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Articles Tagged with: andy

Hunger Relief & Brand Accountability w/ Kimberly Renee – Ep 271

This week we are joined by Kimberly Renee Barnes, an amazing activist that gets the work done. Kimberly is a self-taught private chef, on-air personality, and the founder of Might Be Vegan. She’s also the creator behind the national #FromMeatsToBeets Challenge, web series “Might Be Vegan presents The Trap Kitchen, and the world’s largest vegan-only tailgate, #VeganAtTheGame, which served more than 1500 people at no cost in the city of Atlanta during Super Bowl LIII.

For today’s episode though, we wanted to talk to Kimberly about Food Love, a national, direct-to-door hunger relief effort providing families in need with nutritious, plant-based food at no cost to them, to strengthen health outcomes and work towards greater food justice in the U.S. The program has a strong focus on BIPOC and other historically marginalized communities. We’ll talk about how the program works, what place it serves within the larger movement for food soveriegnty, and what it took to get brands to actually say yes to providing food to the program.

Then we’ll discuss her work under the Brands Behaving Badly moniker, in which she is working to hold brands accountable for taking advantage of content creators. Additionally, we’ll learn about Kimberly’s impressive online sleuthing which has exposed multiple brands fraudulently claiming to support social justice movements.

A full transcript of the episode can be found here!

Contact us:
Email TheBeardedVegans [at] gmail [dot] com
Call (323) 7BEARDO
Visit TheBeardedVegans.com
Support the podcast and get bonus episodes and merch HERE.
Follow on Instagram and Facebook

The Links:

Food Love – Website / GoFundMe

Kimberly Renee – YouTube / Instagram / Patreon / Ca$hApp / PayPal

Brands Behaving Badly – Website

Might Be Vegan – Website / Instagram / Facebook

Referenced in this episode:

Why I No Longer Support Bob’s Red Mill (Part One)

EXPOSED: How This White-Owned Brand is Preying on Black Folks | Made With Melanin Co Scam

Not referenced in this episode, but we recommend signing this petition To Require Ownership Transparency in Shopify Stores To Prevent Scams & Fraud.

Invasion Of The Mailbag Snatchers – Ep 270

It’s mailbag time, where we respond to your questions, comments and concerns, as well as do a little housekeeping. Topics covered include the future of vegfests, how to talk to someone about adopting instead of purchasing a dog from a breeder, whether or not factory farms can be considered natural, why we don’t plan to do an episode about zoos, the moral worth of “future animals”, is our sobriety connected to our veganism, and much much more!

A transcript of this episode is available here!

Rewind: Revisiting Topics From The Last Three Months – Ep 268

Over the last few months we took a “break” and then had a slew of collab and interview episodes which didn’t leave space for us to do our usual follow up section. So now that we are back on our regular recording schedule we thought it would be a great time to cover significant updates in some of the news stories we’ve covered over the last three months as well as address listener feedback.

Updates range from light to lengthy, as we revisit invasive species, the Denmark mink cull, lab grown meat, and the topic of whether A.I. should be considered vegan (an episode in which we received a flood of feedback asking us to *actually* have the conversation promised).

So You Want To Start A Farmed Animal Sanctuary? w/ Zee Griffler – Ep 267

This week brings the finale of our first ever Sanctuary Series. After exploring the ethics and efficacy of larger sanctuaries and prospect of microsanctuaries, we wanted to provide a starting point for those who are considering starting their own sanctuary. We speak with Zee Griffler, executive director of the Open Sanctuary Project, a freely accessible, always growing digital guide for any resources or information you need in order to responsibly create and successfully manage an animal sanctuary or to provide the best possible care to animals in order to help them live long, healthy, happy lives free of exploitation. The OSP is truly a remarkable resource, not just for sanctuary workers, but for activists of all stripes to learn more about the animals for whom we advocate for.

We’ll also explore why you might not want to start a sanctuary. And, of course, for those not interested in starting their own sanctuary, we’ll be asking Zee plenty of tough ethical questions that might arise when navigating within the sanctuary world.

A TRANSCRIPT can be found here.

The Links:

Purchase Brotha Vegan book here

Open Sanctuary Project / Website / Facebook / Instagram

Mentioned in this episode:

So, You Want To Start A Farmed Animal Sanctuary

The Differences Between An Animal Sanctuary And A Petting Zoo

How To Raise Money For Your Animal Sanctuary

Want to learn more about Animal-Centric Design/Architecture? Check out this great interview with the folks from Piedmont Animal Refuge on Our Hen House.

The Ethics & Efficacy Of Sanctuaries w/ Rachel McCrystal – Ep 265

We’re finally kicking off the long awaited Sanctuary Series! Over the years, many of our discussions involving the ethical grey areas directly or tangentially related to farm animal sanctuaries have left many lingering questions that we felt weren’t fully explored. Questions such as:

How should sanctuaries balance raising the funds necessary to operate with respecting their residents right to be left alone?
Are sanctuaries a good use of our donation dollars or should we be donating to direct vegan education efforts instead?
What consideration should sanctuaries give to free living animals that are displaced by sanctuary property?
Is it okay to stop a fox from eating a sanctuary chicken?
Is there an ethical conflict with housing residents in buildings initially built to further their exploitation?
And many many more!

So we decided to reach out to a variety of folks involved in the farmed animal sanctuary world, in a range of capacities, to see how they personally think about these tougher questions.

To get the ball rolling, we talk to Rachel McCrystal, executive director of Woodstock Farm Sanctuary. We have long appreciated how Woodstock runs things both on site and in their online education work. Woodstock is a mid to large level sanctuary, and with multiple buildings set on acres of land in the country, caring for nearly 400 residents. As such we tend to think of them as the quintessential farmed animal sanctuary and the perfect place to get this conversation started.

A transcript of the episode is available here.

The Links:

Woodstock Farm Sanctuary: Website / Instagram / Facebook / Twitter / YouTube

Rachel McCrystal: Instagram / Twitter

ConsiderTheEgg.com

MeetJo.org

Lab Grown Meat, Revisited – Ep 258

For as long as we’ve been vegan, lab grown meat has been touted by some as the best chance to saving the most animals, while others staunchly oppose using or advocating for it. Up until now, discussions around cell based agriculture have largely been theoretical, but the announcement that Eat Just has been approved to sell their cultured meat to the general public (in Singapore, at least) has turned sci fi into reality. Although we have had an extensive discussion about the ethics of lab grown meat in the past, the abundance of internet arguments on the matter had us thinking that this would be a prime time to revisit our views on the topic.

We’ll also discuss David Perdue attempting to dunk on John Ossof for eating at Slutty Vegan and take a look at Million Dollar Vegan’s latest makeover.

Transcript available here

The Links:

Sen. David Perdue mocks Jon Ossoff for eating vegan burger (Fox News)

Million Dollar Vegan website

Ep 24: Should vegans be excited about Lab Grown meat? (Feb 23rd, 2016)

Eat Just to sell lab-grown meat in Singapore after gaining ‘world first’ regulatory approval (Tech Crunch)

No-kill, lab-grown meat to go on sale for first time (The Guardian)

‘CULTURED MEAT’ IS ON THE MENU AT THE CHICKEN RESTAURANT IN TEL AVIV(Globe Trender)

NEWS ROUNDUP! Ep 257

Hey beardos, this week we take a moment to catch up on some news stories that caught our interest over the last month but we just couldn’t find a space for them in the episode. We’ll try to make sense of the bizarre food labeling law developments in the EU: Vegan Burger good! Plant based milk bad? But also Oatly can’t copyright their claim that their product is “like milk, but made for humans” because everyone knows cows milk is bad? It’s enough to make your head spin! Plus attempt to sort out our feelings over an interested marking tactic from This, and do some extensive follow up on the Denmark mink situation.

A transcription is available here

Support the podcast on Patreon

The Links:

Danish Government May Exhume Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dead Minks And Burn Them(Washington Post)

EU lawmakers vote for ‘veggie burgers’, take hard line on dairy labels(Reuters)

Oatly trademark rejected(World Trademark Review)

This commercial (YouTube)

MAILOWEEN: Season Of The Bag – Ep 250!

It’s time for another mailbag, where Paul and Andy attempt to respond to your questions, comments and concerns. They’ll discuss a lengthy email from a listener that hated My Octopus Teacher. Muse upon the perfect vegan and sustainable alternative to egging someone’s house. Is it okay to take someone to a sanctuary if they are only looking for the “petting zoo experience?” Should we feel conflicted about delivering non-vegan meals to people in need? Why were stores so quick to drop monkey-harvested coconut milk, yet continue to carry products made from exploited humans? All that and much much much more!

Transcript available here

Donate to Woodstock Farm Sanctuary, send us the receipt, and we will double it. Up to a total of $200.

Is My Octopus Teacher A Vegan Film? Ep 249

We’ve received a flood of requests to review My Octopus Teacher, and we’ve seen many vegans singing it’s praises as a film that will help people show compassion for animals. Despite a less than intriguing title, our interest was piqued. We had to know, was the film so many vegans were raving about a “vegan film”? We’ll get all up into this one on this week’s mini episode.

My Octopus Teacher is currently available for streaming on Netflix.

Why Are We Still Surprised When “Vegan Corporations” Are Horrible? Episode 248

This week Paul and Andy tackle two more of the big stories they missed during their break and packing them together by asking why we (the collective we) are still surprised when “vegan corporations” are horrible? Starting with Light Life attacking Beyond and Impossible in a full page ad in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Is this bold strategy going to pay off for them, and does their critique of the other brands even make sense? Is it possible this was all orchestrated to heighten the profile of all the brands involved? Or, more nefariously, is it possible the end goal was to damage the reputation of all brands and vegan meats in general?

Paul and Andy conclude by looking at the last “vegan” company to garner much pearl clutching, Oatly. It was revealed that Trump-supporting billionaire Schwarzman’s Blackstone acquired a stake in the company. Blackstone has ties to companies destroying the Brazilian rainforest and Shwarzman personally donated $3 million to a pro-Trump super PAC. It is undeniably horrible, yet is it surprising? Is this just the cost that must be payed in order to create great accessibility for plant based products, or can we solve the problem by boycotting?

A transcript of this episode is available here

The Food:

Seven Suns, Two Moons (Atlanta, GA)

The Links:

Carol Adams Interview for Toronto Vegfest – Audio Only

The Ultimate Droopy Dog Companion (thanks Emily!)

Light Life Makes A “Clean Break”

Oatly vegan milk faces activist anger after Trump-supporting billionaire Schwarzman’s Blackstone acquired a stake(Business Insider)

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