Good Morning,
and great to have you join us for the Weekly Debrief for week 22 of 2021. We got the latest from the world of plant-based business, food, fashion, travel, and lifestyle, curated and contextualized for you.
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This week we visit IKEA Hongkong, materialize vegan diamonds out of thin air and walk through a carbon-positive, artificial forest in a historic London courtyard.
IKEA launches Vegan Pork in HongKong
The furniture multi is known for running all kinds of tests with new vegan offerings (like the vegan version of their famous Swedish meatballs), all in line with the company’s sustainability goal of shifting its global menus to 50% plant-based by 2025.
After pulling pork from the menu in Japan and replacing it with a vegan option (see image), another trial run is now launching in HongKong, where local vegan brand OmniFoods will make vegan pork cutlets for the Swedish giant, which will then be served over a penne pasta dish (ironically topped with cheese — oh well, we’ll get there.)
Body Shop Pledges to go 100% Vegan by 2023
About time, if you ask us, especially if you look at the brand’s heritage — but then again, maybe not so much, for the same reason? After all, the brand, originally founded by British environmental activist and human rights campaigner Anita Roddick already lost its ethical street cred and pioneer status when the founder sold to L’Oréal (an avid user of animal testing) in 2006, and was then resold in 2017 to Brazil’s Natura Cosmeticos.
Pledging to go vegan now… well, great of course, we’re all for it and applaud the step, but also can’t help the feeling that it all smells a bit… opportunistic? So, uhm, quite in line with the brand’s heritage, then.
World’s first Vegan Diamond made with Carbon Sourced from Air Pollution
I know, right? Total WTF moment. Robert Hagemann, the co-founder and CMO of Aether Diamonds is a fellow cult-member (read: animal rights advocate), so it’s no surprise he’s behind the idea of a vegan certification for diamonds.
So not only do these guys create lab-grown, positive-impact diamonds made from air (uhm, mind-blowing?), they also shine a light on the hidden animals in the supply chain of regular-as-well-as-other lab-grown precious stones. Our colleagues over at Vegconomist have the story.
Estonia Bans Fur-Farming
The first Baltic country to abandon fur, Estonia has been marking history this week as the country’s parliament voted on a bill banning fur farming — and passed it. According to a 2020 survey, 75% of Estonians oppose raising and killing animals such as foxes and minks for their fur. Additionally, especially mink farming has been under fire recently for its role in the Covid 19 pandemic.
Celebrations are in order!
A Call for Government Regulations
BTW, the above is a great example for the kind of government regulations Business of Fashion author Maxine Bédat calls for in her latest piece (behind a paywall). After years of lobbying for change in the fashion industry, Bédat is determined that without governments stepping in, fashion’s sustainability problem cannot be solved.
We fully agree, be it in fashion, food or travel. Can we maybe stop subsidizing cow’s milk and get a better night train offering, like… yesterday? Just to get things started?
$100K Angel Fund for Women and Founders of Color
More of what the world needs, brought to you by vegans (what else is new…).
Vegan Investors, a global syndicate of angel investors from the plant-based investment space, has exclusively invited women and founders of color for their Fall event.
Da kann man schonmal klatschen.
Study says Vegans are Happier than Meat-Eaters
“All vegans are negative, pretentious, unhappy and angry protestors” – just some of the stereotypes app-offering Tracking Happiness was interested in. In a study with over 11K participants from the US, the company found that vegans report higher happiness levels than meat-eaters and that happier people are more likely to turn vegan in the future.
Very surprising to us — always on the receiving end of never-ending “bacon!!1”-comments on the interwebs and all — was this: “Only 14% of our meat-eating respondents reported a negative bias towards vegans.
How about we don’t leave the comment sections to these measly 14% then, guys?
Interesting read for sure!
Last but not Least:
This week, we’re faning out over the installation of British Designer Es Devlin for the 2021 London Design Biennale because… well, just look at it!
The “Forest for Change” sits at the center of the biennale venue Somerset House and comprises 400 trees in the historic building’s courtyard. Visitors can explore the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals on a clearing, after you travel through the carbon positive installation, made up of 23 species of trees and equipped with a collection of birdsongs curated by Brian Eno.
All kinds of beautiful, this is!
As always, thanks for reading and have a great weekend. Read you next week!
Yours truly,
Eric Mirbach
(Editor in Chief)
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