Beyond Meat, a new company based in Maryland, has come up with an alternative to chicken meat that it claims is a dead ringer for the real thing. And unlike other meat alternatives on the market, this one aims to be cheap as well as tasty. Read or listen to the story:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/05/17/152519988/a-farmer-bets-better-fake-chicken-meat-will-be-as-good-as-the-real-thing

What Can I Do?

1. Please thank NPR for airing "Betting Better Fake Chicken Meat" on Morning Edition, May 17. Tell them how much you appreciate NPR's great coverage of vegan food ideas, recipes and exciting new vegan products. Ask them to do more of these kinds of stories. Contact: http://help.npr.org/npr/includes/customer/npr/custforms/contactus.aspx

You can also post an appreciative comment at the end of the food blog.

2. The ASPCA is now in the chicken and turkey slaughter business. Here is their press release:
ASPCA Provides More Than $150,000 to Promote Humane Poultry Welfare at Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch: http://aspca.org/Pressroom/press-releases/051512

After reading this press release, if you think it is wrong for the ASPCA to be in the business of funding and promoting animal slaughter and pretending that a factory farm is Not a factory farm and doing nothing to promote truly compassionate animal care and compassionate eating, let them know, and while you're at it, ask them where and how the birds are being slaughtered, since they forgot to mention that part in the press release.

Contact:

ASPCA: Bret Hopman, 646-291-4574 / bret.hopman@aspca.org
Farm Forward: Ben Goldsmith, 347-987-1942 / bensgoldsmith@gmail.com
ASPCA's farm animal welfare campaign director: Suzanne McMillan, 212-876-7700 / suzanne.mcmillan@aspca.org

"The public comes to feel that the use of animals for food is in some way acceptable, since even the animal welfare people say so. This cannot help but make it much more difficult to eliminate the practice in the future. Far better to follow the strategy of union activists, who demand 20 percent in the hope of receiving at least 10 percent." – Harriet Schleifer, "Images of Death and Life," 1985.