sabs Association, the HSA. They provided in the article a phone number, which you can contact.
00:25:59
Speaker
And you should contact this tip offline. If you don't know who your local sabs are, if you know who your local sabs are, just contact them directly. in the essence of time. So you might be out in the fields walking a dog and then you see some weirdos.
00:26:12
Speaker
And I say some weirdos because they do dress up for these things. There's a certain uniform that they wear. So if you see basically any group of people with a few hounds kind of going along a riverbank suspiciously, just contact the HSA.
00:26:28
Speaker
which is 07443148426 or your local SAPs if you know who they are. it's I mean, yeah, thank you for that, Carlos. It's so sad to hear of these practices. It's reassuring to see how more and more niche they are becoming and how you know this this article cites several groups that now don't exist anymore. So it it feels like, the again, the needle is well and truly perfect pointing in the right direction. But, you know, wherever this this unnecessary cruelty is happening, it does still need weeding out. It seems incredible that people still make a tradition and a custom of these things.
00:27:10
Speaker
Yeah, and not only is there legislation against otter hunting. I think overall for them, this is probably like really scraping the bottom of the barrel because it doesn't have the glamour of fox hunting.
00:27:21
Speaker
You can't really set up a business for otter hunting or in this case, mink hunting, like you can with fox hunting where you pretend you're laying a trail and then people come but pay money, they come along for a ride and that's, there's certain glamour to it.
00:27:34
Speaker
And, you know, with the beagles and, and, and beagling, you don't get wet, and but with mink hunting, you definitely need to spend a lot of time during the summer kind of, you you know, the hunters need to kind of put their waders on and kind of go into the, into the brook. And then it's kind of wet and, and, and kind of miserable with the, and there are thistles to be honest on these riverbanks. So it's kind of a, sort of ah and miserable, the dogs get wet as well. And, you know, it's sort of a, I would say among the kind of setting hounds to hunt things for you, this is probably like the the least attractive one, which is probably why it's also kind of um on its last legs.
00:28:11
Speaker
But it still happens. i The only time I did go mink hunting, we did ah we didn't end up finding the mink hunters. It just took a bloody long time. So it still exists. They need a new hobby. They definitely need a new hobby, don't they?
00:28:24
Speaker
Right, moving on to Kate's last story before her pick of the week. Unfortunately, it is a version of a tale that we have heard across several different European countries over the last year or so. This is the horrible news that Slovakia, ah the country of Slovakia, have sanctioned the killing of 350 bears after one fatal bear attack on a man. So again, more numbers that are quite mind-boggling.
00:28:52
Speaker
Just to give the statistics on this. So the country of Slovakia has a around 1,000 brown bears. brown bears So they are now going to allow the killing of a third of those.
00:29:03
Speaker
One in three of those bears is now going to be killed after one man was killed in a bear attack. Obviously, that is tragic. Obviously, that's a horrible thing for that person and their family. And interestingly, last year, the environment minister of Slovakia said that there were around just under 2,000, so 1,900 reported human bear encounters that reported human bear encounters So that if if you run those numbers, that basically says every bear on average will have had an encounter with a human twice in a year.
00:29:36
Speaker
And so now as a consequence, one in three has been sanctioned to be killed. They don't even know that this person was attacked by bear. They've said it's it's likely, but it's not even sure.
00:29:50
Speaker
Anyway, the government has declared a state of emergency in 55 of Slovakia's 72 counties, which basically allows the Environment Ministry to approve the bear killings directly.
00:30:02
Speaker
Nonetheless, the Prime Minister, Robert Fico, has said people should not be afraid to walk in forests where bears live. And by the sound of it, Kate, it's It's not the people that should be afraid. it's It's the bears that need to be afraid, isn't it? Horrid, horrid news.
00:30:16
Speaker
o It's just so depressing. And just another reason to hate human beings' behaviour. Anyway, you know, certain human beings, because obviously there are people who are trying to oppose this and saying they there isn't they don't really 100% know exactly how many brown bears, because it's brown bears, how many there are.
00:30:39
Speaker
in the country. Honestly, people will not be happy until the countryside just looks like a park and is like completely preened.
00:30:50
Speaker
We are encroaching that on their habitat. Apparently quite a few, well, thousands of encounters every year. with no incident but you know possible instant with a bear and it's not they don't just try and kill that one bear they're going to it's real retaliation isn't it 350 bears it's so unfair oh dear i don't know it's um something that struck me is that I've just looked up now how many deaths from dog bites were there in the UK last year. According to the Office of national National Statistics, there were seven. They reckon that number is likely underestimated. Now, obviously, the UK has a much bigger population than Slovakia. Slovakia has about five and a half million people living there.
00:31:40
Speaker
But I guess my point is, if It sounds to me like about the same proportion of people have been killed in the UK by dogs in the last year as Slovakians have been killed by bears.
00:31:55
Speaker
we We're not sanctioning a third of currently. to be killed are we like it it just seems like uh just seems like so transparent that this is a retaliation a knee jerk like if you're if you're worried about a bear attacking you ah as far as i'm aware they're not walking down the street you know they're not bratislava high street is not being savaged by bears it's it's fairly predictable i would have thought the areas you'd come across a bear And there are precautions I think people can take as well, which they're advised to do, you know.
00:32:28
Speaker
And yeah, you're absolutely right. And how many people are killed by cars? Are we saying, don't drive a car, they're far too dangerous, which they are in comparison.
00:32:40
Speaker
um You know, I don't know. It's just nonsensical. But i I should imagine, I i don't know, do brown bears attack, inverted commas, livestock? You know, farmers, animals?
00:32:54
Speaker
I don't know about that. In which case, the farming community would probably be quite happy if there were no more brown bears. I don't know. someone i mean, that's definitely been the case in other countries where wolves...
00:33:06
Speaker
have been sanctioned to be killed. there's There's definitely a strong link with the amount of money the that farmers are losing from from livestock being killed by wolves. But again, that's a human created problem, isn't it?
00:33:19
Speaker
Exactly. We are encroaching on their habitat. and And apparently they're finding it bit harder to find food as well because of climate change. and But yeah, it's it's just miserable, miserable. So two miserable stories in a row. Oh, dear. Yep.
00:33:38
Speaker
Important to report on them. Important to report on them though nonetheless. Right. OK, that's been our first six stories of the week. After this short break, we're going to hear Carlos and Kate's picks of the week.
00:33:50
Speaker
They're both stories about nothing happening. One of them, we're frustrated that nothing is happening. And the other one, we're quite pleased that nothing's happening.
00:34:05
Speaker
Right, Carlos, let's kick off with yours. you Spoiler alert for listeners, your story is the one where nothing is happening and we're really quite frustrated about that. Yeah, so this story is about, is a sort of a summary of All the injuries and vets that have happened at the Grand National this year, we knew that this was going to happen and it still went on. And these things happen exactly as everybody predicted.
00:34:31
Speaker
Nobody cares. They show up with their fancy hats and their fancy clothes, spend a lot of money on tickets, food and booze and watch animal cruelty. And the Brits complain about bullfighting in Spain or whatever they complain about.
00:34:46
Speaker
It's all the same thing, really. In fact, I can tell you, I'm pretty sure there's probably more that on the Grand National, on an average Grand National, that there is on a single bullfighting event altogether.
00:34:57
Speaker
and and they're there And they're there for the purpose of harming the bulls. And there's no jumping on their back and runninging riding around. So this year we had Broadway broadway Boy, seven-year-old horse,
00:35:09
Speaker
Took a fall at the 25th jump. He landed right on his head. he was ah pretty much horrific. His neck just kind of twisted the wrong way. He still had to be put down, though. Yeah, they still had to bring out the little ah screens and the gun and make sure that nobody can watch the animal cruelty. Everybody knows what happens behind the screens, but we can't show it. It's a bit like...
00:35:30
Speaker
you know, eating a steak. Everybody knows the cruelty behind it, but it's all tucked away somewhere so we don't have to face it and we can just enjoy. There was also a 13-year-old horse which collapsed, who collapsed during the race.
00:35:43
Speaker
There was Kandu Kids, Percival Langois, they fell, Duffel Coat unseated the rider. There was a horse named Willie de Well, who suffered the fatal fall. And Animal Rising, who's one of the organizations that's been most active towards trying to ah bring change to horse racing.
00:36:03
Speaker
In fact, they ah they staged an invasion of several horse racing events in the not so distant past. They said that this was the Grand National 66th victim since 2000.
00:36:16
Speaker
And, you know, Animal Aid also condemned the empty rhetoric about animal welfare. And, you know, the both groups criticized ITV for cutting away ah from showing the fall and kind of not showing updates and not treating, um you know, the falls as something that actually happened, you know, even though they're an essential part of horse racing.
00:36:35
Speaker
That I thought was the most damning thing, wasn't it? The fact that they've chosen not to show this. I mean, I'm i'm a big football fan and occasionally there will be a really bad injury or someone will collapse.
00:36:48
Speaker
And generally speaking, TV cameras won't show that. it's It's generally seen to be in bad taste to do that. I think what's clearly different there is the human beings playing that game have consented to do so.
00:37:01
Speaker
And the rates of injury and of collapse and and really sickening injury for human beings there is so, so, so small. Whereas those numbers you've given us there, that's by my maths, just under three deaths a year at this event.
00:37:17
Speaker
So it's an intrinsic part of it, isn't it? Yeah. I mean, if you're a spectator, you know you're very likely to see a death at some point. You know, it's it's more likely than not that you'll see a horse either die or collapse and then kind of be, re you know, revived and and kind of maybe continue being abused for next year or something. But it's and it's undeniable that, you know, this is animal abuse. Even even the most, the staunchest apologist would would would understand that,
00:37:46
Speaker
You know, the these horses, as much as they might say that the horses enjoy running, the fact is that they're forced to run and they're forced to run for a long periods and do the jumps.
00:37:59
Speaker
And, you know, a horse in the wild, sure, they will maybe do a little trot and gallop here and there. But a horse running and jumping over things is a defense mechanism from predators. That's why, you know, they developed...
00:38:12
Speaker
to to to run and jump over things. It was to run away from predators. So stressful situations. There's no evolutionary point in running and jumping over things because that's not going to make baby horses or not going to get you to food.
00:38:28
Speaker
ah So, you know, we basically introduce panic state into the horse and kind of force them to do something. And um obviously the Grand National is kind of ah a big spectacle, a big stage.
00:38:40
Speaker
But this applies to all horse riding, where the horses are forced to be ridden, essentially, and to do things they don't want to do. Yeah. And and you you bring up a really good point there in terms of like how horses naturally...
00:38:56
Speaker
are and their natural instincts that, you know, we do have wild horses um in in the UK. You never see them sprinting at breakneck speed for five minutes. Yeah. You know, you might see them gently cantering a little bit. Yeah, yeah. you don't yeah maybe Maybe, you know, we we we know that young mammals like to play and kind of exert themselves.
00:39:17
Speaker
And so you might see in young young horses that kind of behavior, but never in an adult horse you would see them sprinting. kind of sprint at full speed for five minutes unless they were under threat from a predator, unless it was a life for that situation.
00:39:30
Speaker
So effectively introducing a life for that situation or kind of simululate simulating one for the horse to do that. Yeah, yeah. Kate, I'm wondering um whether you've had a ah sort of shared experience that that I did. I remember when when I was growing up, um not too far from where you live now in the east of England,
00:39:49
Speaker
the Grand National was a big deal and and you know everyone in the family would would watch it and place a bet. And if that was the only only ah sporting event that they gambled on in a year, it was that one. I wonder if that's something that you culturally experienced too.
00:40:05
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And, you know, talked about it in school. And, you know, you chose your horse with your favourite name and all of that all seems so harmless.
00:40:17
Speaker
Obviously, you know, we know I used to ride when I was a kid. A lot of people did, I'm sure. And, um you know, just never really thought much about it.
00:40:27
Speaker
um I'm ashamed to say And I was really, well, surprised to find out that horse racing is the second biggest, inverted commas, sport in the UK after football, as far as people watching it. It is massive. And the amount of money that's involved and all the betting. I mean, it is going i don't I don't understand betting. I don't know.
00:40:54
Speaker
But it is going to be, well, I don't know. It just seems like it's quite a hard, it's going to a hard thing to to shift, to stop. What do you guys think? I mean, I'm not somebody that's that's ever sort of gambled seriously. My hunch would be that if all of if overnight horse racing stopped, 99% of those people would find a different event to gamble on, you know? um And I mean, they're...
00:41:22
Speaker
there are If you go into Ladbrokes or William Hill or any of the main um gambling websites that there are in terms of gambling on sports, they always have around the clock virtual horse racing thing going on, virtual greyhounds, virtual football.
00:41:39
Speaker
like There are things that are simulated that you can bet on because really what people are interested in is is the thrill of you know risking some of your money in an attempt to win some more.
00:41:51
Speaker
And I i imagine it's it's a culture and it's a tradition and it's a routine thing, the fact that they will do it on real horse races. But i I would strongly suspect that if it were just outlawed, then they would just switch to something else. But obviously, because it is so popular, there's a lot of money in the game, literally. And and so there are more vested interests and and lobbies. But I mean, I think it's great that that we, every year, we will now see big stories like this one printed in The Guardian documenting the...
00:42:27
Speaker
the horrid stuff that goes on. i don't think that was the case 20 years ago, for sure. You know, you you might occasionally get something mentioned, but now it's every year. And it's it's thanks to a general change in consciousness, but also organisations like Animal Rising, like like you say, Carlos, that there are people making a a real targeted campaign of this and then it'll get there there's a lot of money in horse racing which is which is the a lot of money and and and kind of infrastructure and and and kind of culture involved in it which is why it's going to be really hard to ban on the plus side i would say that horses have a very high status among british society and i say this as somebody who ate horse while he was growing up it's a
00:43:14
Speaker
It's not that uncommon in continental Europe to eat horses, just another mammal you eat, not a very fancy
Norfolk Mega Farm Proposal Rejection
00:43:21
Speaker
one. It's like when you're poor, basically. But in UK, people respect the horses enough not to eat them. so there's hope in that sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
00:43:31
Speaker
Well, thank you for bringing that one to our attention, Carlos. Another unpleasant story, however, but our next story, I think we can unanimously say is a positive one. Again, like I say, this is a story where nothing has happened.
00:43:46
Speaker
However, the thing that was being proposed to happen was was a mega farm where at any one time there was going to be the best part of three quarters of a million chickens and pigs living out a horrible existence before their untimely death.
00:44:01
Speaker
But the great news, Kate, is that Cranswick and their proposed mega farm site in Norfolk is not going to happen for now anyway. No.
00:44:12
Speaker
Woohoo! It's been rejected. And let's hope they don't bother to go to appeal because it's just horrible. Yeah, it's a ah planning application that was put into the Kingsland of West Norfolk.
00:44:26
Speaker
borough council and i was there gang i was sitting in there i was uh yeah planning application would have seen 714 000 chickens and 14 000 pigs at any one time housed a so-called mega farm and it's refused so cranswick applied for planning approval to expand its current site in meth world norfolk pull down existing poultry sheds and replace them with new ones. They've actually she had no chickens in these sheds for, I don't know, quite a few years, but they have had pigs on site.
00:45:01
Speaker
And it would have been one of the biggest mega farms in Europe. It was attended by councillors, members of the public from Groups on both sides. Well, I didn't actually see any people there that were supporting Cranswick in the antechamber where we were all sitting. I don't think there was anybody at all. And the decision was met by claps and cheers.
00:45:22
Speaker
And some lovely Cranswick spokesperson said, this is a bad day for the Spans. for the sustainable production of British meat. We're incredibly disappointed by today's decision.
00:45:36
Speaker
Hooray! We'll now take time to review the decision and consider the options available to us. The company previously asked for the planning application to be judged in line with the way that other farms have been assessed nearby and there are an awful lot of pig farms and chicken farms in Norfolk. We are like the capital of the UK for them, I'm afraid. They wanted to modernise for a growing market, creating British food to higher welfare standards through the redevelopment of existing farms.
00:46:09
Speaker
The Council had previously been recommended to turn the application down to due to its impact on ecology and climate change. An independent councillor said during a debate on the scheme that the site was two times larger than the largest poultry farm in the area.
00:46:27
Speaker
We really can't afford any more loss to our biodiversity. We can't carry on trashing the air, our water supplies and soil and leave nothing for our future generations.
00:46:39
Speaker
So the objectors included five parish councils, a local camp great campaign group, about 10 animal welfare groups, including WWF, RSPB, Norfolk Wildlife Trust, plus other um campaign groups.
00:46:55
Speaker
Yeah, there were some great speakers. ah The local MP, Terry Jeremy, so... he's He's actually won the seat from Liz Truss and he spoke brilliantly well. And he recommended, he was saying there are plenty of recommendations to move towards a plant-based food system.
00:47:15
Speaker
And that was also mentioned by um a local land owner who has sporting rights over the land. But he also mentioned that we should be moving to a plant-based diet system.
00:47:27
Speaker
according to the national food strategy can i interject at this point kate you may do you think i'm gonna take a shine off this do you think that those people who are citing well we should be moving towards a plant-based food system do you think that's actually what they think or were they just bringing that up because it was a convenient argument to support the kind of slightly nimbyism of like well we don't want a mega farm in our constituency. So let's use the old plant-based argument.
00:47:58
Speaker
i mean, either way, the animals don't care. You know, it's a win. No. Yeah. that do Do you feel that was disingenuous or are they really feeling? Well, indeed.
00:48:08
Speaker
i was impressed they even came up with the argument, though, Anthony. Do you know what mean? It's like, oh, my God, they've mentioned a plant-based food system. You know, so I don't know. I can't imagine either of them.
00:48:21
Speaker
I don't know. No, definitely definitely not the the local landowner anyway. i mean, either way, it it shows that it's a valid argument, doesn't it? Even if they're using it disingenuously, like the fact that they're saying that, knowing that that is something that carries credence and weight behind it. So, you know, that shows the programme. Absolutely. I mean, the last government kicked the national food strategy into the long grass and, ah you know, it was produced, it was ignored, but now it's it's been quoted. So I think that's an improvement. Yeah.
00:48:52
Speaker
um But yeah, there was tons and tons. There 15,500 formal objections and a petition of 42,000 signatures. And the the main objections were things like the traffic, flooding, pollution, the smell, impact on local SSSIs.
00:49:10
Speaker
And the corn factory, that's just down the road. road um And they've they even really threatened to leave, which would mean the loss of like 300 jobs. So and then also extra pandemic risk.
00:49:23
Speaker
um Oh, the there was tons, tons of really, really good arguments. But the Cranswick people, you know, um the first guy, I thought i don't know if he was the CEO, but he sounded very nervous. His voice was a bit shaky, actually. The second guy was somebody who oversees all the processing and goodness knows what.
00:49:43
Speaker
But they were like the usual thing, conflating food with meat, you know, as if, you know, we don't eat anything other than meat, you know. And they also used the animal welfare arguments.
00:49:55
Speaker
you know, they were saying, oh, it's better than what's there. And they also said, which I thought was really funny in an own goal, that Liz Truss had approved of it. And we all jeered, you know, you everybody laughed, everyone laughed.
00:50:10
Speaker
And then, yeah, that's surely like a death nail in the coffin there, saying like that the shortest-lived Prime Minister in living memory approved of this. know, exactly. Which side are you arguing for here?
00:50:23
Speaker
but It was really funny. That was a really funny moment. and But yeah, they also they were going on about, you know, supporting British food and it's RSPCA and red tracks were approved and all that. and of course, we know all about that, don't we? But what's really awful is that the Cranswick boss is now, Tim Smith CBE, is now on the National Food Strategy Advisory Board to the government.
00:50:51
Speaker
I mean, you know, what's he doing there? Anyway, it's just a great decision. there were lot there were local vegans there. There was the scrap factory farming people there, which was wonderful.
00:51:04
Speaker
There were some Animal Rising people there. ah was surprised that there weren't so many people um outside of the council chamber but there, but it was being live streamed. So a lot of people were watching it But if I could just say, somebody else also reached out to me saying that they they're fighting some some factory farming planning thing elsewhere. to go if you' If you're having a problems, go to the Scrap Factory Farming campaign website because there is so much information on there.
00:51:38
Speaker
There's just a ton and they've got a referenced website and searchable library they've got a ah brilliant sort of a four ready reckoner thing about the planning application process hints and tips and stuff so yeah so if anyone wants to replicate this win um in their own area then have a look there really it all paves the way doesn't it it shows that it's possible and the fact is folks don't want this stuff going on in their community and it it seems like this community
00:52:09
Speaker
had reached saturation point. There's already quite a lot of horrendous stuff going on and in, in the way of animal ag in that area. But, you know, ah even, even there, there is, there is a limit and, um,
00:52:22
Speaker
yeah it's uh it's good to to harness that and um do so in a way that improves outcomes for animals so we've got time for just one more story but before we do we thought we'd just let you know that actually whilst we're the ones behind the microphone giving our opinions and and and choosing the stories that we cover, we're just part of it because actually you out there listening are the biggest chunk of our community. And really, we would love to hear from you.
00:52:52
Speaker
If you're interested in getting in touch, that is, you can just carry on listening. it's It's up to you. But if you've got a story that you want to tell us about, if you've got an opinion, if you've got a correction, if you've got a different angle, we'd love to hear from you.
00:53:06
Speaker
Here is how to get in touch.
Listener Engagement
00:53:08
Speaker
To get in touch with us, just send us an email at enoughofthefalafel at gmail.com. We see ourselves as a collective. Our listenership stretches all around the world and everyone's opinions, questions, feedback and ideas are what helps shape the show.
00:53:27
Speaker
Go on, send us a message today. enough of the falafel at gmail dot com Okay, our final story is coming from the USA. Outside of Great Britain, the US is our biggest group of listeners, so we definitely need to feature something from North America. And this is an interesting
Non-Dairy Milk in US Schools
00:53:48
Speaker
one. It comes to us from Green Queen. a really interesting plant-based news site if you've not come across it before.
00:53:55
Speaker
And they're reporting on the fact that there is a national school lunch programme that is going a bit plant-based or is trying to anyway. So this, quote, bipartisan bill is calling on Congress to provide non-dairy milk options in the national school meal programme to cater to lactose intolerant and, quote, diet restricted students. Now, obviously not quite the animal rights angle that we would like, but once we hear more, you'll see that actually it should be benefiting vegans and possibly a few other people in the US school system. So John Fetterman, a Democratic senator from Pennsylvania, is leading a bill to make non-dairy milk options more accessible in schools across the nation.
00:54:43
Speaker
Introduced last week, he was joined by fellow senators Cory Brooker, the New Jersey Democrat who made headlines for the longest speech in Senate history last week and is also vegan, and John Kennedy, not that one, a Republican senator from Louisiana. Now, they are seeking to amend the National School Lunch Act to make plant-based milk more easily available in schools for children who cannot or do not drink dairy.
00:55:11
Speaker
Currently, to be reimbursed for their meal in schools, the Act requires all kids to have cow's milk on their trays, regardless of whether it suits them or not. Madness, isn't it?
00:55:22
Speaker
The existing Act has a subparagraph that addresses non-dairy milk. which states that school may substitute for the fluid milk if students can't consume dairy because of medical or dietary need.
00:55:35
Speaker
But this is only possible if the school notifies the state agency that it is making this change and if the student gets a signed note from a parent or doctor.
00:55:46
Speaker
The senators also cite the USDA's own findings, which indicate that 30% of milk cartons served in schools are thrown in the trash unopened, 30%.
00:55:59
Speaker
Another study found that kids discard 150 million gallons of milk per year, which even just in financial terms,
00:56:10
Speaker
amounts to around 400 million US dollars um in in tax losses, as well as obviously the horrific impact it has on those poor dairy cows. Now, students from, this is just a final aside for context, students from institutes participating in the national school lunch program are legally barred from publicly criticizing cow's milk. You're not allowed to criticize it.
00:56:36
Speaker
This came to national prominence a couple of years ago when a student in Los Angeles won a lawsuit against her school, which ruled that students have a right to non-disruptive speech critical of dairy under the First Amendment.
00:56:51
Speaker
But nonetheless, these are signs of optimism, or are they? What do we think? Kate, Carlos, Carlos, why don't you get us going? What are your thoughts on this Are you feeling optimistic? Yeah, absolutely. I feel optimistic. I mean, I shared my story of becoming a vegan here in in this podcast. And one of the reasons I became a vegan is because I just, I had really good access to vegetarian food.
00:57:15
Speaker
And even though I had like the, you know, the motivation, animal welfare, et cetera, et cetera, it was sort always seemed impossible to me to do it until I was in a very unique situation where I had access to amazing freshly cooked ah vegetarian food.
00:57:32
Speaker
And I think children, they you know, the experiences of childhood, they kind of shape the adults we become. And having access to non-dairy milk and to throughout school is an incredible opportunity.
00:57:49
Speaker
Also for vegan parents to be able to put, you know, to to put in signing these notes saying that, you know, my child should not have dairy milk. And that actually being available is a great um advance and and well done for the Republicans getting on board because we all know that veganism is woke. Look, as I like to say in this podcast, we'll take the winds where we can find them. Absolutely. And like like you say, I think the current sort of political climate in Europe america certainly as it's viewed over here from the UK, makes it all the more surprising that there is support from both sides of the House for this one. I mean, Kate, do you think the fact that, I mean, there is ah ah you know a health minister, Robert F. Kennedy, kennedy who's promoting raw milk um and all sorts of other um crazy things and and and and this sort of you can't even criticize dairy milk do you do you think that that side of things are so extreme possibly might even come into favor for this sort of thing like people are wanting to be a bit more reasonable about things
00:58:58
Speaker
Possibly not. I was wondering if it was the same Kennedy, actually. i had to look them up. I thought that would really funny. He's from the same family.
00:59:09
Speaker
Are they related i could be definitely related? related. oh my But this one is, sorry, I don't even know if this the PC term. This this ah RFK Jr., he's deranged.
00:59:21
Speaker
He's got views which have no scientific basis, which is the nicest way of putting it. Yeah, it absolutely barmy, isn't it? I mean, I was oh looking him up with regards to this story some of the things that he was saying about raw milk. It's it's like he's talking about snake oil.
00:59:38
Speaker
You know, he's saying, oh, there's magical powers. It's like, geez, this guy's like that the health minister for like representing 300 million people. It's very worrying considering there is bird flu in cows, in a lot of cow's milk in the US at the minute. It's really quite scary.
00:59:56
Speaker
he's um He's a madman, isn't he? and But I noticed that unfortunately sales of dairy milk have grown by 2% in 2024 with the whole milk.
01:00:07
Speaker
More people are drinking whole milk. And they they are they're getting excited about the raw milk thing, apparently. So um I don't know whether that... I don't know.
01:00:19
Speaker
I don't know. I'm amazed that they don't actually compulsory feed school children with a nasogastric tube milk. Do you know what mean? It's just like... You know, they have to have it on their...
01:00:34
Speaker
You just think, what's wrong with these people? Especially, look, obviously, I mean, I hated milk when I was a kid. don't know about you. I just thought it was disgusting. And so the kids throwing it away because they don't even like it or maybe the because they're plant-based. But also a lot of children are lactose intolerant.
01:00:54
Speaker
And, so you know, especially from certain cultural backgrounds, I think native children, Americans it's 95% of people are they they shouldn't be drinking milk well none of us should be drinking milk it's not meant for us is it well and I think I think the percentages are not too far off 95% for for folk who traditionally come from Latin America and ah as as well as other communities that are ah very prevalent in in in the USA like it's it's madness to make that I mean you you think about it There's no other food or drink that is like routinely Given to people is it is it's not like you get a tin of beans every day or you get a slice of bacon like it is This is the one thing you would have thought surely surely make the the one thing that is given to everyone every day Make it something that's not like a common allergen for a significant proportion
01:01:54
Speaker
aside from the environment, aside from animal rights, you know, at least give someone, at least give everyone something that they can all eat. Well, no, let's make it across the board and let's give everyone peanuts as well, shall we? and That would be safer.
01:02:12
Speaker
yeah yeah a great one yeah Yeah, but please don't give RFK any ideas because you would consider that some sort of, you know, you know penotta actually, nut allergy is a conspiracy in the same way that he's said at the end of September, he's going to reveal why autism has gone up in the recent years.
01:02:33
Speaker
it's it's it's going to be It's going to be vaccines, isn't it? So... or some or some other thing, you know, which has existed for hundreds of years. or And these he's, he has got no proof whatsoever. So don't give him any ideas. Otherwise he would just go, nut allergy also is a conspiracy. Lactose intolerance is a conspiracy. Everything I don't like is a conspiracy.
01:02:53
Speaker
Yeah, it's absolutely insane. I mean, the the percentage of the human population who is not lactose intolerant is very small. It's mostly kind of this sort of kind of westa European populations and their descendants and some some Africans, but, you know, Asians that, you know, forget about it, really.
01:03:14
Speaker
And and we we put this major allergen. I mean, it's not as serious as ah for most people, if they consume dairy, they don't need an EpiPen or face death. But, you know, they they they might go through their whole lives with, with you know, their digestive system not functioning properly, their energy levels low, their mood not as good as it could be. just just Just because the dairy industry bribes doctors to put milk in the, what was it called?
01:03:45
Speaker
The food wheel or whatever it's called, the food pyramid, you know? Yeah, it's absolutely insane. nope I mean, just not even thinking about the animals, just thinking about milk as a food.
01:03:56
Speaker
It's absolutely insane that it's pushed onto children in the way that it is. I had a quick look at um our government website as well, because remembering that I was given it as a child, and I didn't even know it is still a thing.
01:04:09
Speaker
Anthony, you probably know because you're involved in schools and stuff still, but... Yeah, there's a school milk subsidy scheme in the UK. I didn't even know that. Why didn't I know that? And that soya and plant-based milk is not eligible for the subsidy in the UK. So again, we, you know, children plant-based kids are being, whatchamacallitied, again, sorry, I can't get my words out.
01:04:34
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I was going to say my first-hand experience is is now 14 years out of date, but I was teaching in a um an infant school, so sort of like ages four to seven, ah no, four to eight.
01:04:50
Speaker
um And there it was available for every child. ah every Every child had a carton allocated um every morning that wasn't continued at junior school.
01:05:00
Speaker
So it was just the the young children clearly sort of playing into the myth of like, oh, it's really good for building your bones or whatever. And um those statistics of 30% of the cartons thrown in the trash unopened, that would tally with my experience too.
01:05:16
Speaker
Like people just aren't interested in it. and And what a... you know It would be a ah terrible waste of resources and money and energy if everyone was given ah stalk of broccoli and 30% of them were thrown in the bin.
01:05:30
Speaker
But considering the environmental and the physical and emotional impact on those innocent animals that is required to produce that product...
01:05:43
Speaker
you know Even if it was 3% going in the bin, I would be questioning it. The fact that it's 30% is it's disgusting. ah Yeah, I think it's just disgusting because it's yet another way. The dairy industry is raking in the money.
01:05:58
Speaker
And you know apparently, funds used in the supply distribution of milk last year... were £6,264,679.14. Don't forget the 14 pence. That's phenomenal amount of money, it? You know, into dairy industry. that just from schools?
01:06:13
Speaker
pounds and fourteen pence don't forget the fourteen pence and amount of money isn't it you know into the dairy industry so and and that is is that just from schools yeah Yeah, yeah. that's just yes goes best in the yeah Definitely could be used for something more productive, couldn't it? And yeah, good for good for John Fetterman, Cory Brooker and John Kennedy for proposing this bill on the US Congress. And we will keep an eye on it. And if we hear any more on how well it's gone down.
01:06:47
Speaker
And if it's been progressed, then we will let you know on the show. Now, it just remains to be said, thank you so much for listening to our show today. We really hope you've enjoyed it.
01:06:58
Speaker
And if you have, there is a little something that you could do for us that we'd be very grateful for. 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.
01:07:14
Speaker
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.
01:07:30
Speaker
That will also help the show pop up when people search for vegan or animal rights content online. Thanks for your help.
01:07:41
Speaker
Thanks, everybody, for listening. And here's a heads up to the next Enough of the Falafel episode coming out. So that will be Vegan Talk, which will be available from Thursday, 17th of April, featuring Anthony, Dominic and Mark.
01:07:59
Speaker
and they will be discussing when should activists let a campaign drop. Can't wait for that. Anyway, that's enough of the falafel for this episode. Thanks to Anthony and Carlos for your fantastic contributions.
01:08:14
Speaker
And thanks everybody for listening. I've been Kate and you've been listening to Vegan Week from the Enough of the Falafel Collective.
01:08:29
Speaker
This has been an Enough of the Falafel production. We're just a normal bunch of everyday vegans putting our voices out there. The show is hosted by Zencaster. We use music and special effects by zapsplat.com.
01:08:43
Speaker
And sometimes, if you're lucky, at the end of an episode, you'll hear a poem by Mr Dominic Berry. Thanks all for listening, and see you next time.
01:09:10
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? 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...
01:09:31
Speaker
around a dozen news items from around the world each 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.
01:09:45
Speaker
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