Maple Leaf Foods closes two US plant-meat plants, keeps one
Photo: green queen
Maple Leaf Foods will close its plant-based meat plants in Seattle and Turners Falls, Massachusetts over the next 12 to 18 months, consolidating all US production for Field Roast, LightLife and Yves Veggie Cuisine into a single Indianapolis facility [82]. CEO Curtis Frank said the three-plant network had become "substantially underutilised" as volumes declined, even as the company simultaneously relaunches the 41-year-old Yves Veggie Cuisine brand it rescued from Hain Celestial [82]. Workers at the closing sites will be considered for openings at the expanded Indianapolis plant, the company said [82].
“The category has changed significantly, and declining volumes have left our manufacturing network substantially underutilised. Maintaining three facilities at these utilisation levels creates structural costs that are not sustainable over the long term.”
Curtis Frank, president and CEO, Maple Leaf Foods · [82]
By the numbers
120jobs at the Seattle plant, which opened in 1997 and closes within 12 to 18 months [82]
120-150jobs at the Turners Falls, Massachusetts plant, home of LightLife production since 1998 [82]
54people currently work at the Indianapolis site, which Maple Leaf calls the largest tempeh manufacturing facility in the world [82]
Marineland's fifth transferred cetacean, dolphin Echo, dies in Spain
Photo: animal justice
Echo, a blind dolphin believed to be 30 years old, has died at Oceanogràfic València in Spain, about a month after Marineland transferred her there from the shuttered Niagara Falls aquarium [133]. Animal Justice says Echo is the fifth Marineland cetacean to die since Canada approved the emergency transfer of 30 whales and four dolphins out of the facility this summer [133]. The group had filed a legal complaint against Marineland in 2021 over forced dolphin performances, a charge the Crown later stayed as not in the public interest [133].
“Everybody failed these dolphins and whales. Marineland knew for years it was closing, so did the Ontario and federal governments. There was time to plan a real retirement for these animals, developing solutions which held their wellbeing as the chief concern, mitigating the risks of relocation.”
Camille Labchuk, lawyer and executive director, Animal Justice · [133]
By the numbers
5Marineland cetaceans have died since this summer's transfers began [133]
30whales and 4 dolphins were approved for emergency transfer out of the shuttered aquarium [133]
Animal Rising activist ends 21 days in a pig farrowing crate
Photo: vegan food
Animal Rising's Michelle Farnham spent 21 consecutive days and nights inside a replica pig farrowing crate in London's Trafalgar Square, emerging to roughly 100 supporters including former RSPCA president Chris Packham and Green Party MP Adrian Ramsay [61]. The cage mirrored the standard crates used to confine British sows during birth and nursing, unable to turn around, across about 90% of indoor UK pig farms [61]. Animal Rising says the action opens a longer campaign for the government to commit to phasing out factory farming by 2040, with more farm investigations promised in the coming months [61].
“Today, after 21 days and nights, I get to walk out of this crate. But 200,000 mother pigs in the UK are confined in farrowing crates every year, and they have no choice about entering or leaving. They are put through the same cycle again and again until their bodies are no longer considered productive.”
200,000mother pigs are locked in farrowing crates across the UK every year [61]
90%of indoor British pig farms use standard farrowing crates [61]
30,000signatures (approaching) on a petition demanding freedom for Luna, the pig who inspired the protest [61]
WatchAnimal Rising is pressing the UK government to commit to phasing out factory farming by 2040 and has promised further farm investigations in the coming months [61].
FromVegan Food & Living
04▼Activism & AnimalsStory
Smithfield Foods workers walk out after plant's fourth death
Photo: plant based news
More than 100 workers walked off the job at Smithfield Foods' Monmouth, Illinois plant after management ordered production to continue just hours after maintenance worker Patou Mpinda, 44, died in what the company called a "workplace incident" [157]. It was the plant's fourth worker death and the first caused by a machine; OSHA had already fined Smithfield $9,931.60 in February after finding workers exposed to "amputation hazards" there [157]. The plant has drawn serious OSHA citations in 2021, 2023 and 2025, and residents separately complain of a persistent odor from rendering waste stored outside [157].
“I had coworkers in the lunchroom crying and people so stressed that they were yelling at the plant manager: 'Listen to your people! Why are we here? We shouldn't be working!'”
$9,931.60OSHA fine issued to the plant in February over amputation hazards [157]
~2amputations happen per week across the US meat industry [157]
FromPlant Based News
Worth Knowing
Wins & Culture
Revo Foods launched a vegan cottage cheese made from upcycled apricot kernels left over from jam and juice production, packing 17g of protein per cup and now on shelves at EDEKA and REWE in Germany [155].
Innovation
A federal judge cut Beyond Meat's total trademark-infringement liability to Vegadelphia Foods from $38.9 million to $15.4 million, ruling the jury's larger damages for a shelved "Vegadelphia 2.0" expansion were too speculative [90].
A new undercover investigation, Blood Feathers, documents ostriches plucked alive without pain relief on South African farms supplying YSL, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Chanel and Shein [73].
Food & Recipes
HappyCow data shows New York's vegan restaurant count fell from 173 in 2022 to 132 today, as venues from Oakland's Millennium to Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Modern Love have closed [53].
Activism & Animals
PETA's public-records request found little LAPD or animal-control enforcement on Skid Row despite Mayor Karen Bass's task-force pledge to crack down on dog abuse there [120].
The 2026 Planetary Health Check found seven of nine planetary boundaries transgressed and still worsening, with Earth's land carbon sink stagnating even as CO2 keeps climbing [111].
One Good Thing
In Uganda, communities along the edge of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park have been planting the medicine, firewood and craft-wood trees people once had to gather inside gorilla habitat, so nobody needs to cut inside the forest anymore [105]. The Batwa, an Indigenous community that helped design the project, choose which species go in the ground, and the Uganda Wildlife Authority hands out the seedlings [105]. Bwindi holds about 450 mountain gorillas, close to half the world's remaining population, and a student at one of the local schools summed up why it matters: "Now we are going to protect the forest, so that our gorillas can stay well." [105]
This rich, creamy vegan Thai yellow curry is topped with crispy tofu pieces and served with fragrant jasmine rice for a warming meal that feels a little luxurious.
Animal Justice
