We must face facts - meat is the problem

[mspohr]

Landmark decision on mega poultry farm could mean ‘life or death’ of River Wye

Welsh government considers whether to block plan after experts say manure from intensive units is turning Wye into ‘pea soup’

www.theguardian.com

The Welsh government is under pressure to block a new mega chicken farm in the Wye catchment, in what campaigners call a “crucial moment in the life or death of the Wye”. The River Wye has become synonymous with the intensive poultry industry, with more than 20 million chickens in its catchment area, producing more manure than the land can absorb and turning the river the colour of “pea soup”. A scientific study led by Lancaster University recommends an 80% reduction in poultry manure in the Wye catchment to protect the river, calling for a cut in the overall number of birds and the exporting of manure out of the area

 

[mspohr]

Brazil insurrection funded by agriculture elites (meat)

Brazilian Authorities Arrested the Rioters. Now They Are Arresting Security Officials. https://nyti.ms/3GAbbtL
https://nyti.ms/3GAbbtL
Both Mr. Dino and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have said that they believe prominent players in the country’s powerful agriculture industry, which largely backed Mr. Bolsonaro in the election, played a role. “These people were there today, the agribusiness,” Mr. Lula said after the attacks, adding that “all these people will be investigated, found out, and will be punished.”

 

[mspohr]

Diet and Carcinogenesis of Gastric Cancer

Processed foods, processed meats, red meat, alcohol, foods with high dietary fat, and dietary cholesterol increase the risk of gastric carcinogenesis. On the other hand, increased consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and a low-salt diet may offer a protective effect.

 

[mspohr]

NPR: 'Raw Deal' takes a hard look at the state of the American meat industry. https://www.npr.org/2023/01/11/1148...ok-at-the-state-of-the-american-meat-industry

The industry, she says, pollutes the environment, contributes to climate change and leaves the meat supply chain vulnerable to major disruptions. In a new book, she also explores meat substitutes that are gaining a following and considers whether they have the potential to change the industry and slow global warming. Chloe Sorvino leads coverage of food, drink and agriculture at Forbes. Her new book is "Raw Deal: Hidden Corruption, Corporate Greed, And The Fight For The Future Of Meat." Chloe Sorvino, welcome to FRESH AIR.

 

[mspohr]

Have we reached ‘peak meat’? Why one country is trying to limit its number of livestock

The Netherlands is first to face questions scientists believe will soon come to all intensively farmed areas: how can we balance the needs of the environment with the way we farm and grow? Have we reached “peak meat”, like peak oil: so much livestock, so much local pollution, that the only sustainable future is in reduction? They’re questions the US, the world’s largest producer of beef, will also soon have to answer.

The US, meanwhile, is the world’s largest producer of beef, chicken meat and cow’s milk, and is the second largest producer of pork. “If we compare foods in terms of their nutrient pollution impact per kilogram produced, nothing is higher than beef,” said Harwatt. “Two-thirds of all crop calories produced in the US are used for feed crops. But livestock production contributes less than 1% to US GDP, and at least twice as much food for humans could be produced on land currently used to grow feed crops for farmed animals.”

Animal farming has been linked to 17,900 US deaths a year from air-based pollution, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency says agricultural runoff is the leading cause of “water quality impacts to rivers and streams, the third leading source of lakes and the second largest source of impairments to wetlands”. One example is the Mississippi River.

 

[mspohr]

Here's another example of using yeast to make a common food... Palm Oil.

Lab-grown alternatives aim to cut palm oil dependence

Two biotech firms have developed oils made from yeast as a replacement for palm.

www.bbc.com

They grow a strain of yeast that naturally produces an oil with very similar properties to palm, which they harvest. The yeast is fed on sugars from sugar cane plants grown on land already used for arable farming.
MP is said to be hardy and not fussy what it eats. It can be fed on grass and food waste. And at the point of harvesting, its cells are full of oil.

This has just a few percent of the environmental impact of palm oil.

 

[mspohr]

Spy Cams Reveal the Grim Reality of Slaughterhouse Gas Chambers

Animal rights activists have captured the first hidden-camera video from inside a carbon dioxide “stunning chamber” in a US meatpacking plant.

www.wired.com

Direct Action Everywhere, or DxE, says its latest videos contradict claims from the animal agriculture industry and the Iceland-based gas chamber manufacturer Marel—which sold the system used in the Farmer John meatpacking plant—that CO2 asphyxiation of pigs improves animal welfare and reduces suffering. A group of 10 veterinarians who have seen DxE’s recordings have also signed an open letter to the American Veterinary Medicine Association, published today, that argues based on the footage that the chambers likely violate US state and federal law governing animal slaughter.

Deerbrook argues that her video of pigs squealing and fighting for air entirely contradicts any such claim. “It’s an incredibly cruel and inhumane way to kill,” she says, adding, “When you see cows shot in the head or chickens being cut open while they’re still conscious, it’s really bad. But they don’t scream.”

 

[mspohr]

‘Super-tipping points’ could trigger cascade of climate action

The third super-tipping point is helping alternative proteins to beat animal-based proteins on cost, while at least matching them on taste. Meat and dairy cause about 15% of global emissions. Public procurement of plant-based meat and dairy replacements by government departments, schools and hospitals could be a powerful lever, the report says.Increasing uptake would cut the emissions from cattle and reduce the destruction of forests for pasture land. A 20% market share by 2035 would mean 400m-800m hectares of land would no longer be needed for livestock and their fodder, equivalent to 7-15% of the world’s farmland today, the report estimated. That land could then be used for the restoration of forests and wildlife, removing CO2 from the air.

 

[mspohr]

First nuclear power then cow burps...

Bill Gates backs new startup aiming to reduce emissions from cow burps

Rumin8 is developing a range of supplements to feed to cows in order to reduce the amount of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, they belch out. The feed includes red seaweed and rangeland plants that replicate “nature’s anti-methanogenic compound” and cut methane output. Gaseous ruminants are not often thought of as significant causes of the climate crisis, unlike cars or power plants, but the hoofed beasts can belch out 220lb of methane a year, equivalent to burning 900 gallons of gasoline.

Combined, this endless procession of burps is a major contributor of methane, a gas that traps heat 80 times more effectively than carbon dioxide and is rising in emissions globally. A study last year found that the combined methane emissions of 15 of the world’s largest meat and dairy companies are higher than those of several of the world’s largest countries, including Russia, Canada and Australia.

 

[mspohr]

Food, feed and fuel: global seaweed industry could reduce land needed for farming by 110m hectares, study finds

One of the biggest benefits, the study said, would be the cultivation and use of red Asparagopsis as a cattle feed supplement that has been shown to result in drastically lower methane emissions from cows. One supplement based on the seaweed reportedly went on commercial sale to farmers in Australia last year. The study suggested cuts to methane emissions from using Asparagopsis could save 2.6bn tonnes of CO2-equivalent a year by 2050 – about the same as the current greenhouse gas footprint of India.

Basically this is just people eating more vegetables,” he said. “If we grow seaweed, the best thing to do is for people to eat it rather than feed it to livestock, but that’s going to need some big cultural shifts.”

 

[mspohr]

US dairy policies drive small farms to ‘get big or get out’ as monopolies get rich

Larger farms are less likely to graze their cattle, instead relying on purchased feed – the single largest source of greenhouse gases from industrialised agriculture. In addition, factory farms store manure in liquid form which encourages the release of methane – unlike field cattle whose manure decomposes with minimal emissions.
In recent years, as scientists have warned about the oversized role played by industrial farming in global heating, agribusinesses including dairy have looked towards unproven industry-led fixes like carbon offset markets and feed additives to lower the methane content in cow burps, rather than addressing the main problem, which is factory farming large herds.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Food, feed and fuel: global seaweed industry could reduce land needed for farming by 110m hectares, study finds

One of the biggest benefits, the study said, would be the cultivation and use of red Asparagopsis as a cattle feed supplement that has been shown to result in drastically lower methane emissions from cows. One supplement based on the seaweed reportedly went on commercial sale to farmers in Australia last year. The study suggested cuts to methane emissions from using Asparagopsis could save 2.6bn tonnes of CO2-equivalent a year by 2050 – about the same as the current greenhouse gas footprint of India.

Basically this is just people eating more vegetables,” he said. “If we grow seaweed, the best thing to do is for people to eat it rather than feed it to livestock, but that’s going to need some big cultural shifts.”

Mmm, seaweed.

 

[JRP3]

Mmm, seaweed.

Nori, Konbu, Wakame, all good.

 

[mspohr]

'Let them eat lentils' won't save us from animal farming – we must embrace meat substitutes | George Monbiot

here’s a question for all the sceptics. What do you intend to do about the soaring global demand for animal products, and its devastating impacts?

This issue is just as urgent, arguably even more so, as livestock farming attacks every Earth system. It’s the primary agent of habitat destruction and wildlife loss. It’s causing rivercide and dead zones at sea. It generates more greenhouse gas emissions than all the world’s transport. It sprawls across vast tracts of the planet, inflicting massive carbon and ecological opportunity costs. Both historically and currently, livestock farming is probably the world’s most powerful agent of colonial land grabbing and the displacement of Indigenous people. Meat is consuming the planet.

Substitutes for animal products can greatly reduce this damage. They can allow vast areas to be returned to dispossessed people and the ecosystems they defended.

 

[mspohr]

The Hill: Americans want farm subsidies to go to human food, not animal feed: survey. Americans want farm subsidies to go to human food, not animal feed: survey

But most federal subsidies don’t go to those foods. A report by Farm Action found that about 30 percent of American farm subsidies go to produce feed crops for dairy, eggs and meat.

Fruits, nuts and vegetables accounted for more than half of agricultural imports, the USDA’s Economic Research Service found. More significantly, table crops are becoming an ever-larger share of imports.

 

[mspohr]

‘We’re being invaded by pigs’: Spain’s pork revolution faces backlash

The proliferation of intensive farms has polarised rural Spain, pitting those who see the farms as a source of much-needed jobs against the more than 70 grassroots groups who oppose their rapid growth. “You can’t fill empty Spain with pigs,” says Antonio Escribano, a winemaker based in the village of Quintanar del Rey, who has for years been part of a grassroots group battling plans for a farm that would produce nearly 40,000 piglets a year. “Who would come and live in a village with polluted water, where one can’t open the window and breathe healthy air?”

 

[mspohr]

Food Not Feed Summit

The Food Not Feed Summit aims to establish an agenda of shifting federal farm programs toward fiber-rich foods and regeneratively raised livestock and poultry within a system that’s fair and equitable from seed to fork.

 

[mspohr]

‘A national scandal’: how US climate funding could make water pollution worse

But in its efforts to promote climate-friendly agriculture, it also promotes corn-fed ethanol refineries and manure-based energy production that could unintentionally supercharge fertilizer and fecal contamination.

 

[mspohr]

Great Salt Lake’s retreat poses a major fear: poisonous dust clouds

The largest salt lake in the western hemisphere risks ‘one of the worst environmental disasters’ as it faces the prospect of disappearing in just five years

www.theguardian.com

The terror comes from toxins laced in the vast exposed lake bed, such as arsenic, mercury and lead, being picked up by the wind to form poisonous clouds of dust that would swamp the lungs of people in nearby Salt Lake City, where air pollution is often already worse than that of Los Angeles, potentially provoking a myriad of respiratory and cancer-related problems.

but the Great Salt Lake is being parched by an antediluvian network of water rights for agriculture rather than thirsty newcomers. About three-quarters of the diverted water goes to growing crops, with the growing of alfalfa, a water-intensive crop that is turned into animal feed, the largest consumer. Just 9% of the diverted water goes to cities.

So, most of the water diverted from the lake goes to grow alfalfa to feed to cattle.

 

[mspohr]

Cattle, not coca, drive deforestation of the Amazon in Colombia – report

Cattle-ranching, not cocaine, has driven the destruction of the Colombian Amazon over the last four decades, a new study has found. Successive recent governments have used environmental concerns to justify ramping up their war on the green shrub, but the research shows that in 2018 the amount of forest cleared to cultivate coca, the base ingredient of cocaine, was only 1/60th of that used for cattle.