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July 30, 2026
Mercy For Animals finds baby chicks buried alive at a Costco chicken supplier

Vegan Brief July 30, 2026

Baby chicks buried alive at Costco supplier as Senate targets UPFs

Mercy For Animals filed a legal complaint after an undercover investigator found baby chicks crushed and buried alive at an organic chicken farm supplying Costco, the second such exposure in five years.

4 top stories 39 sources read 181 articles scanned 6 sides of vegan life
Lead story Mercy For Animals finds baby chicks buried alive at a Costco chicken supplier Read the story

The Quick List

Mercy For Animals filed a legal complaint after an undercover investigator found baby chicks crushed and buried alive at an organic chicken farm supplying Costco, the second such exposure in five years [155].
A Senate committee advanced a bipartisan bill requiring warning labels on ultra-processed foods and restricting junk-food ads to kids, 12 to 10 [173].
Chinese pharmaceutical manufacturers are repurposing idle mega-factories to produce mycoprotein and precision-fermented food at industrial scale [122].
An Iowa family finished converting their 8,000-pig factory farm into a commercial mushroom operation [124].
PETA released a silicone fetal-pig model meant to replace the roughly 500,000 real pigs cut open in US biology classes each year [129].
Northern Ireland proposed restricting multibuy deals and prime shelf space for high fat, sugar and salt foods, following England, Wales and Scotland [179].
The movement today▲FDA ultra processed foods▲Innovation▲Wins & Culture▼Activism & AnimalsThe receipts →
Mercy For Animals finds baby chicks buried alive at a Costco chicken supplierPhoto: mercy for animals
Activism & Animals

Mercy For Animals finds baby chicks buried alive at a Costco chicken supplier

Read the story →
Also on the board3 more signals
Senate committee advances bipartisan bill to warn shoppers off ultra-processed foodPhoto: foodnavigator
Law & Policy

Senate committee advances bipartisan bill to warn shoppers off ultra-processed food

 China redirects idle pharma mega-factories into mycoprotein productionPhoto: gfi apac
Innovation

China redirects idle pharma mega-factories into mycoprotein production

 Iowa family converts their 8,000-pig factory farm into a mushroom farmPhoto: green queen
Innovation

Iowa family converts their 8,000-pig factory farm into a mushroom farm

The Stories: the day’s biggest developments, in the sources’ own words

01▼Activism & AnimalsStory

Mercy For Animals finds baby chicks buried alive at a Costco chicken supplier

Mercy For Animals finds baby chicks buried alive at a Costco chicken supplier
Photo: mercy for animals
“Even though this Costco supplier farm had the infrastructure for outdoor access, these birds never felt fresh air, sunlight, a breeze, or grass beneath their feet.”
Sam, Mercy For Animals undercover investigator · [155]
“Costco must adopt meaningful, enforceable chicken welfare standards with transparency and accountability across its entire supply chain. Animals cannot wait for another empty promise. Neither will we.”
Arash Yomtobian, president and CEO of Mercy For Animals · [155]
By the numbers
  • 520,000chickens the investigated farm is estimated to confine at any one time, producing roughly 3.2 million pounds of chicken a year for a dedicated Costco supplier [155]
  • 250 millionchickens a year Mercy For Animals says Costco could spare from suffering by adopting slower-growing breeds and stronger oversight [155]

Overstated"these chickens were marketed to Costco shoppers as 'certified organic'" [156]. The investigator documented no outdoor access, biosecurity failures, and organic-standard violations at the farm, none of which USDA organic certification is supposed to allow.

Watch- Pilgrim's Pride says it dropped the farm as a supplier and will add third-party audits; Costco has not announced any policy change [154].
FromMercy For Animals
02▲FDA ultra processed foodsStory

Senate committee advances bipartisan bill to warn shoppers off ultra-processed food

Senate committee advances bipartisan bill to warn shoppers off ultra-processed food
Photo: foodnavigator
“None of this is happening by accident. The food and beverage industry is spending over $11 billion a year on advertising, pushing these unhealthy products onto American consumers.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders · [173]
“It is not perfect, but sometimes you have to do something and this is the most significant something I can see.”
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan. · [173]
By the numbers
  • 12 to 10the committee vote advancing the Childhood Diabetes Reduction Act (S. 5026) to the full Senate [173]
  • $11 billionspent annually by the food and beverage industry on advertising, per Sanders [173]
Watch- The bill moves to the full Senate floor; Committee Chair Bill Cassidy says he is separately drafting a national uniform food-regulation standard [173].
The full timeline: FDA ultra processed foods →
FromFoodNavigator.com
03▲InnovationStory

China redirects idle pharma mega-factories into mycoprotein production

China redirects idle pharma mega-factories into mycoprotein production
Photo: gfi apac
“It would have taken two times as long and double the cost if we had done it elsewhere.”
an international alt-protein company executive, on transferring its fermentation tech to a Chinese manufacturing partner · [122]
By the numbers
  • 20,000 tonnesthe planned capacity of Fushine Biotech's new mycoprotein plant in Jingdezhen, up from 1,200 tonnes today [122]
  • 170,000 tonnesof finished product Chinese partner Cabio Biotech can formulate using Nourish Ingredients' fermentation-derived fats [122]
  • $15 millionthe real cost of building a facility in China that would cost $100 million in the US, per companies interviewed for the report [122]

Early"China's industrial fermentation ecosystem is among the largest and most developed in the world" (GFI APAC report author Dr. Dirk van der Kley) [122]. The claim draws on interviews and named case studies, not audited production data.

FromGFI APAC
04▲Wins & CultureStory

Iowa family converts their 8,000-pig factory farm into a mushroom farm

Iowa family converts their 8,000-pig factory farm into a mushroom farm
Photo: green queen
“It takes unimaginable courage to look at a multi-decade family business and say: 'We need to find a better way.'”
Katherine Jernigan, Transfarmation director · [124]
By the numbers
  • 8,000pigs a year the Faaborg family raised before converting their two barns to mushroom cultivation [124]
  • 300 million lbsof manure Iowa's factory farms produce daily, 25 times what the state's entire human population produces [124]
  • Nearly 1,000 orders arrived in the first few days after a 2025 New York Times story on the farm [124]
FromGreen Queen

Worth Knowing

Wins & Culture

  • Cook this tonight: crispy seitan fried chicken nuggets with a sweet BBQ dipping sauce, from The Six Vegan Sisters Everyday Cookbook [181].

Innovation

  • Rumin8's methane-cutting cattle feed additive, which cut methane 50.4% in a 120-day pilot, generated Brazil's first "inset" carbon credits, sold to beef giant Minerva Foods [103].
  • Quercus Biosolutions raised a $5 million seed round to design AI-generated proteins that kill herbicide-resistant weeds without new chemistry [104].
  • A Lighthouse Reports investigation found food and beverage companies filed 239 lawsuits against public-health policies since 2010, losing 82% of the time but still delaying laws for years [105].
  • France's Ferments du Futur fermentation research program got a fresh €19.1 million government injection to keep developing plant-protein flavor and texture science [125].
  • Kate Farms' dairy-free high-protein nutrition shake is expanding into CVS and more Walmart stores, reaching over 6,800 locations by August [130].
  • Singapore's ImpacFat is using AI ingredient design to cut the cost of its cultivated fish fat, grown from eel and catfish stem cells [131].
  • A 20-year study of nearly 67,000 postmenopausal women found the most plant-forward eaters had a 28% lower cardiovascular disease risk [134].
  • FOUR PAWS UK found four in five Britons support banning cages for farmed animals and want mandatory labeling of how animals were raised [133].

Food & Recipes

  • Prairie Farms Dairy is closing two Wisconsin cheese plants, cutting nearly 100 jobs, the latest in a run of US dairy-plant shutdowns this summer [80].
  • Griesson-de Beukelaer is spending more than $70 million to acquire Pirouline maker DeBeukelaer Corp and build a new Mississippi bakery [81].

Law & Policy

  • Mondelez recalled Cadbury Dairy Milk Oreo bars in Canada over an undeclared pistachio allergen after reported reactions [178].

Activism & Animals

  • Kenya is investigating the deaths of 15 elephants in the Amboseli ecosystem after a toxic substance turned up in preliminary lab tests [144].

One Good Thing

South Korea's Chilgok County grows so many chamoe melons that a chunk of the harvest never makes it to a store shelf, so its Agricultural Technology Center turned the waste rinds into a certified vegan leather instead. Paired with dried plant fabric and made into wallets and card holders with local brand HLK, the leather is already certified by the Korea Vegan Standards Certification Institute, and the county wants to push the melon content higher and expand into car interiors next [180]. County governor Kim Jae-wook put it simply: even a low-value crop byproduct becomes a new industry once someone bothers to combine it with the right idea.

Chili Garlic Vinegar Chickpeas with Crispy Potato Strips

Recipe of the day · Vegan Richa

Chili Garlic Vinegar Chickpeas with Crispy Potato Strips

Chili garlic vinegar chickpeas, bold ginger garlic heat and a vinegar snap. Use them on crispy potatoes, stuff pitas, smash tacos, toss salads, or top papadam nachos. Make once…

30 min 3 servings 18 ingredients
See the ingredients
  • 2 teaspoons oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 1/4 cup chopped onion
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 1 tablespoon minced ginger
  • 2 green chilies (sliced)
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 15 ounce can chickpeas (or 1 1/2 cups cooked or use other beans)
  • 1 tablespoon white vinegar
  • 1/2 teaspoon Kashmiri chili powder
  • chopped cilantro (for garnish)
Get the full recipe at Vegan Richa →
Today in vegan history Kate Bush Is Born in Bexleyheath July 30, 1958 The girl who would top the charts with a song about a ghost on the moors also went on primetime British TV to explain, in plain and startling terms, why she'd stopped eating meat. Read the day in vegan history →