Featured From Sentient Media
Glenn Greenwald and Sentient Media to Create Series on Animal Rights
We’re incredibly honored and excited to announce that Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, vegan, and animal rights activist Glenn Greenwald will join Sentient Media’s very own Grant Lingel for a brand new video series about animal rights.
Every week, Glenn and Grant will sit down together in Rio de Janeiro to unpack the biggest issues in animal rights—factory farming, food politics, animal advocacy, veganism, and much more. We can’t wait to hear what they have to say for the future of the movement.
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The World’s Largest Fast Food Companies Are Failing Chickens
Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals
A new report from World Animal Protection identifies the cruel mistreatment of chickens by suppliers to eight of the world’s largest fast food companies—including Burger King, Domino’s, Starbucks, KFC, Pizza Hut, Subway, Nando’s, and McDonald’s.
Every year, billions of chickens live and die on factory farms. They spend their lives crowded into industrial feeding operations where they barely have enough room to flap their wings. Many suffocate and die to due overcrowding. Then over the course of just 40 days, they reach full size. This unnaturally fast growth cycle and lack of mobility take a toll on their bodies. Many develop lameness and are in constant pain.
Book Review: Why You Eat What You Eat by Rachel Herz
This book is fascinating. We all get hungry, have cravings, and don’t really know why. Let Rachel Herz’s Why You Eat What You Eat: The Science Behind Our Relationship With Food (W.W. Norton & Company 2019) tell you exactly why you eat what you eat in intricate detail. Dietary science is something to wrap your head around–in a bittersweet kind of way–and this book will help you do that.
Fast Food’s Not-So-Secret Vegan (and Vegetarian) Menus
Making the most out of a not-so-good thing can feel, well, kinda good, like ordering off of the secret vegan and vegetarian menu at your local fast food joint. It’s not healthy, but at least it’s vegan. Where else can you get a Spicy Potato Soft Taco for $1?
At burger spots like White Castle, eating vegan is trendy. Ads for the Impossible Slider, made with a mini plant-based Impossible Burger patty, featured the Wu-Tang Clan and Kal Penn, co-star of Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.
At $1.99, the Impossible Slider increased White Castle’s market share at locations selling the Impossible Slider by 250% when it was first released. It’s now available in all 377 White Castle locations nationwide.
But not everyone makes it easy to order vegan. Why are they keeping all these vegan options secret, anyway?
Processed Meats and Your Health: What You Need to Know
The meat industry has evolved over the years to include lots of food products that don’t resemble their original form. Some can say that this is done strategically to create a larger disconnect between people and their food choices.
Processed meats are the products of manipulation that drastically change fresh meat into something else.
This “something else” is designed to be consumed in a convenient and cheap way.
Some of the most popular processed meats include bacon, jerky, sausage, salami, and corned beef. In many cases, processed meats are engineered to last longer on the shelf or to be packaged for fast and easy consumption.
Processed meats are made for the convenience of a growing population that doesn’t have the time or desire to cook.
They are simple solutions in a world that is becoming more and more fast paced by the day.
But what is the cost for these “convenient” food-like products?
The Impossible Burger 2.0 and the Next Generation of Food Tech
Impossible Foods
This year’s big ask from alternative meat maker Impossible Foods? Cheat on beef. On Monday, the new Impossible Burger 2.0 made its debut at CES 2019.
The plant-based food company promises less fat, absolutely no gluten, and the same texture and juiciness as animal meat from their latest burger recipe. The “new new” Impossible Burger wasn’t the only future food innovators imagined this year, but it just might be the brightest.
The Western Diet: Processed Foods and Meats Are Killing Us
It goes by many names: the Western Diet, the Standard American Diet, the Processed Diet. Whatever you call it, though, you need to be aware of its consequences.
Over the years, the Western Diet has created numerous dangers for people who follow it. Unfortunately, many of those people don’t realize they’re harming their body or are unwilling to give up their favorite foods.
Human habits die hard.
One way to escape the Western Diet is to go vegan or vegetarian. Research shows that a cleaner diet is beneficial not only for animals and the environment but also for human health.
A Letter to the Most Factory-Farmed District in the United States
Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals
There are more farm animals than people in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District, represented by none other than Steve King.
If you know what a factory farm is, it probably does not surprise you that animals outnumber people in this rural farming district. It’s on those 750,000 people to stand up for animals against the cruel policies of politicians like Rep. King.
The eight-term Congressman, formerly representing the 5th District, won the 4th this year by his narrowest margin yet. In 2018, a total of 10,523 votes (3.4%) separated King from Democratic challenger J.D. Scholten, who supports family farmers over factory farms and the need to balance environmentalism with what we eat.
Book Review: Dirty Vegan by Matt Pritchard
Matt Pritchard SWYD/YouTube
The latest addition to the vegan main stage is BBC host, skateboarder, author, and legendary prankster Mathew Pritchard. His new vegan cooking show Dirty Vegan launched on BBC last week! Pick up his cookbook by the same name Dirty Vegan (Mitchell Beazley 2018) for a lot more plant-based badassery.
Vegan Weight Loss: Why Veganism Goes Beyond Just Your Diet
The idea of veganism at its core is quite simple: avoiding animal-based food products and products that test on animals. That is veganism in a nutshell.
However, veganism can be a lot more to some. Some vegans are activists. Many aren’t. Some vegans preach to others. Others do it for themselves (and the animals of course).
Veganism can be defined differently depending on who you ask but the above definition is the baseline to which veganism exists.
Most people think of veganism as a diet and not a lifestyle comprised of choices and decisions that expand well beyond one’s food preferences.
Here’s Why Animal Advocates Should Be Excited for 2019
Don’t get me wrong: 2018 was a big year for animals. Animal advocates will have even more opportunities to support animal friendly businesses, politicians, and political activists in 2019. We hope you’re as excited as we are.
Over the past year, animal advocates ate more plant-based products, passed more animal friendly legislation, and began to imagine what a world without animal farming will look like. But there’s still work to do. Here’s a short list of what’s in store for animal advocates this year.