Summer 2011 Highlights
Vegan
Society Chair of Council in the News
Your local
newspapers, radio stations, magazines and TV programmes can be a valuable way
to share your passion for healthy vegan lifestyles. Our Chair of Trustees, George Rodger, was
interviewed in his capacity as a Local Contact during UK National Vegetarian
Week by the Scottish newspaper, The
Herald. This was for Go green in your golden years – an
article on older vegetarians/vegans.
Concern for
the planet was the motivation for George Rodger going vegan. The interview was a great opportunity for
George to highlight how vegans meet their nutritional needs. He was quoted as saying: “I take a supplement with B12 but apart from
that, I try to get it from natural sources. The soya milk that I use is reinforced with
calcium and B12 so I get enough of these two things from the soya milk, plus
green vegetables.” George said that he
also eats more whole grains, pulses, vegetables and fruit than he did before he
was vegan.
Would you
like your local media to share the benefits of veganism with their readers or
listeners? It can happen. Look and listen out for a local reporter who
is interested in related issues like global climate change, food security,
farmer poverty, ‘animal welfare’, healthy eating or creative recipes. Get in touch with our Media Officer, Amanda
Baker: media@vegansociety.com with the name of the journalist, and she will help you.
Bristol VegFest
A great
annual event, VegFestUK, known previously as Bristol Vegan Fair, then Bristol
Eco-Veggie Fair, has been a date on many vegans’ calendar since 2003. Right in
the centre of Bristol, the fair takes over much of Harbourside, forming a vegan
oasis for the weekend.
The Vegan
Society was also one of the event sponsors and our stand received lots of
interest from members of the public. We
answered many questions from individuals wanting to take on a vegan lifestyle
but struggling to overcome one or two obstacles for them. Over 650 booklets on vegan nutrition were
given out at the fair, supporting healthy, happy vegans. We are confident the presence of our stand
with our friendly and knowledgeable staff meant that more vegans left VegFestUK
at the end of the day than walked into the event.
We also
supported many existing vegans over the weekend with information and
merchandise. In particular, the new
orange-flavoured Veg1 multivitamin supplement proved to be a popular
alternative to the original blackcurrant-flavour.
Vegan Society CEO Interviewed for
Dairy 2020 Project
The Vegan
Society CEO at the time of this interview, Nigel Winter, was interviewed on the
future of the dairy industry for the Dairy 2020 project which aims to answer: “what does a sustainable dairy industry look
like, and what contribution can it make to a sustainable world?” The steering group includes Forum for the
Future, Volac, First Milk, DairyCo, Dairy UK, NFU and Asda They will then run
workshops with 40 people to design a number of scenarios for the dairy industry
in 2020. The results should be made
available in October/November. Nigel was
given the opportunity to present our vision for the future and explain how that
could be achieved. He was told he could
be as bold as I wanted, so he explained why we do not need a dairy industry at
all.
Making the Connection
Nearly 30,000
people have viewed The Vegan Society film (made with Environment Films) Making the Connection online. Over 8,000 of these were
referrals from the site: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/making-connection/
Best Vegan Friendly Magazine
The Vegan magazine has won the 2011 VegfestUK
Award. Full details can be found on the
website: http://bristol.vegfest.co.uk/current-results
Thank you to all those who nominated us.
Back-Issues of The Vegan
There are now
back-issues of the The Vegan magazine
up on our website: http://www.vegansociety.com/resources/magazine/Back-issues.aspx
Vegan Society CEO on TV
Our new
Chief Executive Officer (due to start work 5 September), Jasmijn de Boo,
was asked by the BBC to participate in the Big Questions live TV show on
Sunday 1st May to discuss the question of whether endangered animals need
rights. Along with Anat Pick,
philosopher and lecturer at the University of East London, Jasmijn defended
the proposition. Opposing the need
for rights were primatologist Ian Redmond and the editor of Sporting Rifle
magazine, and trophy hunter, Peter Carr.
Anat
opened the debate by pleading for a paradigm shift away from the
conventional animal use and animals as objects or resources arguments,
towards a world in which we recognise that all sentient beings deserve
respect and should be granted equivalent rights to humans. We share this world with other forms of
life and are not superior to other beings.
While Ian
Redmond is actively involved in (endangered) animal conservation, through
work with the Born Free Foundation, which proposes compassionate
conservation, and other initiatives, he believes that the discussion on
rights will divide a room of people.
However, talking about compassion, respect, increased protection and
improved enforcement of existing laws and international conventions will
unite people to take action, he said.
The
hunter, Peter Carr, admitted he had killed about 30-40 elephants. He said he loved animals and was a
champion for elephants. He claimed
that hunting has a place in wildlife management, and that the money raised
through this would go straight back into communities. Jasmijn argued that this was not
sustainable and that while local communities need support, this could be
achieved through sustainable eco-tourism and other ways.
Jasmijn
said that conservation experts believe we are currently in the 6th mass
extinction since fossil records began; a situation which is unacceptable
and unethical. She also mentioned
that a European Commission report in 2008 had estimated that by
not taking action, the loss in ecosystem services such as arable land,
potable water, sustainable use of resources such as medicinal herbs and
plants, and recreational use, could cost up to 14 trillion Euros. We cannot afford inaction and have to
invest in biodiversity now. The
current wildlife conventions do not go far enough and do not adequately
protect animals. We need to send a
stronger message to the world:
animals need rights!
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