Vegan Organic Network
Events
Vegan Organic Fest 2022
‘Chillax-Dance-Sing-Celebrate-Create’
The Vegan Organic Fest is back for 2022!
Join us this August 18th –22nd and take some time out in beautiful Cornwall for a healing, entertaining and thought-provoking break.
Chyan Cultural Centre, an eleven acre site deep in the Cornish countryside will be our host again for the second year of the festival.
Chyan is an family friendly off grid veganic apple farm with its own supply of spring water, and wind turbine, which provides electricity for the whole site and the hot showers. The swimming pool and sauna are all fed by natural spring water. It has a capacity for 200 people, camping facilities, an on-site hostel and nearby alternative accommodation
The venue is a wonderful place for returning to nature, with a rich landscape to explore, some of the land is wild, some is nature reserve and there is plenty of flat meadow for camping. Chyan has a 200-seater geodesic dome theatre, two large modern barns for classes, plus marquees. We are blessed to be able to hold the festival in such a beautiful, peaceful and positive space. https://chyan.org/.
The on-site cafe will be serving up a delightful menu of hot meals, raw dishes and homemade cakes and treats, with veg supplied by local vegan organic grower Rich Hardy, ex-undercover animal rights investigator and the author of Not As Nature Intended.
We have a great line up of live music, yoga, tai chi, gong baths, foraging, wild walks, silent disco, fire, talks and discussion, dancing, veganic food, arts and crafts, circus skills, trampolining, sauna and swimming pool
Discounts
£15 discount for VON members. Join here
£10 discount for people cycling to the event.
For your discount code email: events@veganorganic.net
The event is from midday on Thursday 18th August- Monday 22nd August with activities happening from Friday-Sunday.
No dogs allowed.
More information contact Dan Graham: 07732733001 events@veganorganic.net
Jonathan Barker-Creating a Forest Garden
In 2010 we started converting a 6 acre monoculture field into a forest garden, working part time (around 1 day a week) on our mission to create a biodiverse food forest. We began by planting many hundreds of metres of new hedgerow and windbreaks. We incorporated edible perennials such as Myrobalan Plum, Hazel, Bird Cherry and Sea Buckthorn. Alongside this we dug new ponds to capture rainwater for irrigation and improve the site for wildlife. We incorporated structural elements such as our 100 metre willow tunnel to act as an inner wind break, provide materials for weaving and a habitat for nesting birds. We have created distinct areas including orchards, rewilded and wooded zones incorporating several types of nut trees. We have planted around 4,500 trees in total over the years. As Maypole Forest Garden is a place for connection to nature as well as self-sufficiency and education, we have created a central fire pit circle for ceremonies and social gatherings. Our next project is to build an octagonal eco-community space using reclaimed materials and wood from the land. We have made strong connections with our local village biodiversity action group and advise others on setting up their own forest gardens. We hope to see similar projects emerge across the UK. We run a range of workshops and are planning our own Vegan festival this September.
Feel-good original reggae music. Ethical vegan BFriendly (Ian Haywood) has been an avid reggae fan since his teenage years. BFriendly has the ultimate in repertoire to brighten these challenging times. Utilising audience participation and opening the live act on guitar with his very own big reggae theme tune ‘Lucky Seven’ he moves swiftly into the delicious ‘Get Da Curry On’, and other great uplifting tracks including ‘Hello Hello’ about meeting an old friend after a long period of separation, ‘The Sunny Day Song’ celebrating life and love, and the infectious environmental pop song ‘Bee Friendly’ which inspired the creation of the act and was recently released as a single. Believe me this professional act will bring a smile to people’s faces and have them tapping their feet and singing along in no time! Watch on YouTube. https://bfriendlymusic.com
https://linktr.ee/bfriendlymusic
Giles has been a keen gardener for 30 years. He has planted community orchards, forest gardens and medicinal herb areas at a variety of projects. He runs the World Healing Project, promoting wellbeing for people and the planet, and has just released an 8-year project, One World, which features musicians and singers from around the world. http://www.gilesbryant.com
‘Two Years of Veganic Farming: What I’ve learnt and why I’ll continue to grow like this.’
After retiring as an undercover journalist, Rich Hardy turned to vegan farming as a way to both heal and campaign for a kinder food system. In this workshop, Rich will share his veganic farming skills with the audience so they can both learn to grow for themselves or harvest for a local community’.
Rich Hardy Bio
Rich Hardy has been a professional campaigner and investigative journalist for twenty-five years. He has led campaigns for some of Britain’s most creative and successful non-profit organisations including Surfers Against Sewage, cleaning up Europe’s coastlines and starting their fight against ocean plastic; and Veganuary, a pledge campaign that’s inspired hundreds of thousands of people worldwide to try a vegan diet.
But all the while, and over the course of two decades, he’s been going undercover to document the animals that suffer for human gain. His images and testimony have fuelled the work of more than twenty international animal protection organisations.
These high-risk endeavours saw him awarded a Daily Mirror ‘Animal Hero Award’ in 2019 and saw the publication of his first book ‘Not As Nature Intended’ in 2020 (Unbound).
His latest project is a vegan farm in Cornwall, which he co-founded with his partner Pru.
Campaign Portfolio https://richcampaigns.myportfolio.com/
2019 Daily Mirror Animal Hero Award Winner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb6aNfJtx24
Not As Nature Intended Book https://www.waterstones.com/book/not-as-nature-intended/rich-hardy/9781789650631
Mark is a professional Spanish guitarist based in the South West of the UK. His experience of live performances spans over 35 years. His repertoire includes Latin, contemporary and world fusion as well as traditional Spanish guitar pieces. Visit his website for more information. https://www.markbarnwell.com/
We will be having some lovely luscious raw cake delights from simplyrawgeous.
Also a workshop on sunday morning.
?RAW FOOD DEMO AND TALK WITH PETE
Pete stumbled across raw food as part of his healing journey and it turns out found another essential part of what tends to seems like a puzzle to reclaim a more authentic sense of freedom, joy & creativity.
15 years experience of exploration in the gourmet raw food plantbase world … 14 years of taking a gourmet rawfood cafe – simplyrawgeous and sauna – meltdown Sauna to festivals to advocate nurturing health, a true wealth to the public.
Bringing the food as well as an holistic essence, with history of astrology, re-birth breath work and jin shin jyutsu.
Pete will be doing a demo making some fairly simple raw cake recipes with the emphasis to support others to show how easy it is to integrate a more raw plantbase food lifestyle.
Tibetan sound healing. I work the sound and vibrations of my singing bowls and other instruments to create a journey through time and space. Allowing us to release and work through anything that we are holding on too. The vibrations work on a cellular level helping to clear the facia of any build up of emotions and trauma. All you have to do is sit back get comfy and enjoy the sounds. We will start with a little movement and breath also.
Juliette will be leading the mushroom ceremony
Playing at 432hz instead of standard tuning 440hz, this acoustic group quite literally bring the good vibes with their upbeat music, featuring covers of the best music of every decade since the 1950s, their own original songs that are equally as varied in their style and sound and some children’s songs that will please the adults just as much as the little ones!
Jon forages for edible wild foods in the natural habitat where he lives in Cornwall. He runs a veganic project ‘Willow Way’, near Newquay, a place of education, teaching self sufficiency and veganic principles. To help heal the earth and help people to reduce their footprint. Also to help people become engaged with where their food comes from and how it is grown and also to reverse illness through this lifestyle.
Clive and Dave: Acoustic guitar & Native American flute.
1. Foraging- How you can eat everything if you know how. Games, walk and poetry. 2. Nature connection. A sensory experience building a relationship with place, ourselves and each other. 3. Bosque Technique- Tapping into the natural world metaphors to work with any problem. A synthesis of Permaculture and Kinesiology. www.dynamic-equilibrium.co.uk
Shiatsu, Sports & Aromatherapy Massage
Spa Soma Wood Fired Hot Tub & Sauna & Swim
‘Rachel Mayfield is a musician and multidisciplinary artist from Birmingham UK. Her career began as the front woman and principal songwriter of Indie/Alt Rock band ‘delicious monster’ hailed by the NME and alternative high culture press as one of the ‘most important women in rock.’ After a life changing experience with mental health following the bands first album, she began developing film and music exhibitions that explore psychology, mystery and wellbeing. In 2015 she began to release solo albums on the Ironman records label. Her latest album and film of the same name titled ‘Truth to Material’ is based on the themes of identity and belonging and is due for release on October 12th, 2022. She will be bringing her magical mix of performance and audience inclusion from this work to the Simply Rawgeous festival in September.’ Instagram @RachelMayfieldArts
The Contemporary Song
This workshop is based on the idea of writing down and turning into a lyric, what we aren’t allowed, or can’t freely or easily voice in today’s society. As a group, we compose a song together from these lyrics and join in together to sing it. This is based on the traditional folk-style resistance song that kept people united and hopeful throughout the ages. I compose the music and arrangement for the group as we add their lyrics and voice to a chord sequence.
Meditate on the Voice
This is a meditative voice practice. The idea is to literally rest on the notes and vibrations of the voice as they work through the mind and body. I have these mediations already composed. I show participants how to breathe into the practice and sing along, extending the notes slowly and steadily until they can hear the notes within them, even after they have stopped singing and are sitting in silent stillness. This is a good workshop to attend before the contemporary song workshop as it develops voice confidence.
Talk about your voice
This workshop is a healing discussion group to uncover the reasons why the voice can become stuck in the body. I have seen miracles of recovery teaching this workshop as participants gently, with techniques I have developed, open up to discussing their creative wounds and bruises. Stories can be told about when they were told they couldn’t sing and why they feel they might not be able to sing because they have to sound like somebody else. This is a good workshop to hold first at the beginning of the festival to prepare for the following two.
Join me for an immersive, auditory experience, using wireless headphones, a chance for you to unwind and experience the wonderment of sounds and music from around the world. Be it dancing, walking, sitting and enjoying the choice is yours.
It’s about connecting with our inner human soul, letting go of our ego, labels and expectations, reconnecting with the humanity within us, we are all one.
Jason from GreenManGongs, can’t wait to get back to Chyan again to be part of the VON festival n catch-up with everyone, last year was fantastic so hoping everyone from last year will be there, plus really looking forward to meeting all those who will be there for their first time!
I’ll be holding Gong Baths/Sound Journeys for my workshops, gonna be some powerfully deep sound immersion, detoxing, de-stressing, relaxation & hopefully leave you all blissed out for the rest of the days events for anyone who’s never experienced a Gong Bath/Sound Journey you can click on link https://mindworks.org/blog/what-is-gong-meditation-and-how-is-it-practiced/ or go to GreenManGongs Facebook where there’s some great vids & descriptions of what you can expect, although to experience one is another level! It’s a personal journey,
A guided journey, introducing and practicing the 3 pillars of embodiment. Drawing on Shamanic and Tao healing practices to open energy channels within the body to express and release stored emotions. We will begin with breathwork, vocalisation and movement practices before moving into a session of open embodiment expression guided by music.
https://linktr.ee/vievebare
Holistic healer and shamanic practitioner working with light language, energy, crystals, sound, herbs and I do tarot therapy.
Bring your own and share/learn new tricks.
Festival Information
Festival tickets are inclusive of all entertainment, workshops, activities and camping from Thursday 18th August 12 midday to Monday 22nd August 2pm
Discounts
£15 discount for VON members. Join here
£10 discount for people cycling to the event.
For your discount code email: events@veganorganic.net
Would you like to perform, give a talk, lead a workshop or volunteer?
Form for musicians and performers
Form for workshop leaders, talks, yoga , etc
Form for volunteers
Travel and disabled info
Public transport to Penryn train station or bus to Treverva from Falmouth then 30 min walk. Or bus to Longdowns and 40 min walk. We can arrange collections from the train station with the electric minibus at 9am and 5pm each day. There will be lots of travelling people and cycles are very welcome – there is a lock up cycle shed on site and an electric charger in the car park.
The hostel has one wheel chair room but the others can be accessed with help. There are two disabled loos.
“WANT TO STAY AN EXTRA NIGHT?”
If you want to arrive before Thursday or leave later than Monday afternoon you can, at a cost of £10 per night per adult camping and £12 if you have a live-in vehicle. Please not that the cafe is open only for the duration of the festival.
Contact Dan Graham if you require more information: tel. 07732733001 or email us at events@veganorganic.net
Nearby accommodation: Fig Tree Guest House is next door , Maenporth holiday village or look at B&Bs or hotels in Penryn, Constantine and Falmouth.
More information contact Dan Graham: 07732733001 events@veganorganic.net
Buy Tickets
Event Schedule
Save our Wildlife Awards
Plant power! Exciting environmental competition for change-makers. Do you have a passion for our planet, an affection for our animals, and a natural love for nature?
What we eat and how we grow our food today will decide the future of tomorrow!
Congratulations and a BIG thank you 
to all the participants and winners of our ‘Save our Wildlife competition’. Thank you so much for sharing your pictures and videos with your entries. You have helped raise the alarm 
and spread the urgent message that animals are losing lives, homes and families – but together we can create the change that’s urgently needed.
The awards night was on Thursday 9th December. It was presented by Luke Scott III and included a compilation video of the art work from the school children and pictures and video of the children with their winning certificates.
Guests at the event: Sailesh Rao from Climate Healers, Catrina Fenton the Head of the Heritage Seed Library and Willow Weaver Cherry Chung.
Here is link the video of the event.
The Winners
Winners of the short video competition:
1st prize Giles Bryant: Wildlife Emergency
2nd prize Piers Warren: Change Your Dream
3rd prize Danny Jones and Izaak Chung-Graham: Grow Veganic Save the Planet
The following schools have won a day with Willow Artist Cherry Chung:
Hillshott Infant School and Nursery
Bromsgrove Preparatory School
Bredon Hill Middle School
New College Leicester
Winners KS1
Louise Hatton-Hillshott Infant School and Nursery
Avery Ayson -Hillshott Infant School and Nursery
Emily Powell Chloe Thorpe -Bishop Lonsdale Primary School and Nursery
Winners KS2
Riya Gandesha–Bromsgrove Preparatory School
Emily L -St Edwards Catholic Primary-
Amy Sabir-Eaton Square School
KS3
Austeja Bordovskyte and Morgan Douglas– Peterhead Academy
Elsa Greenwood and Ella Crowley -Bredon Hill Middle School
Dylan Foster, Leah Clamp, Papa Bawuah, Lichelle Schumachers and Athaliah Charakupa
WALTON HIGH
KS4
Erin Fullwood –New College Leicester
Lanyes Mazon – Nicholas Breakspear School
Save our Wildlife Awards
| VON’s Awards for Save our Wildlife Competition Join us for an entertaining evening, where we will be awarding prizes for VON’s school arts competition and VON’s short video competition. The event will be live on-line Thursday 9th December 7pm-7.30pm Click here for: Free tickets Awards for short video competition First prize: £500 | 2nd prize: £300 | 3rd Prize: £200 Live draw for 3rd prize! All videos will be entered into the draw for 3rd prize. Which are your three favorite videos? All the competition videos can be viewed on our YouTube channel. Videos are a maximum of one minute in length. Please let us know the three videos you like best, 1st, 2nd and 3rd, by filling out our on-line form or by emailing events@veganorgnic.net Many of the videos from the competition were shown on VON’s Giant Vegan TV at COP26 in Glasgow. Awards for School Arts Competition Thirty four schools and 200 children/young people took part in the competition.The competition asked participants to show through their art how the loss of wildlife and species extinction is linked to farming animals.The competition aimed to help young people become better-informed about the environmental crisis that we are in, by exploring the impact of what we eat and the way food is grown and how they can help to create a healthier world for us all to live in. All schools that entered the competition will be sent a copy of Growing Green International, a living Willow Wand to plant and a selection of seeds to plant. Many thanks to Simon Read who donated the Willow Wands and to Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library who donated the seeds. Watch a video of the willow wands. Seeds from Garden Organic include: Lettuce ‘Bronze Arrow’, Pea ‘Veitch Perfection’ and Climbing French bean ‘Mountain Half White Runner’. The following prizes for schools will be awarded:• Individual pupil winners for each Key Stage – £20 voucher • Paired winners– £10 voucher each • Group/Class/Year/School winners Stage – Prizes decided on a case by case basis, and will be a £50 voucher, or cheque for the school to choose appropriate prizes • Five winning schools can opt for a day willow weaving workshop with Cherry Chung , a willow artist based in Manchester. In keeping with the Save Our Wildlife Competition, she will be working with pupils to create wildlife inspired willow sculpture, and pupils will have a chance to learn about the wildlife benefits of willow weaving, and how going plant based can support natural habitats and encourage native wildlife. To support the Vegan Organic Network competition’s and educational projects, please donate on our website. What we eat and how we grow our food today will decide the future of tomorrow! |
Support our Vegan Trike TV at COP26
To Support VON’s Giant Vegan Trike TV at COP26 by making a donation, please go to the bottom of this page.
The Vegan Organic Network (VON) are going to COP26 the international conference on Climate Change in Glasgow from 1st-12th November, with our Pedal Powered Vegan Cargo trike which is installed with a Giant 43 inch TV.
The Giant Vegan TV will be broadcasting information about why going vegan is good for the climate, animals, people and planet.
We will have videos from veganic farms, scientists, musicians, organisations and videos from our Save our Wildlife Short Video Competition which is open for entries until 31st October.
Animal Agriculture is not on the COP26 agenda!
The COP26 event is a global united Nations summit about climate change and how countries are planning to solve it. Over 200 countries will be taking part!
Animal agriculture is the first or second largest global emitter of CO2, depending on whose stats you are looking at. With more than 88 billion animals raised and slaughtered for food each year, intensive livestock farming is responsible for between 15% and 87 % of the world’s human-made greenhouse gas emissions.
The 15% estimate research was sponsored by the meat and dairy industry and the 87% estimate is by Sailesh Rao of Climate Healers.
Both these estimates exceed emission levels from global transport combined. And yet, inexplicably, animal agriculture is not on the COP26 agenda as a priority in discussions on the mitigation of global warming.
Here’s what we’re doing about it
We are going to COP26 and collaborating with other vegan groups and individuals to show that by going vegan and adopting veganic farming we can start to solve the crisis humans have created, that is: global warming, loss of wildlife and biodiversity, soil degradation, ocean and river dead zones.
When people move to a vegan/plant-based diet, millions of acres of land can be rewilded and when we adopt veganic farming methods, we will have clean safe food, which is good for humans, animals and the environment.
Have your voice heard at COP26
Have your say at COP26 by joining the Save Our Wildlife Video Competition: 1st prize £500, 2nd prize £300, 3rd prize £200.00 all entries will be entered into a draw for 3rd prize. Suitable videos will be broadcasted on the Giant Vegan Trike TV and on our online events.
At COP26 we will be joining protests, going to events showing films on our Giant Vegan Trike TV, talking to people and giving out information: you are welcome to join us.
We will also be interviewing delegates, campaigners, the public and having lively debate and discussions; these will be broadcasted online in evenings during the COP26.
Once the Giant Vegan Trike TV has been built it can go to other events around the country and spread our message.
Join us and help the Giant Vegan Trike TV be a success at COP26 and beyond.
Support us by making a donation:
Veganic Gardeners Question Time November 1st
Veganic Gardeners’ Question Time
Giles Bryant – World Healing Project, Founder will host an entertaining evening with some twenty-four carrot advice from date farmer Jamie Jones, permaculture teacher and veganic grower Piers Warren.
Please send your questions to: events@veganorganic.net.
Show will include footage from VON at COP26
Free tickets here
Event line up:
Giles Bryant – World Healing Project, Founder.
Giles has been a keen gardener for 30 years. He has planted community orchards, forest gardens and medicinal herb areas at a variety of projects. He runs the World Healing Project, promoting wellbeing for people and the planet, and has just released an 8-year project, One World, which features musicians and singers from around the world. http://www.gilesbryant.com
Ellen Mary: Horticultural radio show host, TV presenter, writer and of course vegan. Travelled all over the world to discuss the benefits that nature provides to our wellbeing – specifically gardening.
Piers Warren: Conservationist, author and keen grower of organic fruit and vegetables. He is the founder of Wildeye – The International School of Wildlife Film-making. Writer of several books and co-author of The Vegan Cook and Gardener.
More about Piers https://www.pierswarren.co.uk/veganic/
The Vegan Cook & Gardener https://veganorganic.net/product/vegan-cook-and-gardener/
Meghan Kelly: Learned veganic permaculture to become more self-sufficient while sticking to her vegan values. She has practiced veganics for over 10 years in community gardens, concrete jungles and up in the hills. She runs the Learn Veganic online course and co-founded the Veganic Agriculture Network .
Our website: https://learnveganic.com/
Our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LearnVeganic
Veganic Gardeners’ Question Time hopes to inspire and bring new ideas to foragers, growers and gardeners alike.
Now more than ever it is vital that we engage with how our food is grown.
Tune into our show and become part of the growing revolution which can not only transform your garden plot but also change the way the world grows its food.
A Vegan Organic Network production.
Rich Hardy From Undercover Journalist to Vegan Farmer
Free tickets
Rich Hardy, Lazy Meadow Farm
From Undercover Journalist to Vegan Farmer
For two decades I lived a double-life.
And with the help of a hidden camera, some water-tight cover stories and a little luck I traversed the globe working undercover to document the damage factory farming was doing to the planet and the billions of suffering animals used to feed and clothe us. My images and testimony helped shape some pioneering legislation and were used by global animal charities to generate hard-hitting media exposés. But while it helped create change and promoted vegan lifestyles, it came at a bit of a personal cost.
Burnt out and in need of a change I turned to growing. Partly to help heal my soul a little after what I had witnessed but also as a challenge to the cruel factory farming model that growing food needn’t involve animal suffering or be so destructive. So, with my partner Pru, and taking an activist-inspired approach, we’ve set up a vegan farm in Cornwall that is half-way through its first season. Using veganic techniques and operating under a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model we harvest weekly and deliver veg boxes in and around Falmouth, Redruth and Truro.
Cherry and Dan from VON went to visit Rich on his land this summer to see how he was getting on in his first year as a veganic farmer.
Free tickets
Save our Wildlife Arts Competition-Youth Groups and Home Educators
Plant power!
Exciting environmental competition for young change-makers
Do you have a passion for our planet, an affection for our animals, and a natural love for nature?
There’s no greater feeling than doing something good for our planet. And a new, whole-group initiative is pretty exciting, too!
Take part in our creative ‘Save our Wildlife’ competition this August, and your young environmentalists can raise their voices, save our planet, and win some incredible prizes.
Get involved in the 2021 Save our Wildlife Youth Arts Competition!
We are pleased to announce that our first Save our Wildlife arts competition is open to all home educators and youth groups.
Submissions are accepted in most art forms – let your imagination run WILD!
- Art (painting, drawing, sketching etc)
- Film and animation
- Poetry
- Photography
- Dance
- Music
- Drama
- 3D
Our competition is suitable for all ages and will be fun and educational for younger children and challenging and engaging for older students.
One winner in each of the 5 key stage groups will receive a day with willow artist Cherry Chung or £250.00. We will also have gift voucher prizes for the top 15 entries from individuals.
Did you know ONLY 4% of ALL MAMMALS are WILDLIFE, 60% are FARM ANIMALS and 36% HUMAN?
Click Here to Find out Why.
Join our competition, learn how even the littlest change can make a huge difference, and play your part in creating a more sustainable future.
 |
Help students become better-informed about the environmental crisis we’re in, and the part they can play to help solve it. |
|
Explore the impact of what we eat and the way food is grown, and take steps towards a healthier future. |
|
Support your geography and citizenship curricula, and get help teaching engaging, accurate sustainability topics. |
|
Use the competition to support your school’s Eco-Schools Green Flag accreditation application, and showcase your environmental actions to your school community. |
Can what we eat really help save wildlife?
Winning entries will demonstrate how we can save our wildlife and care for our common home.
Who can enter?
Young people can enter individually, in pairs or in groups.
We welcome entries from young people of all abilities , from age 3 right up to age 19. We can only accept a maximum of 10 entries per group – so be sure to whittle them down to your best creations!
Gifts for entering the competition
The first 150 groups to submit their competition entries will receive a twisted living willow wand plant, a bird box and a copy of Growing Green International Magazine and seeds to plant.
Prizes & judging
Entries will be split into age groups for judging, with one main prize winner per key stage, and five prizes per age group in the following categories (20 in total)
Prizes are as follows, with a total of 20 prizes awarded:
Age groups: 3-7, 7-11, 11-14, 14-16 and 16-19 year olds
- 5 x Individual winners, 1 per age group- £20 voucher
- 5 x Paired winners, 1 pairs per age group – £10 voucher each
- 5 x Group winners, 1 per age group – Prizes decided on a case by case basis, and will be a £50 voucher, or cheque for the school to choose appropriate prizes
- 1 winner in each age group will receive a day with Willow Artist Cherry Chung or £250, 5 in total (international groups will receive the £250 prize)
What we eat and how we grow our food today will decide the future of tomorrow!
Resources:
Save our Wildlife Schools Arts Competition
Plant power!
Exciting environmental competition for change-making students
Do you have a passion for our planet, an affection for our animals, and a natural love for nature?
There’s no greater feeling than doing something good for our planet. And a new, whole-school initiative to start off the next academic year is pretty exciting, too!
Take part in our creative ‘Save our Wildlife’ arts competition this September, and your young environmentalists can raise their voices, save our planet, and win some incredible prizes.
Gifts for entering the competition
The first 150 schools to submit their competition entries will receive a twisted living willow wand plant, a copy of Growing Green International Magazine and seeds to plant.
Get involved in the 2021 Save our Wildlife Schools Arts Competition!
We are pleased to announce that our first Save our Wildlife arts competition is open to all schools, home educators and youth groups.
Submissions are accepted in most art forms – let your imagination run WILD!
- Art (painting, drawing, sketching etc)
- Film and animation
- Poetry
- Photography
- Dance
- Music
- Drama
- 3D
Our competition is suitable for all ages and will be fun and educational for younger children and challenging and engaging for older students.
One winner in each of the 5 key stage groups will receive a day with willow artist Cherry Chung or £250.00. We will also have gift voucher prizes for the top 15 entries from individuals.
Did you know ONLY 4% of ALL MAMMALS are WILDLIFE, 60% are FARM ANIMALS and 36% HUMAN?
Click Here to Find out Why.
Join our competition, learn how even the littlest change can make a huge difference, and play your part in creating a more sustainable future.
|
Help students become better-informed about the environmental crisis we’re in, and the part they can play to help solve it. |
|
Explore the impact of what we eat and the way food is grown, and take steps towards a healthier future. |
|
Support your geography and citizenship curricula, and get help teaching engaging, accurate sustainability topics. |
|
Use the competition to support your school’s Eco-Schools Green Flag accreditation application, and showcase your environmental actions to your school community. |
Can what we eat really help save wildlife?
Winning entries will demonstrate how we can save our wildlife and care for our common home.
Who can enter?
Pupils can enter individually, in pairs or groups, or as whole class, year or as a school.
We welcome entries from pupils of all abilities and any school type, from age 3 right up to age 19. We can only accept a maximum of 10 entries per school – so be sure to whittle them down to your best creations!
Prizes & judging
Entries will be split into Key Stages for judging, with one main prize winner per key stage, and five prizes per key stage in the following categories (20 in total)
Prizes are as follows, with a total of 20 prizes awarded:
- 5 x Individual pupil winners, 1 per Key Stage – £20 voucher
- 5 x Paired winners, 1 pairs per Key Stage – £10 voucher each
- 5 x Group/Class/Year/School winners, 1 per Key Stage – Prizes decided on a case by case basis, and will be a £50 voucher, or cheque for the school to choose appropriate prizes
- 1 winner in each Key Stage will receive a day with Willow Artist Cherry Chung or £250, 5 in total (international schools will receive the £250 prize)
Closing date: Sunday 31st October 2021
What we eat and how we grow our food today will decide the future of tomorrow!
Resources:
Save our Wildlife Video Competition for Schools
The future is uncertain for us all, how we act now will determine the planet our children inherit.
COP26 the UN Climate Change Conference being held in Glasgow this November, will make decisions that will effect us all, that is why we think it is important for children and adults to have a voice.
Have you ever wondered what the ratios between wildlife and livestock were? Well, in 2018, three scientists did and they carried out some research to find out the answer.
4% of all mammals are wildlife
36% of all mammals are human
60% of all mammals are farm animals
We want schools and children to take part in our Save our Wildlife short video competition, and help send the message to delegates attending COP26 the UN Climate Change Conference:
To Save our Wildlife we must move to a Plant Based Food System
Schools taking part will receive a Save our Wildlife educational pack, a BOB box and a Willow Wand. The winning school entry will receive a day with willow artist and environmentalist Cherry Chung.
Schools taking part can submit up to five videos, children and teachers are also welcome to enter our main competition.
Be as creative as you like, videos must be 60 seconds or under. We have created some scripts which you can use for inspiration.
Our film competition aims to spread the message that:
To Save our Wildlife we must move to a Plant Based Food System.
Of all mammals on Earth, ONLY 4% are WILDLIFE, 60% are farm animals and 36% are humans.
By adopting a plant-based food system, land used by farm animals can be converted to wildlife habitats.
- 80 percent of the world’s agricultural land is used for farming animals (livestock farming).
- When we remove the farm animals from our food chain, corn and soya fields required for animal feed can be transformed into nature reserves.
- World agriculture must move towards “people nourished per hectare”.
- Veganic agriculture is green, clean and cruelty free, it uses less land, water and fossil fuel resources than farm animal (livestock) dependent systems and creates a wildlife friendly environment where nature can thrive.
Read: Saving Earth Wildlife through Radical Change
Make a short film and help spread this urgent message to your friends, family, community and to politicians around the world.
How to enter Save our Wildlife Video Competition:
- Make a short video 60 seconds or under, which communicates that: To Save our Wildlife we must move to a Plant Based Food System.
- Your video can be reportage, documentary, narrative (scripted) as well as an animation or a song or dance. There are no limits to your creativity, you can even submit multiple entries to the competition, spread your wings!
- Top entries will be posted on our website and social media channels so the public can support their favourite idea. This will be taken into account when the judges choose the winners.
- Closing date midnight 6th November 2021.
- Read article below: Saving Earths Wildlife Through Radical Change.
- Watch Time is Running Out
- Be creative, share your video, get the message out and be the difference.
- Winners to be announced in Vegan Organic Network Newsletter October 2021 .
- Competition open to all ages and nationalities.
How to enter competition:
Email a copy of your video to events@veganorganic.net.
Post and share your video on all your social media platforms.
- Facebook: Like and follow Vegan Organic Network Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/VeganOrganicNetwork)
- Instagram: Follow Vegan Organic Network Instagram (@veganorganic.net), upload video to your Instagram account and tag #veganorganicuk and other tags about wildlife, sustainable living, farming and being vegan. Set your account to public, so we can see your video!
- Youtube: Upload your video send link to events@veganorganic.net and share on your email and social media platforms.
Tag your friends and tell them to enter too!
For further information contact: events@veganorganic.net
Saving Earth’s Wildlife Through a Radical Change
Have you ever wondered what the ratios between wildlife and livestock were? Well, in 2018, three scientists did and they carried out some research to find out the answer. Yinon Bar-On, Rob Phillips, and Ron Milo from Israel and California estimated the biomass of all living things on the Earth. Now, biomass is the weight or mass of a living being. It was the first study of its kind and it gave some rather interesting and alarming results. Their research was published in a journal called The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS). The research was so significant that it was summarized in The Guardian.
Of all life forms on Earth, comprising animals, plants, bacteria, fungi and viruses, they found that plants made up for 82% of all life on Earth. Bacteria came in second with only 13%. The remaining fraction of 5% comprised everything else including all animals fungi and viruses.
But what made this study so disturbing was the fact that of the mammals, 60% were livestock , 36% were humans, whilst only a mere 4% were wildlife. This is a huge disproportion between livestock and wildlife. These researchers revealed that of the birds, a staggering 70% were being raised as farm animals for food whilst only 30% were wild birds living freely outdoors.
The research also revealed that of all living things on Earth, humans made up for only 0.01%. And yet, since humans appeared on the Earth a few million years ago, they have been responsible for the extinction of a whopping 83% of all wildlife. This is a huge figure. The WWF estimates that 10,000 species go extinct every year. This figure represents both plants and animals, but it is still a massive number.
So, what exactly is driving all of this? Why are so many species becoming extinct? The answer, quite simply, is our lifestyles and the way we grow our food.
Vegans have been blamed for deforestation of vast swathes of land to grow soya. But the actual truth, according to Greenpeace, is that 80% of all soya grown is fed to farmed animals, most of whom are in factory farms. Only about 6% of all soya ends up on our plates. Deforestation leads to animals losing their natural homes, their food sources and their protection. Invariably, this will lead to many, many species dying out. There is nothing to sustain them. Deforestation is carried out not only to grow soya (and also corn which is fed to livestock), but also for mining, logging, urban development and building of roads and railways.
It’s estimated that around 80 Billion land-based animals are killed to feed a burgeoning human population every year. And, until their untimely death, they need feeding! So, you can imagine how much land is used to grow food for them! This land that could be used to grow healthy plant-based food to feed humans. In some countries of the world, global poverty and hunger is rife.
A plant-based diet is highly recommended; it uses up a lot less land to grow enough food for human consumption. Wildlife is thus supported and the threat of extinction of species is greatly reduced.
It’s not only our dietary preferences that need addressing; it’s also agricultural systems as a whole. Growing crops responsibly and veganically supports the emergence of a myriad of both plant and animal species in the surrounding areas. Veganic growing does not use any animal-based fertilizers, any animal manures or any agrochemicals at all. Ecosystems are healthy and biodiversity is given the chance to thrive.
It has generally been accepted that the Earth is experiencing the Sixth Mass Extinction Event. Global ecosystems have become unstable and wildlife is disappearing at an exponential rate. In order to prevent any further biodiversity and wildlife loss, organizations such as the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) are strongly advocating a move to a plant-based diet, rewilding of Nature and eco-friendly agricultural systems.
The evidence is there. There needs to be a radical change in mindset. Humans need to go vegan and we need to reform our agricultural systems. And the sooner this is done, the more chance we have in preventing any further wildlife loss.
References:
Bar-On, Yinon M., Phillips, Rob and Milo, Ron; 2018; The biomass distribution on Earth; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; 115 (25); 6506-6511; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1711842115
Humans just 0.01% of all life but have destroyed 83% of wild mammals – study; The Guardian; https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/21/human-race-just-001-of-all-life-but-has-destroyed-over-80-of-wild-mammals-study
Deforestation and food: your questions answered; WWF; https://www.wwf.org.uk/food/deforestation-and-food-your-questions-answered
Are vegans and vegetarians destroying the planet?; Greenpeace Video; https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/soya-meat-vegetarian-vegan/
Food System Impacts on Biodiversity Loss: Three levers for food system transformation in support of nature; Chatham House Report, February 03, 2021; ISBN: 978 1 78413 433 4; https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/02/food-system-impacts-biodiversity-loss
Save our Wildlife Script
Save our Wildlife Script Ideas
To enter competition:
Switch on your phone/video and read out one of the script’s below, be creative, send in as many entries as you like, all entries will be entered into the draw for the £200.00 prize, the top two prizes will be for the two best videos.
All entries received before midnight 1st of August will be entered for the draw to win two tickets to Vegan Organic Fest, in addition to being entered for the main competition.
Script 1:
Hello people 🙂
Did you know?
Of all the mammals on earth only 4% are Wildlife, yes Of all mammals on Earth,ONLY 4% are WILDLIFE!!
36% of mammals are human.
And 60% of mammals on the earth today are farm animals.
Farm animals take up too much space.
80 billion farm animals are slaughtered each year.
Its time we moved to a plant based food system to save our wildlife.
Stop eating animals if you care about wildlife.
Grow Veganic and Save the Planet.
Please share this video and make your own.
Script 2:
We are living in an emergency, a wildlife emergency!!
Of all mammals on Earth, ONLY 4% are WILDLIFE, yes Of all mammals on Earth, ONLY 4% are WILDLIFE
So what are the rest?
60% are farm animals, 36% are human
Farm animals are taking up all our space, destroying wildlife habitats and the environment.
80 percent of the world’s agricultural land is used for farming animals.
80 billion farm animals are slaughtered every year.
COP26 the UN Climate Change Conference is being held in Glasgow this November.
Lets send the delegates a clear message:
We must move to a plant based food system now!!!
A plant based food system with veganic agriculture at its heart.
For the animals, people and planet.
Please share this video and make your own.
Script 3:
It’s time we moved to a plant based food system
With veganic agriculture at its heart
So nature and animals can thrive
Currently 80 billion farm animals are slaughtered each year
Only 4% of all mammals are wildlife
60% of mammals are farm animals and 36% human
Message to COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow this November
Stop Farming Animals
Grow Veganic and Save the Planet
Script 4:
There is a Wildlife Emergency
Can you believe it?
Of all mammals on Earth
Only 4% are wildlife.
You heard me right only 4% of all mammals are wildlife
So what are the rest
36% are humans
And 60% of all mammals are farm animals.
To save and create space for wildlife
Humans must stop eating animals
Make your own video and share this message
Save our Wildlife
Go Vegan
Full competition details
Stay in touch
For any enquiries relating to membership (or changes of address if you’re a member) please contact the membership secretary at membership@veganorganic.net – see also our Join Us page for more info.
Otherwise please get in touch with the Vegan Organic Network for any queries you have about vegan organic growing, or for more info about how to get involved.