Melbourne is back in lockdown for two weeks and the city is currently at the half-way point. Let’s hope restrictions ease this coming Tuesday though there are no guarantees.
Still, the vegan and veganised news keeps flowing and we can be comforted by the way the world is edging towards a more vegan way of living. However, there’s still a lot to do as you’ll read below.
The proof – and logical solutions for non-vegans – lies in the news in this month’s edition of The Vegan View.
Melbourne is the 5th least stressful city in the world. Really?
Yes, I was also surprised when I read this headline. Melbourne is one of the most vegan-friendly cities in the world and is now one the least stressful ones.
According to Matador Network, a study conducted by hemp company VAAY looked into 15 different factors to determine which cities are the least stressful. These included safety and security, gender and minority equality, social and political stability, pollution levels, unemployment rates, access to health care and congestion.
However, Melbourne is currently living through its fifth COVID-19 lockdown so it all seems a little coincidental. The fifth least stressful city is experiencing its fifth lockdown during the most stressful time we’ve experienced in recent history. Is it about time we start saying no to animal products that harbour transmittable diseases like COVID-19?
Cities Gone Wild?
This week, Traveller reported that animals are taking over a selection of ten towns around the world. The article pleaded its case with an array of examples from hippos in South Africa to baboons in Saudi Arabia and rabbits in Canada.
What is disturbing about this article is that humans are forgetting one crucial fact – they are animals, too. Like all non-human animals, humans need their space to live and survive but urbanisation is increasingly encroaching on wild areas. This means that wild animals are running out of space of their own, threatening their ability to survive.
This is an example where humans are not recognising their impact on the world. What we all can do about this, at an individual level, is to go vegan and lobby those in power to stop or reduce the impact of urbanisation. Non-human animals need to thrive and survive, too. We’re all part of the same ecosystem.
Sadly, non-human animals are now learning to adapt in an urbanised world
How much longer before the wild is no longer wild? Cockatoos in Sydney might be able to tell you, judging from their behaviour. According to The Guardian, a study has looked into the behaviours of cockatoos and the frequency at which they are adapting their behaviours in order to feed.
Sulphur-crested cockatoos now have the ability to open residential bins for food, and the study measured this behaviour occurring in 44 suburbs across Sydney in a surge over a two-year period. In 2018, the study reported this behaviour occurring in just three suburbs. What does this study also tell us? The sample of observed cockatoos could differentiate between different coloured bins lids and knew which bin held food scraps.
So what does this have to do with veganism? If you think back to my earlier point of urbanisation, land-clearing is also increasing in order to make way for animal agriculture. Demand for animal products must reduce in order for wild areas to be protected. Otherwise, more non-human species will be relying on us for food or they’ll simply die out.
On a lighter note, let’s celebrate those businesses going fully vegan…
The world woke up to the news from The Beet this week to discover that shoe brand Crocs is going completely vegan by the end of 2021. The company plans to “enhance” its sustainability, too.
Now you may have thought that Crocs was vegan because its signature material Croslite is fully vegan. However, leather does feature in a few of the company’s styles. What we see here is a company that wants to become completely vegan and remove its reliability on animal materials.
Crocs is also thinking about its wider footprint. Croslite is derived from “nearly 45% recycled materials, making it one of the more sustainable mass-production materials on the market.” This means that Crocs minimises its demand for raw materials to make their product. Once Crocs eliminates its reliance on leather, their footprint should decrease further and help reduce their demand involving the animal agriculture industry.
So many (almost vegan) companies are still heavily reliable on animal-based products so they don’t miss out on vital sales. The consumer market is changing and it seems that companies are now becoming braver to pursue an all-vegan approach. It really is possible.
