Vegan Menu Tantrums and Deadly Dairy ‘Career Changes’ | Rising Anxieties

and we're really worried, really a lot, about a lot of things, that's for sure. But you know, the onslaught of animal agriculture is definitely one of the, the top, uh, still on the top of my list.

Uh, 'cause you know, if we went back to the best years of the past 10 years, they, they wouldn't be close to good enough because it wouldn't do anything about what the animals are going through. Okay. I'll stop perseverating. Um, Chef Quits Over Vegan Menu at Prince Williams' Earth Shot Prize ceremony.

This is. This is pathetic. This is in Rio de Janeiro. So there's this, this prize that apparently is given by Prince William of the UK and it's very sustainability oriented and uh, and because the presentation is taking place in Brazil this year.

Uh, they, they arranged with this Brazilian chef, Saulo Jennings, uh, and he has a restaurant there apparently, to, to provide the food, which is pretty cool. It's sustainability oriented, so they decided to provide an all vegan meal.

Uh, and you know, it does beg the question of if you care about sustainability, why wouldn't you always eat an all vegan meal? But, you know, whatever. Uh, I, I go on and on. Uh, so he said he, he could not do that. You know, I just feel like a lot of chefs... is this the reason why you go into a, you know, a restaurant that serves meat and that, you know, likes to think of itself as fancy pants, like if they have one vegan thing, it's terrible. It's like they have no, they're bad chefs. They just have no imagination. I mean, we're just talking about cooking vegetables. This is not like a new concept in the world. But he said, asking him to prepare a meat free menu was like asking Iron Maiden to play jazz, which would, I think be in an interesting adventure.

Like what's wrong with that? And that it demonstrated a lack of respect for Brazil's culinary tradition. 'Cause apparently the only thing you eat in Brazil is meat, which is clearly not true. So. So, uh, he did design a vegan menu, ultimately, I, I will give him that, but he was charging so much for it they couldn't afford it, so they went with somebody else.

Uh, he, and then he, he got a little nervous. He said, I'm worried that the vegan community thinks I criticize it. It's not, I only defend my roots. Obviously, not his root vegetables. That's a little joke I put in there. Uh, so they hired this, this person, Tati Lund, who is the owner of Org Bistro, which is in Rio De Janero. So apparently there are some people who eat, uh, something other than meat in Rio de Janero. Her restaurant is, is all vegan. They haven't posted the, the, uh, the, the menu yet, but she, she prioritizes local, organic and seasonal ingredients to connect you with nature.

Oh, you know, I'm sure it'll be delicious. At least they hired somebody who knows what they're doing. Like why did they start with that guy? Why didn't they hire somebody who's good at cooking vegan food instead of somebody who thinks that, like, I feel like they think that it'll automatically be bad, so they just make it bad, or they want it to be bad. Uh, you know, uh, these, these meat, meat, meat eating chefs.

It says in here that according to Brazil's vegetarian society, approximately 14% of people nationwide now consider themselves vegetarian or vegan. Which seems pretty high to me, I have to say. But let's hope it's true, but it's certainly not, as that guy seems to think, zero.

Oh, these people. These people, don't they just drive you crazy? Alright, this is from Watt poultry.com. This is by Terrence O'Keefe. Oh, that first article was from our Friends at Plant-Based News. Um, and according to this article, the title of this article is US Poultry Industry Shares Priorities with Researchers.

And I think there's two interesting things about this article. One is that this is about a meeting that was held at, um, the Poultry Science Association annual meeting. And apparently it's just mostly researchers who I assume are, you know, work in university, uh, like, you know, they have these huge facilities in universities investigating, uh, uh, agriculture. And, you know, I'm sure that the industry donates some of the money to them, like probably their money is coming from other sources as well. But apparently what they are, they just work for the industry. So we have this meeting where the industry tells them what they want researched. So I think that's interesting. But the other interesting thing is that the two things that the industries really want researched is disease management and food safety.

And you know, it is becoming obvious that they have a bigger problem than they used to in with disease. I, I know it's been obvious to you for a while, but it's becoming obvious to them as well. And, uh, the disease challenges us poultry producers face should be the top research priority. Agreed. All of these different people, particularly in the poultry industry, 'cause this is a poultry site, um, and they're focused mainly on, uh, avian influenza of course, which is, you know, it never really left and it's totally back and it's totally devastating things.

It just, you know, it, it's not getting the kind of press it did, uh, not that it got that much press before, but it's not getting nearly as much press as it did even did then. And, uh, they, they point out that they're really trying.

Well, at least in some places, I bet this varies a lot from facility to facility, but infections continue even in facilities with stringent biosecurity. So even in places where they're really trying to keep it out, they can't. Even state-of-the-art biosecurity facilities with shower in shower out protocols are still experiencing outbreaks.

And so they want, they want all these researchers to figure this out. You know, they're a lot for a lot of these, uh, particular things they're talking about in this article, they're looking for vaccines, and we'll see how that goes on, goes over with, you know, the, the, the, the nuts in charge.

Like we're not allowed to have vaccines, but apparently we're putting a lot of money into coming up with vaccines for poultry.

Um, uh, there are other diseases as well. Avian MetaPneumo virus has emerged as an even greater challenge throughout the past year. Turkey Reovirus is, uh, the other one that's really big. Um, and the other problem aside from, from disease outbreaks are food safety needs. But these are really diseases too.

They're just diseases that actually carry on and can infect humans and, uh, campylobacter. Salmonella, of course, salmonella is huge. Uh, they really want vaccines approved for that, which are used in other countries, but are not used here, and they, they need more face-to-face conversations between industry and researchers.

We know our producer... why don't they do this fucking research themselves? Why don't they spend their own, well, I know they do donate money to these places, but I bet they really get up a huge bonus and, and like they could figure this out. They have money. We know our producers at industry challenges, you know the research.

Why don't they know the research? It's their business. We need to bridge that gap. You need to go outta business, that's what you need to do.

All right, from our friends at Sentient Media, this is a sordid little tale. Iowa officials quietly fast tracked legal settlement with major meat packer, environmental group alleges.

And, uh, this, this has to do with this, this lawsuit that's being brought by Driftless Water Defenders. Uh, and it alleges that the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and a meat packing company, which was agri star meat and poultry, coordinated behind the scenes to keep details of a sweetheart deal settlement from the public. This had to do with water contamination.

So the settlement included agreement by the company to pay a $50,000 fine, and this was in settlement of 60 water pollution violations. The amount is equivalent to one day of intentional Clean Water Act violations, and what they did was not only they, they entered into this settlement negotiation with this company that had been polluting the water, but they, they tried to make it secret that according to the, uh, documents filed in this lawsuit. They reveal a concerted effort to rush the consent decrees approval through the Iowa Court system before the group and the public could learn of it and exercise their legal right under Iowa law to file a motion to intervene.

And Driftless Water Defenders said it would've definitely intervened. They've been in, involved in this issue in the past, but you know, they just clo they just settled it. Uh, and, and, uh, the groups like Driftless Water Defenders and others were calling for penalties in the tens of millions of dollars.

So they settled it out for $50,000 and, uh, apparently on July 18th, Iowa Assistant Attorney General David Stewart wrote to Agri Star counsel that he planned to file the consent decree late in the day, and I think somewhere else had said that was a Friday, so late in the day on Friday. As quote, news organizations monitor filings and may publish something before the consent decree is entered by the court unquote. Nice. Nice. Well, at least they found out.

Award-winning documentary on India's dairy industry removed by YouTube. This is another sordid little story. They're all sordid little stories. Uh, this is from plant-based news and this is this documentary, which apparently has, has. Is very successful. It's gotten more than, it's gotten 3.7 million views, more than 3.7 million views.

It's called, I, I, I probably mispronouncing it, I apologize, Maa Ka Doodh but it translate to mother's milk, and it is about how, uh, how the. India always likes, there's always this kind of like illusion, at least here in the US, I don't know whether it's true in India as well, that the cows just sort of like, they get older, then they kind of wander around and everybody feeds them and it's all very happy.

That's not the Indian dairy industry. It involves enormous amount of slaughter. Um, so this film was written, produced, and directed by Harsha Atmakuri, who is a doctor turned to animal rights activist. And, um, what happened is that, that he made this movie examining the various ethical, environmental, religious, economic, social, and political consequences of increased dairy consumption in India.

And, and the link between dairy consumption and beef exports. Uh. And I never understand exactly how this all works because they call them buffalo, but they seem to be the same species. I don't know. Um, I'm sorry. I apologize I'm not more aware, but it's, I should watch this movie, shouldn't I? I'm not sure if it's available in English.

Another thing, I don't know, I'm sorry. So according to the filmmakers, animal rights activists in India recently launched a campaign, this has nothing to do with the movie, called Milk is Not Vegetarian. And this prompted backlash and police investigation 'cause you know, you wanna get the police involved if you're saying milk is not vegetarian.

And so they, they, they used, um, this, this film. Their posters featured the film and, and offered a QR code. And then right after that, YouTube deleted the film and the entire channel citing the company's policies on spam, deceptive practices, and scams. This has since been rectified. I don't want you to think this is going on.

Um, but you know, they had to fight to get it, uh, to get it back up and like, like YouTube just believed that, that this extremely popular film was, uh, was fake, I guess.

So we have to do it, and then we have to fight to get it done again and again and again. That's how this goes. I shouldn't say we, they, it's not like I'm exactly going out there making movies.

Um, marketing cull dairy cattle. How to integrate welfare and economics into decision making. This is from Dairy Herd Management, and you can tell it's a, a cheerful article 'cause it uses the word cull, which is the word, one of the words they like to use for kill. But you'll see there's another way they're, they're, euphemizing the idea that they kill their cows at a point. Um, And they're talking about how, how dairy farmers can choose which of the, uh, cows to get rid of. Um, the nuances of each operation should be discussed when deciding to remove an animal from the herd. Alright, cull, remove from the herd.

And, and they have, you know, it goes, I'm not gonna go through all the things they're supposed to look at. You don't care. And, and it does say that there's a handbook that's provided by National Milk Producers Federation. I think that's who provides it. And they provide practical steps to help farmers and veterinarians make the right decision on the complex question... now wait for it... of quote, when is the right time for a dairy cow to change careers.

This is from Megan Hane, who's a veterinary officer for National Milk Producers Federation. Apparently getting your throat slit is a change in, in career.

I'm not gonna say anymore. Alright. This is, this is so shocking that they decided to do this, but sad that they then gave up, but it's so shocking that they decided to do it. We're talking about Burger King, Austria. This is from Plant-based News as well. They actually, Burger King Austria actually decided to offer only oat milk for their coffee.

I mean, coffee is not a huge, huge, uh, I guess for some other things too. But, but I think it's mostly for their coffee. Um, they would swap dairy for oat milk nationwide. Wow. Of course it didn't last long. Um, as I said, we have to do things and then we have to do them again, and then we have to do them again.

We have to do them again. Um. And they took the announcement. Uh, they, they, they had an announcement that they were doing this that's no longer available online. 'Cause apparently it gave all the good reasons for why you should do that, now they're not gonna do it. And, uh, according to them, they adapted their pledge to remove dairy from the menu following customer feedback, but highlighted an otherwise positive response.

Like they must have anticipated that some customers were like were going to give them feedback about this. Like, like I know that presumably Burger, burger King Austria knows that some people are going to complain. They must have have incorporated that into their plan. So I think something else happened.

You know, I, there was industry pushback, there was government pushback, whatever. Somebody made a phone call. Um. In the updated, in their updated release, they said the response had been overwhelmingly positive, but that some customers had said they would prefer to keep drinking dairy. Like who would've guessed?

Who would've guessed?

And that's it for this week's Rising Anxieties.

Uh, don't forget to tune into our other podcasts, The Hen Report and the Our Hen House interview. And, and before you go, let me just remind you of our, uh, fundraising campaign, which is going on now through the end of the year. And we have this amazing situation, it's only gonna be good for one more year, but anything you donate will be tripled. So if you donate like a dollar, we get $3... hopefully more than that, um, from, from these major donors. And it's been so generous. It's our last year of, of, of having this, so we really wanna take advantage of it. So, you know, if you are able, and I know the times are tough.

I've heard of some bad situations recently, um, of people losing jobs. So obviously if things are like that, don't even think about it. Just continue to enjoy listening to Our Hen House. But if you are able to, you can join our flock, which is $10 a month or a hundred dollars a year. Or you can give any amount and, it would be so appreciated.

And you do that by visiting ourhenhouse.org/support. Thanks so much.