World Animal Day: Creating a Compassionate World for Animal Friends

Today, we celebrate World Animal Day, which occurs on October 4 each year, and has been celebrated since 1925. As the World Animal Day UK website states, “World Animal Day unites the animal welfare movement, mobilizing it into a global force to make the world a better place for all animals. Each one of us can make a difference – together we make change!” Indeed, together great changes are achieved!

Let’s start with New York City hospitals, where over one million vegan meals have been served. This achievement is the result of a partnership between Sodexo (a food and hospitality company) and NYC Health + Hospitals. There was even a vegan hospital-food tasting event hosted by the Mayor’s Office of Food Policy.

We animal-citizens are also grateful for many wonderful innovations occurring around the world. Many new products, systems, and other technologies spare our lives and reduce our suffering. For example, scientists at Imperial College London in the United Kingdom have developed vegan leather grown from bacteria. Scientists and engineers in Brazil are using AI to prevent drivers from colliding with animal-people, helping to save the lives of both humans and animal beings. Elsewhere, scientists are exploring alternatives to animal-people testing, with hopes that AI will eventually eliminate the use of animal-people altogether.

Animal-people-friendly innovation in the food industry is also developing quickly. A startup company called ANDFOODS, based in New Zealand, is now developing legume-based dairy alternatives. We are also impressed by the efforts of “farmers of the future” from Solar Foods in Finland, a Shining World Invention Award laureate. They are developing a novel new protein. Other companies are also developing similar technology that uses fermentation techniques to produce protein from the air. One such company is Air Protein, based in California, USA, which is using its air-derived protein to develop meat alternatives. “We will need to feed 10 billion people by 2050, and we need to do it in a way that uses minimal land, minimal resources, and is not a threat to our climate. We invented an entirely new process. We use cultures to convert elements of the air that we breathe and water, and electricity, into a protein.”

There have also been developments in creating food for your adorable dog companions. Two German companies, MicroHarvest and VEGDOG, have partnered to create healthy foods made from microbial proteins and biomass fermentation, recommended as potential replacements for animal-people meat treats.