*Update 8 November 2021* *Originally published 14 August 2020* Animal Rebellion is active in over 30 countries, including France, Spain, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Guatemala, South Africa, Israel, South America, North America and Australia. We continue to start new communities in all corners of the world that fight for a just and sustainable future for all: humans, animals, and the planet. In 2019, a small group of Extinction Rebellion members recognised an omission in climate activism: no one was seriously addressing the relationship between people, animals, and the planet. And so, they formed Animal Rebellion to raise awareness about this gap and expose the impact animal agriculture has on the climate and all animals involved, human and non-human. They came together[…]
Why Is Animal Rebellion Standing with UK Farmers
*Originally published 8 July 2020* Animal Rebellion is standing in solidarity with UK Farmers against the new Agricultural Bill 2020. You’re right, this is shocking. Why are we standing with the very farmers who keep the animal agricultural system going? The Agricultural Bill 2020 is a HUGE step backward for our food system and food security. What is the Agricultural Bill 2020? The Bill is replacing European Union (EU) Farming regulations and is setting new, lower standards for the future of British farming. The Bill allows cheaper, lower quality imports into the UK from countries like the US: including hormone-injected beef, chlorinated chicken and eggs. The meat allowed to be imported into the UK is currently illegal according to UK and EU legislation. How[…]
Animal Rebellion Netherlands: Earth Day Letter to Prime Minister
*Originally published 1 May 2020* Emerging from our Cargill action we knew that, for Earth Day, we again wanted to combine a small but strong in-person action, with a broader initiative that the general public could participate in, whilst adhering to the COVID-19 regulations. Our broader action was a country-wide call-out for people to tie signs, designed by artists at Extinction Rebellion, to trees on their daily walk. Meanwhile, a small group of us composed a carefully worded letter and planned its strategic delivery to the Prime Minister, accompanied by a “Sarah doll”. The life sized doll symbolises a woman turning the age of 50 in the Netherlands, which felt apt as it was the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.[…]
Wherever There Is Milk, There Is An Alternative. Arla Must Choose Plant-Based Milk.
Walk through any British supermarket today and you will encounter a vast array of milks. It’s not just green, red, or blue top anymore. Aisles are overflowing with alternatives and people are buying them (a quarter of UK customers). These plant-based options have spilled into cafes and restaurants too. You may find them at your work canteen, at school, at conferences or on trains. Wherever there is tea, there is milk, and wherever there is milk, there is an alternative. With the demand for plant-based milk growing, the UK cannot get left behind. We must choose the right milk to invest in. Although plant milks have been around for thousands of years (horchata and almond milk), the dairy industry has long enjoyed domination[…]
The Rebellion Has Brought the Climate Crisis to the Forefront… Now It Is Time to Address Speciesism
So far Extinction Rebellion and Animal Rebellion have had so much to celebrate. They have achieved great things. Before Extinction Rebellion, the existential threat climate change poses wasn’t widely discussed in popular culture or taken seriously. In the space of a few months XR changed the tone of that conversation forever. This is a massive shift and a great achievement that we can take pride in. We can also celebrate its effectiveness Talk must produce results, and as I write this there is an election coming and climate change is now an election issue even for mainstream parties. Also, the UK government plans a citizens’ assembly to look at the climate emergency (albeit watered down from what has been demanded). This is a result![…]
What Anti-speciesist Rewilding Looks Like — and How to Get There
*Originally published 10 September 2019* Okay, imagine it is year X, when animal products are almost universally seen as unnecessary, unhealthy and a product of a particularly cruel period in our relationship with the planet and its other inhabitants. This is the year when most people shudder in disgust at what only recently was accepted as the norm. The food production system is being completely restructured, with fishers continuing their transition from killing marine animals to planting and harvesting kelp, while farmers are now producing plants for human consumption only. We no longer breed animals in their billions, we no longer subject them to a life of enslavement, and we no longer sentence them to death on the grounds that[…]
Cargill Family, A Historic Choice is upon You: Planetary Destruction or Climate, Animal and Human Justice?
*Originally published 25 October 2019* An open letter from Animal Rebellion to the ‘silent giant’ that holds the fate of many of the world’s forests, billions of worlds’ farmed animals and much of the global food-system in its grip. Over 140 years Cargill, whilst remaining little-known, has grown to be one of the largest traders of commodities for the animal-agricultural industry. Your company is one of a handful that control up to 90% of the worlds grain markets. Your company is also the largest worldwide producer of the grain-based feed for farmed animals and the third-largest “meat processing” company in the world.Today, your agri-business is the largest food-conglomerate in the world. Astonishingly, all this makes your organisation directly accountable for: the life and death experiences of billions of commoditized[…]
Red Tractor: Assuring Animal Cruelty
*Originally published 19 October 2019* Rather than ensuring farm standards, Red Tractor fools the unaware consumer into supporting animal cruelty. ‘Facts are irrelevant. What matters is what the consumer believes’, said Seth Godin, American author and business executive. Animal agriculture and its representatives are well aware of this fact and consumers’ desire to be reassured that the products they purchase are ethical and of high quality. But how many are aware that labels, assurance schemes and terms such as ‘humane’ and ‘farm fresh’ mean very little for the 6.4 billion animals killed for food in the UK every single year? Animal Rebellion has been protesting at the headquarters of Red Tractor, a product certification programme that is made up of a[…]
Where Is the Compassion for Sentient Marine Animals in the Fishing Industry?
*Originally published 12 October 2019* As Animal Rebellion activists invite Billingsgate Fish Market into dialogue on the climate crisis and the plight of the the 2.3 trillion marine animals killed every year, we look at this often forgotten victims of our current food system. It’s easy to forget about fish or to dissociate ourselves from them and them from food, unlike cows, pigs, and sheep, which we see all around us in the landscape. When we order a salmon steak in a nice restaurant, collect a battered cod from the local chippy, or buy our favourite mackerel pate in the supermarket, we’re not usually thinking of these aquatic animals as sentient beings. It’s not often covered in the media that fish are[…]
Love and Fruit in the Time of Catastrophe: Animal Rebellion Converts Smithfield MEAT Market into Smithfield BEET Market
*Originally published 10 October 2019* Animal Rebellion is responding to the climate catastrophe the only way one should: with love and fruit. In the face of total climate (and social) breakdown, Animal Rebellion is challenging our poisonous system in an unconventional but incredibly potent way: with apples, beets, and broccoli and a hefty dose of genuine loving kindness. The images and videos that have been emerging in the press and on social media since October 7th, of hundreds of animal rebels camped peacefully inside the main hall of Smithfield Market, the UK’s largest meat market, and one of the largest in Europe — a symbol of the cruel, toxic, and destructive food system in which we currently live — are magnificently[…]