The RSPCA: What’s not to like? Well, as I found in my time as an RSPCA branch trustee, quite a lot of people find quite a lot of things not to like about the world’s oldest and largest animal welfare charity. On the one hand, the RSPCA does great work in terms of pet and wildlife welfare. It states: “Everything we do is focused on achieving our vision to live in a world where all animals are respected and treated with compassion”. In 2020, the RSPCA investigated over 57,000 complaints of animal cruelty. However, there is a major disconnect between its goals and its stance on meat and dairy. I often had to defend my involvement with the RSPCA (the[…]
Plant-Based Universities: Taking The UK By Storm
As the university year rolls to a close, it’s time to look back on the rise of the Plant-Based Universities campaign! Students across the UK are standing up and demanding their institutions listen to the science and make the just and sustainable transition humans, animals and the planet need to see.
Plant-Based Universities campaigners drop banners on 3 London universities highlighting climate crisis
Students from 3 prestigious universities have unfurled large banners and let off non-toxic smoke flares at key university locations in order to confront their institutions on their cafes and restaurant’s impacts on the climate. The students say they plan to remain in place for one hour before peacefully dispersing. Sofia Carolina Fernandes Pontes, 25, student at London Metropolitan has said “It’s simple, universities have to act on the climate crisis and that begins with their menus. We know that industries like meat, fish, and dairy are driving climate collapse, deforestation, and ocean dead zones. This is all whilst we produce enough to feed ten billion people, yet have hundreds of millions starving all over the world because of our woefully[…]
Veganuary, Food System Change and the Responsibility of Corporations
More than a challenge, Veganuary is making waves in our culture and food industry. We explore how it is direct catalyst for food system change and what is the responsibility of corporations.
Doubt and Lies: the tactics of a struggling meat and dairy industry and why we won’t fall for them
Imagine you’re working for a community organisation. There’s been a problem for many years with people going hungry and an unequal distribution of food. You’ve hired someone to fix it and given them one year to turn things around and develop a plan to feed the community while having a positive impact on the environment. The year comes to an end and, reviewing their work, you find that, far from supporting the community, their solution is fragile, unstable and is having a devastating effect on the local environment. When questioned, their response is that all the reviews are wrong, their system is the only possible system and that’s that. Do you think you’d rehire this person? It’s a pretty obvious[…]
The Plant-Based Universities campaign is a movement in universities across the UK, with students demanding their institution transition to 100% just and sustainable plant-based catering on campus by the 2023-24 academic year.
With international interest from students in The Netherlands and Australia, the campaign is rapidly spreading as groups of students lead the push for their institution to stop the sale of environmentally-destructive food and drink options.
These are the institutions preparing so many for the future, a future they have a responsibility to ensure is there for their students. The climate crisis cannot be averted whilst the world’s top centres of education continue complicity in the emissions and injustice perpetrated by the production of things like meat, fish, and dairy.
Universities are where we get so much climate science from, and as such they have a responsibility to listen to it. With industries like meat, fishing, and dairy producing more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire transport sector, plant-based catering on campus is the only future-proof option.
Animal Rebellion offers training, resources, and support to decentralised groups of dedicated students far and wide. Any students wanting to get involved only need to fill out this interest form and we’ll be in touch!
Want to find out more and stay up to date?
- Follow Plant-Based Universities on Instagram
- Read our blog post: Introducing Plant Based Universities
Joining the dots between the climate crisis and a plant-based food-system
Animal Rebellion is all about joining the dots between the climate emergency and the urgent need to transition to a plant-based future. We can’t have the first without the second. For many of us, this is obvious – the evidence is clear. However, why do so many organisations and people still fail to make the connection?
2022: Some New Year’s Resolutions For a Plant-Based Future
It’s that time where we all think about what we want to do and be in the coming year. With that in mind, here are some various resolutions for a plant-based future … Well 2021 was a wild year, with blockades, beacons, and lock-ons aplenty! More can be read about those here or seen here. Animal Rebellion did a fantastic job in showing McDonalds, Arla (The UK’s biggest dairy producer,) and even the British government where they’re going wrong! With that in mind we wanted to invite the meat, dairy, and fishing industries to make some resolutions of their own to secure a just and sustainable plant-based future! Let’s start it off nice and simple shall we? McDonald’s and Arla,[…]
Introducing Plant-Based Universities
Universities, the sources of a great deal of the Global North’s scientific study and revolutionary thought, are once more bearing witness to demands for system change. The system in question this time? The unjust, unsustainable food system characterised by the meat, fishing, and dairy industries. This is the system that drives Amazon deforestation1, contributes a staggering amount of greenhouse gas emissions2, leaves 805 million of the world’s most vulnerable people hungry3, whilst simultaneously slaughtering trillions of animals needlessly each year4. The oldest university in the English-speaking world, Oxford, has published several papers exploring and explaining the environmental benefits of transitioning to plant-based foods5. Besides this, dozens of British universities have declared a climate emergency, evidently these institutions are recognising the[…]
How a just and sustainable plant-based food system could change the world
With animal agriculture causing enormous harm to our environment it’s time to consider more sustainable ways of eating. It’s time to consider: What would a world with a plant-based food system look like?