Top European court rules Swiss prisons must respect vegan conscience
Europe's top human rights court ruled Switzerland violated two vegan prisoners' freedom of conscience by failing to consistently serve them meals matching their ethics.
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Europe's top human rights court ruled Switzerland violated two vegan prisoners' freedom of conscience by failing to consistently serve them meals matching their ethics [101].
02
Precision-fermentation startup Melt&Marble put its first commercial product on sale to formulators: an animal- and palm-oil-free "designer fat" for skincare [96].
03
Two barn fires in Canada killed roughly 47,000 chickens and pigs trapped inside with no way out [117].
04
Misfits stopped being a reliably vegan protein-bar brand, adding whey, milk chocolate and bovine collagen to a new line [72].
05
Tufts researchers found American and German shoppers respond better to "cultivated meat" than "lab-grown meat," a data point for the industry's long naming fight [95].
06
A Swiss poll found the certified V-Label beats the bare word "vegan" for winning purchases, chosen by 74% of vegan shoppers over every other labeling option [100].
The movement today▲Innovation▲Law & Policy▼Activism & Animals▼Food & RecipesThe receipts →
The Stories: the day’s biggest developments, in the sources’ own words
01▲Law & PolicyStory
European court rules Swiss prisons must respect vegan conscience
Photo: vegconomist
By the numbers
6-1the ECHR majority that found Switzerland violated the applicants' rights under Article 9 [101]
11 monthsthe first applicant was held in a Geneva prison without consistently vegan-matching meals, starting November 2018 [101]
2 monthsthe second applicant was detained in a University Hospital of Vaud psychiatric ward in 2021 under the same conditions [101]
Proven"veganism practised on the basis of ethical conviction falls within the scope of freedom of thought and conscience" (European Court of Human Rights) [101]. A binding ECHR judgment is the strongest evidentiary tier there is: it now binds Swiss courts and sets precedent for comparable complaints across Europe.
Fromvegconomist the vegan business magazine
02▼Activism & AnimalsStory
Two Canadian barn fires kill an estimated 47,000 chickens and pigs
Photo: mercy for animals
By the numbers
~27,000chickens killed when flames tore through two industrial buildings in the first fire [117]
20,000+pigs burned alive in a separate hog-barn blaze [117]
47,000+combined toll across both disasters, per Mercy For Animals [117]
Company claim"Two massive barn fires in Canada have claimed the lives of at least 47,000 pigs and chickens" (Mercy For Animals) [117]. The 27,000-chicken and 20,000-pig counts trace to separate CTV News and CBC News reports on the individual fires; the combined total and "the price of factory farming" framing are the advocacy group's own.
FromMercy For Animals
03▼Food & RecipesStory
Misfits ends its all-vegan run, launches bars with whey and bovine collagen
Photo: vegnews
“You've lost two longtime customers in this house because of this change.”
Instagram comment, on Misfits' announcement · [72]
“Really disappointing to see you went from a vegan bar to one that contains bones from cows! Seriously a sell out.”
Instagram comment, on Misfits' announcement · [72]
FromVegNews.com
04▲InnovationStory
Melt&Marble launches its first commercial fermented fat, for skincare
Photo: green queen
“Marble7 is our first commercial product for personal care and an important step in bringing precision-fermented designer lipids into real formulation use.”
Thomas Cresswell, chief business officer at Melt&Marble · [96]
By the numbers
$17M+raised by Melt&Marble to date across all funding rounds [96]
$8.5Mof that came from a Series A round closed in December [96]
Company claim"Animal fats come from an industry responsible for up to 20% of all global emissions" (Green Queen, reporting on Melt&Marble) [96]. No primary source is cited for the figure in the pool; it reads as background framing for the company's pitch, not an independently audited statistic.
FromGreen Queen
Worth Knowing
Food & Recipes
Cook this: the Abuela's Plant-Based Kitchen cookbook's Puerto Rican sweet plantain lasagna swaps caramelized ripe plantains for pasta sheets around a vegetable filling [77].
A UK water shortage forced poultry supplier 2 Sisters to warn of "a serious and immediate animal welfare risk" at its Devon chicken-processing plant [62].
A petition is asking the US Senate to reject a highway upgrade that researchers say would cut pronghorn migration through the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem by roughly 300-fold [70].
Fewer than 1,000 breeding Dartmoor pony mares remain, and new UK grazing contracts could count them against livestock quotas welfare groups fear would cut herds by up to 90% [71].
Wins & Culture
Vegan jiu-jitsu black belt Benjamin Tettü won two divisions, under-100kg and open weight, at the ADCC Switzerland Open in Zürich [128].
Innovation
Michigan chain Unburger is franchising for the first time, opening in Ann Arbor in August ahead of the University of Michigan fall semester [102].
The European Patent Office gave its 2026 Inventor Award to Angeliki Triantafyllou for the enzymatic process that turned oats into a viable, non-bitter dairy substitute and became Oatly [103].
PepsiCo says 70% of its ingredients were sustainably sourced in 2025, up from 66%, while it lowered its 2030 Scope 3 emissions-cut target from 40% to 30% [93].
A new Protein Diversification Academy position paper rejects the term "alternative proteins," arguing it frames new foods as secondary to conventional meat and dairy [83].
Cultivated pet-food company BioCraft published the first public safety data behind a cell-cultured ingredient, a mouse-cell line, on preprint server bioRxiv [99].
Activism & Animals
A study in Science found mammals traded commercially are 50% more likely to share pathogens with humans than non-traded species, and 34% more likely if traded alive [116].
Law & Policy
Bob's Red Mill says ingredients make up 51.6% of its carbon footprint and is funding regenerative-agriculture grants for its wheat, hazelnut and chickpea growers [127].
One Good Thing
In Cleveland, chef Sonia Steele opened The Elevated Table, an intimate plant-based supper club serving a multi-course tasting menu, and its first seating sold out in under 24 hours with a waitlist of more than 130 names [72]. No press release, no funding round, just a chef who won a cooking competition in 2023 building something people actually wanted to eat.
Crisp, oven-baked tortilla cups are a fun way to serve this smoky vegan chilli. Try them plain and simple, or top with guacamole, salsa and vegan cheese for a loaded bowl.
vegconomist the vegan business magazine
Mercy For Animals
