We must face facts - meat is the problem

[mspohr]

‘Incredibly intelligent, highly elusive’: US faces new threat from Canadian ‘super pig’

For decades, wild pigs have been antagonizing flora and fauna in the US: gobbling up crops, spreading disease, and even killing deer and elk. Now, as fears over the potential of the pig impact in the US grow, North America is also facing a new swine-related threat, as a Canadian “super pig”, a giant, “incredibly intelligent, highly elusive” beast capable of surviving cold climates by tunneling under snow, is poised to infiltrate the north of the country country.

The wild pigs are also responsible for a laundry list of environmental damages, ranging from eating innocent farmers’ crops to destroying trees and polluting water. They also pose “a human health and safety risk”, Marlow said. A pig is a “mixing vessel”, capable of carrying viruses, such as flu, which are transmittable to humans. National Geographic reported that pigs have the potential to “create a novel influenza virus”, which could spread to humankind.Brook and others are particularly troubled by the emergence of a “super pig”, created by farmers cross-breeding wild boar and domestic pigs in the 1980s. The result was a larger swine, which produced more meat, and was easier for people to shoot in Canadian hunting reserves.

 

[mspohr]

China’s Pig High-Rises Are Horrifying. So Are America’s Factory Farms.

Chinese pork facilities may seem dystopian—but the United States is where this whole trend got started.

newrepublic.com

This push for ubiquitous pork has come with a price, including the disruption of smallholder farming, widespread environmental degradation, and ever more frequent outbreaks of disease. Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, or PEDv—which spread to the United States in 2013, causing millions of pig deaths—as well as scores of variants on influenza, are endemic, regularly killing millions of animals and, in isolated cases, jumping to humans. And in 2019, China suffered a pig industry disaster when African swine fever tore through its farms, killing anywhere between 20 percent and 40 percent of the country’s pigs.

This comes with extensive externalities. Mass-scale hog production contributes to climate change through greenhouse gas emissions, including from the massive manure lagoons that store animals’ excrement. These pools also have a tendency to overflow, poisoning groundwater and killing off fish. Nor has the U.S. avoided animal disease, with outbreaks of PEDv and swine flu decimating pig populations. Meanwhile, the new meat barons run roughshod over American regulations and democracy, pushing for ag-gag laws that stifle whistleblowing, challenging public demands for improved animal welfare in court, stymying local democratic control over zoning, pushing for biogas projects to develop income streams for their methane-generating manure lagoons, strong-arming the government into keeping slaughterhouses open during Covid-19, and then denying workers and their families benefits and relying on legal exemptions to everything from child labor to bestiality laws to maximize their profits. The U.S. is, as a Food and Water Watch report bluntly puts it, a “factory farm nation.”

 

[legendsk]

To truly solve the problem, just have humans stop eating anything. That will quickly solve most of Earth's problems.

 

[mspohr]

Hemp: the green crop tied down by red tape in the US

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved hempseed and its meal and oil for human consumption. A variety of hemp snacks for pets are allowed on the market, because they don’t constitute the main part of the diet. But you can’t give hemp as feed to farm animals that produce eggs, meat and milk for sale, until tests prove it is safe and nutritious to pass along the food chain.

The type of hemp in question is not the flowery plant that yields CBD. The bamboo-like “industrial” variety processed by Elliott has greater potential to be a commodity. Its woody core, grain (seeds) and fiber have 25,000 uses. They include dietary ingredients, textiles, biofuel, bioplastics, mulch, lubricants, paints and construction materials. Industrial hemp is also a dream sustainable crop. It requires less water than similar plants and sequesters carbon. It can grow in nearly every climate, with up to two harvests a year. Hemp also regenerates the soil, absorbs toxic metals and it resists pests, mold and fire.

 

[mspohr]

The Salton Sea, an Accident of History, Faces a New Water Crisis https://nyti.ms/3Svu06A

Production of hay, an important crop in the Imperial Valley for use in cattle feed, might have to be reduced.
Ms. Shields said the cuts might be met by improving irrigation efficiency, which some of the valley’s farmers have already done, or by reducing the number of cuttings of hay and other forage crops. But the reductions are so large that some fallowing will probably be needed.
Human health has been affected, too. The retreating water has exposed huge expanses of lake bed, and with wind stirring up dust from them, air quality in the Imperial Valley is among the worst in the state. That’s led to a high incidence of childhood asthma and other respiratory illnesses among the valley’s 180,000 residents.

 

[NewbyMaybe]

One of the last laws passed by the roman empire abolished livestock fencing. Servant's gardens and ponds were wiped out, creeks contaminated.

 

[mspohr]

IKEA Looks to “Remove or Replace” Dairy to Meet 2030 Sustainability Goals

IKEA is advancing toward its goal of becoming a resource positive company by 2030 with an eye on more plant-based food.

vegnews.com

In addition to increased in-store options, IKEA is thinking about incorporating plant-based food in whole new ways. Last year, IKEA’s parent company Ingka Group announced it will open beef-free food halls. Called Saluhall, the meeting spaces will revolve around Nordic culture and locally sourced food with an initial menu that is 80-percent plant-based—with a goal of moving it toward 100 percent. These Saluhall concepts are planned for Changsha, China; Gurugram, India; and San Francisco, CA.

 

[mspohr]

Keto vs. vegan: Study of popular diets finds over fourfold difference in carbon footprints

For those on keto or paleo diets, this may be tough to swallow.

medicalxpress.com

A new study from Tulane University that compared popular diets on both nutritional quality and environmental impact found that the keto and paleo diets, as eaten by American adults, scored among the lowest on overall nutrition quality and were among the highest on carbon emissions. The keto diet, which prioritizes high amounts of fat and low amounts of carbs, was estimated to generate almost 3 kg of carbon dioxide for every 1,000 calories consumed. The paleo diet, which eschews grains and beans in favor of meats, nuts and vegetables, received the next lowest diet quality score and also had a high carbon footprint, at 2.6 kg of carbon dioxide per 1,000 calories.

On the other end of the spectrum, a vegan diet was found to be the least impactful on climate, generating 0.7 kg of carbon dioxide per 1,000 calories consumed, less than a quarter of the impact of the keto diet. The vegan diet was followed by vegetarian and pescatarian diets in increasing impact.

 

[mspohr]

The Wave of Food Companies ‘Quiet Quitting’ Meat and Dairy Has Begun

From supermarket chains Lidl and Tiv Taam to international companies such as Kraft Heinz, a growing number of food industry players are shifting away from meat and dairy.

vegnews.com

It is no secret that a shift toward plant-based foods is a smart way for global companies to slash their carbon footprints. And some have already begun to quietly quit meat and dairy to catalyze the shift. During Berlin’s Green Week in January, Germany’s budget supermarket chain Lidl—which operates 12,000 stores in 31 countries—announced it is deprioritizing animal products to fight the climate crisis.

In the fast food realm, Burger King has been not-so-quietly quitting animal products in recent years with global launches of everything from plant-based Whoppers to meatless chicken nuggets. In the United Kingdom—where it just added vegan bacon cheeseburgers to its menu—the fast-food chain aims for 50 percent of its menu to be entirely plant-based by 2030.

the Swedish furniture giant lays out all of its sustainability goals and achievements—which have included the development of plant-based meatballs, dairy-free soft serve, and more

 

[mspohr]

Revealed: 1,000 super-emitting methane leaks risk triggering climate tipping points

About 40% of human-caused methane emissions come from leaks from fossil fuel exploration, production and transportation. These rose by almost 50% between 2000 and 2019. Another 40% comes from agriculture, dominated by burping cattle, and 20% from rotting waste sites. All are forecast to rise.

 

[mspohr]

Global craze for collagen linked to Brazilian deforestation

Tens of thousands of cattle raised on farms that are damaging tropical forests in Brazil are being used to produce collagen – the active ingredient in health supplements at the centre of a global wellness craze. The links between beef and soya and deforestation in Brazil are well known, but little attention has been given to the booming collagen industry, worth an estimated $4bn (£3.32bn). Collagen can be extracted from fish, pigs and cattle. Its most evangelical users claim the protein can improve hair, skin, nails and joints, slowing the ageing process. As well as beauty and wellness brands, it is also used by pharmaceutical companies and those producing food ingredients.

 

[mspohr]

Another side effect of meat production.

The creeping threat of the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt

Visible from space, an explosion of harmful seaweed now stretches like a sea monster across the ocean. Could robots save us from it – and store carbon in the process?

www.theguardian.com

But one type of seaweed is not a benign force. Vast fields of sargassum, a brown seaweed, have bloomed in the Atlantic Ocean. Fed by human activity such as intensive soya farming in the Congo, the Amazon and the Mississippi, which dumps nitrogen and phosphorus into the ocean, the sargassum explosion is by far the biggest seaweed bloom on the planet. The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, as it’s known, is visible from space, stretching like a sea monster across the ocean, with its nose in the Gulf of Mexico and its tail in the mouth of the Congo.

There are so many climate-positive uses for seaweed, but then there are many different seaweeds in the ocean,” says Estridge. “No one could think of a commercially viable solution for sargassum.”

 

[mspohr]

Scientific Advances and Dietary Measures to Slow Down Aging

Gómez mentioned contrasting examples. "The Mediterranean diet has been shown in different studies to be associated with a lower cardiovascular risk (stroke, ischemic heart disease, dyslipidemia) and a lower risk of cognitive impairment, especially due to its vascular component." Eating nuts (eg, almonds, walnuts) is associated with a less dyslipidemia. A diet rich in fiber is also associated with less colonic digestive pathology, such as constipation and especially colon cancer. In addition, a diet low in fatty meats and rich in fruits and vegetables is associated with less prostate, breast, and colon disease. A diet with adequate protein intake is related to better muscle mass at all ages, and a diet rich in calcium products, such as nuts and dairy products, is linked to better bone mass and less osteoporosis and its consequences. "At the moment, there is no study that links any type of diet with greater longevity, although in view of these data, it seems logical that a Mediterranean diet rich in fruits, vegetables, vegetables with proteins of animal origin, preferably fish or white meat, avoiding excess red meat and its calcium component in the form of nuts and dairy products would be associated with better disease-free aging," said Gómez.

 

[mspohr]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/03/12/precision-cultivated-dairy/

Milk, cheese without the cow.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/03/12/precision-cultivated-dairy/

Milk, cheese without the cow.

This is discussing the dairy disruption that Tony Seba and his group has talked about, but a lot more focus on the end product. It's the cost of dairy protein ingredients that I think is the real bellwether. I hope companies are focused on that more than end product.

 

[JRP3]

This is great, cheese has always seemed like something that shouldn't be too difficult to recreate. It's all chemistry, starting inside the cow to create milk and then outside to transform it into cheese. No reason the same can't be done using different mechanisms. Some of the plant based cheeses have come very close but some are pretty bad. Mozzarella for example, I have not found a plant based version that's acceptable to me for pizza, and many vegan cheeses have little to no protein and a lot of coconut oil.

 

[mspohr]

This is discussing the dairy disruption that Tony Seba and his group has talked about, but a lot more focus on the end product. It's the cost of dairy protein ingredients that I think is the real bellwether. I hope companies are focused on that more than end product.

Yes. Another Tony Seba prediction comes true.

 

[mspohr]

‘A wake-up call’: total weight of wild mammals less than 10% of humanity’s

At the same time, the species we have domesticated, such as sheep and cattle, in addition to other hangers-on such as urban rodents, add a further 630m tonnes to the total mass of creatures that are now competing with wild mammals for Earth’s resources. The biomass of pigs alone is nearly double that of all wild land mammals.The figures demonstrate starkly that humanity’s transformation of the planet’s wildernesses and natural habitats into a vast global plantation is now well under way – with devastating consequences for its wild creatures. As the study authors emphasise, the idea that Earth is a planet that still possesses great plains and jungles that are teeming with wild animals is now seriously out of kilter with reality. The natural world and its wild animals are vanishing as humanity’s population of almost eight billion individuals continues to grow.

 

[K.I.T.T.23]

I love the stop eating meat argument. I would recommend "Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization" By Neil deGrasse Tyson, he has a chapter devoted to the subject, and brings up great points.

Until we can chemically produce food most vegan arguments are hypocritical.
So, which animals do we decide have the right to live? Who do we care about and where do we draw the line? is it brain size? legs? are insects ok? What about plants? If plants are ok, why? If they are ugly or cute, does that matter? Fish eat other fish, so is it ok to eat fish since they don't seem to mind? How about just not eating mammals, is that right?

If we look at planetary impact, the data is not as simple as meat is inefficient. For clarity: almost all of our food is GMO at some level so...
How do we manage our crops? Chicken is really efficient and quick, and considering transportation of plant material for consumption globally, a local chicken is immensely better on the environment, correct?

Also, health. Everyone's physiology is different. Meat is horrible for some, and good for others. Some do well with poultry, but not with red meat. Some only do well with vegetarian diets.

Bottom line is this: Objectively, an individual's diet should be determined by their own physiology, dietary needs, and what they subjectively feel is ethical. Until we are able to (in mass) create food in a lab and we genetically modify ourselves for such a world; eat a steak, local vegies, or exotic fruits... whichever you like! Enjoy

 

[mspohr]

Until we can chemically produce food most vegan arguments are hypocritical.

I don't understand your argument here. Are you saying that it's unethical to eat plants?

So, which animals do we decide have the right to live?

All of them.