Sydney Royal Easter Show Urged to ‘Grow Vegan’ and Leave 200 Years of Animal Abuse in the Past
The Sydney Royal Easter Show is being encouraged to make the event vegan – the Sydney Royal Easter Grow – showcasing Australia’s diverse plant-based farming industry, instead of hosting cruel, outdated sheep-shearing shows and rodeo events and condoning the sizzling of flesh and guzzling of animals’ breast milk. PETA has even designed a cheerful new logo for the event featuring mascot Bazza Banana, an instant Aussie icon. The rebranded event could exclusively celebrate Australia’s hard-working crop farmers and delicious, locally produced vegan fare that’s compassionate and much greener.
PETA’s letter to Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales President John Bennett encouraging him to make the event vegan points out that currently, the show involves over 6,500 non-consenting animals, who are tied up, pulled around, roughly handled, robbed of their fleece, and ridden. In contrast, a vegan event could feature harmless, family-friendly activities such as a vegan sausage-eating contest, a hobby horse race, and a potato-sculpting competition.
Animal agriculture is one of the world’s leading causes of environmental destruction, requiring massive amounts of land, food, water, and energy while emitting huge quantities of greenhouse gases. In Australia, the red meat industry contributes around 10% – over 46 million tonnes – of greenhouse gas emissions nationally. Despite this, Meat & Livestock Australia concedes it won’t meet its own net zero emissions target and says that doing so is unnecessary. PETA writes that “given that raising cattle for beef is the nation’s leading cause of deforestation, the Sydney Royal Easter Show celebrates an industry responsible for koala habitat destruction, pollinator decline, and coral reef degradation”.
‘Grow’ Vegan
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