Stanford Biologist Hails New Plant Based Meat Indistinguishable from Animal Flesh

Brown began his work several years ago when he decided to focus the rest of his life upon solving the challenge of weaning the world off of animal farming. He described such animal farming as an “inefficient technology millennia old” that also represents “by far the biggest environmental catastrophe” during a press conference held at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Vancouver on Feb. 19. … READ ON

Placing the Chicken Before the Egg

This morning I woke up at 4 am and had a startling observation about chickens. I think I realized that over the last couple of years I’ve been trying to understand what their true intentions are. To learn this, we must first shed our human bias that prevents us from really understanding their true nature. That means for a moment not seeing them as a source of eggs or meat or anything but an animal worthy of observing. Provide them with a safe and caring environment that is free from expectations of producing something for us and show a bit of interest in them and what begins to happen? They begin to seek our companionship. … READ ON

Sow and Piglet Cruelty Investigation Surfaces at a Hormel Breeding Operation

While employed at Hawkeye Sow Centers (HSC), a pig breeding factory farm in Leland, Iowa, a COK investigator wore an undercover camera to document the day-to-day miseries forced upon thousands of female pigs—who are intensively confined in tiny crates where they can’t even turn around—and their piglets, who endure painful mutilations without any relief. … READ ON

Like Us, A Video Short on the Science-Based Discoveries of Non Human Animal Intelligence

Like Us is a 6 and a half minute video short that explores the connection between human and non human animals. Like Us uses sound, images and the latest science to show how recent discoveries in non-human animal intelligence dispel age-old myths still popular today. Collectively these discoveries shift the paradigm — away from the dominant view that animals are resources to our own ends and toward the view that animals indeed possess the intention to live a life shaped by their own unique interests. … READ ON

In Chipotle’s Video, the Solution to Factory Farming Is Returning to Old McDonald’s Farm

Chipotle’s new animated ad denounces factory farming and depicts renegade farmers going back to a traditional way of farming reminiscent of Old McDonald’s Farm, giving false hope to millions. But there is no turning back to where we started with a population now at 7 billion and expected to shoot up to 9 billion by 2030. To meet the current standards of demand for meat, dairy and eggs, the number of animals killed for food is expected to double by 2050, from the current 60 billion to 120 billion a year. There is no viable solution to factory farming and animal exploitation other than shifting our consumption from animas to plants. … READ ON

A Bittersweet Betrayal: Dogs, Rabbits and Rats Killed to Test a New Sweetener

In a series of shocking experiments which came to light in late 2011, a sweetener known as Advantame was force fed to over 44 dogs, nearly 100 rabbits and 360 rats, ultimately resulting in all being killed after months or years. In an additionally cruel twist, the sweetener tested was not even a ‘new’ product – having been derived directly from aspartame – another sweetener which has been tested extensively and is already widely consumed by the public
[2]. Experiments were funded and carried out by the Japanese company, Ajinomoto Co. … READ ON

Samuel the Jersey Calf: The Hidden Face of Dairy

The story of Samuel the dairy calf is an important one because it depicts the typical fate of male calves that are purely incidental “byproducts” of keeping dairy cows pregnant and lactating so they may produce a steady flow of mammary glad secretions we call milk. After just 4 to 5 cycles of pregnancy these dairy cows will become what the industry calls “spent” and in their fragile end of production state, the reward for their free labor is to be hauled off on often long and grueling journeys to slaughterhouses where they will meet the same violent end as animals raised for meat. … READ ON

Vegan Leafleter Wins Philadelphia Court Settlement for Illegal Arrest Case

The city of Philadelphia has agreed to pay $15,000 to Edward Coffin, an animal rights activist who was illegally arrested and held for two hours for handing out fliers on a public sidewalk outside a Whole Foods store. The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit on Coffin’s behalf in December 2011. … READ ON

The River of Blood That Flows from Dallas, TX to Koscierzyna, Poland

The coincidence of finding the same kind of story in two completely different parts of the world on the same day seems uncanny. Or is it far more common than we care to know? On the same day, I found two news stories surface, one about a river of pig blood coming from a slaughterhouse in a small town in Poland called Koscierzyna and the other, about pig blood flowing down a river in Dallas, TX. … READ ON