South Africas Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) has banned the use of meat-like terms on plant-based product labels. Shockingly, in the same vein, JUST Egg products may be seized from Woolworths stores in the country.

This is a huge step backwards in the Governments fight against climate change

According to DALRRD, names such as nuggets, vegetarian sausages, ribs, and chicken-style are prescribed and reserved for processed meat products and must not be used by plant-based producers. The Food Safety Agency has been instructed to seize any plant-based products using these terms.

JUST Egg has also come under fire from DALRDD, with major retailer Woolworths ordered to stop selling the product as eggs. The supermarket has been told that all JUST Egg products will be seized if it does not comply.

The measure also flies in the face of the Governments own plans to introduce legislation to tackle climate change. But the South African Governments Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development department edict, sent out on June 22, instructs the Food Safety Agency that any plant-based products using names that traditionally refer to animal-based products must be taken off the shelves.

This is a huge step backwards in the Governments fight against climate change, Donovan Will, Country Director at ProVeg South Africa, said. Regulation such as this is exactly what we dont need when the worlds scientists are telling us we urgently need to reduce our meat consumption to help brake dangerous global warming.

The regulation also disrespects consumers. There is no evidence to show that people are confused by meaty names for plant-based foods. In fact, evidence from Australia, Europe and the US prove they are not confused. We urge the Government to overturn this regulation. At a time when countries are seeking ways to tackle climate change, we must do all we can to encourage a vibrant and innovative plant-based sector, Will commented.

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South Africa Bans Meat-Like Terms on Vegan Products, Threatens to Seize JUST Egg From Woolworths - vegconomist - the vegan business magazine

SOUTH SHORE The South Shore Nature Sanctuarys volunteer stewards will host a 20th birthday party for the beloved lakefront spot Saturday with a live music performance, scavenger hunts, educational tours and more.

The South Shore Nature Sanctuary, dedicated on June30, 2002, is one of the Park Districts oldest natural areas. The former dumping ground for the South Shore Country Club is now home to native plants and animals in distinct, miniature biomes, including dunes, woodland, savanna, prairie, shrubland and wetland.

The 20th anniversary celebration is held 1-4 p.m. Saturday at the sanctuary, 7059 S. South Shore Drive. To RSVP and see more information about the event, click here.

The South Shore Nature Sanctuary is a wonderful place to interact with time on a different scale natural time instead of city time, said Susannah Ribstein, a member of the South Shore Cultural Centers park advisory council and the sanctuarys volunteer steward.

I see people there who use it in a very personal way, like an outdoor living room, Ribstein said. But there are thousands of people who live in South Shore who dont go there, who dont know that its there. Thats another reason for this event: so as many people find out about it as possible.

Chicago musician and artistLia Kohl will perform a piece Saturday created in conversation with the sounds of the sanctuary, she said. The piece incorporates sounds from birds, bugs and water recorded at the sanctuary several weeks ago alongside live radio signals. It will be played through four radios.

Kohl had never visited the sanctuary until she prepared for Saturdays performance.

I had been to the South Shore Cultural Center before, but didnt know about the little gem just behind it, she said.

I think the layers of city life, human life and natural life collide in a really beautiful way here. I also really appreciate how much work the volunteers have put into cultivating native plant life here. Its a beautiful ecosystem, and its wonderful to see and hear and smell.

Arts activities, scavenger hunts for kids and educational tours of the sanctuary will be held throughout the day. Saturdays party will also feature vegan treats from South ShoresBetty Bot Bakery, 7100 S. South Shore Drive.

Resident Margi Gross was a key advocate for the sanctuarys creation, advisory council member Kathy Henning said. Henning joined the park advisory council in the early 2000s, shortly after the sanctuary was founded.

Gross who has since died and other park advocates would push for the sanctuarys development at Park District budget meetings year after year, Henning said.

Around the turn of the millennium, city leaders took action to reflect residents interest in developing more habitats for migrating birds along the lakefront, Henning said. Chicago sits along the Mississippi Flyway, a major migratory route.

A South Shore sanctuary went from something wed been talking about for years to something that was on the front burner and got developed, Henning said.

Then-Mayor Richard M. Daley spoke to the need for more natural areas like South Shores at the sanctuarys 2002 dedication, Ribstein said.

Other lakefront natural areas on the South Side include the 63rd Street Beach Dune and the Burnham Wildlife Corridor, which stretches from McCormick Place to 47th Street.

Hennings mobility is limited, so she no longer visits the South Shore Nature Sanctuary frequently. Its 20th anniversary snuck up on her, so shes going to try and make it out for Saturdays event, she said.

The sanctuary has one of the most spectacular views of the Chicago skyline that there is anywhere in the city, Henning said.

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Celebrate The South Shore Nature Sanctuary's 20th Birthday Saturday With Performances, Scavenger Hunts And Vegan Treats - Block Club Chicago

June 23, 2022

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THIS, the fastest-growing plant-based meat brand in the UK, has launched a record-breaking crowdfunding campaign. The brand hit its 4 million target within 1 hour and 40 minutes whilst under pre-registration, becoming one of the fastest campaigns to raise such an amount on the Seedrs platform.

It really shows just how important meat alternatives are now in British food culture

Since opening publicly the crowdfunding campaign has now risen to almost 5.8 million, making it already one of the largest conducted on the private investment platform. The raise will be live until mid-July, giving private investors the opportunity to buy into THIS from just 10. The crowdfunding will support the vegan brands innovation, marketing, and first international expansion.

With plans to open a new innovation center in West London this year, THIS is now the fastest-growing plant-based meat brand in the UK, recording a 333% year-on-year net sales growth in 2021. Last year saw THIS announce the closing of an 11 million Series A round which was the largest ever Series A for a UK-based alt meat brand, while the brand most recently launched a new product line into supermarket giant Tesco.

Andy Shovel, Co-Founder of THIS, stated: Were buzzing and super grateful for how amazing the response has been. The speed at which this has been happening is unprecedented. It really shows just how important meat alternatives are now in British food culture.

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THIS Smashes 4M Crowdfunding Target In Under 2 Hours - vegconomist - the vegan business magazine

It seems that every week in the world of vegan food news is more exciting than the last and this week is no exception. Lightlife just announced its biggest partnership to date with Disney and Pixar to promote its Lightyear film. Beyond Meats closing in on price parity with beef by launching its Cookout Classic bulk packs in 10,000 stores. Vegan brioche is hitting the shelves at Trader Joes. And British brewery BrewDog just made a tribute beer to meatless meat-maker Quorn. Read on for more.

Sure, pairing (plant-based) chicken wings with beer is nothing new but beer inspired by meatless meat? Thats not something you see every day until now. British brewery and pub chain BrewDog partnered with Quornwhich makes meatless meat using mycoproteinto create the Dry-Hopped Mexican Vienna Lager. Brewed especially to pair with Quorns meatless meats, the limited-edition beer is a part of the BrewDog and Friends June subscription box.

BrewDog

Quorn is a pioneer of the food game, their ongoing work to create a better future for us and the planet makes them the perfect partner for a daring new brew, Lauren Carrol, director of brand and marketing at BrewDog, said in a statement. We like to keep our BrewDog and Friends subscribers guessing what well serve up next, and this beer is like nothing weve done before. We cant wait for fellow punks and Quorn fans alike to try it out alongside the Quorn burger.

And while this beer seems like the only thing that unites these two companies, they do share an important common link: both beer-brewing and Quorn-making involve the magical process of fermentation.

Lightyeara spinoff of cult-classic film Toy Storyis hitting theaters today and Greenleaf Foods SPC, parent company of plant-based Lightlife Foods, is celebrating with its biggest partnership to date. The brand has teamed up with Disney and Pixar to create special-edition packaging featuring iconic character Buzz Lightyear for its most popular products, including Smart Dogs, Smart Bacon, Original Tempeh, Plant-Based Burger, and Breakfast Patties. Lightlife also created Lightyear-themed recipes to promote the partnership, including Cosmic Chili Dogs, Buzz Breakfast Burrito, and Morning Moonrock Muffins.

Greenleaf Foods SPC

Our collaboration with Disney and Pixar marks the largest brand collaboration in Lightlife history and we are extremely proud to be the exclusive plant-based sponsor of a film whose fan base spans generations, Adam Grogan, President of Greenleaf Foods, SPC said in a statement. We are excited for Lightlifes family-friendly plant-based products to join forces with Disney and Pixars film release this summer.

To infinity and beyond!

Beyond Meat knows that summer is all about grilling and its vegan Beyond Burgers are an absolute staple. And this season, the brands vegan burgers are getting cheaper so you can feed everyone at the barbecue for a lot less. Beyond Meat introduced its Cookout Classic at Target and Walmart stores during the summer of 2020 as a limited time offering and is bringing a version of the bulk pack to 10,000 additional stores this summer. When you crunch the numbers, each 4-ounce Beyond Meat patty in the 8-pack Cookout Classic will cost approximately $1.99. Thats getting mighty close to the price of beefthe nationally advertised price of which was approximately $1.45 per 4-ounce serving this week.

Beyond Meat

And while we already know the benefits of eating vegan burgers over animal flesh, a price cut only helps to make the plant-based choice easierespecially when meat prices continue to skyrocket. Created to inspire the whole family to go plant-based, you can now find the Cookout Classic pack in the refrigerator aisles of Kroger, Publix, Sprouts, Target, Walmart, Wegmans, Whole Foods Market, and more.

Mini chain Tacotarian is a vegan mainstay in the Las Vegas region and has found fans far and wide, including Vice President Kamala Harris who, following Senator Cory Bookers recommendation, made a stop at a shop last year. At Tacotarian, Harris loaded up on tacos stuffed with vegan carne asada to fuel her then vegan before 6pm lifestyle.

Las Vegans have the luxury to visit Tacotarian whenever they like for their fill of VP-approved meals and San Diegans will soon get a chance to make Tacotarian a local fave, too. Thats because the shops fifth locationits first out-of-state outpostis slated to open in early July in San Diego. Tacotarian will take over a spot previously occupied by vegan restaurants Chicago Not Dogs and The Modern Veganin the North Park area where it will serve its famed tacos, flautas, quesadillas, desserts, and more alongside specialty cocktails.

Tacotarian

Tacotarian was founded by two married couplesDan and Regina Simmons and Carlos and Kristen Corralafter they were inspired by a trip to Reginas hometown of Mexico City. Weve been eyeballing California for a longtime, Dan Simmons said in a statement. We got really lucky with this spot as its in an amazing central location and we cant wait to share our food with San Diego. People have been wanting us to come to California since day one, so it feels great to finally be on our way.

Bread doesnt usually make headlines but Trader Joes knows how to stir up excitement around things typically reserved for a quiet lunchtime sandwich. The new buzz at Trader Joes is around its Vegan Brioche Loaf. Thats because brioche is a type of bread that commonly contains both eggs and dairy. However, Trader Joes made good on its promise to introduce more plant-based items with the launch of this bread, which swaps dairy-free milk and vegan eggs in place of animal products.

Trader Joes

Rich, fluffy, and full of buttery sweetness, a good brioche is as elegantly delicious to eat as it is tricky to makeand its even trickier if youre making a totally vegan version, Trader Joes describes the product on its website. Luckily, we know some of the best bakers in the business, and theyve made a pre-sliced, plant- based Vegan Brioche Loaf exclusively for us, and one thats fit to be the crown jewel of any bakeryvegan or not.

Were thinking its time for French Toast? Or maybe bread pudding? Both? Thanks, Joe.

For the latest vegan news, read:How Chris Paul Got His Dad To Eat Vegan Just EggKevin Hart Opens Vegan Chain To Transform Fast-Food IndustryBurger King Opens 2 Meat-Free Locations in Switzerland

Anna Starostinetskaya is the Senior News Editor at VegNews and is always keeping an eye on all things vegan in her home city of San Francisco, CA and everywhere else.

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Quorn Beer, Buzz Lightyear Hot Dogs, and More Vegan Food News of the Week - VegNews

Vegan Fashion Week is the leading fashion movement that has been working to bridge the gap between sustainability and ethics since 2018. The event has brought a unique message and global impact on the media and the fashion industry. The event has sparked the interest of governments and companies around the work, solidifying Los Angeles as one of the leading ethical fashion destinations in the world.

Source: Positive Image LLC/Youtube

This year, Vegan Fashion Week collaborated with the California Market Center in downtown Los Angeles to present Vegan World, the only professional vegan trade show in the world. Vegan World is an immersive environment that allows people from all walks of life to experience vegan fashion, beauty, and lifestyle.

Vegan World featured a catalog of successful vegan designers that have been handpicked by Emmanuelle Rienda, Vegan Fashion Weeks founder and creative director. The focus of the event will be on international female-owned brands, including Nous tudions from Argentina, Veganologie from Dubai, Vegan Tiger from Korea, Mindful Pigs from Canada, Sentient from Mexico, Shoes 53045 from France, and Fan All Flames, Dooeys, and Sylven New York from the USA.

Emmanuelle Rienda said, We are creating an international community of emerging fashion talents influencing the industry, in a highly saturated and extremely competitive space. Our professional platform, inclusive of Vegan Fashion Week, trade shows and a permanent showroom, is an environment of impact, generating cultural experience and awareness that high fashion can be kind, elevated and thoughtful.

Singer Ma was in attendance alongside fashion industry professionals and influencers. Eventgoers were able to discover amazing new collections of apparel, handbags, and shoes made from cruelty-free materials, such as plant-based leather from cactus, apple skin, grapes, and mulberry tree leaves.

Rienda plans to continue growing the global fashion scene with collaborations between activists. Among other events led by Vegan Fashion Week is the Vegan Fashion Library, a permanent LA-based showroom that showcases vegan and sustainable brands. The showroom is a key marketing opportunity for brands to be seen by top fashion editors, influencers, stylists, buyers, and celebrities.

Source: VEGAN FASHION WEEK/Youtube

Much like our food, its easy for many to forget where their clothes come from. Animals are far too often exploited and misused in the fashion industry. When fashion literally kills, its time for us to begin educating ourselves and the public about how animals are exploited in the fashion industry and what we can do to change the horrifying realities.

There are so many great alternatives to all of these materials that dont require anyone to lose their life. Check out apple leather, pineapple leather, mushroom leather, fur alternatives, and lab-grown leather.

Many companies have either stopped selling or are committed to phasing out the use of animal skins and furs in their products. Kering Group has begun investing in lab-grown cow-free leather, Moda Operandi banned fur and exotic skins thanks to a PETA letter, and Armani announced they will ban Angora wool. Check out these 10 brands that have dropped fur, wool, and exotic skins in the past year. Sign this petitionto demand major fashion brands like Prada, Versace, Armani, Michael Kors, Zara, H&M, Coach, Chanel, and more replace animal leather with plant-based alternatives!

For more Animal, Earth, Life, Vegan Food, Health, and Recipe content published daily, subscribe to the One Green Planet Newsletter! Also, dont forget to download the Food Monster App on the App Store. With over 15,000 delicious recipes, it is the largest meatless, vegan, and allergy-friendly recipe resource to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy!

Lastly, being publicly-funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high-quality content. Please consider supporting us by donating!

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Vegan Fashion Week Brings Vegan World, An Immersive Environment to Experience Vegan Fashion in LA - One Green Planet

1990s. Rural Tamil Nadu. A group of people sat under the shade of a generous leafy tree, with eyes closed. A while ago, they had been sitting in the open, parched and sweating, feeling all the torrid effects of the southern Indian sun. Now, in protective green shade, with a cool breeze blowing, they realized the essence, and the benediction of the big tree.

Sadhguru led them through an inner process, where they actually experienced the exchange of breath with the tree, breathing out carbon dioxide, which the tree inhaled, and breathing in oxygen that the tree exhaled. An experiential process where they clearly saw that one half of their breathing apparatus was hanging out there. These were the early days when Sadhguru had just begun planting trees in what he called the most difficult terrain the minds of people. This first-hand experience of oneness with all life galvanized the first set of ardent volunteers who pioneered this movement to restore our planet.

What began with a few thousand volunteers in the 1990s in the form of Vanashree, an eco-drive aimed at greening the Velliangiri Hills, soon grew into Project GreenHands, a large state-wide campaign with millions of volunteers across Tamil Nadu in the first decade of 2000s. In 2017, when Sadhguru led the incredible Rally for Rivers, it snowballed into the largest environmental movement on the planet supported by 162 million Indians, further leading to intense on-ground activity with the extremely hands-on, proof-of-concept project Cauvery Calling. Now, it will include billions of global citizens in an unprecedented movement to create a Conscious Planet and Save Soil. Sadhgurus mission to reach 4 billion people on Earth has been the product of three decades of work and evolution.

One of the crucial aspects in the evolution of this movement has no doubt been the sheer number of people it has inspired. However, equally important has been its growing levels of influence. From local communities, organizations, farmers, schools and state governments, to helping shape the National River Policy in India and now to working with some of the most environmentally-relevant international agencies, world leaders and governments the movement has been making quantum leaps in the past three decades.

The phenomenal endeavor of the Save Soil movement is to bring citizens of the entire democratic world together to speak in one voice and affirm our commitment to the health and future of Earth. When issues of ecology become electoral issues, when the peoples support empowers governments to adopt long-term policy changes to safeguard soil, when businesses, organizations, individuals and governments make soil health a primary priority that is when this sustained effort will find fruition.

This has been a journey from GreenHeads to GreenHands to GreenHearts. So who will save soil? Each and every one of us.

Let us make it happen!

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About Conscious Planet - Save Soil - Sadhguru

Consciousness is, for each of us, all there is: the world, the self, everything. But consciousness is also subjective and difficult to define. The closest we have to a consensus definition is that consciousness is something it is like to be. There is something it is like to be me or you but presumably there is nothing it is like to be a table or an iPhone.

How do our conscious experiences arise? Its a longstanding question, one that has perplexed scientists and philosophers for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. The orthodox scientific view today is that consciousness is a property of physical matter, an idea we might call physicalism or materialism. But this is by no means a universally held view, and even within physicalism there is little agreement about how consciousness emerges from, or otherwise relates to, physical stuff.

Neuroscientists have found important clues by looking at the activity of the 86 billion neurons and trillions of neural connections inside the human brain. One of the first questions they asked was which parts of the brain of any brain are associated with consciousness. For instance, you might instinctively assume that conscious experiences are more likely if a brain or brain region contains a large number of neurons.

Surprisingly, though, the human cerebellum a sort of mini brain hanging off the back of your cortex contains about three-quarters of the neurons in your brain but seems to have almost nothing to do with consciousness. One reason we know this is because some people are born without a functioning cerebellum, and while they experience some problems, a lack of consciousness is not one of them.

There are, however, some bundles of neurons that do appear to be vital for consciousness. If damage occurs to specific parts of the thalamus, or to a particular region of the brain stem, the result can be permanent unconsciousness. But are these brain regions actually central to generating conscious experiences, or are they more like a power socket that simply allows whatever is plugged into it to work?

Work involving brain imaging techniques such as electroencephalography (EEG) paints a more complex picture. Several decades ago, neuroscientists including Francis Crick and Christof Koch began to search for what they called the neural correlates of consciousness: particular patterns of brain activity that relate to given conscious states the experience of a painful toothache, for example.

As studies like this have progressed it has become clearer that consciousness depends on specific ways that different parts of the brain particularly the cortex communicate with one another. For example, by injecting a pulse of energy into the brain using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and using electroencephalography (EEG) to monitor the response, a team of neuroscientists led by Giulio Tononi and Marcello Massimini found that the electrical echo generated by the energy pulse will bounce all around a conscious brain, but stays very localised in an unconscious brain. In other words, the conscious brain is much more connected.

Do experiments like this bring us closer to understanding what consciousness is? Some might argue not. In the 1990s, the philosopher David Chalmers made an influential contribution to the consciousness debate by distinguishing between what he termed the easy problem, or problems, and the hard problem of consciousness.

The easy problems involve understanding how the brain and body gives rise to functions like perception, cognition, learning and behaviour. These problems are called easy not because they are trivial, but because there seems no reason why they cant be solved in terms of physical mechanisms albeit potentially very complex ones.

The hard problem is the enigma of why and how any of this should be accompanied by conscious experience at all: why do we each have an inner universe?

To address this hard problem, we need theories of consciousness that can bridge the gap from the world of physical processes to the world of conscious experiences: that can take us from correlation towards explanation.

There are now many theories of consciousness out there in the field of cognitive neuroscience: higher-order theories, global workspace theories, and integrated information theories, theories that in their strongest form imply that consciousness is spread widely throughout universe, and that even an electron may be conscious. There are even illusionist theories which attempt to persuade us that consciousness doesnt really exist at least not in the way we normally think about it.

The theory Ive been developing is a version of predictive processing theory. When I see a chair in front of me, its not that the eyes are transparent windows out onto the world and my brain just reads out chair. Instead there are noisy sensory signals impacting my retina and my brain has to use its prior expectations about what might be out there in order to interpret this ambiguous sensory data.

In a little more detail, the idea is that the brain is constantly calibrating its perceptual predictions using data from the senses. Predictive processing theory has it that perception involves two counterflowing streams of signals. There is an inside-out or top down stream that conveys predictions about the causes of sensory inputs.

Then there are outside-in or bottom up prediction errors the sensory signals which report the differences between what the brain expects and what it gets. By continually updating its predictions to minimise sensory prediction errors, the brain settles on an evolving best guess of its sensory causes, and this is what we consciously perceive. We dont passively perceive our worlds we actively generate them.

Predictive processing is well suited for explaining why a particular experience is the way it is and not some other way, because we can understand these differences in terms of the different kinds of perceptual predictions the brain is making. In my theory, these differences are particularly significant when it comes to the experience of being a self, which I argue is not an inner essence that does the perceiving, but rather a collection of perceptions itself. The self, in my view, is a special kind of controlled hallucination that has been shaped by evolution to regulate and control the living body.

Its not exactly a theory of consciousness, but you could call it a theory for consciousness. And its through ideas like this that I believe we will eventually come up with a satisfying scientific account of consciousness. Instead of solving the hard problem head on, we may end up dissolving it by developing and testing detailed explanations of how the properties of consciousness depend on their underlying mechanisms. In this way, we will have solved what I call the real problem of consciousness.

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What is consciousness? | New Scientist

Image source: Discovery Institute Press.

An obsessive compulsion can be traced through our culture: to run down human beings, talk us down from the traditional idea that we occupy a special place in the cosmos, cared for and anticipated by an intelligence beyond ours. The compulsion takes various forms. It includes the denial of our biological design, and of cosmological design. It includes the moral and legal equation of nonhumans animals with humans, and more. It paints an ugly, yet somehow powerfully seductive, materialist picture of men and women as unexceptional accidents of evolution.

In his new book, out today,Non-Computable You: What You Do that Artificial Intelligence Never Will, computer engineer Robert J. Marks examines a major contemporary element in this obsession. Its the myth that artificial intelligence (AI) is bound to overtake human intelligence, if it hasnt done so already, achieving not only far faster computation than were capable of (long ago accomplished) but the pinnacle of what it means to be human: consciousness, feeling, free will, and creativity.

Dr. Marks, who leads Discovery Institutes Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence, knows full well the power of AI, having studied it for three decades. But he explains why it will never become conscious, or feel, or exercise free will, or be creative. Marks cites a verse from Psalms, that humans are fearfully and wonderfully made (139:14). The obsession with denying this fear and wonder, reflected in our design, is his ultimate target in the book.

Hype about AI is far from new. Already in the 1950s theNew York Timesconfidently predicted that AI will be able to walk, talk, see, write, reproduce itself and be conscious of its existence. More recently, science and business stars such as Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, and Bill Gates have warned that AI could plot to replace humans, or destroy us. Another thread of overestimation, represented by the guru-like Yuval Noah Harari, looks forward to joining human with AI, thus evolving a man as god, what Harari callsHomo deus.

Just a few days ago a Google engineer revealed that an AI chatbot disclosed to him that it had come to life and has a soul. And this is being taken seriously. Another Google engineer informedThe Economistthat artificial neural networks are making strides towards consciousness.

Really? Robert Marks dismantles the hype and explains why computing running algorithms no matter how fast, is something fundamentally different from what human minds do. Computing machines store and sort vast quantities of information, but they dont now and never will experience the qualia of life. To mimic, which AI can do, is something very different. Marks gives the simple example of biting a lemon: No software engineer will ever capture that in algorithmic form, even as the engineer himself can turn at any moment, bite a lemon, and instantly experience it.

That gap cant be closed.Non-Computable You, from a distinguished and widely published authority in his field, offers an accessible, witty, and wise account of why it cant be closed. As Marks concludes, Non-computable you are fearfully and wonderfully made. We, along with our colleagues at the Bradley Center, will have more to say about this important book in days to come.

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New Book: You Are NOT Computable - Discovery Institute

The 340m acquisition of Nolimit City appears to conform to Evolutions approach to launching fewer, but more distinctive games. But is this enough for the supplier to develop as unassailable a lead in slot as it does in live casino?

From the moment it acquired NetEnt in 2020, Evolution has made it clear that it wanted to be seen not simply as a giant of live casino, but as a one-stop shop for online casino operators.

To that degree, the rationale for its acquisition of slot developer Nolimit City is obvious.

Yet to date, Evolutions random number generator (RNG) division has generated little in the way of organic growth going by recent results.

However, Georg Attling, equity research analyst at Pareto Securities, notes that this was mostly due to a change in strategy. The supplier shied away from frequent game launches, in favour of delivering a higher standard of slot content.

It is true that in terms of growth, Evolutions RNG segment has not lived up to our expectations thus far, Attling explains. However, this is mainly due to a reworked game launch pipeline.

After the acquisition of NetEnt (and Red Tiger), Evolution largely scrapped the existing games launch pipeline due to it not meeting Evolutions standards.

This has resulted in fewer new launches, making growth challenging Attling suggests, though this is likely to change in the near term.

Entering H2, we expect an increased activity of game launches which should facilitate a return to double-digit growth within the segment, he adds. So, the analysis [that the RNG division has underperformed expectations so far] is fair in terms of growth, but it has been a conscious decision.

As a result, Kevin Dale of Egamingmonitor argues that Nolimit City fits in well with the strategy Evolution had already implemented with NetEnt.

The content that Nolimit City produces is quite unique in terms of production and imagery, he says. Games with darker themes are their most popular, such as Mental, Deadwood, San Quentin, Misery Mining, Fire In the Hole and Tombstone.

Theyre certainly a good fit in terms of production values as they have a clear focus on quality and innovation, rather than quantity of output.

This distinctiveness, Evolution chief executive Martin Carlesund noted on an analyst call following this mornings announcement, was a major part of the deal.

He claimed that gamblers tend to recognise the studio behind the slot they are playing with Nolimit Citys games, unlike those from other suppliers. As a result, Carlesund said its content appeals to advanced slots players.

Its a very specific niche content, he explained. Its graphically rich, its very fascinating and it has good mechanics attached to it. Maybe more for the advanced player, but anyone playing Nolimit slots is attracted by that. They know theyre playing Nolimit its very obvious.

The games are filling a gap that we didnt have before, clearly so.

As a result, Attling says that the deal represents a further commitment to the Evolutions slot strategy.

It reaffirms Evolutions commitment to the space, he says. I argue that it is a doubling-down on the strategy because of the identified potential rather than a way to shake up a slow-growing division.

When it comes to integration, Dale notes that the process should be made easier by the fact that Evolution has dealt with the challenge of integrating a slot developer before.

It should be a bit easier for Evolution to digest than the likes of NetEnt or Red Tiger, not least as the product range is similar and theyve been here before, he says.

However he warns that given the differences in scale between the acquiring business and acquirer, the deal wont give Evolution access to many more operators.

Its a smaller acquisition in terms of content with nearly 60 titles added to their existing portfolio of 630 RNG games and smaller in terms of market share too: Nolimit City would add just under 1% to Evolutions global share of content (across more than 2,000 operators), taking them from 12% to 13% globally, he says.

Nolimit content has some good distribution with around 10% of all casino sites taking their content. Given the sheer reach of Evolution, however, they would gain access to just around 20 new operator sites via this deal.

The next deal

Evolution provided brief glimpses of Nolimit Citys financials, revealing the business showed great efficiency in turning revenue to profit. The developer expects to bring in 30m in revenue in 2022, yet its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation is expected to be around 23m.

Those margins are not dissimilar to those of Big Time Gaming, creator of the popular Megaways mechanic, which was acquired by Evolution last year.

Attling argues that while good margins are always an advantage the pattern is unlikely to represent a wider strategy to specifically search for the most cost-efficient businesses to acquire.

Evolution has stated that it prioritizes growth over margins, and still, it has achieved industry-leading margins, he says. I think the same rationale goes for acquisitions. Growth and quality come first, and high margins is a nice-to-have but not a must in the short term. A lower-margin business wouldnt be out of scope in terms of acquisition target if Evolution believes it has the capability of expanding them at a more mature state.

Carlesund himself gave hints as to the future of Evolutions M&A strategy. He said that slots was a natural vertical for Evolution to continue to acquire, but also wouldnt rule out moves in the suppliers core live casino vertical, ifs it presented an opportunity to add something new to its portfolio.

I dont see the potential in buying a company in live, but who knows? Maybe it occurs, he said. But there might be pieces of technology like Digiwheel where we just need this piece of hardware or software or a combination of growth in order to make our games better.

In slots, we have a clearer view of where we want to be. We want to be a complete supplier but above all we want to hand over the best content in the world to our users.

There we need some pieces but I think weve found those right now.

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Evolution reaffirms low-volume slot strategy with Nolimit City acquisition - iGaming Business

Welcome back to The Shouts Industry Women Spotlight Series. In this series, we share the stories of women from across the industry, raising awareness for the challenges they face and passing on their advice for the next generation.

Through these regular profiles, we aim to hero the visibility and inspiration that is common on International Womens Day, supporting the voices of women in different sectors of the liquor and hospitality industry. Its important these conversations happen more frequently than just once a year.

Today weve got the story of Louisa Rose, Chief Winemaker at Yalumba, whose illustrious professional journey stemmed from a love of her familys hobby vineyards.

While growing up in Melbourne, Roses parents planted a small vineyard in the Yarra Valley in the 1970s, which would end up being where the family went for weekends and holidays.

I loved it I loved the seasonality, whether it was planting, training, pruning or ultimately picking the grapes. There was always work on the vineyard, and it became not only our family time, but my teenage work where I made money, Rose recalls.

I remember we delivered the first grapes in about 1983, to a small winery. I remember it was night-time, there were lights everywhere, all the noises, the grapes and the fermenting wine smell, and I just thought this is great, I want to be a winemaker, without having any idea what that actually meant.

So winemaking was always Roses plan, and she went on to do a basic science degree at Melbourne University before heading on to South Australia to study at what was then Roseworthy College. In 1992, Rose got a vintage job at Yalumba while studying, thinking she probably wouldnt ever come back to South Australia.

But Yalumba had other plans, asking Rose to come back for the next vintage once she had finished studying. It was at a time when both the wine industry and Yalumba itself was in growth, and Rose ended up being offered the position of Assistant Winemaker. Since then, shes risen through the ranks to the top winemaking role at the historic company.

Its been an incredible journey. Working for the Hill-Smith family and their family business, and watching it grow into its fifth generation of ownership with Robert Hill-Smith, and now Jess Hill-Smith, the sixth generation, Rose said.

Its been amazing to see Jess come into the business. She tells the story that she remembers me always being here, and I certainly remember her as a very young girl riding around on her bicycle. To see her now as a confident woman in the wine industry in her own right is just amazing.

Rose sees herself as a custodian of the high standards of wine that Yalumba produces. Rather than aiming to make a personal mark on the wines, she says her role is to maintain the Yalumba philosophy around winemaking which has seen it remain successful over generations.

But that doesnt mean doing the same thing that the company has always done. Roses task is to help the wines remain relevant to consumers and their changing tastes.

Were not making wines the same way we were making them 25 years ago, and anybody that is still in business wouldnt be either. Its about evolution, Rose said.

For example, Rose talks about sustainability qualities and programs that have increased the biodiversity of the Yalumba vineyards, which plays into the end wines themselves.

Were not trying to put great big fingerprints all over the wines, but just let the vineyards and the terroir speak for itself. I think its about making sure that were getting the most out of the vineyards, Rose said.

Its in this task that Rose finds one of her favourite things about working in the wine industry, particularly at Yalumba no two days are the same.

One of the great things about Yalumba is that there is always opportunities to experiment. You always have the opportunity to improve wines or look at new styles, and that doesnt mean everything we do will become a new product, but it gives you a whole lots of information and knowledge you can use to improve what youre doing, Rose said.

A milestone year for Rose was 2006, when she became Chief Winemaker at Yalumba, and became responsible for much more of the bigger picture elements of the companys wine production and management.

Another defining moment of Roses career has been her time at the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) where she has been on the board for 12 years, and served as Chair from 2014 (this is her last year on the board).

Reflecting on it all, Rose said: I just look back and think, where did the last 30 years go?

But its not been one without challenges. Rose said a challenging aspect has been dealing with the power and responsibility of her role as she moved up the ranks.

Ive always been very conscious of having a responsibility for other people, their careers and their happiness, and I feel that responsibility quite acutely I think thats the thing Ive been most challenged by, because Im not sure you ever get it absolutely right, and the ramifications of getting it wrong could be quite huge, Rose said.

Although Rose doesnt think she has personally felt additional challenges because of her gender, in the past decade especially she has become more actively aware of the issues that women face in the industry, beyond the traditional thinking about the glass ceiling needing to be broken. For example, Rose has recognised that the industry isnt as flexible as it could be.

There are still very important issues in this industry that I havent experienced firsthand, but that Im very conscious that they still exist for many, Rose said.

As a whole, Rose believes that there is scope for a collective industry effort to be more welcoming of different circumstances, and this can help address some of the issues that women typically face in wine.

I think we need to be more flexible in how we support all of our people our winemaking team is about half and half, women and men, and the young fathers have the same challenges they want to spend time with their children, they want to take paternity leave. We need to as an industry become better with flexibility for everybody, Rose said.

I actually dont think now its so much about making sure that women have flexibility, but all people having the flexibility they need in their situation.

Rose noted one of the unexpected consequences of the pandemic has been to show how well flexible working conditions can actually work. Its important for everyone, at all levels of their career, to keep an open mind about this.

Roses advice for the next generation of winemaker is formed around this sentiment.

Did I ever think I would be a winemaker in South Australia? Never. Did I think I would only ever have worked for one business in my career so far? No. Dont trade off what you want to do, but have that open mind to take opportunities as they come and see where they go, Rose said.

Catch up on all the previous profiles from our Industry Women Spotlight series here.

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Louisa Rose on the importance of open minded evolution - The Shout