There is a light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to that elusive decline in total meat consumption, but only in countries reaching a certain level of economic growth, according to a new study out this week.

BLOG: The news today has been awash with headlines about the 1,000 pet hamsters in Hong Kong due to be culled in a knee-jerk reaction to the discovery that some have been infected with coronavirus. This is tragic enough, but they aren’t the first non-humans to suffer as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. What lessons should we be learning?

BLOG: Cargill - America’s largest privately held company and multinational food conglomerate - has today been revealed to still be supplying UK farms with feed sourced from producers linked to Amazon deforestation, despite promises to clean up its supply chain. But for a multinational dubbed ‘the worst company in the world’ for a litany of reasons, is it really any surprise?

NEWS: England’s cherished waterways are awash with animal faeces, microplastics and chemicals according to the findings of a report by the Environmental Audit Committee - and intensive chicken and livestock farming is one of the leading causes.

The news that the world’s first octopus farm is to open in Spain next year received huge media and public attention. But with ‘high welfare’ octopus farming an impossibility according to scientists, is there still time to stop it before it starts? Claire Hamlett spoke to Compassion in World Farming.

A rare case of avian influenza infecting a human living in England was reported this week. Bird-to-human transmission is rare and human-to-human rarer still, but with UK outbreaks now double last year’s and predictions of Europe’s worst bird flu epidemic ever - coupled with the high mutation rate of influenza and cases of H5N1 detected in foxes, seals and other mammals - a human bird flu pandemic feels closer than ever.

OPINION: Today marks the start of ‘Regenuary’, a month-long campaign founded by the dubious Ethical Butcher in response to Veganuary’s “overly simplistic narrative” regarding animal agriculture. Emotions always run high, but is regenerative farming truly incompatible with veganism, or is there common ground rooted in very sensible dialogue?

Another New Year, another night of fun, fireworks and terrified animals. The bright lights and bangs might offer up a momentary thrill during winter festivities, but as dog caregiver Claire Hamlett discusses, spare a thought for the animals who suffer and die as a result.

OPINION: Veganuary is upon us and as is now the tradition, farming organisations like the AHDB are rallying the troops to ‘fight back’. Their weapons: the environment and B12. Does that mean we should shift our focus back to ethics?

In Surge co-founder Ed Winter’s latest video he examined COP26, food technology innovations and animal sentience legislation to answer the question, was there any progress for the vegan movement? Claire Hamlett reviews more of the year that was 2021 for animal justice activism.

Outspoken musician Ted Nugent has a history of expressing controversial opinions, whether it be to call Obama a “subhuman mongrel” or argue that the US should have done to Iraq what it did to Nagasaki. Now the avid hunter has invoked the anti-vegan crop deaths argument once again, despite the fact that his son and close friend are both vegans.

Norwegian food group Kavli has washed its hands of St Helen’s Farm dairy and its stake in Yorkshire Dairy Goats, the supplier at the centre of an animal welfare scandal uncovered by Surge in 2020, selling it all back to its original owners.