Meat eating and the flexitarianism
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If current rates of degradation continue all of the world’s top soil could be gone within 60 harvests, a senior UN official said. About a third of the world’s soil has already been degraded, Maria-Helena Semedo of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) told a forum marking World Soil Day.
Environment secretary, Michael Gove, warned that the country is 30 to 40 years away from “the fundamental eradication of soil fertility”. He added: “Countries can withstand coups d’état, wars and conflict, even leaving the EU, but no country can withstand the loss of its soil and fertility.”
A report revealed that excessive use of pesticides had depleted the Earth’s soil and contributed to a drastic decline in insect numbers that threatened a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems”.
The conservation agriculture movement he advocates means no ploughing or turning the soil, instead keeping the ground covered with crops all year round and growing a wide variety of plants.
The method involves more planning, but the benefits its advocates claim are remarkable – from plummeting costs on machinery and labour to a drastic reduction in fertiliser and chemicals. This in turn leads to a huge increase in insects, birds and wildlife, as well as fewer floods and more resilient crops during droughts. Healthy soil can also absorb massive amounts of greenhouse gas emissions – playing a key role in the drive to tackle climate breakdown and the biodiversity crisis.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) produced a report last year backing conservation agriculture as one method of replenishing degraded soils. It warned that a combination of industrial farming practices and poor land management have resulted in dangerous levels of soil erosion, compaction and declining fertility, which costs around £1.2bn a year in England and Wales
“Through conservation agriculture, farmers can reduce costs, use fewer chemicals and rebuild biological life in the soil, making it healthier, more resilient to extreme weather and able to support more wildlife. It’s win-win for farmers, the people they feed and the environment.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/24/farmers-save-earths-soil-conservation-agriculture
Vegan Capitalism
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48141428
The stock closed up 163% on the first day of trading, valuing the California company at close to $3.8bn. Beyond Meat’s shares were priced at $25 each at the start of trading, but touched $72 during the trading day before closing at $65.75.
https://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2019/04/meat-and-two-veg.html?m=1
My take on Veganism under capitalism
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/07/the-price-of-plenty-how-beef-changed-america
“…The Jungle’s heart-wrenching critique of industrial capitalism was lost on readers more worried about the rat faeces that, according to Sinclair, contaminated their sausage. Sinclair later observed: “I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.” He hoped for socialist revolution, but had to settle for accurate food labelling…”
The conventional meat industry raises billions of animals and turns over $1tn (£785bn) a year. However, the huge environmental impacts have been made plain in recent scientific studies, from the emissions driving the climate crisis to wild habitats destroyed for farmland and the pollution of rivers and oceans. Almost half the world’s crops are fed to livestock, but only 15% of the plant calories end up being eaten by humans as meat. In contrast, the report says, cultured meat and vegan meat replacements retain about three-quarters of their input calories.
Most of the meat people eat in 2040 will not come from slaughtered animals, according to a report that predicts 60% will be either grown in vats or replaced by plant-based products that look and taste like meat. 35% of all meat will be cultured in 2040 and 25% will be vegan replacements.
The report by the global consultancy AT Kearney, based on expert interviews, highlights the heavy environmental impacts of conventional meat production and the concerns people have about the welfare of animals under industrial farming.
“The large-scale livestock industry is viewed by many as an unnecessary evil,” the report says. “With the advantages of novel vegan meat replacements and cultured meat over conventionally produced meat, it is only a matter of time before they capture a substantial market share.”
“The shift towards flexitarian, vegetarian and vegan lifestyles is undeniable, with many consumers cutting down on their meat consumption as a result of becoming more conscious towards the environment and animal welfare,” said Carsten Gerhardt, a partner at AT Kearney. “For passionate meat-eaters, the predicted rise of cultured meat products means that they still get to enjoy the same diet they always have, but without the same environmental and animal cost attached.”
Increasing the amount of beef, lamb and sausages in your diet may shorten your life, new research claims.
Research published in the British Medical Journal suggests there is a link between changed eating habits – eating substantially more red meat and processed meat, such as bacon and ham – and a raised risk of dying early. Cutting back and eating more fish, chicken, vegetables and nuts appears to reduce the risk. The study was carried out by a team of researchers in the US and China, looking at the eating habits of about 54,000 women and 28,000 men over eight years and the death rates over the following eight years.
Increasing total red and processed meat intake by 3.5 servings a week or more over an eight-year period was associated with a 10% higher risk of death in the next eight years. Eating more processed meat raised the risk of early death higher than eating unprocessed red meat – 13% versus 9%. Cutting out one serving of red meat per day and eating fish instead reduced the risk of death in the next eight years by 17%.
“A change in protein source or eating healthy plant-based foods such as vegetables or whole grains can improve longevity.”
“We are not saying everybody should become vegetarian or vegan,” said the lead author, Frank B Hu of the Harvard TH Chan school of public health in Boston. “However, there is a significant benefit if you replace some of the red meat with plant-based foods.”
In the UK, about five women in 100 will die in the eight years after they are 60 and eight men in 100. If they all ate seven slices of bacon a week more between the ages of 52 and 60, “then about one more of the 100 women would die, and less than that – somewhere between 0 and one – more men would die. So in total somewhere between one and two extra deaths out of the 200 men and women.
Nutrition experts said the studies reinforced the warning that too much red and processed meat was not healthy.
Vandana Shiva critique of the food industry and the non-meat alternatives
Fake Food, Fake Meat: Big Food’s Desperate Attempt to Further the Industrialisation of Food
Not one of her best insights but useful reading nevertheless
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