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Flat-lay of friends eating vegan and vegetarian Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving dinner with pumpkin pie, roasted vegetables, fruit and rose wine. Foxys_forest_manufacture / Royalty-free / iStock / Getty Images
Thanksgiving can be a tricky holiday if you're trying to avoid animal products — after all, its unofficial name is Turkey Day. But, as more and more studies show the impact of meat and dairy consumption on the Earth, preparing a vegan Thanksgiving is one way to show gratitude for this planet and all its biodiversity.
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By Anne-Sophie Brändlin
October 16 marks World Food Day this year, a day celebrated every year by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
World Food Day is a call to make healthy and sustainable diets affordable and accessible for everyone, while nurturing the planet at the same time.
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This map highlights by geographic region the leading underlying driver of food loss and waste. WRI analysis based on FAO (2011) and HLPE (2014)
The UN set a global goal to cut food loss and waste in half by 2030. Alarming figures show just how big of a challenge remains.
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Animal rights activists give water to pigs arriving by truck to the Farmer John slaughterhouse in the early morning hours on Sept. 27, 2018 in Vernon, California. Twice weekly Pig Vigils draw activists who oppose the slaughter of pigs for food at this facility. David McNew / Getty Images
By Ketura Persellin
You probably care a lot about how your fruits and vegetables are grown. You may not think as much about where your family's animal protein comes from, but the conditions in which most meat, poultry and even dairy is produced may give you and your kids pause — even those most likely to clamor for yet another burger or hot dog.
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We are thrilled to announce our third challenge of the year in hopes of inspiring you to take part in a sustainable solution. It's simple: go vegan for 10 days, talk about it in your daily life and create social media posts about your experience using the hashtag #Vegan4TenDays. For a chance to be featured on EcoWatch's Instagram, tag EcoWatch in your stories.
Going vegan is proven to be the best thing you can do for the planet so EcoWatch teamed up with the executive producer of What the Health? Sailesh Rao and VBites head of marketing Jasper Wilkins via Facebook Live to break down the vegan lifestyle for you in a digestible manner.
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Ivan / Getty Images
By Dan Nosowitz
There has been much concern in recent years about the encroachment of factory farms onto organic territory; with the premium prices organic foods can bring, many larger farms have engaged in a race to the bottom of quality, trying to just barely squeak above the organic regulations to grab that label without adhering to the spirit of the law.
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By Ronnie Cummins
Factory farming and fish production are now a multi-trillion-dollar monster with a growing and devastating impact on public health, animal welfare, small farmers and farmworkers, rural and fishing communities, ocean marine life, water quality, air pollution, soil health, biodiversity and last but not least, global warming.
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Angering Organic Farmers and Advocates, Trump's USDA Kills Animal Welfare Rule
13 March 2018
Animals
Wilfredorrh / Flickr
By Jessica Corbet
Angering organic farmers and advocates, the Trump administration announced on Monday that it will officially withdraw a rule that would have added animal welfare regulations for meat, eggs and dairy marketed as "organic."
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Nearly all dairy cows live in factory farms, which make up 99 percent of farms, and they spend their lives almost entirely indoors. Shutterstock
By Rachel Krantz
For most of my life, I genuinely believed the false advertising used to sell dairy. When I learned the truth—that nearly all cows used for dairy are kept inside, locked up, forcibly inseminated, and hooked up to painful milking machines—I was heartbroken. How had I never put two and two together: that for humans to consume cow's milk, mother cows must have their calves taken?
I had been duped by dairy brands, whose misleading ads have never been regulated, despite truth-in-advertising laws. This discrepancy prompted a 2003 lawsuit involving the "Happy Cows" campaign, but the case was thrown out over a technicality. "The state's false advertising law simply doesn't apply to the government," explained Mercy For Animals lawyer Rachel Faulkner. The 'Happy Cow' ads were run by the California Milk Advisory Board, a marketing arm of the California Food and Agriculture Department.
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Meat and Dairy Greenhouse Emissions 'Could Lead Us to a Point of No Return'
09 November 2017
Climate
Cows on a dairy farm. U.S. Department of Agriculture / Flickr
Three of the world's largest meat producers emitted more greenhouse gases in 2016 than France, putting them on par with oil companies such as ExxonMobil, BP and Shell, a recent study found.
GRAIN, a non-profit organization, collaborated with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and the Heinrich Böll Foundation to estimate the greenhouse emissions of meat and dairy corporations, a figure that few companies calculate or publish.
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About 10 years ago, Monsanto's genetically engineered bovine growth hormone, rBST or rBGH, was in trouble. Leading dairy processors and major supermarket chains, such as Wal-Mart, Costco, Kroger and Safeway were banning the use of rBST in dairy production. Monsanto had big plans for rBST, which is injected into cows to increase milk production. But consumers didn't like the idea of consuming milk, one of the the most wholesome foods, with GMO hormones. As a result, dairy products labeled "rBST-free" became common.
To counter consumer opposition, a Monsanto PR firm launched a "grassroots advocacy group" with a slick website called "American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology" (AFACT). The aim was to defend farmers' use of rBST and "educate" the public about it.
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