- [Narrator] This week, KFC's vegan chicken burger
is so good, that it sold out after four days.
Beauty brand Estee Lauder joins the fight
to end animal testing.
This 97-year-old vegan wants
people to stop killing animals.
And find out which country
is now considered the most vegan friendly in the world.
All that and more on LIVEKINDLY's weekly vegan news.
KFC's new vegan chicken burger sold out
after just four days.
The meat free sandwich, called the Imposter Burger,
features vegan mayonnaise, lettuce,
and a Quorn chicken filet
coated in KFC's signature blend of herbs and spices.
The vegan sandwich was being tested
in select restaurants around the UK
for four weeks to determine whether it would
expand nationwide.
But after unprecedented customer demand,
it sold out just four days into the trial.
Three days in, sales figures were 500% higher
than any other product launch in
the company's history.
A KFC in London estimated it sold
one vegan sandwich per minute.
"The response was unexpected.
"We knew there were plenty of people
"who would want to get a taste of The Imposter,
"but we didn't anticipate this phenomenal response,"
Victoria Robertson, senior innovation leader at KFC,
said in a statement.
- It's really good that people are wanting
more compassionate options.
- [Narrator] They're working on getting the Imposter back
into UK restaurants as soon as possible.
Leading beauty giant Estee Lauder
has joined the Be Cruelty Free Campaign.
The campaign is led by Humane Society International,
and aims to end global cosmetic animal testing.
It is the largest effort in history to end the practice.
Estee Lauder sells its products in more than 150 countries,
under more than 25 brands, including Michael Kors beauty,
MAC Cosmetics, and Too Faced.
Anna Klein, Senior Vice President
of Global Corporative Affairs for Estee Lauder companies,
said in a statement that,
"The company is proud to partner with HSI.
"They've been a wonderful partner and advisor
"as we work together towards our common goal,
"to bring an end
"to cosmetics animal testing worldwide," she said.
President of HSI, Kitty Block, stated,
"Animal testing is last centuries science,
"but to legislate it out of existence
"requires us to join forces
"with forward looking industry leaders,
"like the Estee Lauder companies."
Estee Lauder stopped animal testing
in the 1990s, but was required
to adopt the practice again
in order to sell products in China.
The company's taking responsibility
and acknowledges that it is time to step forward.
Coming up, this 97 year old
wants people to stop killing animals.
Oat milk is so popular,
it may put the dairy industry out of business.
The Dairy Farmers of America, which makes up around
30% of milk production in the US, admitted in March
that its total sales in 2018 dropped
by approximately 1.1 billion compared to the year prior.
News site Eater, commented that the public's
rising interests in vegan milk,
including oat, soy, rice, hemp and coconut milk,
could be to blame for the billion dollar dip.
Oat milk in particular is a hot sector in the market.
Consumer demand for the product was so strong in 2018
that it created a shortage,
motivating people to set up an online
marketplace for Oatly products,
where users sold cases of non-dairy milk for more than $200.
♪ Wow ♪
♪ Wow, no cow ♪
Consumers like the taste and texture of oat milk.
Oatly created a barista
version of its milk that froths well,
and performs like dairy in lattes and other coffee drinks.
In the US, consumer data firm Nielsen,
reported that in 2018, oat milk retail sales surged 50%.
There was an overall growth of 9%
in the plant based milk market,
bringing in over $1.6 billion.
This 97 year old wants people to stop killing animals.
Grandmother Anne Evers Fraser,
ate meat for most of her life,
but just ahead of her 96th birthday,
she adopted a vegan diet.
She was inspired to go vegan
after watching 2017s "What The Health,"
a film that explores the relationship
between eating animals and disease.
Her granddaughter is vegan as well,
and is one of Fraser's biggest supporters
when it comes to her animal advocacy.
Using Instagram as her main platform,
the 97 year old is on a mission
to help others find the path to veganism.
In a recent post, Fraser shared a photo of herself
wearing a shirt labeled "Stop killing animals."
She writes, "I didn't wake up to the horrors
"of factory farming until my 96th year,
"I never even questioned consuming animal products,
"I just did it.
But guess what, it's never too late to make a change."
Coming up, this Nordic island nation
was named the most vegan friendly country.
Shark fin imports and exports have been banned in Canada.
The country passed the updated Fisheries Act last week,
also known as Bill C-68.
Though the shark finning practice was already banned,
this update extends the ban to eradicate
the import and export of shark fin products
from other countries.
Outside of Asia, Canada was ranked
as the next largest importer of shark fins.
According to Toronto based non-profit, Oceana Canada,
the fins of 73 million sharks
end up in the trade every year.
The practice of obtaining the fins
involves capturing live sharks,
cutting the majority of their fins,
then throwing the live shark
back into the water.
Finless sharks will sink to the bottom of the ocean,
where they either die of suffocation,
or are eaten by other predators.
This is another huge win for Canada, a country
that recently banned the captivity of cetaceans
for entertainment.
Iceland might be one of the most
vegan friendly cities in the world.
According to Google Trends data,
the Nordic islands nation placed first
in the worldwide rankings for the popularity of veganism.
Food website Chef's Pencil used Google Trends to find out
which country was the most vegan friendly.
It looked at which countries use Google
to search for vegan related content the most,
and when population size is accounted for,
Iceland comes out on top.
Chef's Pencil had previously named
New Zealand, Australia, and the UK
as the most vegan friendly countries.
But the analysis didn't account
for the fact that countries with small populations
are not included in Google Trend's
default country breakdown.
With this new finding,
60% of the top vegan friendly countries are island nations.
Iceland is number one,
and the islands of Jersey and Guernsey as four and five.
That's it for today.
Have you been to Iceland?
We'd love to hear from you.
Let us know how vegan friendly it was in the comments.
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for LIVEKINDLY's weekly vegan news.