Beneath the headlines about a new Labour government, the election comprises 650 contests, including vegans and other animal advocates trying to make a difference. The UK now has more vegan MPs than ever before, despite one of the new vegan MPs dislodging one of the vegan incumbents. more
The panel at VegFestUK was really funny, but …
Annoyingly, both the main and backup recordings failed. So if you managed to catch the episode live in London, your memory is the only place it lives. (That, and a recording of my chat with Kerry McCarthy that her friend Richard recorded.) more
Palm oil is everywhere – from cooking oil to soap to vegan margarine. Equatorial rainforest and peatland are cleared and replaced with serried ranks of oil palm trees (Elaeis guineensis). The whole biodiversity of Borneo and Sumatra is threatened by habitat loss, particularly the iconic Orang Utans.
Some vegan activists say no product that kills this many animals can be considered vegan.
But is palm oil really worse than anything else? Can poor countries like Malaysia and Indonesia develop without it? Is there a sustainable solution?
Environmentalist Catherine Laurence helps disentangle the thicket of issues.
Hear academic experts Eric Lambin and Robert Greenland; vegan baker Ms Cupcake; primatologist Georgina Ash; vegan MP Kerry McCarthy; the boss of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and vegan Indonesian palm oil activist and Miskin Porno lead singer Daniek Hendarto. more
How has the digital revolution changed being vegan? We talk to Eric Brent, founder of leading vegetarian restaurant finder Happy Cow. Diana reviews smartphone apps. Ian finds out how the digital revolution changed his local vegan group in London. more
At the end of our last episode, Kerry McCarthy MP said she’d asked for a debate in Parliament to mark World Vegan Day.
She was successful, and at the end of business on November 1st the House of Commons debated veganism. I was watching from the gallery.
In this episode, concluding our series of three about veganism in politics, we give our account of the debate. We explain what’s going on, who everyone is, and tell you which of the MPs who spoke against is officially the least sexy Member of Parliament. more
The three vegan Members of the British Parliament (MPs) answer your questions. Are they afraid about how voters will react to their veganism? And what’s the food like at the House of Commons? more
We profile the handful of people who combine veganism with politics at their country’s national level. I went to the UK Parliament to meet Britain’s three vegan MPs. What was their path to politics? And I took with me questions from their counterparts in the rest of the world. more