More than 10 Million People in the UK who are Currently Alive are Expected to Live to More than 100 According to Predictions from the Dept. for Work and Pensions Full
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This is a Specially Significant Harvest Festival for Every Consumer Considering the Provenance of Food and Sustainable Farming and Environment and Lessons Learnt from Seventy Years Ago, with Parallels in Current Affairs Full
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Farm to Fork, Education, History, Inspiration, Action, Deliberation, What we are About to Receive, Weather, Climate, Famine, Disease, War, Poverty, Civil Strife, Shortages, Waste, Greed, Land, Environment, Wellbeing and Recession Full
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An organic pork firm has been forced to put down 3 pigs on its premises, after investigations by authorities into animal welfare concerns. Full
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Tories in their Butts, Lords in their Barbour’s, Beaters Serving the Guns The Battle of Britain with Peasants, Pheasants, and the Landed Gentry
Bankers with the Bonuses and their Early Retirements…..No Ifs and Buts in VEGA’s Stance: Lay Down the Guns! Full
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“A long-legged blue-eyed former catwalk model from Germany, Nina Schubert, aged 25, got bored of the model lifestyle of fashion shows in Paris, London, Milan and New York, and is now eager to take on new trades,” Full
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Former front-man of the Smiths, Morrissey, walked off mid-performance at the Coachella Festival in California, because “he caught a whiff of a nearby barbecue. Full
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Questions Children Ask Parents and Teachers: Granny, did we have Smarties when food was rationed in World War 2? Mummy, did you, Daddy, and I eat beef during BSE? Full
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The British Government has recognized in its Manufacturing Strategy for 2008 that "the UK can be a world leader in manufacturing solutions for a low carbon economy" Full
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Dairy-free is becoming a well-recognized category in the grocery market; meat-free is another and VEGA is now aiming at the cruelty-free label Full
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Catering and the service industry are having to pay more attention to special needs in procurement and provision of foods in institutions. Full
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Last year’s fine weather blessed organic growers in the traditional cultivation of cobnuts in the Kent and East Sussex with wonderful crops. Full
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VEGA writes to the Archbishop of Canterbury appealing for reductions in the consumption of meat and dairy products for the benefits of the world at large. Full
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Beef from dairy cows, especially the forequarters, was traditionally regarded as fit only for manufacturing purposes and lower-quality mince-meat... Full
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An Oxford primary school introduced halal meat to the school dinner menu in September last year as part of its inclusion policy, but failed to inform parents of the move... Full
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Tougher regulations on the use of snares, but no outright ban were announced by Mike Russell, the Scottish environment minister last Wednesday. Full
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Unprecedented “Recall” of US Beef, Most Already Eaten
Appalling evidence of cruelty in a big slaughterhouse (“packing plant”) has been adduced in undercover evidence obtained by the Humane Society of the USA (HSUS). Full
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An increase in parasite infestations in popular angling waters is prompting official warnings to anglers of the possible deadliness of their catches, eating of which may cause heart and lung problems.... Full
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Speaking at the annual City Food Hall lecture, Lord Haskins has suggested that the only high ethical food ground, in the long run is the vegetarian one... Full
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“Anyone who knows the halachah realizes that the welfare of animals is a basic tenet of Judaism. Yet intensively – reared chickens are not only declared kosher but are practically the only birds available to the kosher consumer”... Full
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Three gamekeepers admitted last week that they had used baited traps to catch protected birds of prey that might attack grouse and partridges on an estate in North Yorkshire. Full
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Charm your loved one this Valentine's Day with food of love; sweet herbs (lovage, sweet cicely, rosemary), love apples (tomatoes), avocado, asparagus hearts, a bed of rice and delicious chocolate brownies. Full
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While animal welfarists and environmentalists must appreciate the global aspects of commercial fishing for food and household goods (and this concern embraces sea-mammals such as whales and seals), there are matters closer to home that we must face... Full
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A Sainsbury’s local store manager offered a customer £20 to “pay for medication” when she complained that turkey sold past its use-by-date had made her feel ill... Full
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Gamekeeper Tried to Kill Birds of Prey Environment Minister calls for More Action Hard upon our call for urgency in augmenting the powers given in anti-hunting legislation with bans on game-shooting... Full
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After several attempts to get this letter published in the Independent, we eventually got a refusal and are now publishing it on our website. Full
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New Year’s Day opened with what the Times Consumer Editor hails as hope for milk producers as the EU relaxes rules; and, elliptically, “experts say change will help tackle obesity”. This must be enough to ruin the veggies’ first cup of tea in 2008. Full
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VEGA's response to a consultation on measures to protect marine biodiversity interests in Lyme Bay from the impact of fishing with dredges and other towed gear. Full
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Elizabeth Smith died on 4th October, aged 23. She was a victim – the 162nd – to die from vCJD, most of whom died as a result of eating infected meat in the 1980s Full
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Playing political games with spatchcocked policies and the wobbly statistics of bouncing polls serve the public ill when the environment is threatened with the severe consequences of zoonotic diseases... Full
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The Farm Animal Welfare Council's Working Group study economics and farm animal welfare, i.e. the interactions between the economics of livestock production and animal welfare in the UK... Full
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A Lancashire Methodist Church may be entering a new incarnation in the planning department bestows its benediction. The church is at Catforth in Lancashire and Michael Clarke, who has bought it, is awaiting approval for his application to use the church for meat processing and offices... Full
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In the next few weeks Freshers’ fayres will be taking place at universities across the UK, introducing new students to their university, sports clubs, societies and local businesses. Student life can be hectic, with lectures all day and studying and socialising in the evening. Good food keeps your energy up and keeps you healthy. This week's recipe is a tasty and healthy meal which is cheap and easy to make. Full
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A long-established family butcher who was responsible for food-poisoning that killed a 5-year-old boy and infected 100 other children was sentenced on 07 September 2007 to jail for 12 months... Full
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Solemnizing thanksgiving for the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, last week opened with the introit O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world, grant them rest, and proceeded, perhaps sheepishly, to the second hymn, the ever-useful 23rd Psalm... Full
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Testing, testing, testing… we are always assessing the weekly recipes for inclusion in our contributions to the Portfolio of eating plans to give tasty effect to the expert advice... Full
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E. Coli O157 has claimed another death and two other people are seriously ill after an outbreak of food poisoning linked to delicatessen counters at two branches of Morrisons supermarket in Paisley. Full
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“The current de facto import ban on corn gluten feed will add £60-90m to the feed costs of EU livestock farmers at a time when feed grains are already at record prices”... Full
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GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), one of the biggest food and drugs companies, has been fined NZ$ 227,500 (£83,333) for making misleading claims over vitamin C levels in Ribena... Full
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Production of 1kg of beef creates more greenhouse gas emissions than motoring for 3 hours while leaving the lights on at home, according to a new study conducted in Japan. Full
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A Londoner’s Impressions While Shopping Down the Ealing Road
Structural changes in food consumption and nutritional intake from livestock products in India receive a review from Assistant Professor Jabir Ali of the Agriculture Management Centre at the Institute of Management at Lucknow... Full
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Keeping the veggie campaign and message fit for purpose VEGA scans the “better” Sunday papers, among them yesterday’s Sunday Times and the Style magazine that drops out of it. Full
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Light pollution, a frequent reminder of excessive use of fuel and power, obscures night skies for many people in the UK, which also deprives them numinously of one of the joys of living and wonder of appreciation of all the wildlife, trees, and plants and crops affected and even dependent on the hours of darkness... Full
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Food miles is a concept attracting a lot of critical attention these days, but when the distance is reduced to the NIMBY opposition’s premises real difficulties appear... Full
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Several farms in eastern France have been sealed off and the French government has applied tighter rules to poultry breeders since Thursday 05 July 2007 after 3 dead swans tested positive for the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu. Full
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A South Wales butcher has pleaded not guilty in court to charges “in connection with a major E coli outbreak in 2005 which has left one boy dead and 160 people in hospital” (MTJ Extra July 2007). William Tudor, 55, of Cowbridge entered the plea during the first day of a hearing at Newport Crown Court. A trial date has been set for 15 October 2007. The case may run until Christmas. Full
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Muslims are being urged to boycott meat during July in a campaign demanding an independent organization to monitor halal standards. Abdul Raja, instigator of the campaign, argues that “if Muslims bought no meat each Saturday and Sunday this month halal standards would have to be tightened” (Meat Trades Journal, 06 July 2007). He promises that “this government will take notice: money talks”. Full
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More than Recipes – They are the Basis of Eating Plans
Nutritional information means much more when assessments are made of complete meals or eating plans rather than for a single ingredient on its own. Full
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Ben Bradshaw MP, a DEFRA Minister, “wants us to save the planet by slashing food production”, which means “cutting down on meat and milk and out-of-season veg – rationing that may also improve our health.” Full
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In line with a FSA consultation on Revision of Council Directive 90/496/EEC on the Nutritional Labelling of Foodstuffs, dated 14 May and with deadline today, VEGA is looking at options for adding nutritional information to our recipes... Full
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Whole Foods Market is opening its first UK store on High Street Kensington this Wednesday (6th June 2007). A launch party took place for press and others invited yesterday evening. Full
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Food factories that have “blighted the lives of people living nearby for years with the stench of ‘hot sick’ and onions could be sued by residents” (Sickened by smells from food plants, Ealing Gazette 01 June 2007). The name of Katsouris is already in bad odor after recalls of products such as houmous suspected of being contaminated with salmonella, which has prompted a rigorous investigation by Tesco of a factory that has been supplying several supermarkets. Full
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Ray Barber has died. Ray and Sheila, his wife, who survives him, deserve special praise from campaigners in the veggy cause. They were farmers who withdrew from the dairy/meat/veal industry, because they refused further complicity in cruel processes of exploiting animals for milk and meat. Full
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GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), one of the biggest food and drugs companies, has been fined NZ$ 227,500 (£83,333) for making misleading claims over vitamin C levels in Ribena. GSK had claimed that Ribena syrup contained 4 times more vitamin C than oranges, but in 2004 two high-school students carried out tests in a science lesson and found that levels of the nutrient in the product were “much lower” (The Grocer 31 March 2007). Full
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The supermarket has been fined £18,000 for selling a “meat-free” ravioli product that had been wrongly labelled as “suitable for vegetarians”. Full
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A VEGA employee went to Guatemala for a month to work with a local school in Panajachel teaching about the environment and animal welfare. Full
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Last week’s Lancet published results of research and comment that maternal fish consumption benefits children’s development”. This information requires urgent action in introductions in widely acceptable additions to choices in the British food market. Full
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The food manufacturer Bakkavor is recalling a number of houmous products which have been on sale in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, due to salmonella contamination. Full
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Cadbury Trebor Bassett has recalled its own brand chocolate Easter products and Cadbury Dairy Milk originals due to cross-contamination with hazelnuts. Full
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Snags for Deniers that H5N1 Poses no Threat. Global Warnings... VEGA surveys the latest threats from avian flu and some more positive developments. Full
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This second instalment of busy activities in September 2006 requires a special bulletin on our week's attendance at the Festival of Science; in particular, one whole day, doing Africa, needs special consideration. Full
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The Food Standards Agency is urging consumers to be vigilant after further suspected cases of malicious tampering at Allied Bakeries’ Orpington plant in Kent. The incidents emerged after customers discovered foreign objects in loaves of Kingsmill sliced bread. Full
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of Appreciation and becomes an Absentee Landlord of Brazilian Ecology
The trustee is a longstanding participant in projects aimed at producing alternatives to supplant (!) the evils of the dairy/beef/veal industry. Plant foods for human nutrition offer wonderful opportunities for this humane progress, utilizing leaves, seeds, and pulses directly as foods rather than committing them – in cattle wastefully and environmentally pollutingly – to turning feeds into the white stuff and its derivatives. Full
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Following further information received from Asda Stores Ltd, the list of date codes for the affected Asda Stores Ltd products has now been updated. Note that only new date codes are added to the original recall notification. Full
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The Co-op has withdrawn all batches of its own-brand multi-pack ready salted and assorted crisps because the ready salted flavour contains casein which isn't declared on the label, making it unsafe for people with a milk allergy or milk intolerance. Full
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An Over Thirty Month old (OTM) heifer has entered the human food chain without being tested for BSE. Testing of bovine animals is mandatory in those intended for human consumption that are over 30 months at slaughter. Full
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Soya milk sales in grocery multiples are now totalling just on 80 million litres a year, with an average increase over the last five years of about 10% year on year Full
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Tesco Stores Ltd has recalled its own-brand Healthy Living Plain Tortilla Wraps because of the possible presence of small glass fragments. Full
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Cardiff based snacks manufacturer Nature’s Table has recalled certain packs of its 'Hawaiian Mix' 100g due to possible contamination by moth larvae/cocoons. Full
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Pregnant women and toddlers from low income families will be eligible to receive free fruit and vegetables under a government scheme starting this week. Full
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Batchelors has recalled certain batches of Chicken Flavour Super Noodles due to the possible presence of small pieces of hard white plastic in the flavouring sachet. Full
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Purifying language of unedifying metaphors and similes has long exercised welfarists of various persuasions, but the offending statements have achieved a sustainability that surpasses all the efforts of innovators to devise replacements. Full
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The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is beet with problems in the dairy, poultry and meat industries involving surveillance of manufacturing practices and assertion of controls. Manufacturers and retailers are seeking relaxations by which they would run their own affairs, reducing the costs and levies they deem excessive for the activities of the Meat Hygiene Service. These discussions are frustrating analyses of meat inspectors’ records of rejections of carcases and offal as suitable for human consumption, which would yield valuable evidence of husbandry and handling of live animals up to the final act of killing. Bruising is an example of significance in assessing welfare – or, more likely ill fare.
Two examples from last year illustrate the industries’ disquiet and at the same time our concern that they are not competent to administer their own policing. Full
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"A global revulsion at eating flesh of all kinds" would see a future when "we would all become vegetarians" predicts Dr Daniel Pauly, director of the Fisheries Centre at the University of British Columbia. Full
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Christmas Nativity Plays must confuse pupils and teachers in many of our schools. Revision is needed in the educational and scientific manner the Food Standards Agency is bringing to school customs. We suggest a scenario and script. Full
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Nature’s Finest Foods has withdrawn ShhWeeties Toffee Popcorn packs because they do not have the correct ingredients or allergy information on the label. Full
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Dunbia Northern Ireland is recalling a number of meat products after finding that an Over Thirty Month old cow has entered the food chain without being tested for BSE. Full
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Nisa-Today has withdrawn batches of its own brand Heritage Garlic Sausage and Heritage Pork Luncheon Meat packs, because of a labelling error resulting in incorrect allergen information. Full
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H J Heinz Co. Ltd has recalled a batch of its Chicken and Mushroom Toast Toppers because of a packaging error, which means the ingredients and allergy information are incorrect. Full
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Asda has recalled all batches of its own-brand 500g packs of ‘Simply Porridge’ because some may contain nuts, making it unsafe to eat for people with a nut allergy. Full
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In August 2006 VEGA commented on a DEFRA consultation on proposed amendment to the Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) Regulations. In response to this consultation several stakeholders (including VEGA) wanted end-of-life breeder birds to be brought within the scope of the amendment, resulting in a follow up consultation. Full
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New Primebake Ltd has recalled some batches of garlic and speciality bread products, sold in major supermarkets, because they could be contaminated with metal. Full
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Brussels is planning an urgent health safety investigation into Britain’s entire milk and cheese production. It will entail random checks at farms and dairies. Full
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Two full-page ads in one issue of the Guardian Weekend Magazine betoken vigor in innovation and competition in the alternative dairy milks and in a market bidding fair to challenge the "cowboy" trade effectively. Full
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The Mothers’ Union is issuing a new version of the Ten Commandments. The MU is a powerful Christian pressure group of 3.6 million members within the worldwide Anglican Communion. It has issued its new style of self-disciplines in a drive to help the world’s poor and to fight against climate change. Full
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Sedgemoor District Council has successfully prosecuted Brake Brothers Foodservice Ltd following an accident at their Highbridge-based warehouse in Somerset... • • • Trading Standards Officers (TSOs) brought a prosecution on the basis of discoveries made during a routine investigation at a Morrisons store in Cumbria... Full
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The Soil Association (SA) is riven with difficulties and divisions over its difficulties in attaining its standards without ignominious excuses for derogations. The Association’s acceptance of fish-farming among acceptable “organic” practices has sullied its reputation, which has prompted comment from the Meat Trades Journal (13 October 2006). Full
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Yielding to a petition to review its position on supplies to about 50 schools customers, Fred Capewell, managing director of Class Catering in Bromsgrove, reported that a number of parents and headteachers had been enquiring about the origins and methods of slaughter of meat sold to schools. Full
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Management at Dalehead Foods in Linton has admitted an incident in which 2 live pigs were put into scalding water at a meat-processing plant in Cambridgeshire. They have sacked the worker responsible and explained that “pigs had been put into the water tank without being properly slaughtered on 2 occasions” (Meat Trades Journal, 13 October 2006). Full
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Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd. has withdrawn its own brand ‘Taste the Difference Traditional Beef Joint’, due to the wrong use-by date inadvertently being applied. Full
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There is an ongoing food incident at Allied Bakeries in Kent. Allied Bakeries, in Orpington, have reported to the police three incidents of what appeares to be malicious tampering – contaminating loaves of its Kingsmill bread. Full
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Sainsbury's has recalled packs of its own-brand ‘Taste The Difference Lightly Salted Tortilla Chips’ due to incorrect allergen labelling information. Full
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Sainsbury’s has is withdrawing of a batch of their own brand ‘Fruit & Nut Muesli’ 1.5kg bags, due to the presence of moths within the product. Full
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"Serious food safety questions" are challenging Britain's £5.6 billion dairy industry: on 6 October 2006, reports were received that European food officials had discovered cheese contaminated with antibiotics, dyes, and detergents. Full
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The Food Standards Agency is advising consumers not to drink bottled water on sale that is labelled as Zam Zam water, as it may contain high levels of arsenic. Full
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The Chillingham herd are white cattle, most likely remnants of Britain’s wild cattle. They reside in Northumberland in the Chillingham Park, which has been enclosed since 1270AD. A report on the Chillingham herd has now been added to our website. Full
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VEGA comments on an FSA consultation. Packaging bears numerous warnings of possible contaminations of traces of allergens in foods sufficient to deter purchasers with certain aversions. Multipurpose factories and production lines cannot be decontaminated rigorously enough to prevent batch to batch transmission of potential allergens. Full
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Waitrose has recalled two of its own-brand Oriental ready meals, after a packaging error led to them having incorrect allergen labelling information. Full
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University catering calls for much attention, responsibility, and enterprise as school meals. The start of a new academic year and of a new intake of school-leavers add to the significance of the connexion. Full
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The Food Standards Agency is warning people to avoid a certain batch of Sunnyglade canned Baked Beans with Pork Sausages in tomato sauce. Full
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VEGA comments on a DEFRA consultation due today on the Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) to permit the use of gas outside of a slaughterhouse. Full
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Genetics and Nutrition in the Aberdeen meeting of the Nutrition Society this year hit snags even before it started, because an article in the Guardian had pitched into the Society’s registration scheme and its administration. Full
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Oxford University’s current Science v. Ethics turbulence, which may spread to disquiet in other centres of learning, and challenges in medical schools and hospitals as the new academic year starts in the next month or so... Full
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A recent feature in the Guardian rehearsed many reservations over soya foods and derivatives. Much of it was old and questionable information and ignored the results of relevant research... Full
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Veggies aren't the only ethically-minded consumers overlooked in modern trends expressing the anthropocentric mens sana in corpore sano concept as the driving force in ethics rather than expression of the wider considerations of do good altruism and exercise of self restraint. Full
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The market in veggie foods is undergoing changes bringing in new brands and names and restocking the freezers and chiller cabinets and freezers. Meat reducers and dairy-frees are beginning to dominate the demand and Premier Foods to meet it with a range of products from baked beans to Quorn sausages. Pages in the business press analyse the market. Now we take our turn – different mainly because we take the “slaves” view, interpreting the challenges in the broad view of animal welfare, human and non-human. None of these business pages measures the importance to the farmer and “his” animals. Full
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A Carlisle slaughterhouse has been fined for failing to comply with an improvement notice served in February 2005 that required it to put in place a staff hygiene training scheme, and Halal meat could soon be on school menus in Bradford. Full
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Cadbury Schweppes plc recently recalled a range of their own brand chocolate products due to possible contamination with Salmonella, and is now restocking five of the product lines. Full
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Professor John Raeburns’ death a few weeks ago removes a fascinating figure in the scope of agricultural policies during WW2 and in postwar developments... Full
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The multiple discount retailer Lidl has been forced to withdraw from its shelves the product sold as Maitre Special Chicken breast fillet. Full
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June was a very busy month for VEGA. We were invited to City University, to participate in a report on an EU project on the Ethics of Wheat and Bread Supplies. From then on events unfolded in June with a succession of challenging opportunities covering a range of topics. Full
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Truuuly Scrumptious Organic Baby Food Ltd has withdrawn certain batches of its own-brand frozen baby foods because some could contain small pieces of orange plastic. Full
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Eating particular chocolate products made by Cadbury Schweppes is the most likely cause for the recent outbreak of an unusual strain of salmonella. Full
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VEGA's response to Peter Singer’s letter in the 12th July issue of the the Guardian (Meat production today is not just inhumane, it’s inefficient), as well as to Anthony Gibson’s (director of communications for the National Farmers' Union) response. Full
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The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is advising people not to eat raw or dried fly agaric mushrooms, because there have been cases reported of severe reactions. These mushrooms may also be labelled as ibotenic acid/muscimol. Full
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Adding Oxo to its stock in the grocery cupboard completes Premier Foods biggest acquisition to date. Premier Foods already owns Branston Pickle, Lloyd Grossman’s sauces and Fray Bentos tinned meat pies. The latest deal costing £460 million funded by a £450 million rights issue, will effectively double Premier Foods’ issued capital base, and further acquisitions are not ruled out. Full
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United Biscuits has recalled certain batches of its Go Ahead! Crispy Fruit Slices and Yoghurt Breaks. The affected batches may contain small pieces of thin metal wire. Full
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A New Kinder Farming and Food Applying the 3Rs – Reduction, Refinement, and Replacement in the Development of Standards Aiming at a Cruelty-Free and Wholesome Food Supply. Britain is Fumbling the Possibilities of Salutary Food from Salubrious Farming. Finland Scores; Britain Misses Goals; National Plan Needed Full
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The Nutrition Society’s AGM and annual conference, sponsored by respectable academic and research organizations and the Food Standards Agency, but also by a commercial sector and other sponsors, among which were Cadbury Schweppes. Full
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A Eurobarometer survey on consumer attitudes to farm animal welfare prompts an examination of demands for the products of sustained suffering on an enormous scale unworthy of human wit and intelligence. Full
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Food and beverages served at future RSPCA AGMs will be strictly vegetarian (i.e. vegan). A proposal to this effect was passed on 24 June 2005 at the AGM of the Society in London by 72 votes for, 12 against, and 7 abstentions. Full
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Sainsbury’s Supermarkets has recalled one date code of its own-brand canned Tuna Steak in Spring Water and canned Tuna Steak in Brine, due to a suspected can defect. Full
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Thomas Tunnock has recalled certain batches of its own brand four and eight carton Snowballs, and four pack Caramel Log Wafers, because of a packaging error. Full
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Reforming RSPCA Members Table Another Tasty Dish at their AGM. “Due to the cruelty surrounding the slaughter of all animals for the food industry, this meeting requires that food which has involved any mental or physical distress to an animal should not be served at future Royal Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals General Meetings”. Full
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“This is unlikely to make any significant contribution to the protection of humans against avian influenza”, stated Juan Lebroth, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) senior officer for infectious animal diseases, responding to the news that authorities in Vietnam were not only culling domestic poultry in Ho Chi Minh City, but attempting to cull the wild bird population as well, pigeons especially. Full
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Pluma UK Ltd has recalled a batch of La Rochelle brand Duck Orange & Cream Pâté 150g and Farmhouse Style Pâté 150g, because they have been labelled wrongly, not including the correct allergy warning for milk, mustard and wheat/gluten. Full
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The Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC), a Government-appointed agency, has done just what it’s required to do in one respect – that is, to advise the Government – but it has recently repeated recommendations, on the basis of new evidence, that the Government has rejected in short order: it is a return by the FAWC to a ban at first advocated about 15 years ago on practices of ritual (or religious) killing of animals for sales or distribution of the meat. Full
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British Bakeries has recalled one batch of Scottish Plain Batch Bread 800g loaves, under two brand names, Mother’s Pride and Tesco, due to possible contamination with metal fragments. Full
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The next FSA Board meeting takes place in Bristol on 15 June 2006. Members of the public can attend in person, or watch a webcast / podcast. Full
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The Food Standards Agency is advising people not to eat certain foods made with rice flour that has been found to be contaminated with aflatoxin B1 over the legal limit. Full
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Applying the 3Rs – Reduction, Refinement, and Replacement in the Development of Standards Aiming at a Cruelty-Free and Wholesome Food Supply. Full
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The Serious Food Company Ltd has recalled its own brand chilled Tiramisu dessert 125g and chilled Champagne and Raspberry Trifle 160g due to the possible presence of fragments of glass. Full
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Acknowledgement is due of the stoical Mother Cow as the mechanically-sucked wet nurse to whom we humans young and old turn and to the calf whose fill at the udder and maternal nurturing we deny, not least in decisions on breast-feeding. Full
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The Food Standards Agency today issued an update on bird flu. Avian flu virus is possibly present in samples of chickens found dead on a Norfolk poultry farm. Full
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The Food Standards Agency has issued a Food Alert about an emerging incident involving distribution of cooked kebab meat from an unapproved plant. Full
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Following a negative safety assessment by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), the FSA has considered that it is inappropriate for acteamide to be used as a flavoring agent. Full
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Food Standards Agency Chair, Deirdre Hutton, will be giving a public lecture entitled, 'Diet and Public Health : Why we are not doomed' in Cardiff on 3 May 2006. She will discuss some approaches to improving diet, to make healthy eating easier. Full
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Marks & Spencer has recalled all batches of its own brand 3 Bean & Spinach Salad with Chive Dressing, 130g, due to incorrect labelling information. The Agency has issued a Food Alert for Information. Full
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Michael died a month before Easter after a 2-year decline as a result of an accident on crossing a road. He had been The Independent on Sunday’s Reviews Editor for over a decade and on Easter Sunday the paper published a special appreciation. Several obituaries had appeared a week or two before. Full
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Eco-rage overtook Mrs Doreen Hallsworth of Carlisle, who knocked over a row of cardboard cut-outs in her branch of Abbey National. She was expressing her objection to the Abbey’s new marketing symbol: a grey squirrel. Full
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FAWN, the Farm Animal Welfare Network (which incorporates Chicken’s Lib) “fights cruelty” in a well-informed and practical way, especially as it enlists timely participation and activity in the ploys inspired by its messages. Full
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How to Treat Your Doctor when you’re ill was the title of an article a VEGAn wrote many years ago for a veggie newspaper. It sought a reduction of the misunderstandings and stress that took their toll in the consultation: the veggie shamed by resource to orthodox medicine when that “good” diet, “nature cure”, aversion to injections, vaccinations, and drugs (and the connotations of objectionable experiments on animals), failed and the doctor innocent of – or, probably, impatient with these quirks and delays in the succession of the ailing population awaiting their few moments in the surgery. Full
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Due to the discovery of cow's milk in Farley’s Soya Formula in 900g cans, Farley’s (owned by Heinz) has withdrawn from sale one single batch, with the best before date of 1 February 2008 and the batch number 607D. Full
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We enter into a consultation with DEFRA on the singular difficulties in Great Britain with diseased badgers mingling with herds of cattle. A foxed DEFRA is toying with another culling solution. And then there’s bird flu looking. There are kinder ways of coexistence in the countryside (and towns). Full
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As an “interested party” we engage in continuing consultations with the Food Standards Agency and review the particular significance of sea vegetables in cuisines attaining valuable freedoms from animal-derived foods and associated cruelty. Full
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A leader in the Times opining on the deplorable strife and violence at Oxford University on the treatment of animals and the attitudes and example set by the science establishment prompts the following criticism sent in reply to the paper. Shortly after submission of our response one of the scientists heavily embroiled in the issues at Oxford declared support for experiments and tests involving sacrificial animals in research on cosmetics (now banned in the UK). Continued vigilance and campaigning are needed to maintain the cruelty-free earnests in clothing and toiletries and to further the thrust into worthy and practicable endeavor for food, health, and therapy. Full
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The Selborne Society’s Newsletter and other details make a good read in this lewd and naughty world of suburbia. The enterprise, talents, and voluntary work are described and illustrated in the spring issue, which we are pleased to reproduce. It is an example of community care of remnants of Britain’s countryside in northwest London, within sight form trains on the Central Line.
Reserves such as this, as well as parks (on one of which it abuts) and gardens and allotments, are becoming more and more habitats for flora and fauna dispossessed by modern farming practices. Suburban populations of foxes illustrate this diaspora. Full
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“Vegetarian foods invariably position themselves as niche products, failing to exploit the change in sentiment towards alternative protein sources” states The Grocer (18 February 2006) focusing on the Better-for-you (“Healthy living is as hip as ever”) sector of the food market. Full
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We appraise an example from 2 items, for which about an hour was allowed, at an Open Board Meeting of the FSA, held in the morning of Thursday, 9th February, 2006 in London. Full
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An international conference at the Royal Society, London, from 13th to 15th September 2006, organized by the Universities' Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW) and the British Veterinary Association (BVA). An abstract follows of VEGA's contribution to the program. Full
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Unless Defra can be persuaded otherwise the ending of the Over Thirty Month Scheme and arrangements being made with the EU, the traffic in cast cows for slaughter abroad and of frail calves for rearing on in units in mainland Europe will resume. Among all these evil aspects of the dairy/beef/veal trade, which enjoys subsidies and grants under the CAP, main land Britain may become a landbridge between farms in Ireland and objectionable units in France and the Low Countries. Consumers, customers, citizens, followers of the Animal Welfare Bill – take care! Cows’ milk is for baby calves, not even for grown up cattle, still less for human sucklings of any age. Boycott it! Our testimony to DEFRA follows. Full
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VEGA urges other organisations and the public to question the FSA on food and health issues. FSA's board meeting is on the 9 February and will also be shown online. Full
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Consultation on Halting the Loss of Biodiversity by 2010 – and beyond, due 6th February 2006. The EU seeks your views (as an individual or an organization) on what needs to be done if the EU '...is to deliver on its commitments to halt the loss of biodiversity in the EU by 2010 and to contribute towards significantly reducing the rate of biodiversity loss worldwide by 2010.' This consultation is now closed!Full
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And a Tribute in Memory of Tony Banks, MP, vegetarian, animal welfarist, and wit, whose death was announced a few days ago. We vote for Banks for memories and inspiration in the welfare of all animals (human and non-human). Full
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A critical and irreverent eye is cast over the foodies’ intentions for school meals that may establish consumers’ tastes, choices, and health for life. Caterers and manufacturers must show much greater enterprise in exploiting possibilities well beyond cheesy off-loads from the dairy and meat industries. Scenarios for educational alternatives for the School Nativity play are mooted. Full
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Welcome to government earnests in coping with the challenges of "disposables", dumping, littering and of turning words into keywords for recycling, reuse, and amenity-and exercise of kindly citizenship Full
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BSE Consultation on lifting the expert ban and harmonizing specific risk material controls applicable in the UK with those in other member states. Full
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A debate in the Independent, 19th December (letters and article) need deeper deliberation on the issues of modern milk production. VEGA's letter to the Independent as well as the Times. Full
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Please take time to fill in this EU questionnaire regarding the welfare of farmed animals in Europe. The opinion poll ends on the 20th December and the questionnaire only takes a few minutes. Full
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Let Veggies flinch. Let cowards sneer. We’ll set the cows free here. Raise the green standards high at the supermarket chiller! Today’s commercial battery-cows, 10% of whom are now zero-grazed (permanently indoors), average annual yields of about 7,500 litres (i.e. 7.5 tonnes; they’ll each weigh about 0.5 tonne). Every day our local supermarket sells from the chiller soya milks equivalent to the average daily output of one, going on for two, of these average cows. One in 3 will be mastitic (as assessed by what may be called the pus-count) and 1 in 5 chronicly lame. Time now for every animal welfarist to renounce and denounce the sickening dairy/beef/veal industry and all its works. We enlist the FSA and manufacturers and retailers in redoubled efforts in raising Standards for the Milk of Human Kindness. Full
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Receipt of a mini cook book sent as a gift from China on the traditional Chinese Cuisine adds to a collection of nutritionally and medically recommended diets to a portfolio with significance in tasty and practicable expressions of healthy living. It offers traditional Chinese Wisdom in idiomatic American English. Full
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We seek the FSA's help in overhauling labelling claims and authentication of alternatives intended for the dairy-free consumers. We aim to avert serious nutritional incompetence and misunderstandings. We refuse to be cowed. Full
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We challenge the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to assert itself over microbiological standards with the vigor that the Central Public Health Laboratory (CPHL) exhibited when the terrorists belonged mainly to the salmonella gangs. Full
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Those ducks’ fortunes look even insecure and endangered if their kind are found to be silent carriers of avian flu and thus victims of massacres on a foot-and-mouth disease scale. If only more viruses were endangered and more consistency of regard and care were exhibited to all other animals, great and small, in “our” world! Full
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We add comments based on better experience with an Assalt course of many year ago to assist the Food Standards Agency's proposals to return to campaign to reduce intakes of dietary salts. Full
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We respond to an invitation to a written consultation with the Food Standards Agency (FSA). We urge development of a multi-purpose dietary that could spare caterers’ difficulties at communal functions, not only in schools, and provide wholesome and tasty meals for people with various grades of veggie practice and other special needs and sensitivities (e.g. allergies, intolerances, and aversions entailed in Jewish, Muslim, and Friday RC observances); and the general public to whom going veggie would be no odder than, say, going Indian. Lots of opportunities here for an enterprising FSA. Full
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The Food Standards Agency, prompted mainly by the food and drinks industry, seeks to categorize sectors in the now diverse and spreading market. From a niche into a rut and now back into a dendritic mesh of more niches; or an enterprising, stimulating, and innovative injection into a costive food industry. We talk standards, science, and consumerism with the FSA, from which the veggie-style needs more appreciation. Full
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As the FSA tackles the reeling Food and Drinks Industry with gusto is it still bogged down with the poor standards in manufacturing practices and the whole food chain from farm to fork? Are NGOs and campaigning animal welfarists and environmentalists strutting their stuff in open debate and in the barrage of consultations initiated by the offices of the FSA and DEFRA? From our experience we lament lost opportunities in presenting well-researched presentations. Full
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DEFRA's proposals for an EU Council Directive on the welfare of chickens kept for meat production come up for consultation and scrutiny. The analysis of problems is good, but evidence of arousing desistance and resistance in the shop and consequent action and example by government purchasers, animal welfarists, ordinary customers, and foodies is wanting. It is still time for a kindly presidential expression and leadership in Europe. Full
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Movements of goods and live non-human animals through ports engage the services of local and national inspectors. The Food Standards Agency consults on improvements in integration and tighter control. Our observations follow. Full
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The Food Industry and FSA must do better. Nutrient profiling is the subject of a proposed model that the Food Standards Agency has developed to support work “to further regulate the advertising and promotion to children of foods that are high in fat, saturated fat, salt, and sugar”. It oversimplifies the challenge (ignoring special groups such as veggies and others with particular aversions) and is a poor spatchcocked version of a scheme involving parents, teachers, and the children in the full resources of labelling and easily available information technology. And emphasis on school meals is overshadowing the significance of breakfasts, lunchboxes, and audits of the nutritional waste from well-meant meals that are spurned and possible spared from dumping in land fill by directing into recovery programs or the compost bin. VEGA involved in an FSA consultation. Full
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VEGA is looking for a trustee. This would be a great opportunity for someone interested in the work we do to get involved, and to gain more knowledge about the charity and about the subjects we campaign for. Full
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View webcast. The Food Standards Agency held an open board meeting in London on Thursday 15 September 2005. It was attended by 75 stakeholders and members of the public, including VEGA. It was also viewed on live webcast by more than 300 people. You can now view the webcast on the FSA website. For VEGA's comments click Audio, Analogue or Broadband and scroll down to Q & A in right hand column. Full
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“The category that strikes fear into the hearts of dairy farmers everywhere – dairy-free… the niche sector that may well be watched nervously” are words introducing an editorial supplement (called Dairymen) to the Grocer (10 September 2005). A senior market analyst reckons that the soya alternatives “are growing faster than the real thing”, for which many innovations and hefty, subsidized advertising are failing to restore the ailing cowboy industry. VEGA takes an opportunity to illuminate Guardian readers and to spur all animal welfarists to boycott joyfully the output of the dairy/beef/veal industry. Full
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Veggies, organics, free rangers, environmentalists, and animal welfarists - keen compost-makers all - connive at some bad practices when they buy commercial mushrooms for the table or poultry manure for their gardens. Revisions of DEFRA's stipulations for animal and vegetable wastes as substrated for mushroom-growers must be amplified with information and labelling for benighted customers faced with choices cultivated like the fungi in the dark. Full
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The Food Standards Agency (FSA) gives its Science Strategy an airing. VEGA engages in the consultations with comments based on its 1976 Green Plan for farming, food, health, and the land (and the seas), to the benefit of all animals (human and non-human). Let Kindness displace Callousness! Standards, please, not just Safe, sterilized gut fill. Full
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Our Contribution in Consultations with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) on the Regulations on the Hygiene and Enforcment on feedstuffs. Infected and contaminated feeds can spread and exchange pathogens widely. Wildlife and farmyard commensals aren't toilet trained. Like food, feed must be valued and stored in clean, salubrious conditions in the industry that exploits them. Full
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VEGA comments on the Food Standards Agency's proposals for inspections of dairying practices. Inspectors are advised on means of rapid escape enraged animals of any of the species on the farm, on two legs or four. Full
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Avoidable and needless denials must not restrict discriminating customers from choices in foods, supplements, and pet foods and feedstuff that manufacturers fail to anticipate and accomodate. VEGA expounds on the subject to the Food Standards Agency and Codex Alimentarius. Full
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The Food Standards Agency (FSA) held an Open Board Meeting in London on Monday 15 August. The meeting was attended by 80 stakeholders and members of the public (including VEGA), and viewed on live webcast by over 250 people. Full
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These are zoonoses, but only one - FMD - excludes people from its pathogenic circle. But they can and could all - with some other global scourges - enter the UK, lodge in reservoirs mutating into insidiously augmented powers of mischief and resistance. More massacres of suspect livestock could ensue. We join in consultation with DEFRA on precautions and landing the expences on producers and vendors and their customers - rather than squandering them as yet more subsidies to the live/deadstock industry and its evil workings. Full
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Timber and derived products are harvests and resources colonization of areas of socioeconomic instability, lawlessness, and neglect or damage to wildlife, habitats, and the environment. We enter into a consultation with DEFRA on Euro-plans to monitor, police, and accept imports from the world's forests. Full
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Needs must…..We share experiences of benefit to all registered charities and of special assistance to potential donors with ethical, green, cruelty free and environmentally-friendly intentions. Full
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Overhaul of the Food Safety Act 1990 is not just a legalistic formality. We rehearse some general statements in a consultation invited by the Food Standards Agency. Citizens/customers/consumers need the spice of more education (and not just indoctrination) to flavour the legislative meal. Full
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We air some of the views that animals and the environment would like to make on the Standards in the FSA's anthrocentric draft regulations, albeit otherwise informatively presented for the meat industry. We play, Doolittle-style, the roles of moover and clucker. And not forgetting the fish... Full
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Sheep and goats are now being implicated in the consequences of BSE, new CJD, and foot-and-mouth disease. "Ethnic cleansing" of ovine genotypes susceptible to insidious transmissible encephalopathies is being carried out. Extermination of the whole British flock of over 15 million sheep is being entertained as an awful possibility if sheep and goats become innocent carriers or reservoirs of new plagues, some of them "jumping" speceis. VEGA comments on a DEFRA consultation, available on DEFRA's closed consultations after the 25th July 2005. Full
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Too much here, too little there and worshipping at the altar of cheap food and of outputs dominated by quantity rather than the standards of quality and distribution. We plead with government and industry for an enterprise in Salutary Food Supply from Salubrious Farming in a consultation on draft Food Industry Sustainability. Full
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Is the Food Standards Agency well advised? Do its stakeholders and consultees perform useful functions, especially to the consumer, in the standards for Salutory Food from Salubrious Farming? As vigorous participants ourselves in these functions we provide observations in the interests of animals of all species (including humans), wildlife, and the environment. Full
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Should pesticides be toxed? Let us spray - on the vicarage lawn, railways, roadsides, and hedge bottoms? And what about residues and when the pest is a little furry animal? We engage in consultation with DEFRA. Full
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"It doesn't agree with me" complain consumers with allergies, intolerances and aversions to a range of foods and to their own cherished dislikes. EU regulators and our own FSA out their brains to work on labelling curtailments that seem to relieve manufacturers and retailers of responsibilities and fail to assist discriminating customers making their individual well-informed choices of food that they can like and enjoy. Not all is-yet-in the genes. Full
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Rising to the challenge of a DEFRA consultation and assessing the latest round of scares, we tackle the continual backlash from the ravaged and heavily-poulated "natural" world and the eruption of disaster, catastrophes, and scares. Full
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The hunting fraternity threatened the nation with a vast cull of horses and dogs if their activities were banned. Now, banned as they are, DEFRA in harness with the British Horse Industry Confederation comes up with a gungho draft consultation resonant with big business plans for an industry enjoying continuing success, the punters being of the domineering 2-legged ominivorous variety. Full
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The Food Standards Agency is ignoring the upbeat possibilities linking salutary consumption and salubrious farming, with expressions of good taste in all senses, raising standards in a harmonious alliance for health, animal welfare, the environment and wildlife. Full
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Human activities affect all animals species and their environment. We weigh in on an otherwise worthy DEFRA consultation that is anthropocentrically dominated. Non-human animals not only have to contend with the on and off noises of acts of God and of our kind. Many of them avoidable and unduly stressful. Throwing in a few fireworks and bangers we go to war on the cruelty of noise pollution. Full
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The Times rejected almost by return our observations on the lost opportunities for politicians to vaunt their standing in international affairs of the environment and wellbeing of all animal life (which includes us) in the global view. Opportunities for high level and authoritative participation beckon. Full
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We go delving into decontamination after a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear "event". A CBRN is treated in a DEFRA consultation as "a deliberate (terrorist) event". A HAZMAT is "an accidental release of hazardous material(s)", which include "those which might be used for terrorist purposes, but also the vast arrays of other substances used in industrial, agricultural, and household processes". We include aftermaths of scourges and pestilences and contaminations resulting from wars and when the earth and waters move by Acts of God. Full
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Cows is not a generic name for cattle: cows are slaves forced into prodigious manipulation of their maternal and procreative attributes, as victims in the intensified outputs that result in the tolls of production diseases and reproductive disorders. They deserve at least treatment and attention by professionals avowed to doing their utmost for the well-being of the animals in their care. "The kindly vet who tends his animal treats her; to the technician she is it". The difference tells. Retreat of vets into farm management and leaving intimate practices such as artificial insemination (AI) to technicians is reprehensible. Vets with wellies on and sincere in their professional vows are essential animals among the stock-in-trade on livestock farms. We plead the case in a DEFRA consultation. Full
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DEFRA invite comments on proposals to tighten Enforcement on Control in Endangered Species to protect species and discourage the cruel illegal trade and smuggling of in live animals and dead animal parts. Full
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VEGA answers DEFRA'S Call for Consultation on an Act of 1981 and interpretations in the spirit of the CAP'S AM Chorus: After Modulation in the Cross Compliance Mode of Sheer Production Full
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We grapple with the government's draft bill on these topics, now up for comments from interested parties. Vega objects to any favoured position for the Meat and Livestock Commission and Milk Development Council: the highly-subsidized farming they represent has done unforgivable harm to farm animal welfare and the environment, as well as to standards of food-production. Full
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We analyse results from last year's analysis and tests. MAVIS(Medicines Act Veterinary Information Service) has just released the data, which exemplify the constant need for detection and traceability to set beside the problems with Sudan Red. Full
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We assert a bolder initiative involving all animals, humans and non-humans, that entails more lame editorials dumping diverisionary nannying on the government. Full
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We answer invitations to comment on the FSA's functions, gained from impressions at recent open meetings of its Board. The plough-to-plate and farm-to-fork integration is being neglected. Food must be interesting, pleasurable and health-friendly all the way through the chain, not just sterilized and safe gut-fill. Full
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We review the challenge in importation, say, through border posts in the furthest eastern reaches of the growing EU that may go without further inspections and control inot shops in west Wales. We demand severer tests to counter smuggling, terrorism, and don't overlook husbandry and animal welfare that wouldn't pass muster in the UK. Full
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Breath testing the (questionnably fresh air). We take the opportunity to comment in consultations on some od the official testing and monitoring surveillance of emissions into the atmosphere-stinkers and insidious and indicators of avoidable pollution Full
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Draft Regulations enforcing the Provisions of Regulation (EC) no 2065/2003 of the European Parliament and of the council on smoke flavourings used or intended for use in or on foods. (http://www.food.gov.uk/foodindustry/Consultations/ completed_consultations/compconsulteng/smoke) Full
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We advise on the labelling and presentation of infant formulae and follow-on foods for the offspring of mothers unable to breast-feed and whose parents wish, for a variety of ethical reasons, to resort to alternatives containing no animal products or derivatives. Full
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We recently have had several enquires regarding the publicised name of VEGA and as there is some confusion, we feel it is necessary to define who we are. Full
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We continue with testimony for standards for consumers, customers, and citizens, as well as challenges for choice and enterprise among manufacturers and retailers without undue restraints, bureaucracy, and surfeits of legalistic paperwork. Full
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We prepare an obviously much-needed description for the Food Standards Agency and the industry. Vegetarians call for much more enterprise and less bureaucracy and employment for lawyers, a positive embrace of issues and Standards of farming, food, health, and the land. Green Planning for the well-being of all species of animal, ours included! Full
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VEGA responds to a government consultation on Proposals for improving the effectiveness of the dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976, suggesting some further factors which need addressing, including animal welfare issues Full
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We plead for DIY Acts and consideration with every demonstration we make at the till, unfoxed by empty assurances. We submit our view to the Times. Full
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DEFRA's draft codes of recommendations, compiled by its Animal Welfare Division, still imply the need for cruelty in commercial production and output from poultry. The turkeys are already being reared for their year's end fate in the rituals. Full
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Supermarkets increase choices for Dairy-frees and Animal Welfarists. VEGA responds to Tesco's latest own-brand initiatives in alternatives to products from the dairy/beef/veal industry. Full
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Animal welfarists look to the RSPCA to set an example at the official functions to extricate itself from complicity in cruelties its research (and others') reveals and condemn. Its campaigns to restrain recreational pursuits would gain from such a demonstration of self-discipline common to all aspects of animal welfare. Full
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At the command of an anonymous Trustee of the Vegetarian Society UK its Chief Executive has had to write to VEGA in a profractorial attempt to restrict use and adornments with “our V-Symbol". The society insitgated a subsequent intervention by a Trading Standards Officer. There follows VEGA's reply to clarify the international status of the free range of the sprouting-seed emblem. Full
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Rita Bloomberg, one of VEGA's campaigners, makes some comments in the Jewish Chronicle on ritual slaughter and on the relevance of vegetarianism Full
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In response to the recent "Farming Today" programme ("What would happen to the countryside if everyone went vegan?), BBC Radio 4 have recorded a follow-up programme (Sunday 15 Feb 2004, 06:30am) Full
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Putting the clocks back means less sunshine and declining nutritional status of the sunshine vitamin D, not only for veggies but for the population as a whole Full
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Sunrise Poultry Farm, a unit containing 350,000 laying hens, has been embattled with Charnwood Borough Council, in Leicestershire, over a persistent problem with flies and smells. Full
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The academic year opens a keen market for caterers and retailers and for hungry consumers consigned to the mercies of budget self-catering nosh or canteen / refectory fare in college. Full
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The 2003 Dairy Event, 17 to 18 September, Stoneleigh Park Coventry (sponsored by HSBC Bank, ASDA, Barclays, Farmers Weekly, pharmaceutical companies and others). This is really a festival for whistling in the upkeep of courage rather than of cows. VEGA offers the cows’ views of the latest developments in the industry’s wicked milky ways. Full
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School of Veterinary Science, University of Bristol. VEGA weighs in on the evidence of deplorable shortcomings in dairy farming husbandry. The cow is a victim in an offensive industry of human madness and stupidity. Full
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In our response to a recent government consultation on fisheries conservation, we question why more animal welfare and conservation organisations do not take the initiative to comment Full
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Do you applaud VEGA's efforts at ensuring that consumers young and old are given objective information on the treatment of the cow and her calf? If so - or if not - please use our material to state your opinion to the Advertising Standards Authority. Full
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