A growing number of celebs are using their platforms to elevate new startups, entrepreneurs, and causes that they believe in. More and more, they’re investing in a broad range of sustainability-focused startups that are doing good for the planet, including food tech brands, fashion lines, and beauty brands. 

Celebrities using their platforms for good

Take Grammy Award-winning musician Rihanna, for example. The business mogul, who recently achieved billionaire status last year, is using her affluence to fight the climate crisis. Earlier this year, she pledged $15 million through her charitable organization, The Clara Lionel Foundation, to groups that are working to mitigate global warming. She’s also invested in the vegan cookie brand Partake Foods.

Then, there’s Jay-Z. The most prolific celebrity backer, according to the Celebrity Investments Index, the hip-hop artist and entrepreneur has made a number of lucrative investments through his investment firm, Marcy Venture Partners. Jay-Z—whose real name is Shawn Carter—is heavily involved in the plant-based food space. He’s invested in countless vegan brands, including Impossible Foods; Los Angeles-based cashew cheese brand, Misha’s Kind Foods; Swedish oat milk brand, Oatly; and plant-based chicken brand, Simulate.

And one would be remiss not to mention Leonardo DiCaprio, the founding father of sustainable celebrity investments. The Academy Award-winning actor has invested in numerous sustainable startups, including lab-grown diamond company, Diamond Foundry; recycling technology company, Rubicon; and he was an early investor in electric car-maker, Fisker.  

Celebrity investors are also tackling waste

DiCaprio’s organization, the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation—which he founded in 1998 to support sustainable organizations and initiatives—is especially interested in the zero-waste sector. 

According to Terry Tamminen, the foundation’s CEO, figuring out how to finance the transition to a zero-waste future is a major economic opportunity—one that the foundation supports. 

“Investing in converting waste to valuable materials is of interest to investors because of climate change, tremendous pressure on natural ecosystems, better technology for conversion and the need to harvest more materials locally,” Tamminen explained.

Through his VC firm, Jay-Z also invested in British Columbia, Canada-based brand Pela, which makes compostable cell phone cases and phone grip stands.

They’re not the only celebrities backing the zero-waste industry. As environmental awareness increases, so too are investments in this field, helmed by the likes of Beyoncé, Ashton Kutcher, and Zooey Deschanel. Here are other celebrities using their influence to move the needle forward on sustainability.

Over a decade later, in my process of grieving and healing from the loss of my beloved dad, I’ve learned that his funeral felt wrong because, for me, it was. Years after his death, I read mortician, advocate, and author Caitlin Doughty’s memoir, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. Her depictions of the autopsy process, body preparation, and cremation (what my father ultimately had) horrified me.

At the time, I wasn’t aware of an alternative like green burial, which is simply defined as the burial of a body without embalming, in a biodegradable container, shroud, or no container at all, directly into the ground without the use of a concrete vault or liner. The emphasis of a green burial is to care for the dead with minimal impact to the environment, via conservation of natural resources, reduction of carbon emissions, protection of worker health, and restoration and/or preservation of habitat. Green burial cemeteries, which may be standalone operations, or incorporated into a conventional cemetery, typically discontinue the use of herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers, and encourage sustainable land management practices. Some green burial cemeteries even operate as conservation cemeteries, establishing a partnership with a conservation organization and using a conservation management plan that upholds best practices and provides perpetual protection of the land according to a conservation easement or deed restriction.

Choosing to have a green burial is one of the last important environmentally conscious choices you can make. According to the Green Burial Council, while traditional burial produces 250 lbs. of carbon, green burial sequesters 25 lbs. of carbon. This is equivalent to the carbon produced by the driving of an average American over a three-month period. With climate change full speed ahead, any decision we can make, big or small, including opting for a green burial, is worth considering.

On the other hand, traditional funerals and cremations seemed prescriptive, wasteful, and energy consumptive. In fact, they are all those things. Conventional burials in the United States use approximately 4.3 million gallons of embalming fluid (827,060 gallons of which is formaldehyde, methanol, and benzene), 20 million board feet of hardwoods (including rainforest woods), 1.6 million tons of concrete, 17,000 tons of copper and bronze, and 64,500 tons of steel, annually. Many of those materials leech into the surrounding soil over time. Not to mention the sourcing, processing, manufacturing, and transport of those materials uses a lot of energy as well. 

Contrary to some belief, cremation isn’t a much better alternative, using fossil fuels to maintain high temperatures for multiple hours and producing 1.74 billion pounds of CO2 emissions annually in the United States. Cremation is the most popular disposition option in the United States (56.1 percent) and Canada (73.1 percent), with over 1.8 million and 224,000 cremations in 2020, respectively, according to the Cremation Association of North America. Cremation also releases mercury into the air and water, and creates byproducts of nitrogen oxide, dioxins, and particulates. 

Crematory workers have a front row seat to these emissions too, which, along with exposure to embalming fluid, raises occupational concerns. Workers have a higher than average incidence of COPD, respiratory diseases, and neurological disorders. Embalmers in particular have a 13 percent higher death rate (Centers for Disease Control, Final Rights by Lisa Carlson and Joshua Slocum), are at 8 times higher risk for leukemia, and 3 times higher risk for ALS compared to the general population.. 

After learning all this, I thought to myself, “There has to be a better way.”

A green burial offers a more sustainable future

Once I had begun educating myself on green burials, I realized my own city of residence didn’t even allow them to occur. Although green burials are perfectly legal in the US and Canada, and elsewhere, many state and local laws make it difficult to have one. So I joined my city’s Municipal Board of Cemetery Trustees to attempt to change the ordinance that required all burials to include the use of a concrete vault. (The city just passed the change and will now allow burials beginning in June of this year). 

My interest turned into a new passion and soon I found myself working with the Green Burial Council International, a nonprofit whose mission is to inspire and advocate for environmentally sustainable, natural deathcare through education and certification. Two years into my membership, I am the President of the Board of Trustees. Through my dive into the deathcare field, I’ve come to learn that that “better way” of deathcare lies in the process of providing our loved ones with a natural, or greener, burial when they die. 

The green burial process tends to fall on a spectrum when it comes to specific logistics. Some green burials use equipment to dig graves, while some don’t. Some cemeteries maintain green lawns, while others opt for a more natural appearance. The “ultimate” green burial, to me, would be a hand-dug grave, transportation of the body via horse drawn carriage (this is really a thing, by the way), and burial with no shroud or outer container. Fewer materials and energy-consuming practices lean towards the greenest of green burials. Historically, this is how burials were performed prior to the 1800s, when the advent of embalming fluid came into play to “preserve” Civil War soldiers killed on the battlefield so they could be shipped home to their families. The grave liner, or vault, was invented soon after, and that, combined with the modern casket, were meant to “protect” the body from animals and insects, grave robbers, and the elements. Prior to the modern funeral industry, green burials would have simply just been called “burials.”

Sure, the ultimate green burial may not be realistic for everyone. It may not feel right to a society that for the last two hundred or so years has adopted the conventional burial as the status quo. But with climate change a reality, thinking about even the smallest of changes to how we handle the dead is an important choice.

A traditional funeral typically necessitates a funeral home, a menu of casket options, pre-selected flower arrangements, funerary songs, and other stilted customs. Sure, there’s some customization involved, but traditional funeral customs are designed for the masses—which is probably part of why my dad’s funeral felt so awkward and impersonal. My dad’s funeral just wasn’t reflective of the funny, wonderful man he was. By bucking tradition, green funerals provide an atmosphere of healing, celebration and commemoration, and ritual in a league of its own. While the traditional funeral may be important to some, a green burial could provide a meaningful alternative, while avoiding a destructive carbon footprint. 

How to plan for a green burial

Green burial is becoming a more readily available possibility across the United States, with nearly 350 cemeteries offering the option and counting. I encourage anyone interested in having a green burial to do some research and learn more in advance. Most importantly, if a green burial feels like the right choice for you, communicate that to your loved ones early and often, be it verbally or in a will. If you wish to have your last environmentally courteous action be to return to the earth via natural burial, let it be known. Here’s how to get started:

1. Write down your wishes for a green funeral including where you want to be buried, that you do not want to be embalmed, and what, if anything, you would like to be buried in.
2. Make arrangements with a funeral home in advance. This will help ensure you have secured a funeral home that will facilitate your wishes for a green burial.
3. Choose a cemetery that offers natural burials and whose practices align with your level of sustainability.
4. Share your plans with your loved ones, executor, and/or attorney.  
5. For additional resources, read Going Out Green: Four Ways to Ensure an Eco-Friendly Burial and Your Green Burial Planning Guide. 

The views expressed in opinion pieces are those of the author(s) and do not represent the policy or position of LIVEKINDLY.

Mara, a Primetime Emmy-nominated actor known for her roles in House of Cards (2013–2016) and American Horror Story (2011), is joined by The Green Knight (2021) director David Lowery, who will also serve as an executive producer, and North Carolina filmmaker Jamie Berger, who wrote and produced the film.

The Smell of Money, due for release later this year, is directed by Californian filmmaker and conservationist Shawn Bannon, best known for his work on the documentary that accompanied The Green Knight movie and explored its mythical background in Arthurian legend.

Mara, a dedicated vegan, frequently advocates for animal welfare and environmental issues. She is a representative for the Humane Society of the US and even featured in one of the nonprofit’s “Meatless Monday” promotions back in 2015.

The trio’s new documentary will focus on Herring and her community’s fight against North Carolina’s hog farming industry, which began in the 1990s when farms began spraying their land with excess manure from the increasingly huge number of animals being “produced.”

‘The Smell of Money’ movie tackles environmental justice

Herring, who passed away last year, spent decades fighting against these concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), or factory farms, that polluted her home county of Duplin. She later joined the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network as an organizer and helped to highlight the dangers of factory farming to rural communities nationwide, from pollution to racism.

Factory farms are a huge problem. Approximately 99 percent of all animals farmed in the US are living on factory farms, despite the various ethical, environmental, and other issues with this dominant form of animal agriculture. That’s something in excess of 1.5 billion animals.

One of the main problems with this is the disposal of waste, and factory farms produce well over 300 million tons of manure per year—more than three times the annual waste produced by humans. This is stored in huge lagoons and spread on crops, releasing toxic pollutants like hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, and nitrogen, along with a powerful smell.

When describing the oppressive and all-pervasive stench of factory farming in the vicinity of her family home in Duplin, Herring told the House Committee On Energy & Commerce that “we can’t stay outside for very long because the odor is so offensive that we start gagging.”

Pork, pollution, and capitalism

The title of the new documentary comes from Wendell Murphy, a state legislator at the time, who notoriously referred to the inescapable smell of hog waste in the region as the “smell of money.”

Murphy is notably also the founder of Smithfield Foods, the single largest pork producer in the entire world, and the laws he helped pass as a state legislator are inarguably partially responsible for the unsustainable and destructive growth of the industry that continues today.

Hog farming emissions are directly related to 89 of the 98 animal agriculture-related air pollution deaths that take place in Duplin per year. As of 2019, the county has 2.3 million pigs for its 58,967 people—approximately 39 hogs for every single human. Farmers sprayed pig manure so close to Herring’s home that droplets would land on the front porch like rain.

Learn more about CAFOs and the pork industry from Compassion in World Farming here, and read on here to find out about Herring’s North Carolina Environmental Justice Network. Want to learn more about air pollution and animal agriculture? Learn more here.

Editor’s note: Since publication, LIVEKINDLY has corrected this article. First-time filmmaker Jamie Berger wrote and co-produced ‘the Smell of Money,’ and Elsie Herring did not co-found the NCEJN, she joined the extant group as an organizer.

Set to debut this summer, Peeled will follow in the style of existing reality cooking shows like Beat Bobby Flay and MasterChef. The digital platform vKind will lead the production, having gained interest after launching a concept episode on its YouTube channel. The show is being shot in Las Vegas at the Vegas Vegan Culinary School and Eatery.

“As a vegan and a foodie, I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with cooking shows,” Star Simmons, founder of vKind and show creator, said. “Peeled allows vegans and vegetarians to enjoy cooking shows again and gives plant-based culinary arts a platform to be taken seriously.”

Throughout the run of the show, selected professional chefs will compete in a series of challenges to wow the palates of an all-vegan panel of judges. In each episode, the chef with the lowest score will be eliminated—“peeled off”—and the lucky ones that remain will continue to vie for the title of “Hottest Vegan Chef.” The winner and last remaining chef will pick a charity of their choice to receive a $1,000 cash donation. 

“We cherry-picked our chefs from across the country to bring diverse sets of skills and backgrounds to the table,” says Star Simmons, show creator and founder of vKind. The show will feature Chef Jaena Moynihan, a certified health coach from Phoenix, Arizona; Chef Donald Lemperle, founder and executive chef of VegeNation in Las Vegas; Cordon Bleu-trained Chef Nicole Derseweh; and Chef Sandra Hurtault, a French baker and personal chef.

We can expect to see the Peeled chefs whip up dishes that showcase the versatility of fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes as well as products from plant-based brands. Simmons sees this as an opportunity to show audiences how to cook with vegan alternatives like a pro.

“Not all vegan or veg-curious people want to cook purely from scratch, just as not all of them want to use processed products,” says Simmons. “But the truth is, both can be used to make a knock-out meal, and we want to show people what’s possible with this lifestyle. You neither have to be a junk-food vegan nor someone who spends hours in the kitchen to make veganism work for you.”

Vegan competition heats up cooking shows

The panel of judges features former Hell’s Kitchen contestant Chef Josie Clemens, who is also joining Peeled as a co-creator. “Competing in Hell’s Kitchen was a great experience, but not at all hospitable for a vegan chef like me who would otherwise never opt to cook anything that wasn’t entirely plant-based,” Clemens said in a statement. “I was thrilled to learn that vKind would be producing an all-vegan cooking competition. Signing on as co-creator was a no-brainer for me.”

Dr. Miles Woodruff, CEO of the plant-based seafood brand Sophie’s Kitchen, celebrity chef Chris Tucker of ABC’s The Great American Baking Show fame, and media personality Elizabeth Alfano, will also serve as judges. The competition will be hosted by raw vegan chef and restaurateur, Babette Davis, as well as TV host and health educator, Shabnam Islam.

Plant-based chefs are increasingly taking up space in mainstream cooking competitions. Most recently, Souley Vegan founder Tamearra Dyson became the first competitor to defeat Bobby Flay on his show. “Bobby told me my energy filled that place, and he told me it was the greatest episode ever, and that he had never taken off his apron and given it to another chef,” she told LIVEKINDLY earlier this year.

Plant-based chef Teresa Colaço was recently crowned the winner of MasterChef Portugal, not too long after MasterChef Romania’s first vegan contestant, chef Alex Lenghel, was eliminated for refusing to cook beef. Even the most recent season of Channel 4’s The Great British Bake Off featured its first vegan baker, Freya Cox.

“Peeled will prove that vegan chefs and vegan plates deserve a spot at the table with everyone else, and that killing animals is not a requirement for culinary recognition,” says Simmons.

Peeled is slated to premiere this summer and will be available on UnchainedTV, which is accessible through Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire, IOS, Android, and the web.

Over the course of three years, Huriwai and Milked director Amy Taylor documented Fonterra’s greenwashing sustainability marketing, as well as the mental health and debt crises of New Zealand’s dairy farmers. Contrary to the happy, grass-fed cows of Fonterra’s consumer packaging and the claims of their sustainability report, the reality is quite grim. Taylor and Huriwai uncovered widespread animal abuse, coal-powered pollution, and high levels of methane pollution.

We spoke with Taylor about how Māori populations are affected by soil erosion and waterway pollution, the urgent need to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions caused by the dairy industry, and what a milk-free future might look like.

LIVEKINDLY: Your film’s protagonist, Chris Huriwai, endures a hero’s journey of disillusionment as he learns how deceptive the dairy industry is in New Zealand. He gets stonewalled and greenwashed by Fonterra all along the process.

Amy Taylor: Chris was shocked at how bad the actual impacts of the dairy industry in New Zealand are. The industry is failing in every way possible, and he was surprised that it wasn’t working for anyone—the economy, or farmers. We obviously knew it was bad for the animals and bad for the environment, but the economic side of it, and the threat of the coming agricultural disruption, were quite unknown to us.

LIVEKINDLY: So what are the hidden aspects of the dairy industry that you want to amplify with this film?

Taylor: People tend to make the dairy industry out to be better than the meat industry. Because they like to hide the fact that, you know, you do have to take the young off the mother cows. And those calves are generally killed when they’re newborn or at a very young age. So, yeah, I think they tend to make out that it’s a wholesome industry. And, obviously, it’s quite closely aligned to the meat industry, because dairy cows themselves end up as hamburger after only a few years of being worn out producing calves and milk. 

Most people still believe that farming cows is a good use of land. And they’re totally unaware of the fact that we’re using the majority of the world’s agricultural land to farm animals and grow food to feed them. 

LIVEKINDLY: You say in the film that nearly a quarter of New Zealand greenhouse gas emissions are caused by dairy—more than all transportation combined. That’s a pretty shocking figure.

Taylor: The majority of that is methane, and people still have a false idea about methane. The methane situation is urgent. It’s 84 times more potent than CO2. A global methane pledge was signed at COP26, and New Zealand was part of that, along with 100 countries around the world. We want to reinforce that that pledge needs to happen, and that we need reduce methane emissions drastically.

LIVEKINDLY: You speak in the film to the fact that 95 percent of New Zealand’s dairy products are exported. Is increased demand in nations like China the reason for the 132 percent increase in dairy emissions in the last 38 years, or is that simply due to a growing population?

Taylor: The rising emissions have been due to the dairy herds getting bigger, so more cows are on the land, which means more methane and nitrous oxide. There’s also been a huge increase in the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. Although New Zealand is famous for talking about its carbon footprint for milk being smaller than other countries, that’s inaccurate really. That carbon footprint assessment is based on the dairy industry’s own research, which doesn’t take into account all the coal that is used to dry the milk to turn it into milk powder, as well as the other kinds of emissions involved with the chain of distribution. They’re only looking at on-farm emissions, which is misleading.

LIVEKINDLY: Chris points out that Māori lactose intolerance is common, as well as a rise in diabetes, heart disease, and cancer in Māori communities that wasn’t present pre-colonization. And yet, all kids in New Zealand, regardless of ethnicity or lactose intolerance, are given Fonterra for school milk. Do you see this as a form of food oppression?

Taylor: Chris’ initial journey was triggered by the milk in the school program. He started looking into things more and realized that there was that dietary racism element. He started doing social media videos and posts about the dairy industry and about the injustice of that. It was very interesting in our research to discover that the industry itself, including Fonterra, has a say in the guidelines, to the point where they were able to remove the suggestion of alternative milks. They have a direct influence on the nutrition guidelines. Chris is really passionate about using veganism as a decolonization tool. He’s trying to decolonize systems that have been pushed on the indigenous culture here, and the food system is a big part of it.

LIVEKINDLY: What is the scope of influence that lobbyists have on politicians in New Zealand’s dairy industry?

Taylor: Dairy is our biggest industry, and it’s pretty much part of this whole country. Everyone is involved in the dairy industry, or knows someone who is. Our prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, is from a dairy farming town called Morrinsville. Lobbyists play a role, and even the Green Party here has been a little bit slow to stand up against it. We’re going to aim to have a parliamentary screening of the film and try and get some discussion going. It’s tricky, and very hard to make change happen.

LIVEKINDLY: The dairy industry is affecting waterways, soil erosion, and perhaps most devastatingly in terms of culture, the wetlands. Talk about their importance for biodiversity and overall health.

Taylor: Animal agriculture took out 90 percent of our wetlands, which are crucial for filtering the water. Many wetlands got drained and then made into dairy farms. There’s definitely potential for reversing a lot of the damage and restoring wetlands and waterways. Once we do shift away from animal agriculture, nature has an incredible way of regenerating.

LIVEKINDLY: Let’s talk a little bit about farmer longevity. The film puts forth the statistic of 167 farmers having died by suicide in the past 10 years, as well as the story of a 23-year-old farm manager who suffered grave mental health detriments after having to kill calves due to the Mycoplasma bovis disease. Also, you say New Zealand farmers are $38 billion in debt.

Taylor: Farmers were told to intensify their farms, to take out loans, get more cows, and create bigger milking sheds, so they could up their output. That massive debt hasn’t worked out for our farmers.

People always talk about the isolation contributing to the mental health challenges that farmers face. They talk about that and about the pressures of debt. But not many people have talked about the fact that farmers have to witness and be part of some awful situations with animals, having to kill them and watching them suffer. And I think a lot of farmers we’ve spoken to, that’s really affected them. They don’t know how to handle that side of the job. So it’s not something that’s acknowledged in the industry. 

LIVEKINDLY: In Milked, you show a pro-dairy cover story done by a prominent New Zealand magazine called North and South. The article was funded by The Riddet Institute, which has close ties to the meat and dairy industries, including Fonterra—who were also one of the sources. Is New Zealand media complicit in supporting the dairy industry?

Taylor: Their main advertisers are the meat and dairy industry, in general. So I think it’s very hard for them to try and push back against the propaganda that comes out. When it hits the front page of a magazine that’s got quite a lot of credibility, people just take that as the truth.

I researched extensively and was quite shocked at those ties with Fonterra—and also universities, their massive influence on some of our biggest universities here in New Zealand.

LIVEKINDLY: It takes a really long time to make these changes, but you bring up precision fermentation and cell-cultivated products. At one point, you pose the question of what would happen if Nestlé, which obviously is one of the world’s largest dairy product producers, eventually switched to animal-free milk products or dairy products?

Taylor: Big companies like Nestlé are looking for ways to reduce their emissions profile because they have to, and this is one of the easiest ways that they can do it. It’s really all about the environmental concerns of dairy cows. One of the most hopeful parts of the film for me was interviewing RethinkX co-founder Tony Seba, who wrote the report that predicts that the dairy industry could be wiped out in the next 10 years or so. It’s just a matter of time, since animal-free dairy seems like a no-brainer.

It’s hard to expect everyone to give up dairy, but at least they can change the source of the dairy, and that’s a good start.

LIVEKINDLY: Until precision fermentation is widespread, how do you support the transition to more plant-based dairy?

Taylor: Organizations like Switch4Good, who is also another associate producer with us, help make that transition easy. Their founder, Dotsie Bausch, was in the Game Changers, is an  Olympic athlete, and a great advocate for a plant-based diet. We also encourage initiatives like World Plant Milk Day. 

LIVEKINDLY: You mentioned The Game Changers. What do you think the power is of a documentary that the written word can’t quite accomplish? When asked what had an influence on them going vegan or flexitarian, people often mention Seaspiracy, Forks Over Knives, and The Game Changers.

Taylor: We’re emotional creatures, and storytelling is a huge part of our culture. And I think the impact of watching a documentary versus reading something is quite a different thing. Obviously, reading is great, but documentaries capture stories in an easily digestible way. People can get really inspired, informed, and entertained at the same time.

Read more about Milked and find out where you can watch the shattering new documentary film here.

The 44th president of the US and best-selling author is the narrator and star of Our Great National Parks, an intercontinental trip to conservation areas across the world, from Monterey Bay, California to Tsavo, Kenya. The educational series will see Obama himself travel into the wilderness to share knowledge about, and inspire a love for, the continued preservation of the world’s national parks and their inhabitants.

“When humanity started to protect these wild places, we did not realize how important they would become. They’re a haven for endangered species, and a hotbed for scientific research,” Obama says in the documentary trailer. Yellowstone National Park—the oldest national park in the world that celebrates its 150th anniversary this year—is a prime example of how parks play an active role in research and conservation. Read more about that here.

“This sloth has an entire micro-kingdom living in his fur,” Obama continues. “Researching him will help fight cancer, malaria, and antibiotic-resistant superbugs. This sleepy sloth might just save us all.”

Obama’s lasting legacy of environmental protections

Over the course of his two terms, Obama was a champion for both land and water, protecting more than 550 million acres while he held office between 2009 and 2017. (That’s more than double the amount that 26th president of the US and famed conservationist, Theodore Roosevelt, did.) Towards the end of his presidency in 2016, Obama created two new national monuments in Utah and Nevada—Bears Ears and Gold Butte—and protected 1.5 million acres of land.

Our Great National Parks was produced by A Wild Space in association with Freeborne Media and Higher Ground Productions, an Academy Award-winning company launched by Obama and his wife and former FLOTUS, Michelle, in 2018. The former Oval Office occupant himself, Blue Planet II filmmaker James Honeyborne, and Tonia Davis executive produced.

Coinciding with the series launch, the environmental nonprofits the Wildlife Conservation Society and Count Us will kick off a nature protection campaign.

All five 60-minute episodes of Our Great National Parks are set to premiere on Netflix on Wednesday, April 13.

If you need another example, one needs look no further than the colossal mess that was Tiger King. Netflix’s 2020 true-crime series had it all: big cats, deranged zoo operators, a beyond wild plot, and Carole Baskin. It was pure headache in TV form—and I happily devoured every. single. episode.

Netflix is undoubtedly a machine for churning out the latest gossip-heavy conversation starter. And with an incendiary title like Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives, you know the streaming platform’s newest true-crime docuseries—out March 16—is sure not to disappoint. (That, and it was directed by filmmaker Chris Smith—the mastermind behind Tiger King, as well as 2019’s Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened—so you know it’s going to be juicy even before watching the trailer.) 

The title is click-baity enough to entice vegan and non-vegan viewers alike. Granted, this style of filmmaking is all about shock and awe—of preying on viewers’ ravenous appetites for all things drama and scandal. But Bad Vegan sets the tone for one of the most common misconceptions about veganism: That people who abstain from consuming animal products are perfect. And it perpetuates the notion that vegans are smug and overly virtuous in their beliefs. 

Sarma Melngailis: Vegan restaurateur turned fugitive 

The four-part series follows the incredibly bizarre tale of Sarma Melngailis—the disgraced queen of vegan cuisine turned fugitive on the run. It features interviews with her former coworkers and investors, friends and family, and Melngailis, herself.

The blond bombshell seemed to have it all. Her cookbook was a best-seller. She owned popular establishments—a chain of juice bars called One Lucky Duck and Pure Food and Wine. The latter, an upscale, raw plant-based restaurant in New York City, was frequented by the likes of wellness elites and top A-listers, including Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson. (Actor Alec Baldwin even met his wife, Hilaria, there.) Melngailis opened the restaurant in 2004 with her then boyfriend—famed plant-based chef Matthew Kenney—and fellow restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow. 

She and Kenney broke up. And then, her life takes a turn for the worse. She meets a man named Shane Fox on Twitter. Only that’s not his real name; his real name is Anthony Strangis. He promises Melngailis dreams of happily ever after: A life of immortality for herself and her beloved dog, Leon. (Yes, you read that right.) The two marry, but Melngailis says the marriage was not a happy one. She alleges Strangis manipulated her, making her drain nearly $2 million from her restaurant—defrauding her employees and investors to fund his gambling addiction and extravagant lifestyle.  

In May 2015, the pair went on the run for about a year. “My family was getting increasingly concerned. He knew that I had to be in contact with them in some way. So he occasionally would have me speak to somebody—my father, my mother—almost like a hostage would put me on the phone. Like ‘I’m alive; I’m okay,’” Melngailis explains. “It was like some sort of colossal, somewhat self-imposed, state of denial.”

They ended up in a small town in Tennessee. “Not only was all of her money gone, but kind of her perspective on life, her reality, nothing made sense, so why not be there. But ultimately where they were was the end of the road,” Allen Salkin, a Vanity Fair journalist who covered the scandal back in 2016, says in the film.

Investors ultimately contact authorities, charges are filed, and warrants are issued for their arrest. They were tracked down to their hotel in Tennessee, all thanks to a Domino’s order of pizza and chicken wings. 

Melngailis later pleaded guilty to theft and fraud charges in 2017, negotiating a deal to spend four months in Rikers Island, a New York City jail, followed by five months on probation.

What Bad Vegan gets wrong about vegans

The story was sensational. A vegan ordering non-vegan food?! The media ate that one up. (And for the record: The meal was, apparently, for her husband.) “NYC’s hottest vegan felled by pizza order,” one headline read. “‘She’s the vegan Bernie Madoff’: stole $2 million from investors and was busted for ordering pizza,” read another. And my favorite: “Crazy, hypocritical vegans are driving me insane.”

As we know, headlines don’t tell the whole story—but they sure do make for good soundbites. Unfortunately, the spammy, attention-grabbing titles are often misleading, as is the case with the docuseries. Bad Vegan’s provocative title and the media’s incessant headlines merrily add fuel to the fire of preconceived notions—such as those about veganism—instead of accomplishing what they’re intended to do: accurately summarize the story.

Who cares if Melngailis ordered a pizza from Domino’s? Who cares if she ate it? (Although, according to Kevin Bush, an officer for the Sevier County Police Department who was involved in her arrest, she did not.) What’s important about this story is that, somehow, millions of dollars went missing. As Pure Food and Wine’s former beverage director Joey Repice probes in the documentary, “What happened to the money?” 

“There is this sense of hypocrisy that really adds to the story,” explained Salkin about the media’s fixation. “Somehow vegans present themselves to us as being better than the rest of us. They don’t eat meat. They don’t kill animals. They don’t hurt the environment as much as the rest of us. So the fact that she would become involved in a criminal scheme like this sort of belies who she’s presenting to the world.”

But that’s a common misconception about veganism: That vegans are self-righteous and overtly virtue signaling in their abstention of consuming animals. Ok, some certainly are, but there are extremes in every belief system, and they often do not represent the majority. Need one example? How about politics. Need another? Try religion. 

And that’s what the greater media gets wrong about being vegan: It isn’t about being perfect. It’s about avoiding things that promote animal exploitation as much as possible. Why purchase makeup tested on animals if there are cruelty-free alternatives? Why support animal cruelty by going to a zoo when there are sanctuaries that actually foster animal conservation? Why drink a glass of cow’s milk when there are countless plant-based options? Being vegan is about doing one’s best to not support brutal industries that exploit, torture, and kill innocent animals. Was Melngailis a bad vegan? Well, that’s debatable. But I think the better question is: Who’s asking?

Bad Vegan is now available to stream on Netflix.

Members of Parliament are yet to make a formal decision, but it seems likely that the expected bans on foie gras and fur imports will be parked in order to allow the long-awaited “Animals Abroad Bill” to proceed unopposed by other cabinet members. (Much like how in the US, Biden’s Build Back Better bill was repeatedly weakened and now, rebranded, to appeal to its opposers.)

The measures were first announced in May 2021 with much fanfare from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA). They were rightly hailed as huge progress for the UK, and particularly one led by a Conservative government. But now a vocal, but influential minority of the PM’s closest advisors, including Brexit opportunities minister Jacob Rees Mogg, now oppose the fur and foie gras bans.

The move is widely thought to be a tactical response to Johnson’s decreasing popularity. The government’s handling of both Brexit and the pandemic has been disastrous, and following several reports of the PM and the rest of his team breaking lockdown restrictions (currently under police investigation), Johnson’s rating is at an all-time low.

By scrapping some of the animal welfare policies that the party has used to court the center-left, such as the foie gras and fur bans, MPs loyal to Johnson hope to win back support for their floundering leader from the few hardline conservatives and ultra-wealthy backers still defending fur and foie gras despite their falling popularity.

Tories now set to scrap UK fur and foie gras bans

According to Humane Society International, 94 percent of the British population now avoids fur, the production of which involves toxic chemicals, increased risk of zoonotic diseases (including coronavirus), and shocking animal cruelty. Even the fashion industry is catching up, with countless mainstream brands vowing that they will ditch animal fur for good, motivated by sustainability and consumer demand. 

Fur farming has been banned in England and Wales since 2000. But its distribution has thrived, so far, thanks to lax importation restrictions, serving as a passive endorsement of the practice. (Providing it doesn’t take place here, of course…)

While the data on foie gras consumption and popularity is a little hazy, its controversial production has been banned in more than a dozen countries, including Finland, Italy, Poland, and Turkey for animal welfare reasons. The so-called delicacy involves a process known as “gavage,” force-feeding live ducks and geese a high-fat diet in order to cause excessive swelling to their livers. It causes the animals extraordinary pain, all for the sake of a gourmet dish consumed by a very small number of people.

It was thanks to this relatively niche appeal of fur and foie gras that these issues were chosen for the Animals Abroad Bill, which was designed for maximum support and minimum controversy. Since then, they have rightly been some of the most talked-about jewels in the crown of the Conservative animal welfare plan, alongside a pledge to end live exports that has been well over 30 years in the making.

But the recent reaction of Johnson’s cabinet—and the government’s subsequent decision to scrap the measures in response—shows the superficial depth of the PM’s dedication to animal welfare and the environment. It also reveals the deep-seated need for the Conservative leader to please hardliners and ultra-rich backers if he wants to actually remain in power.

“How does the Prime Minister think it looks when we’re in a cost of living crisis […] when the members of his cabinet are throwing their toys out of the pram because they want to eat foie gras and wear fur,” asked Labour MP Kerry McCarthy when speaking to the House of Commons last week. 

The UK needs to stop backpedaling on environmental issues

At the time of the Animals Abroad Bill’s initial announcement, the No 10 team promised the “highest standards of animal welfare” moving forward, and said that its pledge of progressive animal welfare policies would not simply be another “token gesture.” (This from the party that promised 200,000 starter homes and built zero.) But even its other, successful bills have glaring loopholes, seemingly designed to look effective but disrupt almost nothing.

Last November saw the recognition of octopuses, lobsters, and similar animals as sentient beings. But the government stopped well short of modernizing the seafood industry, and live boiling remains legal in kitchens nationwide, despite these creatures’ now officially recognized capacity to think and feel.

Following the momentously underwhelming COP26 summit, where countless experts spoke of the need for global unity in the face of the climate crisis, Johnson’s limp environmental policies are being cast out almost as soon as their initial announcements have served their greenwashing purpose. (Johnson himself was a vehement climate denier until relatively recently, and continues to hire warming skeptics.)

The scientific community is now urging the government not to u-turn on its climate goals in the midst of unfounded accusations that the UK’s cost-of-living crisis is linked to net-zero pledges. There’s even talk of a return for the deeply unpopular and destructive practice of fracking, as the pot-stirring anti-green Conservative Net Zero Scrutiny Group (NZSG) continues to campaign against sustainability targets—despite widespread criticism from activists and experts. (In fact, NZSG’s head of policy is yet another of the government’s most recent climate-skeptic hires.)

Even if fracking doesn’t return, MPs approved a brand new North Sea oilfield just a few weeks after climate experts told COP26 that no new fossil fuel developments or extractive projects could be compatible with current climate goals.

Meanwhile, the UK government tries to criminalize climate protests

The backpedaling on the Animals Broad Bill is, unfortunately, not the least of the UK’s issues when it comes to how it handles animals and the climate. Johnson’s administration is dead set on criminalizing environmental protests throughout the country. This has taken a variety of forms during the Conservative party’s 10-plus years in power, but perhaps none more ominous than the recently introduced and dystopian Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Bill (PCSC), conceived during Johnson’s tenure.

While initially defeated after weeks of national protests (which appropriately saw already heavy-handed police attacking demonstrators and journalists alike), the bill will likely still come to fruition. It includes nearly 20 pages of last-minute amendments specifically designed to stifle legal protest, but left intentionally vague enough to be deployed in almost any situation police officers see fit. (For example, it even criminalizes “serious annoyance.”)

The PCSC bill was partially inspired by the actions of the direct action group Insulate Britain, which campaigns for improved insulation in UK homes and engages in the kind of civil disobedience that the new legislation targets. For example, locking yourself onto something, a tried-and-tested tactic used the world over, could result in 51 weeks imprisonment.

According to recent data collated by the Liberal Democrats and reported on by the Independent, if the government had not scrapped its Zero Carbon Homes program in 2015, households could potentially have saved up to £400 per year thanks to the very cladding that Insulate Britain is now campaigning for. Savings that seem of particular significance right now in the face of simultaneous cost of living and energy crises.

In short, it appears that the government is more worried about cracking down on protesters rather than creating meaningful change itself. This isn’t just limited to the PCSC Bill. Back in November, hundreds of demonstrators were manhandled during COP26 by the UK’s police force, including many of the Indigenous activists not provided with appropriate recognition at the official event.

The examples of the government’s demonization of activists are many. More recently, the Marine Management Organization (MMO) attempted to prosecute Greenpeace activists for taking much-needed action against bottom trawling in a marine protected area, something that the government itself (and the MMO specifically) should be working to solve. (A recent report by the Marine Conservation Society recently revealed that bottom trawling has now actually tripled in key protected areas, and takes place in 98 percent of these aquatic reserves overall.)

Despite its huge potential for good, the Animals Abroad Bill itself has always been extremely revealing in its targeting of some harmful pastimes, but not others. While it boasts an immediate crackdown on illegal hare coursing (a traditionally working class bloodsport), illegal hunting from horseback (a similar pursuit but reserved for the wealthy) is left to continue, no doubt due to its popularity amongst Tory voters and peers alike.

If the modern Conservative party wishes to be taken seriously as a force for the environment and for animals, it needs to be ready to stand up to the old guard who are keeping it rooted in its exclusionary, self-interested past. Pledges must be realistic, free from vagaries, and then adhered to. It seems that someone like Johnson is simply not the man for that job.

The views expressed in opinion pieces are those of the author(s) and do not represent the policy or position of LIVEKINDLY.

Leonardo DiCaprio is continuing his support for the environment with his latest investment, a cultivated seafood startup called Wildtype. Shopping for a new ride? The DeLorean is going back to the future as an electric car. It’s not the only one… Los Angeles firefighters will soon be putting out flames in a new electric fire truck.

For the first time ever, grocery stores will soon get vegan milk that’s “virtually indistinguishable” from cow’s milk.

And in good news for the planet and its inhabitants: Indigenous Ecuadorean peoples now have the right to decide what happens to their land. And mink farming could be banned in the US.

Catch the full news recap in the video above.

Vegan women celebrities are a growing group in Hollywood, and that’s great news for animals, the planet, and the women who’ve opted to ditch meat. 

In fact, interest in veganism on the whole is on the rise, and that’s likely at least partially due to the fact that famous women like Kim Kardashian and Katy Perry are experimenting with vegan diets.

The Google Search team recently confirmed to LIVEKINDLY that search interest in veganism reached an all-time high in the U.S. in November 2019, shortly after Kardashian first announced she was enjoying a plant-based diet. Even though search data fluctuates from year-to-year and even month-to-month, it’s clear that people are interested in veganism.

Keep reading for women celebrities who are living their best lives on a plant-based diet and showing that it’s not just a trend. For them, it’s a lifestyle.