Monthly Hopium Injection #12

2024/04: A slaughterhouse closes and an animal sanctuary opens!

To the 19 new people here, welcome! Here’s what this is:

Ho·pi·um

A Vegan cocktail of “hope” and “opium,” prescribed as a healthy dose of optimism, without the need for clinical trials.

Because here, the evidence speaks for itself.

This is a showcase of a VEGAN WORLD coming: hopeful Vegan news from the last month, all here, all NOW.

You ready?

Let’s hit it!

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🇺🇸 US Gives More Access to Free Plant Foods:

• The US WIC program gives low-income women, infants, and children a monthly stipend to spend on what was previously a limited selection of foods. Now, these participants get to enjoy access to four times more fruits, vegetables, grains, and plant-based alternatives to dairy!

The first 1000 days are the most important for the healthy development of a Human being. With increased access to powerful plant foods like canned beans, tofu, and quinoa, it’s getting easier to ensure people from all backgrounds can grow up healthily with plants :)

🇪🇺 EU Rules Climate Change a Rights Violation:

• EU countries - even “neutral” ones - are now legally obligated to protect their citizens from the threats and harms of climate change.

The lawsuit comes from a group of 2500 Swiss women over the age of 65 who were displeased with Switzerland’s lack of climate action to protect them from heat-related death! Taking this further, this can mean EU nations must reduce their production of animal-based “foods.”

• This follows yet another report from the European Environment Agency urging for the EU to quicken its plant-based food transition to avoid catastrophic damage to Earth!

🐴 USDA Bans Cruel Horse Practices Nationwide:

According to the Humane Society,

“Soring involves the intentional infliction of pain to a horse's legs or hooves in order to force the horse to perform an artificial, exaggerated gait.”

• The newly strengthened Horse Protection Act makes soring, as well as the use of devices integral to soring, illegal in all 50 states.

After a decade of activism to make this unexpectedly common but cruel practice illegal, it finally is. Horses can now walk naturally and comfortably :)

🇩🇪 Germany Opens 1st 100% Vegan Supermarket:

• Rewe Fully Plant-Based, a Vegan supermarket with over 2,700 Vegan products, opens its doors to a street that sees over 90,000 pedestrians walk by every day.

If it ends up being successful, the company has plans for a nationwide expansion. Germany has quite a large Vegan population, so here’s to hoping that’ll come true!

🇪🇸 48% of Spaniards Are Eating Less Meat:

• A pan-european survey found found that 48% of Spaniards report reducing their meat consumption over the last year.

This spells hopeful news for the Spanish Vegan movement, as 45% of Spaniards also reported increased confidence in plant-based products! When the alternatives are good, it’s just so much easier to be Vegan.

🇺🇸 Veganuary Promotes National Chicken-Free Week:

• With enthusiastic support from US brands and restaurants, Veganuary will be flooding the nation with information on replacing chickens and their eggs with plant-based alternatives.

This will coincide with the often overlooked International Respect for Chicken’s Day on May 4th. While everyone is saying “May the 4th be with you,” we’ll be saying “may we respect the chickens!” ;)

🇳🇱 44% of Proteins Sold in Dutch Markets Were Vegan:

• Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn has its own plant-based label line with over 200 Vegan products! They’re aiming to make 50% of all their protein sales from plant-based sources by 2025.

Albert Heijin has dominated the supermarket scene in the Dutch capital, so I expect no less from this same place voted by Happy Cow as the 4th most Vegan-friendly city in the world: Amsterdam!

🇧🇩 1st Vegan Festival in Bangladesh Was A Success:

• Documentary screenings, dialogue-sharing sections, cultural performances, sustainable fashion businesses, and of course, Vegan food stalls filled a small residential building in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

We’re everywhere, and we will celebrate it!

⚡️ Cultivated Meat Facility Outperforms Most Efficient Animal Farm:

• SuperMeat’s 3rd-party Life Cycle Analysis found its cultivated chicken facility had 47% lower emissions vs the most efficient chicken farm.

This is crazy considering that the “most efficient chicken farm” they used as a benchmark isn’t even real...It’s a farm that would, in theory, feed chickens soy from deforestation-free sources and use renewable energy for power. Even then, a better way exists!

🌭 1st Ever Cultivated Meat Tasting in EU:

“Meatable, a Dutch producer of cell-based pork meat, has become the first company to hold an officially approved cultivated meat tasting in the European Union, and the first in the Netherlands.”

Just last month, I reported that this company can go from cell to sausage in just 4 days, so it’s only a matter of time before these tastings turn into real sales!

💨 Protein “Made from Thin Air” Scales to Commercial Level:

• Solar foods is opening up a facility that can produce the same amount of protein as a 300-Cow dairy farm, but truly sustainably.

What’s great is that their protein, Solein, doesn’t use water and soil, it uses water and carbon dioxide:

“Solein is 100 times more efficient in converting energy to calories than animals.”

As food science advances, the food system of our Vegan world will be indistinguishable from magic.

🐶 120 Dogs Rescued from Dog-fighting Operation:

“This week the Humane Society of the United States assisted law enforcement with the rescue of over 120 dogs from an alleged dog-fighting operation throughout multiple properties in Cumberland County, New Jersey.”

Let’s extend the legislation that made this rescue possible to all animals. In the meanwhile, I’m happy these dogs have a chance at a new and peaceful life, :,)

✈️ UK Airline De-lists All Animal-Based Attractions:

• The British multinational airline EasyJet will stop promoting all tours that include animal-based attractions: marine parks, zoos, animal performances, animal rides, and sporting events involving animals are all off the table.

It’s far from responsible travel, but so much closer to silently shaming away practices that exploit non-Human animals.

🎪 Elephants Removed from “Great American Circus”:

• After countless protests and over 250,000 emails shaming the Hadi Shriners Circus and their sponsors, the circus was finally forced to stop using elephants in their acts.

This is hopeful news for the elephants, as they will be freed from slavery and bull hooks - cruel devices used to tear into their flesh to force a performance. Be free!

👗 Copenhagen Fashion Week Bans Exotic Animal Skins & Feathers:

• Denmark’s biggest fashion week will be free of animal skins from snakes and crocodiles as well as feathers.

Helsinki Fashion Week, Stockholm Fashion Week, and Melbourne Fashion Week have already banned exotic skins from their runways, but Copenhagen takes a step further by banning feathers as well. Just 2 years ago, they banned fur, so I hope in another two years they’ll ban all animal leather! Slowly but surely, we’re removing incentives to continue the cruel exotic animal trade.

🚫 Another Tyson Slaughterhouse Shutting Down:

• Due to decreased demand of meat and poultry, Tyson will be closing an Iowa slaughterhouse responsible for killing 9,000 pigs every day.

Last year, Tyson closed 6 Chicken killing facilities and 2 “case-ready meat processing plants.” This is the 3rd Tyson slaughterhouse closure of 2024, and the biggest thus far. Over the next year, this closure means 3.28 million pigs will be spared from Tyson’s cruelty. The world is a bit more peaceful now.

✅ IMPOSSIBLE Foods Opens up Cattle Rescue Ranch:

• Partnering closely with the former land owners, IMPOSSIBLE Foods is repurposing a 70-acre cattle ranch to grow soybeans, sunflowers, and coconut trees, all the while providing sanctuary to rescued Cows.

A slaughterhouse closes, and an animal sanctuary opens. This is the cycle we need to sustain for a VEGAN WORLD NOW.

And this is what that Vegan world can look like. :,)

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Do you feel the Hopium now, my dear reader?

Jokes aside, what from this list are you most excited about? Skeptical of? The discussion continues in the comments below!

As always, I am grateful for your time and attention - thank you.

Be Vegan,
Dani