Horses in airports?

by

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, along come therapy horses in airports.

OK. I’m going to have to break this down into digestible chunks as this story is not palatable on several levels.

The Transportation Security Authority, the organisation responsible for airport security all over the USA, has recently been in the news for terminating a whole lot of people in order to save money. The TSA thought they could persuade travellers to pay for the express PreCheck lane at security screening. This confident belief led to more than 4,000 airport security screeners losing their jobs which is about 10% of the people in this role.

People have not flocked to the PreCheck lanes as expected resulting in waits of up to three hours in some US airports just to clear security. So lots of people lose their jobs and chaos takes over.

And what do humans do when they create a bad situation? Exploit animals, of course!

This BBC article and this Daily Mail article both highlight not only the loss of income for thousands of people but also how one airport is bringing in ‘therapy ponies’ to help keep people calm as they wait hours to clear security.

mini therapy seven oaks kentucky pony

These unfortunate animals are having their hair coloured and are being paraded through hot and crowded airports so frustrated travellers can touch them as a form of relaxation.

If you would like to explain to this airport that animals do not belong in crowded airports, you can reach them on Twitter.

patreon bottom advert

Why can’t vegans say ‘milk’?

by

A member of an online vegan group I am a part of posted the following message. I asked Daniel if he minded me sharing it here in the hope someone can give him legal advice or insight based on their own experiences as a vegan business owner, either in Scotland or around the UK.

Daniel says:

Posting this to see if any vegan business owners have had a similar experience – I run Juice Warrior and today we had our first environmental health inspection in our new Bathgate premises. They are really not happy about us using the word ‘mylk’. We use this because we don’t like using the term ‘milk’ as in the beginning a lot of people thought we were selling dairy milks. We obviously want to completely separate ourselves from the dairy industry.

They have said ‘milk’ is a protected term by the dairy industry, so we are not allowed to use it as our milks don’t contain any dairy. Apparently this has been referred to the FSA and is going to be an issue with all the dairy free milk companies in the future.

They then said we can’t use the term ‘mylk’ as it sounds too much like milk and it’s a made up term. We pointed out that’s a bit ridiculous as there was once a time when ‘Cola’ didn’t mean anything. It really just became an argument over semantics.

The inspector used to work in a meat factory and I feel he had a problem with us from the get go – constantly backing up the meat and dairy industries and trying to tear apart the raw juice/dairy free industry.

Our kitchen and machinery are kept beyond spotless and if you were to walk in it would look like it’s never used, so we pointed out that we found it frustrating that if you were to walk into a meat factory there would potentially be blood and faeces on the floor. He said this doesn’t matter because you can kill all of that in a frying pan…

He may have a point, but we couldn’t help but feel alienated and wished there was more support for vegan businesses. It seems biased that the meat industry can get away with having blood and guts on their floors but we are being warned that if our carrots go near our apples before cleaning, we could be shut down. Obviously, we make sure we separate our roots vegetables from everything else, it was more the way he said it to us.

I read in a magazine lately of a plant based lobby for vegan businesses starting in America – does anyone know if there is anything like this in the UK yet?

slideshow_5

Get in contact with Daniel on his website or via Twitter if you think you can assist.

south of france cruise

How many vegans in Great Britain?

by

An email popped up today from The Vegan Society with the following information:

Dietary vegans in Great Britain 542,000

Lifestyle vegans in Great Britain 360,000

The Vegan Society have reported that a survey was carried out earlier this year across England, Wales and Scotland by a professional survey company and the findings determined those are the ‘ballpark’ figures of the number of vegans in Great Britain.

The Vegan Society have extrapolated further findings from the research and have highlighted the following:

  • The results show that well over one and a half million people are vegetarian or vegan.
  • Over half a million people follow a vegan diet.
  • More than a third of a million avoid all animal products. That includes food, clothing and other products.
  • Over half a million vegetarians are looking to reduce their consumption of animal products.
  • There are approaching a million vegetarians and vegans who avoid leather, wool and other animal fibres.
  • There are almost twice as many women than men who are vegan.
  • Of all vegans 42% are in the 15-34 age group compared to only 14% of those over 65.
  • 88% of all vegans live in urban areas against 12% who live in rural areas.

There is apparently more detailed analysis published on the charity’s website but the link was not working for me, so please do share in the comments if you find a functioning link to the full facts and figures.

patreon bottom advert

 

100% Vegan Ethiopian Café in London

by

Post by:

josh panel

I don’t know how this escaped my attention, but I just found out today that London has its very own vegan Ethiopian restaurant! Located in Dalston (also home to the incredible FED by water which you can read about here, here, here and here!), Andu Cafe has gone to the top of my list of places to visit when I get back to London in July.

Serving up traditional Ethiopian fayre including the delicious teff pancake injera, people are raving about the place on social media. Check out the photos from Instagram below…

Go here, eat food, SO delicious #anducafe #kingslandroad #hackney

A photo posted by elainekingett (@elainekingett) on

#anducafe #ethiopian #vegan #hackney #dalston 🍈🍋🍅😋

A photo posted by Cam (@royalcam23) on

Like Andu Cafe on Facebook.

south of france cruise

Vegan anti-oppression collective

by

Have you been wondering how a vegan might consider that their personal choices and the language they employ can be linked to furthering or challenging a wide range of oppressions? Is this something you would like to discuss with other curious vegans in a supportive, safe space?

The vegan community in the UK does a lot of valuable outreach, education and activism with the goal of improving outcomes for non-human animals, but many of us are also coming to understand that our animal-positive activities shouldn’t stand alone from other oppressive concerns.

We can and should be considerate of how our activism can perpetuate negative stereotypes and oppressive forces in the world. We can challenge inequality and inequity related to sexism, queerphobia, ageism, ableism as we fight to improve outcomes for animals. We don’t need to choose which type of oppression we resist and fight to redress, we can work against multiple oppressions at the same time.

So what about a vegan anti-oppression learning collective?

I am hoping to find vegans who are interested in forming a collaborative group of people who want to meet regularly in London (and hopefully in other UK locations) to explore topics of connected oppressions and intersectionality theory via suggested readings, public screenings and meeting guest speakers.

Maybe there is already a group like this operating in the capital, so please let me know if there is.

There is a now a private Facebook group you can join where you can help develop the shape, intentions, shared content and outcomes of the collective. We can start to discuss a safe space policy for the group, how we would like the Facebook page to be managed and who will be willing to take on administration duties for the page and future real life meetings.

If you have been thinking about these topics, join the closed Facebook group to help commence the building of the collective.

UK’s first intersectional vegan conference

by

VegFestUK London is hosting the UK’s first pro-intersectionality vegan conference later in 2016. Powerful voices from around the world will gather in London to speak of intersectional theory and how this valuable critical framework (highlighting how an individual can experience multiple, overlapping oppressions) can be applied to the realm of veganism and animal rights.

Read more about the conference here.

One of the key speakers at this conference is Aph Ko, founder of Black Vegans Rock. Click here to read FGV’s recent interview with Aph Ko.

media.discovermine

You can follow VegFestUK on Facebook and Twitter.

patreon bottom advert

New raw café in Central London

by

If you are excited by raw food, news of the impending opening of Rawligion should please you.

The Rawligion Facebook page describes the outlet as specialising in:

Organic, plant based, raw food and drinks including raw chocolates, cold press juice and delicious dairy free milks!

rawligion

The café is located on Tottenham Street, just near Goodge Street Underground Station. Look for their grand opening in either late May or early June.

You can visit the Rawligion website and follow them on Twitter.

Extra note: this news article suggests Rawligion will be completely vegan except for honey in some dishes.

south of france cruise

New vegan street food in Mexico

by

Mexico is too intense. The speed at which the vegan scene is expanding is mind-boggling.

Today I found out about a new vegan hamburger and hot dog stand called Pan D-Monium that opened only two months ago.

Situated in the Roma Norte district, Pan D’Moniun is serving up simple yet delicious vegan comfort food near the corner of Colima and Orizaba.

Check out these photos.

Brand new #vegan burger and hot dog stand opened in Mexico City just two months ago. Pan D’Monium. #cdmx

A photo posted by Fat Gay Vegan (@fatgayvegan) on

How about this awesome hot dog with fries at Pan D’Monium in Mexico City today? #vegan #cdmx

A photo posted by Fat Gay Vegan (@fatgayvegan) on

Fab #vegan burger at Pan D’Monium in Mexico City today. #cdmx #romanorte

A photo posted by Fat Gay Vegan (@fatgayvegan) on

My first trip to eat at this street food stand will certainly not be my last. The food was inexpensive and tasty while the people running the business couldn’t have been nicer.

You can like Pan D’Monium on Facebook.

patreon bottom advert

HUGE vegan festival this weekend

by

The fifth North East Vegan Festival (NEVFEST) organised by Farplace Animal Rescue is taking place this Sunday (May 15, 2016) at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland between 10:30am and 5:00pm.

Farplace Animal Rescue is a no-kill sanctuary based in Westgate, County Durham. Farplace take in all kinds of animals (including wildlife) and profits from this festival go to help care for the animals in the sanctuary.

NEVFEST Press 1

At the event there will be live music, a massive selection of cakes, tasty curries, hot dogs, cosmetics, crafts and much more. Talks have been arranged throughout the day as well as cooking demonstrations and documentaries for viewing.

Get along this weekend!

Visit NEVFEST online, like the event on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

patreon bottom advert

Best vegan restaurant in the UK up for sale

by

In this blog post from last year, I declared Wildebeest to be the best vegan restaurant in the UK.

wildebeest panel

Sad news has just reached me that the owners of this glorious eatery want to step away from the business following the birth of their daughter.

In slightly better news, the owners are looking to sell the restaurant. This is what they recently posted on their Facebook page:

Hello everyone,

We’ve got some news to share… After a lot of thought, it’s time for us to announce that we’ve decided to put Wildebeest up for sale. We’ve had a truly fantastic couple of years starting up and running the restaurant, and the response from the local community and beyond has been incredible. It’s still unbelievable to us when the restaurant is jam-packed and we receive such wonderful reviews (we really do have the best customers), and we’ve met so many lovely people!

But as some of you may know, our daughter Luna was born at the start of the year, and we simply feel that our priorities have changed – running a restaurant requires our full time dedication and we feel we can’t then fully dedicate ourselves to raising Luna as we want to.

Thank you so much to everyone for all of your support, we’re super proud of what we’ve achieved and love the fact that Falmouth has so wholeheartedly embraced a completely vegan establishment. We’ll remain open as normal until some nice person decides to buy the business – we’ll keep you all updated, of course. And hey, if you fancy taking on a thriving vegan restaurant that’s good to go, in a prime Falmouth location, get in touch! Info@wildebeestcafe.com.

Thank you all!

Rose and Josh xxx

——————————————————————————————————————-

OK. Somebody buy this place and keep it going!

south of france cruise