Compassion Company

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So Pinnacle foods (which makes most of its sales from TV dinners like Hungryman and various frozen fish brands) bought out Gardein back in 2014, and perhaps at the worst time of all - 2016 has been pretty much the shittiest year for everyone I know - they’re finally making major changes to the company. 

Most people have already heard the sad news, but Gardein is discontinuing 17 different products in Canada starting 2017. The only Gardein products that will be restocked in Canada next year are the Beefless Ground, Fish Filets, Mandarin Orange Chicken and 7 Grain Tenders. 

And if you missed the update, not only are they pulling out 17 different products from Canada (some of which might also be discontinued within the US, but they haven’t said which yet - only that “this will affect the US as well”), they’re planning on introducing a 12.5% price increase on the remaining products come next February - an increase that will likely be seen in both countries.

In which case… OK, correct me if I’m wrong. but Gardein is THE best selling meat alternative brand in Canada. It’s in over 22,000 grocery stores and I don’t know a single person who avoids meat and DOESN’T love Gardein. Some of my friends would marry Gardein if they were a person. The original CEO reported that they pulled in 100 MILLION dollars in sales every year. Every news source has reported a gradual but prevalent decrease in consumer interest towards meat and dairy in general. And those companies have even come out with their own animal-free alternatives in response to this, like when Hellman’s introduced a vegan mayo after their recent embarrassing hissy-fit with Hampton Creek about what constituted as “mayonnaise”.

So why the Fishless fuck is their parent company claiming they need to increase prices and discontinue 80% of their products in order to “balance sustainability” of the brand? To me, this just seems like a meat-based food conglomerate once again realizing that the plant-based market is growing, using their millions to buy out the competition, and then SHRINKING that competition in hopes that consumers will go back to eating animals.

When are they going to realize that the plant-based market is going to continue growing no matter how many brands they cripple? Meat production supergiants keep treating meat-alternative companies as if they’re simply part of a health food trend instead of a huge consumer shift away from animal products. It’s getting harder and harder to find companies out there stocking vegan food up in supermarkets because meat producers are getting salty that it sells, and are willing to increase prices exponentially to kill the meat analogue market.

I guess I’m mostly angry because I was really hoping the CLEAR increase in demand for vegan and vegetarian foods would result in a gradual decrease in cost across the board. Being interested in meat free alternatives doesn’t mean you’re middle class. If you’re like me, you’re a poor as fuck vegan, and it’s really easy to get your jimmies rustled when people assume you will - or even can - pay more just because you have ethical boundaries on what you’re willing to eat.

Hey. We gotta just come out real quick and just say—without getting overly political or whatever—we’ve been struggling the last week or so with how to navigate the real-world things going on while having things of our own going on—things that we need to share and post about on social media (our roster is touring and depending on us and we want to support them the best we can, of course). With everything else going on, though, it feels trivial and something we’ve been feeling very torn about.

We’ve given a lot of thought to music’s place in a time like this; how it can help console and empower along with ways we can best elevate and support the people whom need it most right now. Earlier this year, you helped us raise $2500 for Planned Parenthood. The issues being faced now are not going away, though, so we feel they require an effort on our part that won’t either. We’ll be starting a tiered label subscription in 2017. Each tier will include ways to contribute to each of the following three important organizations: 

Planned Parenthood

NAACP LDF

The Trevor Project

Additionally, a portion of all proceeds for all pre-orders we take for all albums going forward will contribute equally to each of these organizations. Lastly, we will be making as much of our catalog as we can available for pay-what-you-want download for the rest of 2016 with all proceeds benefiting each organization equally.

This is a bummer, but we need to talk about it.

Corporate giant chain store in malls, Francesca’s, sold unauthorized copies of pins by me and 20+ other artists. I cannot tell you how exhausting it is to deal with this constant barrage of copying of my artwork, and how much it takes me away from things like sleep, family, and making new work. It’s made me fearful of sharing new work, and fearful of releasing new pins.

I called, they ignored. I lawyered up, they didn’t respond. Supporters of art and confused Francesca’s customers commented on their social media channels about this and were deleted and banned. Their handling of this situation is awful and unethical and doesn’t point toward resolution as they force artists to pursue expensive legal action.

I need your help.

Would you please share this image or story with your networks?

Would you please call out Francesca’s for their bad business practices and urge them to make it right with the artists?