2009: VVF Review

2009 was a great year for the VVF!  We are very grateful for your continued support. It has enabled us to expose the detrimental health effects of eating meat, fish and dairy foods in a way that no other organisation does, so we can bring about the changes that will lead to a healthier, happier world, for us and the animals!
Below is a list of some of things we achieved in 2009.

January
VVF kicked off the New Year with the media release Take better care of your heart this Valentine’s Day to promote our Healthy Heart packs for Nation Heart Month in February. Later in January we sent out two media releases: Students get their teeth into veggie cooking and Tools of the trade can save money and time to further promote the widespread benefits of a veggie diet.
Also in January, VVF launched a major new campaign called Go Fish-Free in London with our very own VVF mermaid posing for pictures outside the Seafood & Health Conference at Fishmongers’ Hall by London Bridge. This campaign is raising awareness that fish is not a health food and explains why plant-based omega-3s are better for your health.
Natural Products magazine published VVF’s article Myth of healthy white meat exposing why white meat is not a healthy option.

February
VVF’s second major campaign of the year, White Meat Black Mark, was launched in Regent Arcade, Cheltenham highlighting the dangers of eating white meat – often mistaken for the healthy option.
Cook Vegetarian published an article written by VVF’s senior health campaigner, Justine Butler, emphasising the health risks of eating fish. They featured several tasty recipes from our new guide Fish-Free for Life.
A short VVF article called Cut Sat Fat by Going Veggie! was published in numerous regional papers in response to a campaign led by the Food Standards Agency encouraging people to cut down on saturated fat. Belfast News published our article There’s more to eat than just an egg a day which countered new research promoting eggs.
The Veggie Kids website www.veggiekids.org.uk was launched, which is helping to promote a healthy plant-based diet for children.

March
The March issue of Jewish Vegetarian published one and a half pages promoting VVF’s Fish-Free for Lifeguide and VVF’s Amanda Woodvine was interviewed on Bristol Community Radio talking about her plans to run the London marathon.
We get a huge number of enquiries about soya (is it safe? how much can we eat? which soya foods are good for you?). Consequently VVF have created a dedicated soya website www.safetyofsoya.com and in March, the soya company Alpro added a link to this from their health professionals section of their website. This will help us continue raising awareness of the health benefits of soya and quashing scare-stories about soya.

April
VVF continued promoting the new veggie kids website with articles in several regional papers saying how to Get your kids in shape with the new veggie kids’ website. The April issue of Cook Vegetarian featured three recipes from the VVF’s guide Fish-Free for Life which also plugged the guide. We also had a positive three-page article in Running Fitness magazine called Lean, Green Running Machine highlighting the benefits of a vegetarian diet, with information provided by VVF’s own marathon woman Amanda Woodvine. Natural Health magazine also published an article written by Amanda called Seeds of the day.
VVF had a stall and gave health talks at Viva!’s The Incredible Veggie Roadshow in London, which was a huge success, attended by over 3,000 and helped many people to become vegetarian and vegan or just cut down the amount of meat they consume.

May
VVF’s soya saga continued in What Beans Mean published in The Independent quoting the Dr Justine Butler on the safety of soya. Health & Fitness magazine printed Trade Secrets by Amanda Woodvine which discussed becoming vegetarian.
The VVF held a stall at the NEC in Birmingham for the Primary Care Exhibition which is attended by over 2,000 health care professionals.

June
Amanda Woodvine gave a breakfast talk at Bristol Aztec Rotary Breakfast Club detailing the advantages of a vegan diet. Families South West magazine promoted VVF’s website Veggie Kids.
 
July
The Sheffield Star published an article from the VFF, Vegetarian Diets Can Treat Chronic Killer Diseases,promoting the health benefits of a vegetarian diet. Peterborough Evening Telegraph published an article by the VVF; Milk is not a magic bullet, challenging the notion that milk is a wholesome and healthy food.

August
The VVF media release Go veggie to cut dementia risk exposed how consuming meat and animal products could increase the risk of developing dementia.
VVF and Viva! held the annual school speakers training day in London. This vital training day helps our supporters gain the confidence they need to spread the veggie message in schools across the country.

September
The Independent published a positive article about soya It’s just a little bean, but it could curb climate change with much information provided by VVF. Natural Products Online published an article Get smart – eat veggie based on a media release by VVF. 
VVF’s media release Green groups join forces publicised a collaboration between VVF and the green energy company Ecotricity in order to dispel the most common myths about vegetarian food and explain why the greenest diet is also the healthiest.
In September VVF attended Viva!’s Incredible Veggie Roadshow in Cheltenham with a stall and gave several talks and was a huge success.

October
The October issue of Running Fitness published a VVF letter to the editor promoting the importance of Vitamin B12 in the diet. Lincolnshire Today published a pro-vegetarian article plugging the VVF’s fish materials.
October saw the launch of our new Teach Vegetarian Website.
VVF attended the Bristol Animals Rights Coalition Vegan Fayre, Juliet Gellatley gave a talk and both Juliet and Justine gave free nutritional consultations.

November
The November issue of Network Health Dieticians ran a two-page article based on the VVF soya fact sheet.
Bristol Evening Post published a letter from the VVF about soya and the environment.
Dr Justine Butler represented the VVF at a dinner and roundtable talk on Eco-nutrition in London hosted by Alpro with Professor David Jenkins. Also, as part of their e-nutrition news, Alpro sent out an email alert to 6,500 health care professionals, championing the benefits of a vegetarian diet in a feature article by VVF’s Dr Justine Butler.

December
We had unprecedented coverage of a letter to the editors in December with over 20 regional newspapers covering our story about the Lancet’s study advising people to cut their meat consumption by a third in order to combat global warming.
VVF held a stall at Animal Aid’s Christmas without cruelty fayrein London.
VVF gave numerous radio interviews on veggie eating at Christmas.