LindaMcCartneyFoods New TV Advert

LindaMcCartneyFoods (MeatFreeTweets) on Twitter and TV

Linda McCartney Foods, now owned by Hain Europe, tweeted this morning that they are to launch a new TV advertising campaign to claw back some of the market share they've lost to Quorn.

Grassroots vegan activists are dissappointed and exasperated that the Linda McCartney Brand hasn't played to it's vegan strengths to combat egg and dairy containing Quorn. So many of the new Linda McCartney products have dairy or egg in , particularly disappointing are the new vegetarian prawns which contain milk protein making them unsuitable for the Dairy Free, Vegan and Kosher markets.

Other Meat Free Food companies such as Redwoods, Frys, Vegusto, Wheaty, Goodlife, Amy's are managing to keep their Vegan Kudos alive and kicking with a "Sustainable, Delicious and Suitable For Everyone" theme and with a constant stream of new innovative sustainable products that can be enjoyed by all.

Animal Welfare

The trouble is that by adding dairy and egg into the ingredients many of the key USP of the brand and drivers for a greener, more sustainable world fall down. It's not kinder to animals, chickens and dairy cows are some of the most tortured souls on the planet, male chicks are gassed or crushed at birth as they can't lay eggs, baby calfs are dragged away from their mum's so the milk can be used for humans not them.

Health

It's thought that the natural growth hormones in cow's milk to help a calf grow to the size of a shed in a few weeks is like fertiliserfor cancer cells. Certainly it's milk implicated in the China study by Colin T Campbell that he saw switch cancer cells on and off. The other main problem is that milk has so much more saturated fat vs omega 3 fats as most dairy cows don't get a natural diet. Then there's the intolerance, or at least a sub clinical intolerance to dairy protein and lactose that irritates the digestive system.

London Nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston says "New vegetarian products need to be not just as good as, they need to be better than meat. They need to be at least as tasty,  need to be more nutritious and need to be more sustainable and ethically produced than meat. Just being 'meat free' is no longer good enough."

Environment

This is the most perplexing as Sir Paul McCartney himself appeared on National News at 10 to highlight the United Nation's Livestock's Long Shadow report. The Dairy Farming industry is one of the biggest culprits in global warming - we simply no longer have the resources left to feed a cow, water a cow, clean up the waste just for some fatty white liquid that nature designed you to give up by 5 years of age. Second hand food is a luxury we can no longer afford. The clever money is moving into plant food. KFC, McDonalds and their ilk are already looking at plant based meat free alternatives for their products. Old school vegetarian products such as Linda McCartney and Quorn are not on the table.

Avatar director James Cameron says "You cannot call yourself an environmentalist if you are not vegan"

Vegfest 2013

Vegans have already given the Linda McCartney TV advert a makeover to encourage people to try more legitimately,  more sustainable options at The UK Vegfests at Brighton , Bristol and London

Vegans Give Linda McCartney TV advert a pirate vegan  makeover

Paul McCartney Vegetarian Cookbook

The Paul McCartney Cookbook Out Now

One World Day Nov 1st: Paul McCartney Vegetarian Cookbook

Paul McCartney ( and Stella and Mary McCartney) Have launched a new Vegetarian Cookbook in time for One World Day

The vegetarian Cook Book published to raise money for the Meat Free Monday campaign features recipes not just from the McCartney family collections but also from the McCartney's celebrity friends too.

Nicely timed Mr McCartney for One World Day

www.1worldday.org

see also V-Pure

I'm not a Vegetarian but....

GOOP Newsletter

How many times have you heard this? "I'm not a vegetarian but......."

"I don't eat much meat..."/ "I'm almost vegetarian" / "I just eat fish and a little chicken"

Despite the urge you occassionally may have to shake these people you should try to remember that it is these well meaning but non commital stand on the fence vegetarian spectators that keep vegetarianism and veganism moving forward.

Without the vegetarian spectators, vegan dippers and semi - conscious consumers the fully conscious consumers and vegans who get it (get the fact that ill health and devastation of the planet are mostly down to eating the wrong way) would have a much harder time.

All those soya, rice, nut and oat milk dairy alternative products and veggie sausages wouldn't be still so abundant on the shelves were it not for all the part time healthy eaters and environmentalists trying to do their occassional bit.

Granted it is fast approaching the point where a bit is not enough to save the planet, but even a bit is better than nothing when it is millions of people.

So Thank you Gwyneth Paltrow and your Goop blog - "I'm not a vegetarian but..." is pretty lame, especially considering your husband's passion for logic and reason. I'm no longer a fan of yours since you draped yourself in fur but....... thank you for plugging Paul McCartney's meat free monday and laying down the facts for your celebrity and fashion obcessed followers.

World Vegan Day Poll Revelations

World Vegan Day Poll This year is rather special for Vegans - It's 65 years since Donald Watson first inspired people to formally recognise his philosophy as vegan and help him form the world's first Vegan Society. World Vegan Day has been celebrated every year since the 50th / Golden Anniversary in 1994 but there's a determination that this year it will be one of the most special of all.

Never before has there been so much self reflection and looking forward with renewed pragmatic resolve.

Why is that after 65 years veganism still fails to flourish in the way it logically should? We have the evidence, it's better for the environment, it's more sustainable, it's better for health, it's better for people, it's more ethical - civilised society should embrace it wholeheartedly! What's holding the thinking majority back?

A World Vegan Day Poll asked vegan visitors "What would make your friends try veganism?" Unsurprisingly from a movement largely driven by a commitment to Animal Welfare the no1 result was

'Being taken around a slaughterhouse' with 31% of the Vote

Interesting though The World Vegan Day Poll reveals a more practical potential important focus area for vegan campaigns.

Better Vegan choices and dishes in Restaurants comes in a close 2nd with 28% of the vote

Previously Fresh Fast Food caterers such as Pret a' manger had started to address this issue with a range of inspired salads, vegetable sushi and the ubiquitious Hummous and roasted vegetable wrap - hell they even had Green & Blacks chocolate.

Then it's seems Julian Metcalf took his eye off the ball again and bits of creme fraiche (AARRGGGH!) or feta seemed to have unecessarily crept back in to all the plant based dishes (like they all needed a little extra saturated animal fat?????)

Still other restaurants that do take vegan plant based choices seriously are filling the gap. Restaurants such as Tibbits in Piccadilly, Itsu and the celebrated Leon chain have their eyes and hearts firmly fixed on Pret's lunchtime trade and the pre-theatre crowd too.

They are not alone though.

Following Sir Paul McCartney and Celebrity friends Meat Out Monday relaunch, and McCartney family arch rival Heather Mills' determination to take over the world with her globally franchisable V-Bites more and more caterers are begining to see the light.

Having equal value for money choices of equal quality on the nations menus, thus making it more convenient and more enjoyable to choose vegan can only result in one thing - more people choosing vegan - it's the only logical choice.

If we manage to remove that final excuse - "oh it's too difficult" then there is nothing stopping people apart from pure selfish greed and a masochistic suicidal obcession with destruction and torture.

World Vegan Day will be celebrated in London's second City - Croydon at an ECO-VEG Fayre and healthy family fun day at Croydon's legendary Fairfield Halls on Sunday November 1st. There will be a big emphasis on encouraging restaurants and cafes to include 100% plant based options on their menus at this event and during Croydon's Food Festival

See more at Croydon World Vegan Day Event

Kate Moss - Vegan Fur Horror

Bunny Boiler - Kate Moss's vegan boyfriend Jamie Hince Fur Horror

It seems Bunny Boiler Kate Moss is bored with chain smoking Vegan boyfriend Jamie Hince, she's calling 'Drivetime' by dampening bed hopping with a warren's worth of rabbit car crash, a throw made of skinned bunnies that is making Jamie throw the towel and throwing up his arms and his guts in response to Kate's latest display of inhumanity.

Jamie's said to be hopping mad about her total disregard for his feelings on Rabbit fur and alleged to have said "it's me or the dead things"

Perhaps Jamie has had enough of Kate's zombie like sado-masochistic necrophilia loving.

What do we care? chain smoking Jamie is hardly a good advert for healthy sustainable ethical living.

Meat Free Monday - Launch

Meat Free Mondays Support Meat Free Monday – Eat less meat for a better planet Actually it's more of a relaunch as Sir Paul McCartney has been suggesting that Meat Free Monday was a good idea since he read the UN report Livestock's Long Shadow.

As people are struggling to work it out for themselves he's clearly decided it would take a little more effort. Today 15th June Meat Free Mondays launches with a big article in the independent and a new website.

The Independent reveals - 'The McCartneys have attracted support from across the worlds of showbusiness, science, business and the environment. The singer Chris Martin, Hollywood stars Kevin Spacey and Woody Harrelson, actress Joanna Lumley and Sir Richard Branson are advocating meat-free Mondays.

Support has also come from comedians Ricky Gervais, David Walliams and Matt Lucas, the poet Benjamin Zephaniah and Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman.

Another supporter, Sir David King, the Government's former chief scientist, said: "The carbon and water footprints associated with producing beef are about 20 times larger than maize production. Eating less meat will help the environment."'

Paul McCartney and his team have suceeded where the rest of us have failed and pulled in over 40 celebrities for a lunchtime media event at Inn the Park in St James's Park today

Nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston says "It will be interesting to watch the UK get healthier as a result of eating less meat as well as the planet"

More Meat Free Monday News

Channel 4 News * Sky News * Daily Mail * The Guardian * The Mirror * The Telegraph * The Sun * The Scotsman

Meat Free Monday supporters celebrity quotes in The Independent

See also Meatless Monday

Boris Vs UN & Paul McCartney

Boris Vs UN & Paul McCartney

Mayor of London Boris Johnson Vs Ghent, The UN, Sir Paul McCartney, Health, The Environment, The Vegetarian Society, and The Bristol Vegan Fayre

Cook and author of a new cookbook Tony Bishop-Weston , 48, says EU elections for MEPs are a good opportunity to send a wake-up call to Boris Johnson and his Tory pals. He says “Boris should be following UN advice and leading the way. Instead he’s promised to make matters worse. In the EU elections we can vote with our hearts for the good of the planet rather than the voting mentality that led to the election of Boris in the first place. ”

With the wealth of evidence accumulating to verify that eating less meat is better for our health, better for our wealth, better to fight world poverty and better for the environment even staunch meat eaters agree that it would be better to eat less even if they are too selfish to consider this a full time personal option. Boris Johnson the Mayor of London has promised to eat even more meat rather than less in response to the suggestion by the United Nations scientists, Sir Paul McCartney, The Vegetarian Society, health professionals, environmental and Green campaigners, the city of Ghent and organisers of The Bristol Vegan Fayre that we eat less meat and more fruit and vegetables in order to save the planet.

Bishop-Weston will be demonstrating recipes from his new book, The Complete Book of Vegan Cooking at The Bristol Vegan Fayre on the 30th and 31st May on Bristol’s waterfront and says “The aim of The Bristol Vegan Festival is to prove how easy, enjoyable, healthy and fun it is to be kinder to people and the planet. I wonder if Boris could even tell the difference between a meat sausage and some of the better brands of vegetarian sausage, it is prejudice for the sake of ignorance”



Boris Johnson wrote in the Telegraph “if they seriously believe that I am going to give up eating meat - in the hope of reducing the temperature of the planet - then they must be totally barmy. I am not going to have one meat-free day per week. No, I am not going to become a gradual vegetarian.”

In fact he has found the whole suggestion of meat reduction to save the planet so irritating that he has actually suggested we eat MORE meat this summer in response. He suggests vast barbeques every weekend that include carnivorous festivals of chops and sausages and burgers and chitterlings and chine and offal, - “the fat will run down our chins, and the dripping will blaze on the charcoal, and the smoky vapours will rise to the heavens” predicted Boris

“I can think of no logical explanation for this kind of thinking in a politician” said Bishop-Weston. It dismisses the facts, the UN report Livestock’s Long Shadow, the rate at which Brazil’s rain forest is being destroyed after being forced to grow GM soya to feed the world’s cattle, the Oxford EPIC research proving that those who eat less meat, vegetarians and vegans are far healthier than the national average and the world’s poor, starving, predominantly because the modern world values beef more than human life.”

The Complete Book of Vegan Cooking (and living) is published by Lorenz in June £16.99 IBSN 10-0-7548-1843-8

The Bristol Vegan Fayre is 11am – 10.30pm/8.30pm Sat /Sun 30th/31st May www.veganfayre.co.uk

Heather Mills £4.3 Million Burger King Transfusion

Heather Mills Signs Burger King Deal | Showbiz Spy

Heather Mills, Sir Paul McCartney's ex wife has just signed a deal with BK Burger King to promote the new BK vegan veggie Whopper burger for £4.3 million pounds. This is a little bit of a poke in the eye for The Vegetarian Society who allegedly get less than a half a per cent of that amount for promoting the McDonalds vegetarian option despite having the backing of Sir Paul McCartney himself.

Heather is notoriously generous on animal rights issues and it's hoped a percentage of that fee will find it's way in supporting vegan campaigns in the UK and around the world.

Thousands of people attended the Brighton Vegan Festival on Saturday despite the distraction of the glorious sunny seaside weather. Having bought a new vegan cafe in nearby Hove it was hoped Heather Mills would attend but she was clearly preparing for mothers day with Beatrice.

Linda McCartney Vegan Foods Sales Take Off

Linda McCartney Food Sales Soar

Since the new owners of Linda McCartney Foods, Hain Celestial, have veganized and improved the nutrition value of the Linda McCartney range sales have rocketed.

Sales have risen to 10million and 57% in the last 12 weeks alone.

Sales have been boosted by the new higher protein hydrogenated fat free meat free sausages and the Linda McCartney soysage rolls. The frozen mince is back in production and Linda McCartney group sales have probably also been boosted by a new vegan frozen meat free chicken pieces (great with Satay sauce)

It's possible that sales of the Linda McCartney sausage rolls have also been boosted by Symington's faux pas. The new owner of Granose/ Direct Foods/Haldane Sosmix (the traditional principle ingredient for vegan sausage rolls and christmas stuffing) naievely added milk protein to the ingredients making the product unsuitable for millions of it's customers. Understandably there was uproar. Symingtons have recently revealed they have reformulated the product and that a dairy free vegan version will be available sometime in 2009.

Paul McCartney on ITV ITN News at Ten

ITV - Paul McCartney on ITN News at 10

Paul McCartney is interviewed by ITN News at Ten to draw attention to The United Nations Livestock's Long Shadow Report and how veganism can help to save the planet from catastrophe.

He's been veggie for 30 years but says that the fact that meat eating experts at The United Nations have now admitted cattle rearing is devastating the planet and more harmful to the planet than the effects of all cars and planes, many more ordinary people should sit up and listen.

Sir Paul credits Linda McCartney with turning the family vegetarian but apparently she said it was his decision, Sir Paul said Linda said "it was you that said it you know!"

Sir Paul sidestepped talking about his second wife's long term vegetarianism but she is now vegan and campaigning with UK vegetarian charity Viva!

He admit's despite all the clear evidence that a veggie lifestyle is better for the planet and better for health, people are unlikely to change overnight.

The repercussions if we don't change will be catastrophic for the planet, no habitable land , no water, no clean air - what sort of legacy is that to leave our children.

See the whole Paul McCartney interview on ITN News at 10

Famous Vegans

Vote now in the 2008 Vegan Awards

See reports

CIWF - UN Report - ViVA - The Vegan Society

Heather Mills McCartney Says Cut Down on Dairy!

Heather McCartney / Mills Wants People to Cut Down on Dairy and go vegan



Lady Heather Mills McCartney is on a mission to expose meat and dairy as being more damaging to the environment than cars and planes. She quoted figures from the United Nations report on agriculture - Livestock's long shadow.

"When (Viva!) told me it was 18 percent, that's more than all global transport, I was in shock. Airplanes only bring 3 percent, while they are being picked on with taxes," she said Monday.

"We are the only species that drinks another person's milk" she said.

"It's mad that we are having cow's milk. Even cows don't drink it after one year but we continue forever."

She challenges environmentalists and greens like Al Gore who haven't yet gone vegan and says "they haven't got a leg to stand on!"