Sampla is a sustainable footwear startup from Ireland, and in their current Kickstarter campaign, they're offering a new pair of animal-friendly shoes made from … apples?!

Rethinking the classic tennis shoe, the upper material of our shoe is made from a vegan material called AppleSkin™. It is made using repurposed apple waste from the juice industry in Italy. The other components of the shoe were carefully selected. Organic and recycled materials were consciously chosen where possible. Nice, simple and sustainable.

Partnering with Trees on the Land, we will plant an indigenous tree in Ireland for each pair produced. To keep carbon emissions as low as possible, our logistics partner sends our shoes using the most optimal route for each delivery. They are neatly packed and sent in our 0% plastic packaging.

And a little more detail about the actual process behind the AppleSkin™:

The apple core, pips and skins are dried and milled to a fine apple powder. Then it’s applied to a tear-resistant woven roll with cotton fabric. These rolls are heated and given an added protective layer to produce a weather-resistant durable fabric. Organic pigments are added to the brown fabric, producing colours of choice. We are left with a material that is breathable, durable, and of course, 100% vegan.

The Kickstarter Campaign has an "Early Bird Special" that'll run you about $100 for a pair of apple shoes and a t-shirt (plus the carbon offset tree planting). This is apparently about 40% less than what would ultimately be the retail price. Read the rest

Tracy Kiss calls herself a "natural vegan bodybuilder." Which is confusing, because semen is definitely derived from animals. But, Kiss insists, it's also an essential multivitamin that helps keep her in shape — and, perhaps most crucially, boosts her immune system to prevent infection by the novel coronavirus. From The Sun:

The personal trainer has also been putting the product on her skin, which she dubs "nature's multivitamin", as part of healthcare routine for more than three years.

She reckons it's packed with vitamin C, calcium and magnesium - so is urging people to use semen to keep healthy during the pandemic.

Mum-of-two Tracey, from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, said: "It isn't for everyone but it is packed full of vitamins and I haven't had a cold or flu ever since drinking it in 2017 - I also put it on my face to clear up my skin.

"The purity of it is just wonderful."

To be clear, there is no scientific evidence to support Kiss's theory. I'm fairly certain there's no evidence to support the idea that semen is vegan friendly, either, but what do I know. Read the rest

If you can't or won't or just don't drink cow milk, Starbucks has a new option for you. Read the rest

Eating the stuff that cows eat instead of eating cows is so hot right now! It's fine by me: last summer, I had the opportunity to nosh an Impossible Burger while I was in Boston. It was absolutely delicious (although I did have bacon with it, so there's that) and, as it's better for me and better for the planet, I'm all in on the idea. Protein-rich plant-based faux-meat is the way of the future, friendos. As it slowly gains popularity in restaurants and homes across America, it's also making a dent up north.

From The CBC:

Tim Hortons announced Wednesday that starting immediately, the chain's 4,000 locations across Canada are offering breakfast sandwiches made with Beyond Meat patties, a plant-based meat alternative whose popularity seems to be soaring.

The chain will offer three varieties of the Beyond Meat patty, including in an English muffin with egg and cheese, in a tortilla wrap with egg, cheese and other ingredients, or in a 100 per cent vegan form on a baked biscuit with lettuce and tomato.

For anyone that's every had to suffer through a Tim Horton's breakfast sandwich over the past few years, this could be great news: anything would be better than the taste sensation of an over-spiced sausage patties on a dryer-than-a-popcorn-fart biscuit that the chain has been churning out of late. Timmy's won't be the first chain in Canada to get in on the Beyond Meat action. A&W--which in Canada is superior in almost every way to the American chain of the same name--has been offering Beyond Meat burgers, for some time now. Read the rest

I've got a lot of pals that maintain a vegan diet. Some do it for ethical reasons. Others dig it simply because removing animal products from the menu has had a tremendous effect on their overall health. Hell, I recently started a diet where I've had to eliminate carbs, reduce my meat intake, and take the majority of my proteins from nuts and other sources that haven't mooed, clucked or swam at one point or another. In just a few weeks, I found that switching it up provided me with more energy, less trouble with my guts and a significant amount of weight loss, thanks to my body entering ketosis.

Yet, as much as I respect veganism, and the various shades of vegetarianism out there, I have to agree with a recent op-ed from the aptly named Isabella Tree, published in The Guardian: eating plants isn't going to save us from global warming or other environmental disasters.

From The Guardian:

Much has been made of the methane emissions of livestock, but these are lower in biodiverse pasture systems that include wild plants such as angelica, common fumitory, shepherd’s purse and bird’s-foot trefoil because they contain fumaric acid – a compound that, when added to the diet of lambs at the Rowett Institute in Aberdeen, reduced emissions of methane by 70%.

In the vegan equation, by contrast, the carbon cost of ploughing is rarely considered. Since the industrial revolution, according to a 2017 report in the science journal Nature, up to 70% of the carbon in our cultivated soils has been lost to the atmosphere.

Read the rest

The Game Changers is a new documentary about the vegan movement within sports and physically demanding occupations. It's by Louie Psihoyos (director of The Cove) and executive produced by James Cameron. Read the rest

In 2015, animal rights activist James Aspey of Australia took a vow of silence for an entire year as a publicity stunt to "raise awareness for animals and promote peace over violence." After not speaking for 365 days, James went on the Australian morning show Sunrise to share with viewers why he sacrificed his voice for critters.

Here's his story:

At 17 I was diagnosed with leukaemia and told I had 6 weeks to live. I beat the cancer after 3 years of chemotherapy and during that time I began partying and abusing drugs. Lots of drugs. I became a passionate personal trainer so I could help others with their health. After 7 years while working on a cruise ship, partying way too much and developing an eating disorder, I met a wise Indian man who told me eating animals is bad karma.

I went vegetarian for a 7 day experiment and felt surprisingly great. I researched into the health benefits and realised I'd been missing out! Cutting animal products from your diet is incredibly healthy and reduces our chances of developing so many illnesses and diseases. The food also happens to be delicious!

Upon more research I discovered the shocking and violent truth of what is being done to animals for food, clothing, entertainment and medical testing. It led me to the question, "If we don't need to kill and eat animals to be healthy, what are we doing this for?" The best justifications I could find were incredibly weak and still to this day I haven't heard a good excuse.

Read the rest

PETA and Morissey released This Beautiful Creature Must Die, an anti-meat game where the goal is to save animals from slaughter. Play it below. The soundtrack is a chiptune version of, you guessed it, The Smith's "Meat is Murder."

"This game is the biggest social crusade of all, as we safeguard the weak and helpless from violent human aggression," Moz said. "You don't get that from Pokémon Go."

(Rolling Stone)

Read the rest

Today we go to a future where animal products are banned. It’s one that lots of listeners have asked for so here you go. We talk about what happens to the land, the animals and the humans in this equation.

Flash Forward: RSS | iTunes | Twitter | Facebook | Web | Patreon | Reddit

In this episode we discuss the arguments in favor and against banning meat. How does that impact culture? Why should we do it? Does it help or hurt the environment? Can you really grow meat in a lab? And is that meat vegan?

▹▹ Full show notes Read the rest

Alex Lambert used to be head chef at the Littleover Lodge Hotel in Derby, UK. That was before he posted on Instragram that he enjoys feeding meat to unsuspecting vegans.

From NZ Herald:

The chef and father-of-one has since denied he ever fed meat to anybody against their will. He claimed he only made the comment on Instagram to irritate a vegan woman he'd gotten into an argument with.

In his bitter exchange, he wrote to the woman: "Well you should find a better way to spend your time, my personal favourite is feeding vegans animal products and them not knowing."

The woman replied: "Hope you get caught one day, would love to see that. I know we're a minority and really don't give a sh*t because that has no relevance. Enjoy the heart disease."

After a group of vegans threatened a boycott of the hotel, Lambert was fired. He insists he doesn't really give animal products to unsuspecting vegans, and only claimed that he did to wind the woman up. He issued a statement, saying:

"I have been a chef for nine years. I have never in this time done anything like feeding a vegan animal products or slipped in contaminated food.

"My job has always been my passion and something I have always taken very seriously. It was a stupid comment said out of anger.

"For the record I have no issue with vegans." Read the rest

Crew members on Expedition 44, including NASA's one-year astronaut Scott Kelly, harvested some "Outredgeous" red romaine lettuce Monday, Aug. 10, from the Veggie plant growth system on the nation’s orbiting laboratory.

Raphael Brion: "the website Vegan Sellout List ... is a refined mix of unchecked self-righteousness and threats of actual physical violence." [Eater] Read the rest