New Data Show Higher Rates of Contamination in Pork Plants Under New Slaughter System
22 February
Food
Plants adopting the Trump-approved New Swine Inspection System had nearly double the rate of fecal and digestive matter contamination of other facilities. Juanmonino / Getty Images
By Brett Wilkins
New data released Friday revealed pigs slaughtered at plants piloting a controversial new system—which speeds production while replacing many government inspectors with slaughterhouse employees—had much higher rates of fecal and digestive matter contamination than animals processed in other plants, information that the Trump administration hid from the public while expanding the system.
<p>The consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch <a href="https://foodandwaterwatch.org/news/pilot-swine-slaughter-plants-self-inspection-rules" target="_blank">said in a statement</a> that from 2014 to 2017, pork processing plants implementing the New Swine Inspection System (NSIS) on a trial basis had, on average, "nearly double the violations than comparably sized plants outside the program" and "were almost twice as likely to be cited for contamination."</p><p>According to Food & Water Watch, the plant's higher rates of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) violations were for the agency's FS-2 food safety standard for fecal matter, digestive contents, and milk.</p>
<div id="3d1b9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a8b85539bdb4b59a69c715198e4bfd66"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1362824326123249665" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">“This new data should end this argument once and for all: Meat companies should not be left to police themselves to… https://t.co/ocjzYckRaR</div> — Food & Water Watch (@Food & Water Watch)<a href="https://twitter.com/foodandwater/statuses/1362824326123249665">1613757614.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"These substances can contain human pathogens, like potentially deadly <em>Salmonella</em>, which the agency has estimated is responsible for 69,000 people getting sick from eating pork each year," Food & Water Watch said. "Because of its seriousness, the agency has zero tolerance for FS-2 violations, meaning that no carcass contamination is acceptable."</p><p>"This new data should end this argument once and for all: Meat companies should not be left to police themselves to protect consumers from dirty and dangerous pork products," said Zach Corrigan, a senior attorney for Food & Water Watch, in a <a href="https://foodandwaterwatch.org/news/pilot-swine-slaughter-plants-self-inspection-rules" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">statement</a> Friday. </p><p>The new revelations follow 2018 <a href="https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2018-02-21/dirty-us-meat-could-come-over-here-after-brexit" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reporting</a>—based on documents obtained by Food & Water Watch—that plants piloting the NSIS were "rife with food safety violations," including "fecal contamination, sanitation issues, and failure to remove diseased carcasses from the food chain."</p><p>Despite this, the USDA adopted the NSIS last year as part of the Trump administration's <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/01/30/dangerous-and-dumb-trump-signs-executive-order-torching-regulations" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">aggressive</a>—and <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/14/deregulations-deadly-consequences-report-details-how-trumps-assault-government" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sometimes deadly</a>—deregulation and privatization agenda. The NSIS is supported by the North American Meat Institute, an industry lobby group that came under fire last year after <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/15/usda-and-meatpacking-industry-collaborated-undermine-covid-19-response-documents" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">revelations</a> that one of its draft executive orders on keeping meatpacking plants open during the coronavirus pandemic bore striking similarities to an actual directive signed by then-President Donald Trump.</p><p>Center for Food Safety staff attorney Ryan Talbott has <a href="https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/news/lawsuit-challenging-trump-dirty-swine-slaughter-rules-allowed-proceed-federal-court" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">called</a> the NSIS' lifting of production line speed limits and partial privatization of meat inspection by replacing USDA inspectors with plant workers "a recipe for disaster." </p><p>The coronavirus pandemic—which has <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/19/depraved-tyson-food-managers-accused-betting-how-many-their-workers-would-get-covid" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hit meat processing plants</a> particularly hard—has further increased risks, including the prospect of <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/06/food-safety-groups-warn-looming-zoonotic-pandemic-blast-usdas-new-slaughter-plant" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">new zoonotic diseases</a> that could be the source of the next pandemic. </p>
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<p>Worker safety is also a critical issue. The lifting of processing line speed limits, which had been <a href="https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/news/confirmed-usda-now-pursuing-privatized-beef-inspections" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">390 pigs per hour</a>, doesn't just mean more contamination—it has resulted in <a href="https://kfgo.com/2021/02/19/as-u-s-pork-plant-speeds-up-slaughtering-workers-report-more-injuries/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">more worker injuries</a>. </p><p>"Meatpacking is already one of the most dangerous industries for workers in America," said Deborah Berkowitz, worker safety and health program director at the National Employment Law Project, in a <a href="https://www.nelp.org/commentary/line-speeds-worker-safety-real-concerns/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">letter</a> last year. "Every day, tens of thousands of hog slaughter workers make the same repetitive motions, thousands upon thousands of times a day, using saws, hooks, and knives to slaughter and break down hogs into the pork steaks that we all buy and eat."</p><p>"The scientific evidence in the record for the NSIS is clear—the faster hog slaughter workers must do their tasks, the higher the risk of injury," added Berkowitz. </p><p>In a bid to mitigate risks, a group of Democratic lawmakers last year <a href="https://www.aspca.org/news/bill-introduced-protect-farm-animals-food-workers-and-consumers-during-covid-19" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">introduced</a> the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/7521/text" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Safe Line Speeds in Covid-19 Act</a>, which would prohibit high-speed slaughter systems such as the NSIS from operating during the pandemic. </p><p>Last year, Food & Water Watch <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/13/recipe-disaster-consumer-safety-groups-sue-usda-over-trumps-effort-privatize" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sued</a> the USDA over the NSIS, calling it "a draconian reversal to the swine slaughter inspection system that has existed in the United States since 1906." Earlier this month, a federal court <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2021/02/05/lawsuit-challenging-trumps-dirty-swine-slaughter-rules-allowed-proceed-federal" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ruled</a> that the lawsuit could proceed.</p><p>"Were the Biden administration to continue defending [the NSIS] in court, it would be to support exposing consumers to more pork contaminated with potentially pathogenic fecal matter and other contaminants," said Corrigan. </p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/19/dirty-and-dangerous-new-data-show-higher-rates-contamination-pork-plants-using-new" target="_blank">Common Dreams.</a></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Switching en masse to a plant-based diet is essential to protect wildlife habitats and prevent the loss of numerous species, a new report concludes. Milan Krasula / iStock / Getty Images Plus
By Johnny Wood
Switching en masse to a plant-based diet is essential to protect wildlife habitats and prevent the loss of numerous species currently facing extinction, according to a new report.
<p>At the root of the problem is cheap food. While cut-priced comestibles may seem like a good thing, especially for low-income households, market pressure to continually reduce food production costs forces many farmers to adopt unsustainable, intensive methods that harm the land and overuse valuable resources like energy, land and water.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/02/food-system-impacts-biodiversity-loss" target="_blank">study by researchers at UK think tank Chatham House</a>, supported by the United Nations (UN) Environment Programme, notes that the race to lower prices increases food waste and degrades soils and ecosystems, making available land less productive.</p>
<p>As more forests and wild lands are cleared to grow crops and raise livestock, the feeding, breeding and living habitats of numerous species also disappear. Unless we change what we eat and how it is produced, the report says, the <a href="https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/our-global-food-system-primary-driver-biodiversity-loss" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">planet's ability to support humans</a> could come under threat.</p>
<div id="94e38" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="daa6e9aba5d11504ec23fb70522e6636"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1358824915512692737" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">New @UNEP, @ChathamHouse & @ciwf report on #food systems impacts on #biodiversity loss proposes 3 actions… https://t.co/T80QkoPdak</div> — ipbes (@ipbes)<a href="https://twitter.com/IPBES/statuses/1358824915512692737">1612804080.0</a></blockquote></div>
<h3>Gut Instinct</h3><p>During the past half century, conversion of natural wild land for crop production or animal pasture has been the principle cause of habitat and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity">biodiversity</a> loss, the report, called <em>Food System Impacts on Biodiversity Loss</em>, says. <a href="https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/02/food-system-impacts-biodiversity-loss" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Agriculture poses a threat</a> to 24,000 of the 28,000 species documented as at risk of extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).<br><br>But what happens next to the world's endangered <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife">wildlife</a> populations rests in human hands, and the rise in popularity of plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy products offers hope for the future.</p>
<p>Rearing crops in place of animals uses land and other scarce resources more efficiently, the report notes. While raising livestock adds to greenhouse gas emissions, switching to plant-based foods would free up grazing land that could be used for other purposes. A global switch to a predominantly plant-based diet would boost dietary health, help reduce food waste and eliminate the need to keep clearing new land for grazing. Switching the global population's diet to plant-based foods, for example, <a href="https://www.weforum.org/videos/scientists-say-plant-based-diets-are-essential-to-save-the-planet" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">would free up 75% of the world's cropland for other uses</a>.<br><br>Alongside changing dietary behavior, the report recommends protecting and setting aside more land for nature, avoiding converting it for agriculture. As well as preserving wildlife habitats from being destroyed, forests and wilded land serve as a natural carbon store absorbing pollution from the atmosphere, which helps counter the impact of the climate crisis.<br><br>Today's high-intensity chemical-reliant farming methods must be replaced by nature-friendly practices that support biodiversity and value <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sustainability">sustainability</a> over ever lower farm door prices.<br><br>It's important to note that the report is advocating a dramatic reduction in meat intake rather than replacing meat with plant-based foods. And, as the World Bank says, livestock <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/agriculture/brief/moving-towards-sustainability-the-livestock-sector-and-the-world-bank" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">farming supports the livelihoods</a> and food security of almost 1.3 billion people. The Chatham House report says incentivizing more diverse agriculture could lead to more resilient farmer livelihoods.</p>
<h3>Planting the Seeds of Change</h3><p>Despite the compelling arguments for moving to plant-heavy diets, persuading the global population to abandon its love of meat will be no easy task. Around 80 billion animals are killed for their meat each year, UN figures show.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY2MTM3NC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNTY5NzA4OX0.azR9yOzQk_VvXHzZmEGfK7z3qHeuCDbMIuvMTWah-vM/img.png?width=980" id="32e03" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="15e045131acf20171ea0de81246fd47c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1600" data-height="1044" />
<p>In 2018, almost 70 billion chickens, 1.5 billion pigs and more than 300 million cattle were slaughtered to serve our love of meat.<br><br>In general, meat consumption increases as incomes rise – so the richer the country, the more meat is consumed, according to figures from the UN and the World Bank.<br><br>But for some the role of meat is beginning to change as awareness grows of the health benefits of plant-based foods and the impact of business-as-usual farming on the environment.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY2MTM3NS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MzUxNDc5OH0.fVJF6CYGqF7hLyyRowomgANGW4FSEAANmaba9LWRk9w/img.png?width=980" id="4e108" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5eb010d744c747b959c9f69e1ce60d6b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1538" data-height="710" />
<p>The U.S. plant-based food market was worth more than $5 billion in 2019, up 11% on the previous year and 29% over two years. Sales of plant-based meat substitutes increased by 18% year-on-year.</p><p><a href="https://www.meticulousresearch.com/product/plant-based-food-products-market-5108" target="_blank">Demand for plant-based foods</a> could see annual growth of almost 12%, reaching a market value of more than $74 billion by 2027, according to a Meticulous Research forecast. While plant-based demand is increasing in most global markets, takeup in Asia-Pacific is expected to outstrip other regional markets.</p><p>Changing consumer aspirations and a growing appetite among investors to back plant-based ventures are among the drivers of global plant-based market growth, the research showed. How far, how fast and how much demand for plant-based foods increases in the coming years remains to be seen, but the future of myriad species depends on it happening quick enough.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/02/plant-based-diet-biodiversity-report/" target="_blank">World Economic Forum</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Like many other plant-based foods and products, CBD oil is one dietary supplement where "organic" labels are very important to consumers. However, there are little to no regulations within the hemp industry when it comes to deeming a product as organic, which makes it increasingly difficult for shoppers to find the best CBD oil products available on the market.
<p>Here you can learn about the importance of organic hemp oil, why it's better for the environment, and which CBD companies actually make trustworthy products with sustainable farming processes. origins which weigh heavily on many consumers who want to buy a product that's produced in the best way possible for not only themselves to ingest, but for the environment as well through sustainable farming methods. </p><h2>What Is CBD Oil?</h2><p>First things first, CBD stands for cannabidiol, and it's a cannabinoid found within cannabis sativa plants. This plant compound is believed to have many potential benefits, and it is primarily derived from hemp plants via a CO2 extraction process. </p><p>Since CBD is extracted from industrial hemp, which contains only trace amounts of THC (the psychoactive component in cannabis plants), this means that CBD won't make you feel high like marijuana, which has much higher levels of THC that causes psychoactive effects. Instead, the effects of CBD are much more subtle and promote a general sense of calm and relaxation in most users.</p><h2>What Makes a CBD Oil Organic?</h2><p>In terms of organic labels, perhaps the most important (and prominent) certification comes from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This government organization has been labeling foods as "organic" for many years, but what exactly does this certification entail? Essentially, a label indicating that a product is "USDA Organic" or "Certified Organic" means that at least 95% of the ingredients are obtained from organic sources.</p><p>For a crop to be considered organic by the USDA, it must be grown without the use of industrial solvents, irradiation, genetic engineering (GMOs), synthetic pesticides, or chemical fertilizer. Instead, farmers rely on natural substances and <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/03/22/organic-101-what-usda-organic-label-means" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mechanical, physical, or biologically based farming</a> techniques to cultivate healthy and organic crops.</p><p>Before the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, no hemp-derived products could be dubbed as "certified organic" since the hemp plant and its extracts were still categorized as a Schedule I Controlled Substance. However, it's still difficult for CBD companies to obtain a USDA certified organic label for their products due to the legal grey area that still surrounds CBD extracts. </p><p>Because of these challenges, and due to the fact that industrial hemp has only recently become an agricultural crop, very few CBD oils are USDA certified organic. Rather, many CBD products contain hemp extracts from plants that were grown in organic conditions but may not be federally certified.</p><h2>What are the Best Organic CBD Oil Brands?</h2><p><em>Each product featured here has been independently selected by the writer. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.</em></p><em><br></em>
<h2>Why Organic Hemp Oil Matters</h2><p>Hemp is a unique plant, not only for its rich cannabinoid content, but also for its ability to absorb a wide variety of components in soil. But this trait poses great risks when it comes to the creation of CBD products derived from hemp.</p><p>Because hemp has a high capacity for compound uptake, this means that the plants can retain <a href="https://www.remedyreview.com/industry/lab-test-results/" target="_blank">harmful chemicals like pesticides</a>, heavy metals, and other residual solvents. This is especially true when it comes to synthetic chemicals that are more toxic to humans, and difficult to remove once they have been absorbed by the hemp plant.</p><p>Organic farming practices help reduce the risk of hemp crops absorbing harsh chemicals that may later end up in CBD oil after extraction. When you're taking CBD as a wellness supplement to help alleviate your symptoms or improve your overall well-being, the last thing you want is to ingest compounds that might negatively outweigh the benefits of CBD. This is an important reason to look for third party lab test results when shopping for CBD products since these certificates of analysis can show the full cannabinoid and terpene profile of a hemp extract, as well as test results that search for the presence of any residual solvents.</p><p>In addition to creating a better end product, organic farming practices are also better for the environment. Sustainable and organic farming methods may <a href="https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/organic-foods.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reduce pollution, conserve water, reduce soil erosion, increase soil fertility, and use less energy</a>. The use of natural pest deterrents as opposed to chemical pesticides is also better for nearby animal populations and ecosystems.</p><h3>Organic vs. Natural</h3><p>While there are only a select few companies offering certified organic ingredients in their products, almost every brand in the CBD market creates "natural" products. The term "all-natural" or "plant-based" does not mean that a product is organic, and since hemp oil is a natural derivative of hemp plants, these products are often referred to as all-natural. However, there are some synthetic CBD oils that should be avoided because they are chemically constructed and may produce unwanted side effects that are not caused by naturally derived CBD extracts.</p><h2>What are the Benefits of Organic CBD Oil?</h2><p>There's a long list of potential CBD oil health benefits, and some of the most common wellness advantages include:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2503660/" target="_blank">Chronic pain relief</a></li><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4604171/" target="_blank">Anti-anxiety effects</a></li><li>Better sleep</li><li><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inner-source/201901/cbd-oil-mental-health-should-you-take-it-too" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Improvements in mood</a></li><li>Internal balance and regulation</li></ul><p>When dealing with pain, inflammation, sleep issues, and mental health struggles, it can be hard to find sufficient treatment options. The use of certain prescriptions can cause unwanted side effects, yet they are often the only solution for patients with these medical conditions. In search of other therapies, people have started to flock towards CBD oil as an alternative remedy for a variety of conditions. However, it should be noted that CBD products are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and you should seek your doctor's advice before using CBD if you have a serious medical condition.</p><h2>Look at the Labels Before You Buy CBD Oil</h2><p>When you go online to buy CBD oil, you'll quickly realize there is an overwhelming number of brands that are saturating the market. It can be difficult to determine which products are truly as good as they make themselves out to be. Always look for up-to-date third-party lab tests so you know you are getting a great product, and don't hesitate to contact the brand if you have any additional questions. And if you're intent on purchasing 100% organic CBD oil, it's best to look for certified products or brands that are held to strict regulatory standards.</p><p><strong>Melena Gurganus </strong>is the Reviews Editor at EcoWatch. She is passionate health and wellness and her writing aims to help others find products they can trust. Her work has been featured in publications such as Health, Shape, Huffington Post, Cannabis Business Times, and Bustle.<br></p>
Spruce
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjI3OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTM2NzgzOX0.axY0HjeqRctJsR_KmDLctzDpUBLBN-oNIdqaXDb4caQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="774be" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8379f35b1ca8a86d0e61b7d4bfc8b46e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="spruce organic cbd oil" data-width="710" data-height="959" /><p>As one of the best brands in the business, Spruce CBD is well-known for its potent CBD oils that feature many additional beneficial phytocannabinoids. This brand works with two family-owned, sustainably focused farms in the USA (one located in Kentucky and one in North Carolina) to create its organic, small product batches. The max potency Spruce CBD oil contains 2400mg of full-spectrum CBD extract, but the brand also offers a lower strength tincture with 750mg of CBD in total.</p>
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CBDistillery
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FAB CBD
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NuLeaf Naturals
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Charlotte's Web
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjk3NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MzQ0NjM4N30.SaQ85SK10-MWjN3PwHo2RqpiUBdjhD0IRnHKTqKaU7Q/img.jpg?width=980" id="84700" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a2174067dcc0c4094be25b3472ce08c8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="charlottes web cbd oil" data-width="1244" data-height="1244" /><p>Perhaps one of the most well-known brands in the CBD landscape, Charlotte's Web has been growing sustainable hemp plants for several years. The company is currently in the process of achieving official USDA Organic Certification, but it already practices organic and sustainable cultivation techniques to enhance the overall health of the soil and the hemp plants themselves, which creates some of the highest quality CBD extracts. Charlotte's Web offers CBD oils in a range of different concentration options, and some even come in a few flavor options such as chocolate mint, orange blossom, and lemon twist.</p>
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A Beyond Meat burger. Mairo Cinquetti / NurPhoto via Getty Images
Bill Gates is out with a new book on how to solve the climate crisis. How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: the Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need follows his general history of emphasizing technological innovation over policy changes. But, in an interview promoting the new book, he did propose one dramatic behavioral change: People living in wealthier countries should switch to plant-based meat alternatives.
<p>"I do think all rich countries should move to 100% synthetic beef," Gates told the <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/02/14/1018296/bill-gates-climate-change-beef-trees-microsoft/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">MIT Technology Review Sunday</a>. "You can get used to the taste difference, and the claim is they're going to make it taste even better over time."</p><p>In the interview, Gates gave shoutouts to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/beyond-meat" target="_self">Beyond</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/impossible-burger" target="_self">Impossible</a>, two companies that have made headlines with their plant-based burger alternatives in recent years. (He is, in fact, an investor in both, the article noted.) While these meat alternatives currently represent less than 1 percent of the meat in the world, they have quality and cost roadmaps that make them competitive, he said.</p>
<p>On the other hand, he did not think that lab-grown alternatives like Memphis Meats, in which he also invests, were likely to be economically viable on a wide scale.</p><p>In the interview, Gates did not think that poorer nations would have to give up beef. In Africa, he said, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation focuses on lowering the emissions per cow using genetics.</p><p>"Weirdly, the US livestock, because they're so productive, the emissions per pound of beef are dramatically less than emissions per pound in Africa. And as part of the [Bill and Melinda Gates] Foundation's work, we're taking the benefit of the African livestock, which means they can survive in heat, and <a href="https://futurism.com/bill-gates-working-geneticists-create-perfect-cow" target="_blank">crossing in the monstrous productivity</a> both on the meat side and the milk side of the elite US beef lines," he said.</p>
<p>His ideas may be a hard sell, however. The claim that the Green New Deal would force U.S. residents to give up hamburgers has been a major right-wing talking point, as <a href="https://time.com/5583986/green-new-deal-beef-history/" target="_blank">TIME noted in 2019</a>.</p><p>However, Gates thought a shift to plant-based meat was possible over time.</p><p>"Eventually, that green premium is modest enough that you can sort of change the [behavior of] people or use regulation to totally shift the demand," he said in the interview.</p><p><a href="https://www.veganfoodandliving.com/news/bill-gates-plant-based-beef-climate-change/#:~:text=Entrepreneur%20Bill%20Gates%20has%20commented,beef%E2%80%9D%20to%20mitigate%20climate%20change." target="_blank">Food & Living Vegan</a> opined that his argument made sense from a climate perspective.</p><p>"<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/21/worlds-richest-1-cause-double-co2-emissions-of-poorest-50-says-oxfam" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Oxfam revealed</a> that the richest 1% is responsible for double the carbon emissions as the poorest 50%, therefore even if it is just wealthy nations switching to lab-grown or synthetic meat, this will have a huge impact," the magazine wrote. </p>
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Eat Just's cell-based chicken nugget is now served at Singapore restaurant 1880. Eat Just, Inc.
At a time of impending global food scarcity, cell-based meats and seafood have been heralded as the future of food.
<p>This cell-based industry is where scientists, environmentalists and food technology companies intersect to offer more sustainable ways to feed the world's growing population. The high-tech food innovations take "the animal out of the meat" and create "seafood without the sea," respectively coined by <a href="https://newatlas.com/lab-grown-meat-public-attitudes/48921/?itm_source=newatlas&itm_medium=article-body" target="_blank">New Atlas</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/05/05/720041152/seafood-without-the-sea-will-lab-grown-fish-hook-consumers" target="_blank">NPR</a>. These products — real meat and seafood — are originally cultured from animal cells but made without the actual animal. Because of this, many of the personal and global concerns about safety, ethics and the environment can be avoided without sacrificing food preferences.</p><p>Two leading industry examples are Eat Just and BlueNalu. Last month, Singapore issued San Francisco-based Eat Just the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/lab-grown-chicken-approved-singapore-2649108790.html" target="_self">world's first regulatory approval for cell-based meat</a>. The "chicken nuggets" are now available at downtown Singapore restaurant 1880. Meanwhile, San Diego's BlueNalu has pioneered "cellular aquaculture" to create cell-based seafood fillets from fish, including yellowtail, mahi-mahi, red snapper and tuna. In mid-2020, the company increased its research and development facilities six-fold after completing a $20 million funding round, <a href="https://thefishsite.com/articles/blue-nalu-set-for-6-fold-expansion" target="_blank">The Fish Site</a> reported. These two companies are pushing the industry to the next level with key regulatory developments and new innovations.</p><h3>The Science Behind Cell-Based</h3><p>In a nutshell, this is how cell-based food works: muscle stem cells are obtained from an actual animal, like chicken or fish, and cultivated in steel tanks with the same nutrients that living animals consume. The goal is not to grow a full animal, so the end result doesn't include the head, tail or heart, for example, while the original cell donor isn't sacrificed. The harvested cells multiply and are shaped to form meat or fish that cooks, looks and tastes just like its real counterpart.</p><p>"The process is somewhat like culturing a beer. At the end of the process, you have chicken meat," Eat Just CEO Josh Tetrick told <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2021-01-11/would-you-eat-lab-grown-meat-video" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a>.</p><p>BlueNalu's President and CEO Lou Cooperhouse agreed, telling EcoWatch, "We aren't making a living being, it's just a fish fillet. It's live tissue until we freeze it. Then it's no longer live; it's the product you might have and consume every day."</p>
<h3>The Taste</h3><p>But how does it really taste? Identical to what consumers are used to, both companies told EcoWatch.</p><p>Cooperhouse described how his company mimics the "mouth feel" of conventional fish by recreating the same proportions of muscle, fat and connective tissue in their cell-based fillets. The company uses starter cells to grow all three types of tissue and then combines them to create the same exact product that consumers are used to eating.</p><p>"We're creating identical mahi-mahi to conventional mahi-mahi, from a sensory perspective and a functional perspective," Cooperhouse told EcoWatch. "When you cook it, it smells like fish. You can fry it, bake it, saute it. It caramelizes. It has all the same characteristics as fish, because it is fish. We just made it out of the body. We made it in steel tanks."</p><p>Andrew Noyes, head of global communications for Eat Just, similarly said that their chicken product "cooks, looks and tastes like chicken," including the flavor profile and texture, "because it is chicken."</p>
<h3>The Many Advantages of Cultured Foods</h3><p>Both companies emphasized how cell-based foods don't require killing animals or adding growth hormones or antibiotics. Cell-based food also removes the environmental impact of industrial farming and commercial fishing. This "critical overlay of benefits at every level" creates a new solution for global supply chains that supports biodiversity and the planet's health, Cooperhouse said.</p><p>"We want consumers to know our fillets are different in these ways," Cooperhouse added. "They're not wild, not farmed." On a <a href="https://medium.com/eat-blue/not-wild-not-farmed-but-what-should-we-call-our-seafood-made-from-fish-cells-136fa0343b4d" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">company blog</a>, Cooperhouse said that BlueNalu's products are a third alternative way to enjoy fish that is "as delicious and nutritious as their wild-caught or farm-raised counterparts... but without the mercury, microplastics or other pollutants that might be associated with conventional seafood."</p><p>Tetrick also emphasized the safety advantage of cultured meat over conventional. "This way of making meat radically decreases the probability of zoonotic diseases through our food system," he told Bloomberg, because it avoided pathogens like E. coli and salmonella, as well as sanitization concerns.</p><p>The environmental benefits of cell-cultured meat also mean less environmental destruction. Conventional <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/meat-consumption" target="_self">meat production</a> requires massive amounts of land for grazing and food production. Just growing feed for livestock <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/meat-consumption-2021-2649770271.html">uses 71 percent of global arable land</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-collapse-2649776959.html#:~:text=The%20future%20of%20the%20world's,dry%2C%20shrubby%20plain%20by%202064." target="_self">drives Amazonian deforestation</a>.</p>
<p>"Chicken is the world's most consumed (and fastest growing) meat," Noyes told EcoWatch. "Chickens also consume more feed collectively than other farmed animals. Today, more than one-third of the ice-free land on Earth and tens of millions of acres of rainforest teeming with our planet's most diverse life forms have been replaced with fields of chicken feed."</p><p>According to the <a href="http://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/I9540EN" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations</a>, 60 percent of the world's fisheries are fully fished, or at maximum output capacity, and 33 percent are overfished. Additionally, in the last half-century, oceanic <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/dead-zones" target="_self">dead zones</a> have quadrupled due to fishing and the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>, reported <a href="https://bigthink.com/technology-innovation/lab-grown-fish?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Big Think</a>. <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fish-farms" target="_self">Fish farming</a>, once thought to be a solution to declining wild fish populations, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/industrial-agriculture-problems-boycott-2554509022.html" target="_self">brings its own issues</a>, including the loss of critical mangrove habitat and the proliferation of sea lice and other diseases from farms, which escape and kill wild fish, <a href="https://www.seafoodwatch.org/seafood-basics/sustainable-solutions/preserve-habitats#:~:text=The%20exponential%20growth%20of%20aquaculture,the%20local%20people%20and%20ecosystems." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Seafood Watch</a> reported.</p><p>Cell-based seafood won't put pressure on these depleted stocks and fragile habitats and will also avoid bycatch, a serious threat to biodiversity when unintentionally fished creatures are injured or killed.</p><p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/beef-and-climate-change-2634244134.html" target="_blank">Meat production</a> is also energy-intensive and generates vast amounts of methane and other greenhouse gases. Cell-based foods are more carbon efficient and climate-friendly than conventional meat and seafood because of production efficiency and a localized distribution plan.</p><p>"If you look at climate change, this way of making meat is 90 percent more carbon-efficient than the typical approach," Tetrick told Bloomberg.</p><p>BlueNalu is preparing to scale for global cities to house 150,000-square-foot facilities, each capable of producing enough cell-based seafood to feed more than 10 million local residents, NPR reported. This way, cell-based seafood will avoid greenhouse gas emissions caused by shipping.</p>
<p>Finally, waste is reduced because these companies are only growing the animal parts to be consumed. Traditionally, cattle are inefficient, requiring five to 20 pounds of plant-based feed to create one pound of conventional beef, <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/beyond-the-impossible-meat-grown-from-cells-better-for-planet-if-you-will-eat-it/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNet</a> reported. <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lab-grown-meat/" target="_blank">Scientific American</a> estimated that one tissue sample from a cow could yield enough muscle tissue to make 80,000 quarter-pounders.<br></p><p>Cooperhouse estimated that a typical fish would produce a 60 percent yield after cutting off the head and tail and removing the skin and bones, whereas his fillets yield 100 percent.</p><p>"It's a total paradigm shift from an environmental and sustainability perspective," he told EcoWatch. "All that freight, oil, labor, dry ice, foam coolers — all goes away."</p><p>The consistency of quality, readily available products has also garnered interest from foodservice operators, Cooperhouse said. Having a stable supply available year-round will help restaurants combat the variability they currently experience.</p>
<h3>Challenges</h3><p>The big question is whether or not the general public will eat the products, once available.</p><p>"If there's an ick factor to cell-based fish, remember that most processed foods are already created in laboratories," argued Big Think. "There are no Oreo trees or ketchup plants to harvest."</p><p>A University of Queensland survey found that a majority of respondents would try the products, but less would eat them regularly or see them as conventional meat replacements, <a href="https://newatlas.com/lab-grown-meat-public-attitudes/48921/?itm_source=newatlas&itm_medium=article-body" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">New Atlas</a> reported. Respondents reported that taste would be a driving factor in favor of cell-based foods.</p><p>Cost is the other issue. For Eat Just, their products are competitively priced with premium chicken, although they foresee a pathway for a cheaper price within the next five years, Tetrick told Bloomberg. BlueNalu doesn't yet have a price point for their inaugural mahi-mahi fillet, but are aggressively partnering with known brands and distributors to lower costs.</p><h3>What's Next</h3><p>Singapore's approval of Eat Just's nugget is paving the way for other companies and nations to follow suit, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/02/no-kill-lab-grown-meat-to-go-on-sale-for-first-time" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>. Both Eat Just and BlueNalu are actively engaging regulators in the U.S. and other countries to bring their products online as quickly and safely as possible. Since the products are not genetically modified, "the approval will be about whether this is safe, clean, and are the manufacturing processes reliable and accountable," Cooperhouse told NPR.</p><p>While not a substitute for all conventional food, if cell-based meats and seafood are scaled up and accepted, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/meat-consumption-predictions-vegan-lab-2638801931.html" target="_self">many hope to feed the world's anticipated 9.5 billion people</a> without stripping the planet bare and ruining the climate.</p><p>"The simplest way to think about it is it allows all of us to consume meat, the good part, the nutritional composition, the taste, and do away with the bad part, which is the killing, the environmental deforestation, the acceleration of zoonotic disease, and we can still have a fried chicken," Tetrick told Bloomberg.</p>
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Morning breaks over Smithfield Market, one of London's busiest Meat suppliers as an Extinction Rebellion environmental activist offshoot Animal Rebellion wake up after a night occupying the space which is usually open from 2 a.m. - 8 a.m. to supply London's wholesale food industries on Oct. 8, 2019 in London. Ollie Millington / Getty Images
"Industrial meat production is not only responsible for precarious working conditions, it also pushes people off their land, leads to deforestation, biodiversity loss and the use of pesticides — and is also one of the main drivers of the climate crisis."
Such were the words of Barbara Unmüssig of green think tank, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, at the Berlin presentation of the so-called "Meat Atlas 2021."
<p>Across 50 pages, the atlas — which is collaboratively published by the foundation, Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND) and the international monthly newspaper Le Monde diplomatique — outlines trends and the implications of global meat production on both human and planetary health. </p><p>It highlights, for example, how the over-use of antibiotics in <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/the-conditions-are-catastrophic-inside-germanys-factory-farms-on-the-green-fence/a-55349478" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">intensive animal farming</a> is leading to increasingly resistant germs, thereby threatening the effectiveness of drugs used for humans.</p><p>Similarly, the clearing of forests for animal feed is held up as a threat to human health. As habitat loss brings animals and humans into closer proximity with one another, <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-pandemic-linked-to-destruction-of-wildlife-and-worlds-ecosystems/a-53078480" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">viruses can be transmitted more easily</a>. This, in turn, can lead to new <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/after-coronavirus-our-relationship-with-meat-and-the-next-pandemic/a-55594449" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">pandemics</a>. </p><p>In a survey for the report, young people between the ages of 15 and 29 were asked about their thoughts on meat. The majority said they rejected the meat industry in its current form.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTI2MTI2My9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NDQ2NDg4Mn0.qN_OXydVYlh8UK0xFUW6LY5uEnreJtVEBX9y1AAdCzM/img.png?width=980" id="49a82" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a3dc0e46513e0db25cc4853f1199cc06" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1920" data-height="1738" />
Germany Plays Leading Role in the Meat Industry
<p><span>Olaf Bandt, chairman of BUND, says policymakers must take account of society's desire to </span><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/can-you-be-a-good-christian-and-eat-meat/a-55410685" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">restructure the sector</a><span>. "This requires far-reaching political realignment of agricultural policy," he said. "But there can be no agricultural transition without a food transition."</span></p><p>Bandt describes Germany as a key player in the production of pork and milk, with a 20% share of the EU market. </p><p>"Huge amounts of meat are exported," he said, adding that this reliance on international markets is having a detrimental effect on the environment, livestock and farms. "More and more animals live on ever fewer farms, further exacerbating the pollution of groundwater in those regions." </p>Meat Devours Rainforest
<p>Global population and economic growth are the drivers behind increasing demand for meat. In 1960, the planet was home to just 3 billion people and, according to the report, meat consumption at that time was around 70 million metric tons. That equated to an annual per capita global average of 23 kilograms.</p><p><span></span>By 2018, however, when the population had grown to 7.6 billion people, meat consumption had risen seven-fold to around 350 million metric tons — or a global average of 46 kilograms per person annually.</p><p>A key problem with this trend is that <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/eating-meat-is-no-longer-a-private-matter/a-55515722" target="_blank">meat production</a> requires vast areas of land. According to the German Environment Agency (UBA), the country's central environment authority, 71% of global arable land is currently used for livestock feed. That is four times the amount required for direct food growth (18%) or other raw materials such as cotton (7%) and energy crops like corn for biogas (4%). </p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTI2MTI4MS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMzY3ODE3M30.bzrJxdzNQIFQ6l70d2InrAMt_IPO68FjvCZuNbvtc5E/img.png?width=980" id="3601b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5e0bedbcf3921365156f8612ef04429b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1920" data-height="2414" /><p>As global demand for meat continues to grow, so does the pressure on available arable land. As a result, huge areas of forest in countries such as Brazil are being lost to create land on which to grow animal fodder.</p><p>In order to feed the world's population and stop rainforests from being cleared, while simultaneously designating land for reforestation, experts are calling for a dietary rethink: less meat and more <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/will-plant-based-meat-become-the-new-fast-food/a-55578740" target="_blank">plant-based foods</a> that require much smaller areas.</p><p>In a report on the health of the planet published last year, leading global scientists such as Johan Rockström, director at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) suggested dietary changes that would equate to an average of 16 kilograms of meat and 33 kilograms of dairy products per person per year. Current meat consumption in North and South America as well as in Europe can be as much as seven times that amount.</p>
The Problem With Pesticides
<p>Besides revealing the power and global impact of the international meat industry, authors of the "Meat Atlas" also illustrate links to the global chemical industry. They write that dangerous and sometimes banned pesticides are exported by large chemical companies. Among the producers and exporters of such chemicals are European players, Bayer Crop Science, BASF, and Syngenta, as well as U.S. companies Corteva and FMS. </p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTI2MTI5MC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2Njg2NDMxMX0.0aKA3OQjDEKgl9Y088j9WLfsB9H_ilSNhjgSmScpO6o/img.png?width=980" id="43f23" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4fb04eda49e57f1b7c4a6f05c7e56deb" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1920" data-height="2520" /><p>According to Unmüssig, the use of such pesticides threatens thousands of lives, which is why, Bandt says the "German government must do everything it can to ensure that German companies no longer export toxins that have been banned in the EU."</p><p>Unmüssig warns that the planned <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/merkel-amazon-deforestation-threatens-eu-mercosur-deal/a-54651194" target="_blank">EU-Mercosur agreement</a> would exacerbate the use of dangerous substances. "Dismantling tariffs would lead to more pesticides being delivered to Latin America and more <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/rainforest">rainforest</a> would be cleared for soy plantations and meat production."</p><p>The experts conclude that establishing a way to farm animals in a cruelty-free way that doesn't harm the climate or the environment, requires a far-reaching shift in agricultural policy as well a rethink in consumption and production. </p><p>"As yet, we have not seen the start of any real meat transition," Unmüssig said. </p><p><em>This article was adapted from German.</em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/meat-atlas-its-time-to-rethink-what-we-eat/a-56145352" target="_blank">Deutsche Welle</a>.<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2649770271#/" target="_self"></a></em></p>
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Cows are seen standing in a field. Chris Winsor / Getty Images
By Brett Wilkins
Advocates for eco-friendly, plant-based diets hailed a study published last week that revealed the climate cost of organic meat production is as high as that of conventionally produced animal products.
<p>The study, published on December 15 in <em>Nature Communication </em>and<em> </em><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/23/organic-meat-production-just-as-bad-for-climate-study-finds" target="_blank">reported</a> Wednesday in <em>The</em> <em>Guardian, </em>used the German government's climate damage cost baseline of $219 per tonne of CO2 and determined that in order to cover climate costs, the farm-direct price of beef must rise by $7.31 per kilogram, while the per kilo price of chicken must increase by $3.66. The price of conventionally raised meat would have to rise by 40% in stores, while organic meat would need to be about 25% more expensive. Conventional milk would be one-third higher, while the price of organic milk would rise by 20%.</p><p>The researchers analyzed animal agriculture in Germany and concluded that the climate costs of organic beef and lamb are similar to that of their conventionally produced counterparts. And while they found that organic pork has a slightly lower climate cost than conventional pig meat, for organic chicken it was somewhat higher.</p><p>The cost of plant-based foods, on the other hand, would remain nearly the same. </p>
<div id="f1730" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e789afe07efd50838659138015d93575"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1341802726003503105" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">💔🌎 'The cost of the climate damage caused by organic meat production is just as high as that of conventionally farm… https://t.co/LiI9OqOFqt</div> — Veganuary (@Veganuary)<a href="https://twitter.com/veganuary/statuses/1341802726003503105">1608745674.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"We expected organic farming to score better for animal-based products but, for greenhouse gas emissions, it actually doesn't make much difference," Maximilian Pieper of the Technical University of Munich, who led the study, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/23/organic-meat-production-just-as-bad-for-climate-study-finds" target="_blank">told</a> <em>The</em> <em>Guardian</em>. "But in certain other aspects, organic is certainly better than conventional farming."</p><p>University of Greifswald researcher Amelie Michalke, who also participated in the study, said that "the prices are lying."</p><p>"Climate costs are rising and we are all paying these costs," she said. </p><p>While animals emit greenhouse gases in their excrement—and in the case of cows and sheep, through belching and farting—the grain fed to conventionally raised livestock can also contribute to emissions, especially if it is grown on land which has been deforested in places like South America's Amazon rainforest. </p><p>Animals raised organically are often grass-fed. But they also grow at a slower rate and spend more time expelling greenhouse gases before they are slaughtered. </p>
<p>All animals also need water to live, and separate research has shown that the global average water footprint—the total amount of water needed—to produce a pound of beef is <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2013/12/why-meat-eats-resources/" target="_blank">nearly 1,800 gallons.</a> For a pound of pork, it's 576 gallons. In stark contrast, a pound of soybeans needs only 216 gallons of water; for corn, just 108 gallons.</p><p>The new study's researchers said the results show a need for government policies that reflect the true cost of eating animals, including a meat tax. Revenues from such corrective measures could be used to help farmers adopt more eco-friendly practices, and to provide relief to poor families and people affected by the climate crisis. </p><p>However, instead of encouraging Americans to consume less meat, the U.S. government subsidizes animal agriculture by <a href="https://jia.sipa.columbia.edu/removing-meat-subsidy-our-cognitive-dissonance-around-animal-agriculture" target="_blank">as much as $38 billion</a> annually. Shoppers pay artificially low prices for animal products at the supermarket checkout counter, while their tax dollars fund an industry whose retail sales approach $250 billion per year. </p><p>As David Simon notes in his 2013 book <a href="https://meatonomics.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Meatonomics</em></a>, for every $1 of product sold by the animal agriculture industry, taxpayers pay $2 in hidden costs, and a $4 McDonald's Big Mac really costs society $11. </p>
<div id="bba58" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f3b256ef56bec7a280b867ecdcc79d8b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1339222744781774854" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">If meat cost its actual price none of you leftist would be saying is classist to be vegan.
Its already cheaper to… https://t.co/j2SbIMHKFF</div> — Andrew Velez 🌱 (@Andrew Velez 🌱)<a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewMVelez/statuses/1339222744781774854">1608130558.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"The climate damage costs for meat are especially startling if you compare them to the other categories," Pieper told <em>The</em> <em>Guardian</em>. "The price increases required are 10 times higher than for dairy products and 68 times higher than for plant-based products."</p><p>"The big difference is the simple effect that when you have a field of plants and you eat them directly, then that's the end of the [emissions], basically," he added. "But for beef, for example, you need 42kg of feed to just produce one kg of beef. This huge inefficiency explains the gap."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/23/climate-cost-organic-meat-just-high-conventionally-grown-animals-study" target="_blank">Common Dreams.</a></em></p>From Your Site Articles
- 8 Fast Food Chains That Serve Local, Organic, Vegan Food ... ›
- Here's Why Most Most of the Meat Americans Eat Is Banned in Other ... ›
- 'Organic' Label Doesn't Mean a Holiday Ham Was From a Happy Pig ... ›
- It's Time to Rethink What We Eat, Annual Meat Consumption Report Argues - EcoWatch ›
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Tyson plants have suffered some of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks, yet the company pressed its workers to keep reporting for duty, creating an ideal environment for viral transmission. The Humane League / YouTube
By Karen Perry Stillerman
Tyson Foods is the nation's largest (and world's second largest) meat and poultry producer. It operates 110 processing plants with 121,000 employees in the United States and boasted $42 billion in revenue in 2019, putting the publicly traded, Arkansas-based company at #79 in the Fortune 500. As it seeks to maintain meat industry dominance, Tyson is counting on many of us to put its products — which include Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage and Hillshire Farm hams, as well as the ubiquitous Tyson chicken — on our holiday tables.
<p>But as you celebrate the season (<a href="https://twitter.com/UCSUSA/status/1331704326276919306?s=20" target="_blank">safely, please!</a>), consider the source of the protein on your plate and its costs beyond the checkout stand. Because the handful of multinational conglomerates that produce and process industrial pork, beef, and chicken in this country are profiting at the expense of workers, farmers, consumers, and the planet. And in an industry full of terrible actors this terrible year, Tyson is perhaps the most terrible.</p>
<h3>1. Tyson has been the worst of the worst during the meat industry's COVID-19 disaster.</h3><p>In the early days of the pandemic, the meat industry was one of the first sectors to face economic consequences from the spread of the novel coronavirus. Their vast facilities dismember and pack staggering numbers of animals — Tyson's largest pork plant, for example, processes <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tyson-foods-suspends-its-largest-pork-plant-amid-iowa-outbreak-n1189566" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">19,500 hogs per day</a>. It's a feat that relies on thousands of low-paid workers toiling shoulder to shoulder at physically demanding tasks, which is awful enough (as I'll discuss below), but it also creates an <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/why-meatpacking-plants-have-become-covid-19-hot-spots/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ideal environment for viral transmission</a>.</p><p>That's exactly what happened. COVID-19 cases began appearing in meat and poultry plants in March; by late April, the CDC received reports of positive cases at <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6918e3.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">115 plants in 19 states</a>, along with 20 COVID-19-related deaths. Tyson plants — including its largest pork plant in Waterloo, Iowa, and a beef plant in Dakota City, Nebraska — saw some of the worst outbreaks during the spring, yet the company pressed its workers to keep reporting for duty, while failing to provide the personal protective equipment and appropriate distancing needed to keep them safe. In late April, Tyson sought cover from the Trump administration — the company's board chairman <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/26/business/tyson-foods-nyt-ad/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">took out a full-page ad</a> in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and its hometown paper, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, claiming that "the food supply chain is breaking." Just days later, President Trump famously <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-28/trump-says-he-s-issuing-order-for-tyson-s-unique-liability" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">issued an executive order</a> aimed at keeping meat and poultry plants open despite the risks and lack of protections. In signaling the move, Trump <a href="https://thecounter.org/trump-meatpackers-liability-protection-tort-reform-tyson-covid-19/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">specifically referenced Tyson</a> and its "liability problems." In June, Tyson was among the <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-agriculture/2020/06/29/fed-to-buy-bonds-from-food-ag-firms-788854" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">recipients of corporate welfare</a> as the Federal Reserve bought bonds from large companies to prop up the economy.</p><p>Throughout the crisis, Tyson has behaved badly in ways that endangered its workers. It has reportedly offered <a href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/07/20/armp-j20.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">"incentives" to keep sick workers on the job</a>, <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/emails-reveal-chaos-as-meatpacking-companies-fought-health-agencies-over-covid-19-outbreaks-in-their-plants" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stonewalled local health departments</a> over testing data, <a href="https://thefern.org/2020/12/documents-show-scope-of-covid-19-in-north-carolina-meat-industry/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">low-balled case reporting</a>, and <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/business/2020/11/30/lawsuit-tyson-managers-lied-interpreters-covid-19-threat-waterloo-iowa-plant/6464310002/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">lied about the dangers of the virus</a> to interpreters for its immigrant workers. In June, the company <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/06/22/879774584/how-widespread-coronavirus-testing-helped-meatpacking-plants-halt-outbreaks" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">announced a major testing program</a> but by July the company had <a href="https://thefern.org/ag_insider/covid-19-cases-appear-to-be-slowing-at-meat-plants-but-companies-arent-releasing-test-results/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stopped releasing the results</a>.</p><p>In a particularly egregious incident, managers at Tyson's Waterloo pork plant <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/11/19/tyson-foods-waterloo-bets-covid/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">organized a betting pool</a> around how many of the plant's employees would contract the virus. Those managers <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/tyson-fires-7-at-iowa-pork-plant-after-covid-betting-inquiry/2020/12/16/1b0c1d2c-3fd6-11eb-b58b-1623f6267960_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">have now been fired</a>, but culpability for the company's brazen negligence goes much deeper — all the way to the top of Tyson's corporate structure. After all, in the words of one of my colleagues, the behavior of these managers, "while clearly sociopathic, is just a predictable outgrowth of their institutional context: absolute contempt for workers and criminal disregard for their safety."</p><p>Neglect, malfeasance, and efforts by Tyson and other companies to evade regulation and liability has had horrifying consequences for workers. According to <a href="https://thefern.org/2020/04/mapping-covid-19-in-meat-and-food-processing-plants/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tracking by the Food & Environment Reporting Network</a> (as of Dec. 18, 2020), at least 51,519 workers across 565 meatpacking plants have tested positive for COVID-19. To date, 262 of those workers have died, and Tyson is facing <a href="https://siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/lawsuit-says-tyson-did-little-to-prevent-covid-death-at-storm-lake-plant/article_b6d5b2ea-ddc0-566c-b6bd-39d6f7a8d8c1.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">multiple gross negligence lawsuits</a> from victims' families. Communities around these plants, many of them rural areas with inadequate access to healthcare, have also paid a price (just as <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/rebecca-boehm/with-trump-executive-order-are-meat-and-poultry-plants-a-covid-19-ticking-time-bomb" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">my colleagues predicted</a> back in July): a <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/117/50/31706" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">new study</a> shows that as many as 8 percent of U.S. COVID-19 cases and up to 4 percent of deaths in the early stage of the pandemic can be connected to outbreaks at meatpacking plants and subsequent spread in nearby communities.</p><p>As this FERN graphic illustrates, Tyson has dwarfed its rivals in terms of total COVID-19 cases at its facilities:</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk4NzE3OS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NDEyNTQyM30.iqQMONbk90vmzYcBBgVnMEw0HaU3npFkop1UkhquQLM/img.png?width=980" id="7c60a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="dd7c7579d4c7fb24d9b6a23cc49f20ed" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="899" data-height="869" />
The Food & Environment Reporting Network has closely tracked the spread of COVID-19 at meatpacking plants, food processing facilities, and farms. FERN data, updated Dec.18, shows that Tyson Foods is responsible for the highest number of cases among workers, by far.
<p>And because Tyson's low-paid frontline workforce skews heavily toward immigrants and people of color, its actions have disproportionately harmed and put these populations at risk. The nonprofit <a href="https://foodchainworkers.org/2020/07/fcwa-joins-civil-rights-complaint-challenging-meat-processing-corporations/" target="_blank">Food Chain Workers Association</a> and other allies in July <a href="https://food.publicjustice.net/case/food-chain-workers-alliance-v-tyson-foods-title-vi-complaint?link_id=0&can_id=92857e325bc7090f1179dd6a53d503e8&source=email-we-must-continue-to-act-to-protect-food-workers-all-workers&email_referrer=&email_subject=fcwa-joins-civil-rights-complaint-challenging-meat-processing-corporations" target="_blank">filed an administrative civil rights complaint</a> with the U.S. Department of Agriculture alleging that Tyson and another meat processing corporation have engaged in racial discrimination prohibited by the Civil Rights Act through their workplace policies during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p><p>Now, in a move best described as a day late and a dollar short, Tyson is reportedly "going on offense," implementing new <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/meat-giant-tyson-girds-for-virus-surge-tracking-covid-19-with-algorithms-11605448801" target="_blank">testing and tracking algorithm programs</a> and <a href="https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/530379-tyson-joins-growing-list-of-companies-hiring-chief-medical-officers-amid" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hiring a chief medical officer</a>.</p><p>Oh, and that whole supply-chain-breaking thing? Right. The same month Tyson published its <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/26/business/tyson-foods-nyt-ad/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sky-is-falling ad</a>, the company <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/16/business/meat-industry-china-pork.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">exported 1,289 tons of pork to China</a>, the most since January 2017. And by November, the company was back to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tyson-foods-results/tyson-foods-beats-profit-estimates-sees-lower-covid-19-costs-in-2021-idUSKBN27W1JG" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">beating its profit estimates</a>.</p><p>But its reckless management of the COVID-19 pandemic is just one way that Tyson made 2020 worse. There's more.</p>
<h3>2. Tyson pushed rules that would harm poultry workers even after the pandemic.</h3><p>Though Tyson is also in the pork and beef businesses, most consumers know it as a chicken company. It's the nation's largest producer of "broilers" (chickens raised for meat), slaughtering <a href="https://talkbusiness.net/2020/08/tyson-foods-the-largest-u-s-chicken-processor-in-2019-georges-ranked-9th/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">38.3 million birds and producing 200.47 million pounds of ready-to-cook chicken</a> every week. And that mind-boggling level of production comes at a high cost to the workers who kill, cut up, and package all those chickens.</p><p>Working in a Tyson plant is unimaginably difficult. It's <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/20130228/unsafe-these-speeds" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">physically debilitating</a>: Workers who hang live chickens on the conveyors for slaughter are pecked and clawed, while others are at constant risk of injury from knives and other sharp tool used in close confines. Workers in these plants are susceptible to repetitive stress injuries, exposed to cold temperatures and noxious odors and chemicals in the air, and denied bathroom breaks. Women and immigrants, in particular, are <a href="https://archive.thinkprogress.org/ice-raids-follow-massive-sexual-harassment-settlement-mississippi-plant-koch-foods-d95eb2720f67/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">harassed and threatened</a> by supervisors. And the whole operation subjects workers to unrelenting <a href="https://yaleglobalhealthreview.com/2016/01/25/a-call-to-action-psychological-harm-in-slaughterhouse-workers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">psychological stress</a>.</p><p>In recent years, Tyson has had one of the highest rates of severe injury among its workers — more than 68 workers per 100,000 sustained such an injury in 2015-16. One of the reasons for such injuries is the rapidity with which employees work, as birds whizz past on fast-moving automated conveyers. Workers <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/09/18/line-speeds-increase-meatpacking-workers-are-ever-more-danger" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">report constant pressure</a> to keep these automated lines moving. And still, Tyson and other poultry companies want those lines to move even faster.</p><p>Tyson <a href="https://www.desmog.co.uk/national-chicken-council" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">is a member</a> of a lobbying group called the National Chicken Council (NCC), which <a href="https://www.nationalchickencouncil.org/about/overview/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">claims to represent</a> companies that collectively produce 95 percent of U.S. chicken. Through the NCC, Tyson and other companies have <a href="https://s27147.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/Policy-Brief-USDA-Poultry-Line-Speed-Increases-Exacerbate-COVID-19-Risk.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">lobbied the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) since 2017</a> to allow plants to increase their line speeds an already-fast 140 birds per minute (bpm) to a dizzying 175 bpm. Although the USDA denied the NCC's first petition to allow such an increase in all chicken processing plants, in 2018 the Trump administration began allowing individual plants to <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/09/28/2018-21143/petition-to-permit-waivers-of-maximum-line-speeds-for-young-chicken-establishments-operating-under" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">request waivers</a> from existing line speed restrictions.</p><p>In April 2020, just as Tyson was setting off alarm bells about meat and poultry supply disruption due to the pandemic, Trump's USDA <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/usda-oks-record-number-of-poultry-line-speed-waivers-in-april" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">approved a record number of line-speed waivers</a> at poultry plants, including six waivers for Tyson facilities. Three of those Tyson plants <a href="https://s27147.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/Policy-Brief-USDA-Poultry-Line-Speed-Increases-Exacerbate-COVID-19-Risk.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">have had documented COVID-19 outbreaks</a>. A recent <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/11/18/2010115117" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">study</a> shows a disturbing relationship between waivers granting increased line speeds and COVID transmission: The researchers' analysis suggests that waivers predict increases in county-level case rates <em>double those</em> in counties with nonwaiver poultry plants.</p><p>Now, the Trump USDA is pushing to give Tyson and the NCC the ultimate gift: a <a href="https://civileats.com/2020/08/31/usda-seeks-to-permanently-speed-up-poultry-plant-line-speeds/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">new rule that would allow increased line speeds</a> at chicken plants without the need for waivers. It's a race against the clock at this point, with a new administration set to take office Jan. 20, but they are <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-11/trump-makes-last-push-to-speed-up-chicken-lines-despite-pandemic" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">trying</a>.</p><p>Should that effort fail, public records show that Tyson and the NCC have also given Congress an earful about labor, line speed, food safety, and other issues this year. In the first three quarters of 2020, <a href="https://lda.senate.gov/filings/public/filing/search/?registrant=Tyson+Foods&registrant_country=&registrant_ppb_country=&client=&client_state=&client_country=&client_ppb_country=&lobbyist=&lobbyist_covered_position=&lobbyist_conviction_disclosure=&lobbyist_conviction_date_range_from=&lobbyist_conviction_date_range_to=&report_type=&report_period=&report_year=2020&report_dt_posted_from=&report_dt_posted_to=&report_amount_reported_min=&report_amount_reported_max=&report_issue_area_description=&affiliated_organization=&affiliated_organization_country=&foreign_entity=&foreign_entity_country=&foreign_entity_ppb_country=&foreign_entity_ownership_percentage_min=&foreign_entity_ownership_percentage_max=&search=search" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tyson spent more than $900,000</a> lobbying Congress and the <a href="https://lda.senate.gov/filings/public/filing/search/?registrant=National+Chicken+Council&registrant_country=&registrant_ppb_country=&client=&client_state=&client_country=&client_ppb_country=&lobbyist=&lobbyist_covered_position=&lobbyist_conviction_disclosure=&lobbyist_conviction_date_range_from=&lobbyist_conviction_date_range_to=&report_type=&report_period=&report_year=2020&report_dt_posted_from=&report_dt_posted_to=&report_amount_reported_min=&report_amount_reported_max=&report_issue_area_description=&affiliated_organization=&affiliated_organization_country=&foreign_entity=&foreign_entity_country=&foreign_entity_ppb_country=&foreign_entity_ownership_percentage_min=&foreign_entity_ownership_percentage_max=&search=search#js_searchFormTitle" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NCC spent an additional $360,000</a>.</p>
<h3>3. Tyson has colluded to cheat farmers and consumers.</h3><p>U.S. meatpacking is a highly consolidated industry, and Tyson is <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-29/tyson-foods-helped-create-the-meat-crisis-it-now-warns-against" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">one of the top players</a> in every major industry segment: It's one of <a href="https://mofb.org/meatpacking-industry-consolidation-must-be-investigated/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">four companies that control more than 80 percent of beef processing</a>, it's one of three that control nearly two-thirds of pork processing, and it's at the top of the list of five companies that control 60 percent of the chicken market. Such consolidation makes Tyson and its top competitors powerful — <a href="https://prospect.org/economy/meat-monopolies-endanger-workers-farmers-consumers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">too powerful</a>. Over the past year, we've learned that these companies have used their collective power to cheat both the farmers who raise the animals they slaughter and the customers who purchase their meat and poultry.</p><p>Early allegations of meat industry price fixing arose in 2016 with a <a href="https://dandodiary.lexblogplatformthree.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/265/2016/10/maplevale-lawsuit.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">class-action lawsuit</a> accusing Tyson and other chicken producers of conspiring to raise broiler chicken prices. The suit alleged that the companies have used a data company to <a href="https://thefern.org/2019/08/is-the-u-s-chicken-industry-cheating-its-farmers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">quietly share detailed financial information with each other</a> for decades. Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice intervened in that suit and launched a criminal investigation that, by October 2020, had led to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-poultry-charges/u-s-indicts-six-more-chicken-industry-executives-over-alleged-price-fixing-idUSKBN26T0BT" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">indictments of 10 poultry industry executives</a>, including a former Tyson exec. Since June, <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-agriculture/2020/06/11/tyson-gets-immunity-from-price-fixing-charges-788429" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tyson has been cooperating with the DOJ</a>, which has granted the company immunity.</p><p>Even before the price-fixing story emerged, it was clear that Tyson and its competitors were exploiting their chicken farmers, more than <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/apr/22/chicken-farmers-big-poultry-rules" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">97 percent of whom</a> operate through contracts with the conglomerates. It's a vertically integrated system in which Tyson and other companies own the birds and control (and <a href="https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2018/12/20/chicken-growers-slaves-own-land-look-sba-loans-big-poultry-ms/2339548002/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">frequently change</a>) the terms under which they are raised. Contracts with chicken farmers are so lopsided that the <a href="https://newfoodeconomy.org/poultry-farms-arent-independent-businesses-sba-report-says/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Small Business Administration concluded</a> in 2018 that chicken growers may not qualify for small business loans because they're not actually independent businesses at all.</p><p>In the chicken business, legal action against Tyson keeps coming. Boston Market and three other <a href="https://investigatemidwest.org/2020/07/10/four-restaurant-chains-sue-tyson-and-pilgrims-pride-saying-companies-fixed-chicken-prices/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">restaurant chains sued Tyson</a> and other companies for price-fixing in July. And just this month, <a href="https://www.startribune.com/target-joins-other-retailers-grocers-in-accusing-chicken-suppliers-of-price-fixing/573323631/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Target and other retailers joined</a> the original class action lawsuit, while famed <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/karen-perry-stillerman/that-tasty-chicken-sandwich-is-brought-to-you-by-a-stomach-turning-industry" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">chicken sandwich</a> purveyor <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/06/business/chickfila-poultry-prices-lawsuit.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Chick-fil-A brought a new suit</a> against the companies.</p><p>But it's not just about chicken. In May, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/6a34d27d3d7f9fdcf837c272ba539972" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">attorneys general for 11 states</a> urged the Justice Department to pursue a federal investigation into market concentration and price fixing in the beef industry as well. DOJ <a href="https://thecounter.org/department-justice-doj-antitrust-investigation-big-four-meatpackers-cargill-tyson-jbs-beef/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">launched such an investigation in June</a>, issuing subpoenas to Tyson and three other companies.</p>
<h3>4. Despite its commitments, Tyson has continued to trash our environment.</h3><p>The business models and practices Big Meat use to crank out ever-increasing volumes of their products also pose a threat to our environment, and again Tyson is an industry "leader." In 2016, an environmental organization <a href="https://environmentamerica.org/news/ame/report-tyson-1-water-polluter-among-agribusinesses" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">named Tyson the #1 water polluter among agribusinesses</a>, and another group has <a href="https://www.iatp.org/supersized-climate-footprint" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">documented its supersized climate footprint</a>. To feed the machine, Tyson and its livestock growers buy enormous quantities of industrially produced feed grains such as corn and soybean, which <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/reviving-dead-zone" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">UCS</a> and <a href="https://www.mightyearth.org/2017/08/03/heartlanddestruction/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">other groups</a> have shown to have devastating environmental consequences.</p><p>There's also an issue of wastewater pollution from Tyson processing plants. Earlier this year, for example, the <a href="https://talkbusiness.net/2020/05/alabama-ag-sues-tyson-foods-over-2019-spill/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">state of Alabama sued Tyson for damages</a> caused by a pair of 2019 releases from one of its facilities, which killed an estimated 175,000 fish.</p><p>And while Tyson made new sustainability commitments in 2018, watchdog group Mighty Earth alleges they haven't followed through. In February, citizens in Tyson's northwest Arkansas back yard <a href="https://www.mightyearth.org/2020/02/06/activists-stage-protest-at-tyson-shareholder-meeting-over-sustainability-concerns/" target="_blank">rallied outside the company's annual shareholder meeting</a> for greater action, <a href="https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/meat-industry-s-role-as-polluter-poses-financial-risk-to-investors-60565131" target="_blank">and investor groups are becoming more vocal</a> about the industry's environmental impact.</p>
<h3>Leaving Tyson off the table?</h3><p>So we've established that Tyson Foods is a terrible, awful, no-good company. But if you want to spend your food dollars in ways that are better for workers, farmers, and the planet, what to do? The vast majority of the industry is rotten — after all, Tyson couldn't fix prices without co-conspirators — and a case could be made that any of those companies is also villainous. Juries have repeatedly found, for example, that Chinese-owned Smithfield Foods' hog CAFOs have made life unbearable for neighbors in North Carolina (and a federal <a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-carolina-courts-4b2f1db4c21e03653851e81b81996410" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">appeals court agreed</a> last month). And there's <a href="https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/07/17/meat-packers-jbs-lawsuit-coronavirus" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">JBS</a>, a Brazilian company you've probably never heard of that has nonetheless become the world's largest <em>meat</em> producer, while <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/this-foreign-meat-company-got-us-tax-money-now-it-wants-to-conquer-america/2019/11/04/854836ae-eae5-11e9-9306-47cb0324fd44_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">taking U.S. taxpayer bailouts</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/27/revealed-new-evidence-links-brazil-meat-giant-jbs-to-amazon-deforestation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">destroying the Amazon rainforest</a>.</p><p>So simply saying no to Tyson in favor of their also-awful rivals probably isn't a solution. Eating less — and better — meat is probably the best thing the average consumer can do. This <a href="https://thecounter.org/conscious-carnivore-project/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">excellent article</a> explores the extent to which it's possible to be a "conscious carnivore." There are promising signs that the COVID-19 pandemic — which has led many consumers to look for better meat and poultry options from smaller-scale local farmers — may actually <a href="https://www.hcn.org/issues/52.7/covid-19-will-covid-19-help-save-small-slaughterhouses" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">revive the system of small slaughterhouses</a> those farmers rely on.</p><p>But changing consumer choices is just the tip of the iceberg. It will take public policies on a large scale to break the power of Tyson and Big Meat once and for all. That includes serious antitrust policies that would level the playing field for smaller producers and processors. <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/food/2019/12/cory-booker-just-went-all-in-against-factory-farming-and-the-meat-industry/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) has introduced legislation</a> that would begin to do that. And while the Obama administration's USDA was widely criticized for failing to enforce anticompetitive rules and promote deconsolidation in our food system, presumptive agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack has <a href="https://civileats.com/2020/12/11/op-ed-dear-secretary-of-agriculture-this-is-your-chance/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">another chance at that</a> in his second act at the USDA.</p><p>So while we may choose to leave Tyson off the table this holiday, here's hoping that in 2021, policymakers find the resolve to take on the company and the industry, for the good of workers, farmers, and our environment.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/karen-perry-stillerman/4-ways-tyson-foods-made-2020-worse" target="_blank">Union of Concerned Scientists</a>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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Rough handling can result in birds becoming injured before slaughter. Courtesy of Mercy for Animals
By Dena Jones
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) was sued three times this past summer for shirking its responsibility to protect birds from egregious welfare violations and safeguard workers at slaughterhouses from injuries and the spread of the coronavirus.
<p>Over the years, it has become abundantly clear that federal regulators not only let animal abusers off the hook but also placate the factory farm industry by subverting worker and consumer interests. On July 27, a growing number of animal advocacy organizations joined a lawsuit that <a href="https://mercyforanimals.org/mercy-for-animals-joins-lawsuit-challenging" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">challenged the USDA</a> over its recent bird flu response plan, which indemnifies factory farms and fails to address how intensive confinement contributes to disease outbreaks. One day later, unions representing workers across six states <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2020-07-28/unions-sue-usda-over-faster-chicken-plant-production-speeds" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sued</a> the USDA over its approval of faster slaughter line speeds that they say will endanger workers.</p>
<p>In August, my organization, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), and Farm Sanctuary <a href="https://awionline.org/press-releases/usda-sued-compel-humane-handling-birds-slaughter" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sued</a> the USDA over its persistent failure to require humane handling of poultry at slaughter, resulting in damaged or contaminated products that violate the federal <a href="https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/rulemaking/poultry-products-inspection-acts" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Poultry Products Inspection Act</a> and compromise food safety and meat quality.</p><p>Our lawsuit comes after we initially <a href="https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/e138fe1a-d380-42b2-88b7-f24a11ed7d7f/Petition-AWI-PPIA-121713.pdf?MOD=AJPERES" target="_blank">petitioned</a> the department in 2013 to uphold its congressional mandate and codify poultry humane handling standards into enforceable regulations. After six years, during which time federal inspectors documented <a href="https://awionline.org/sites/default/files/publication/digital_download/20TheWelfareBirdsSlaughter.pdf" target="_blank">more than 2,000 incidents</a> of poultry mistreatment, the USDA denied our petition <a href="https://www.natlawreview.com/article/animal-rights-groups-file-lawsuit-against-usda-to-tackle-inhumane-treatment-poultry" target="_blank">in 2019</a>. At the same time, the department denied a second petition asking it to address the <a href="https://awionline.org/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/temp/FA-AWI-Poultry-loading-transport-holding-incidents.pdf" target="_blank">problem</a> of birds being abandoned in the holding areas of slaughter plants — often in extreme heat or cold for extended periods.</p>
<p>Ongoing reviews of USDA enforcement records by AWI reveal that every year, government inspectors document the suffering of tens of thousands of birds from suffocation, blunt force trauma, and heat or cold stress before even reaching the slaughter line. This widespread suffering is entirely preventable, as it is caused by neglect, inadequate worker training, faulty equipment, and intentional acts of cruelty at slaughterhouses.</p><p>In 2018, for instance, <a href="https://awionline.org/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/Butterfield-2018-incident.pdf" target="_blank">Butterfield Foods Company failed to protect its hens</a> during their transportation to a Minnesota slaughter plant in subzero temperatures, resulting in nearly 10,000 deaths, with many birds frozen to their cages. More than 9,000 birds died in a <a href="https://awionline.org/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/Butterfield-2020-incident.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">similar incident at the same plant this past winter</a>.</p><p>A Butterball plant in North Carolina held a truck of turkeys for 31 hours last year, <a href="https://awionline.org/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/Butterball-holding-incident-Jan-2019.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">depriving them of food and water</a>. By the time they were unloaded, a large number of birds had perished, and some had begun cannibalizing weaker birds.</p>
<p>Each year, about <a href="https://downloads.usda.library.cornell.edu/usda-esmis/files/pg15bd88s/kw52js65h/d217r6115/pslaan20.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">9 billion chickens and turkeys are slaughtered</a> in the United States, yet plants suffer no consequences when most forms of mistreatment are observed during USDA audits. There are no fines, no slowing or stopping of the slaughter line, and no shuttering of a plant even if egregious or repeat violations occur.</p><p>For instance, a Jennie-O slaughter plant in Minnesota was <a href="https://awionline.org/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/Jennie-O-Turkey-repeated-laceration-incidents.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">written up 10 times in 2018 from February to August for severe injuries to turkeys</a>, including large areas of torn skin, hemorrhaging and muscle mutilation — all due to malfunctioning equipment — yet the USDA did not penalize the plant or require operators to fix the problem.</p><p>Even incidents of willful mishandling are tolerated. At the Southern Hens facility in Mississippi, <a href="https://awionline.org/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/Southern-Hen-repeated-bird-tossing-incidents.pdf" target="_blank">USDA inspectors cited the plant 10 times in the month of March 2020 alone</a> because workers were seen tossing crates to the ground six feet below as the live birds inside frantically flapped their wings and tried to escape. This callous indifference not only causes stress, injuries and painful deaths for animals; it can also <a href="https://awionline.org/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/RelationshipBetweenAnimalHandlingMeatQuality.pdf" target="_blank">damage the final meat product</a> for the consumer.</p>
<p>Under the Poultry Products Inspection Act, the USDA is required to reduce the incidence of damaged and/or potentially unsafe (or "adulterated") poultry products. But while federal inspectors have issued official notices and directives drawing a connection between the mistreatment of live birds and adulteration, they have taken <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/poultry-slaughter-plants-2625984903.html" target="_self">no concrete steps to stop it</a>.</p><p>Instead, the USDA permits the poultry industry to police itself through voluntary standards that — based on the department's own records — are clearly inadequate. Meanwhile, industry executives falsely claim that when inhumane handling occurs, government inspectors take action. Each side contends that the other is responsible for animal welfare. In reality, no one is protecting birds at slaughter.</p><p>The USDA has repeatedly demonstrated that it is unwilling to act against industry interests — even when doing so would improve poultry product quality and help prevent the abuse of the vast majority of land animals killed for food.</p><p>You can help protect birds at slaughter by <a href="https://awionline.org/compassion-index#/243" target="_blank">sending a message to the USDA</a>, asking the agency to change its regulations and policies to prevent neglect and abuse of birds at slaughter.</p>
<p><em>Dena Jones is the director of the Farm Animal Program for the nonprofit <a href="https://awionline.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Animal Welfare Institute</a> (AWI) in Washington, DC. Since 1951, AWI has sought to alleviate suffering on animals inflicted by humans.</em></p><p><em>This article was produced by </em><a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Earth | Food | Life</em></a><em>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p>
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Tyson Exploits Consumers Just Like Its Animals and the Workers Who Raise Them
03 December 2020
Insights + Opinion
The miserable ones: Young broiler chickens at a feeder. The poor treatment of the chickens within its supply chain has made Tyson the target of public campaigns urging the company to make meaningful changes. U.S. Department of Agriculture / Flickr
By David Coman-Hidy
The actions of the U.S. meat industry throughout the pandemic have brought to light the true corruption and waste that are inherent within our food system. Despite a new wave of rising COVID-19 cases, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently submitted a proposal to further increase "the maximum slaughter line speed by 25 percent," which was already far too fast and highly dangerous. It has been made evident that the industry will exploit its workers and animals all to boost its profit.
<p>The revelations continued when Tyson Foods, the world's second-largest producer of chicken, beef and pork, cooperated with the Department of Justice to avoid scrutiny into the company's role in the monopolization of the industry to <a href="https://www.fooddive.com/news/new-chicken-price-fixing-indictment-charges-6-more-with-conspiracy/586595/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">fix prices</a> of chicken for both consumers and retailers. This news comes at a time when Tyson has already been <a href="https://talkbusiness.net/2020/06/tyson-foods-reports-199-positive-covid-19-cases-at-springdale-plant/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">under fire</a> for <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/04/17/tyson-foods-officials-call-plant-close-over-coronavirus-cases/5158361002/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">exposing</a> its workers to an enormous risk of contracting COVID-19. We can now add competitors and consumers to the ever-growing list of those victimized by the corporate giant. This is further evidence that it's time for our nation's food supply chain to change in a big way.</p>
<p>Tyson Foods former CEO Noel White, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/03/tyson-foods-names-new-ceo-as-coronavirus-raises-costs.html" target="_blank">replaced</a> by Dean Banks in October, rushed to cooperate under the Department of Justice's antitrust leniency program, <a href="https://stjosephpost.com/posts/5ee39382ebfb13423b279658" target="_blank">stating</a>, "I am proud to lead a company that took appropriate and immediate actions in reporting the wrongdoing we discovered to the Department of Justice." What White failed to mention is that cooperating will afford Tyson protection from public scrutiny and legal fines, at the expense of its competitors.</p><p>Unethical business practices seem to be the norm for Tyson Foods. Due to a lack of proper safety measures and harsh attendance policies, <a href="https://www.foodandwine.com/news/10000-tyson-employees-positive-covid-19" target="_blank">more than 10,000 Tyson plant workers</a> tested positive for the virus, substantially more than any other U.S. meat company. Before the pandemic, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/09/04/interview-how-us-making-meatpacking-jobs-even-more-dangerous" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">working on a meat processing line was one of the most dangerous jobs</a> in the United States. Now, with the constant threat of COVID-19 looming over these elbow-to-elbow assembly lines, meat processing may be among the <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/why-meatpacking-plants-have-become-covid-19-hot-spots/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">most deadly</a> jobs in the world. <a href="https://thehumaneleague.org/article/whats-more-essential-workers-lives-or-meat-on-the-table" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Workers</a> are not just getting sick from this virus—they're dying.</p><p>The pandemic has led to <a href="https://www.inddist.com/supply-chain/article/21131454/keough-pandemic-has-caused-supply-chain-disruptions-for-80-of-us-businesses" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">major disruptions in the supply chain</a>. While Tyson has not yet engaged in the mass "<a href="https://thehumaneleague.org/article/emergency-legal-petition-filed-with-usda-to-end-depopulation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">depopulation</a>" of animals that other producers resorted to, in a typical week, the company slaughters an estimated <a href="https://sentientmedia.org/tyson-foods/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">37 million chickens</a>. The poor treatment of the chickens within its supply chain—including <a href="https://thehumaneleague.org/article/study-reveals-the-chicken-we-eat-live-in-agony" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">breeding</a> birds to grow at such an unnaturally fast rate that they can't even hold up their own bodies—has made Tyson the target of <a href="https://www.change.org/p/tyson-stop-neglecting-workers-animals-and-public-health" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">public campaigns</a> urging the company to make meaningful changes.</p><p>More than 120 labor, food justice, animal welfare and environmental organizations have banded together to <a href="https://thehumaneleague.org/article/120-organizations-target-tyson-foods-for-failing-to-protect-workers-covid19" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">take action against</a> the company. Tyson must take immediate action to protect the safety and well-being of its workers, make improvements to support animal welfare and reduce its harsh impact on the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/01/commission-report-great-food-transformation-plant-diet-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">environment</a>.</p><p>For too long, the unethical, avaricious practices of the meat industry have been hidden from view. The scandals surrounding Tyson and other major producers are making clear that vulnerable workers, abused animals and a rigged system are the foundation of an unethical and destructive business model.</p><p>Tyson had a role in creating the industrialized system, and it must step up its role in fixing it. The meat giant has had one singular focus since its inception: profit. The company's greed has caused it to exploit anyone in its path. Tyson's disregard for human and animal life extends to its workers, animals killed in its plants, consumers and now its competitors. Tyson took ownership for rigging the system using price-fixing. It's time for Tyson to take ownership for exploiting and endangering its more vulnerable victims as well.</p><p><a href="https://www.change.org/p/tyson-stop-neglecting-workers-animals-and-public-health" target="_blank"><em>Sign the petition</em></a><em> urging Tyson to stop neglecting workers, animals and public health.</em></p><p><a href="https://actnow.thehumaneleague.org/live-shackle-slaughter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Sign the petition</em></a><em> urging the U.S. chicken meat industry to end the cruel practice of boiling birds alive.</em></p><p><em> David Coman-Hidy is president of <a href="https://thehumaneleague.org/broken-food-system" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Humane League</a>, a global nonprofit working to fix our broken food system and end the abuse of animals raised for food.</em></p><em><p><em>This article first appeared on </em><a href="https://truthout.org/articles/tyson-exploits-consumers-just-like-its-animals-and-the-workers-who-raise-them/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Truthout</em></a><em> and was produced in partnership with </em><a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Earth | Food | Life</em></a><em>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p></em>
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Eat Just, Inc. announced that its cultured chicken has been approved for sale in Singapore as an ingredient in chicken bites. The company has developed other cultured chicken formats as well. Eat Just
As concern mounts over the environmental impacts of animal agriculture, Singapore has issued the world's first regulatory approval for lab-grown meat.
<p>The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) has declared that the U.S.-based company <a href="https://www.ju.st/en-us" target="_blank">Eat Just</a> can sell its cultured "chicken bites" in the country, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/02/no-kill-lab-grown-meat-to-go-on-sale-for-first-time" target="_blank">The Guardian reported Wednesday</a>.</p><p>"I think the approval is one of the most significant milestones in the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/food/" target="_self">food</a> industry in the last handful of decades," Eat Just co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick said in a statement reported by The Guardian. "It's an open door and it's up to us and other companies to take that opportunity. My hope is this leads to a world in the next handful of years where the majority of meat doesn't require killing a single animal or tearing down a single tree."</p>
<p>Giving up on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/meat-consumption" target="_self">meat consumption</a> is one of the most important things an individual can do to fight the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> and environmental destruction, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/vegan-climate-change-2558286917.html" target="_self">studies</a> have <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/vegan-earth-footprint-2574241439.html" target="_self">found</a>. Companies have tried to tap into this growing ecological awareness by offering meat alternatives. Plant-based meat replacements like <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/beyond-meat" target="_self">Beyond Meat</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/impossible-foods" target="_self">Impossible Foods</a> are gaining traction, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55155741" target="_blank">BBC News pointed out</a>, and the market for meat alternatives could be worth about 10 percent of the global meat industry within the next decade.</p><p>However, some companies think that plant-based meat replacements will not be enough to wean meat-lovers off of steak and chicken, The Guardian pointed out. Instead, companies like Eat Just, Future Meat Technologies and the Bill Gates-backed Memphis Meats have worked to grow meat in labs, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/01/singapore-issues-first-regulatory-approval-for-lab-grown-meat-to-eat-just.html" target="_blank">CNBC reported</a>. They argue that their meat is also less cruel, healthier for consumers and better for the environment.</p><p>"We think that [the way] to really solve the meat problem — which is a health problem, a deforestation problem, a morality problem — is to make animal protein," Tetrick told CNBC.</p>
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Eat Just's cultured chicken has been approved for sale in Singapore as an ingredient in chicken bites. Eat Just
<p>Eat Just worked to gain the approval of Singapore health regulators for about two years. To do so, they had to develop a consistent manufacturing process for their product and satisfy food safety standards for new foods.</p><p>"It was found to be safe for consumption at the intended levels of use, and was allowed to be sold in Singapore as an ingredient in Eat Just's nuggets product," the SFA ruled, as BBC News reported.</p><p>Eat Just's meat is made by putting animal stem cells into a culture that feeds the cells, and then putting the growing cells in a bioreactor, CNBC explained. Tetrick said the process was similar to making beer.</p><p>The product already has health benefits compared to conventional meat. It has a high protein content and many amino acids, but it has no antibiotics and very low amounts of microbes like salmonella.</p><p>It is also largely cruelty free. The meat cells can be taken from live animals, and they are fed with plant-derived nutrients, The Guardian explained. The Singapore lab chicken did use a growth serum from foetal bovine blood, but a plant-based serum will be used for the next round of production.</p>
<p> Lab-grown meat also uses less land and water than conventional meat. However, the process does have some environmental disadvantages. It is high-energy, and, because it is currently being done at a small scale, requires a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Once the process is scaled up, the energy costs will go down.</p><p>There are many challenges that must be overcome before cultured meat is widely available. Eat Just's product will first be offered in just one restaurant in Singapore, Tetrick told CNBC.</p><p>"We're going to start out with a single restaurant and then scale out to five, 10, 15 and then eventually into retail," Tetrick told CNBC. "The infrastructure required to do it is primarily the bioreactors, so we'll eventually be moving to 5,000, 10,000 and 20,000 liters."</p><p>It is currently costly to produce cultured meat, and the product will be the price of premium chicken. However, costs have already decreased from $50 per chicken nugget, according to BBC News. They are expected to continue to do so as production is scaled up, and Eat Just says its products will eventually be cheaper to produce than conventional meat, according to The Guardian.</p><p>Another hurdle is making meat lovers comfortable with the idea of lab-grown meat.</p><p>Still, Bruce Friedrich of the Good Food Institute called the new approval a "very big deal for the future of meat production globally."</p><p>"A new space race for the future of food is under way," he told The Guardian.</p>
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Tofurky Hit Grocery Store Shelves 25 Years Ago, It's Had a Lasting Influence
26 November 2020
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JasonOndreicka / iStock / Getty Images
Twenty-five years ago, a food called Tofurky made its debut on grocery store shelves. Since then, the tofu-based roast has become a beloved part of many vegetarians' holiday feasts.
<p>"Tofurky and Thanksgiving are forever intimately tied in my heart," said Jan Dutkiewicz, a visiting fellow at Harvard Law School's animal law and policy program.</p>
<iframe style="border: none" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/16550342/height/45/theme/standard/thumbnail/yes/direction/backward/" height="45" width="100%" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe><p>He said Tofurky was different from most vegetarian fare because it could actually stand in for a turkey roast.</p><p>"It allowed me to be at a Thanksgiving meal having a sort of centerpiece of my own and not just eating stuffing and nibbling on veggies and whatnot," he said.</p><p>Today, there are many more meat alternatives on the market. Some brands such as <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/impossible-burger-vs-beyond-burger-2645075556.html">Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat</a> work hard to appeal not only to vegetarians, but meat lovers too.</p><p>"The strategy has been to offer a product that's as close as possible in taste, texture, and price to the products that meat consumers are already eating," Dutkiewicz said.</p><p>Producing plant-based proteins generates much less carbon pollution than animal agriculture. So Dutkiewicz said making plant-based foods that appeal – even to meat eaters – can help reduce global warming on Thanksgiving or any day of the year.</p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/11/the-lasting-influence-of-the-tofurky/" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</em> <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2649054032#/" target="_self"></a></p>
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Rudy's Vegan Butcher in London is the UK's first permanent vegan butcher shop. Rudy's Vegan Butcher
On World Vegan Day this past Nov. 1, the UK's first permanent vegan butcher shop opened in London and completely sold out. Inundated with 100 online orders within their first 10 minutes, the shop also attracted long lines down the street, reported Plant Based News.
<p>According to <a href="https://www.livekindly.co/uk-getting-its-first-vegan-butcher-shop/" target="_blank">Live Kindly</a>, while set up much like a traditional butcher shop with white tile walls and meat cases, <a href="https://rudysvegan.com/" target="_blank">Rudy's Vegan Butcher</a> offers patrons completely meat- and dairy-free selections, including <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plant-based" target="_self">plant-based</a> pastrami, seitan chicken, 'soysage' patties and Christmas turkey rolls. The substitutes are made from soya and wheat protein seitan that mimic the experience of meat, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vegan-butcher-rudys-seitan-soya-pastrami-lobstah-burgers-chicken-pork-2020-10" target="_blank">Business Insider</a> reported.</p><p>"It's all designed to emulate meat. It tastes like meat, it's got meat-like texture," said veteran vegan chef and Rudy's co-founder Matthew J. Foster, reported <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/vegan-butcher-fake-meat-london" target="_blank">Fox News</a>.</p><p>Spurred on by the animal cruelty he witnessed as a professional chef, Foster and his business and life partner Ruth (Rudy) Mumma opened the non-traditional butcher shop as an extension of their popular restaurant, Rudy's Dirty Vegan Diner. The latter launched in April 2018 as London's first vegan diner, <a href="http://camdennewjournal.com/article/rudy-awakening-for-chef-who-went-vegan" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Camden New Journal</a> reported.</p>
<p>"It didn't seem right anymore," Foster told the news report. "We can survive and thrive far better on a plant-based diet."</p><p>The restaurant is Foster's and Mumma's outlet for promoting and educating others about animal rights using "unbeatable, mouth-watering food and a punk AF attitude towards getting sh!t done," their <a href="https://rudysvegan.com/pages/the-rudy-story" target="_blank">website</a> says.</p><p>The diner reimagines popular American comfort and fast food entirely out of plants. Now, the butcher shop expands their vision and offerings, as do <a href="https://rudysvegan.com/collections/rudys-diy-kits" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">DIY home kits</a> for favorite Rudy's meals. For every DIY kit purchased, Rudy's donates £1 (about a dollar) to Friend Farm Animal Sanctuary.</p>
<p>The meat-free butcher shop will also stock ready-made foods like chili non-carne, vegan 'lobstah' salad and dairy-free cheese sauces, Live Kindly reported.</p><p>In addition to being cruelty-free for animals, a vegan diet has also been touted as one of the most effective ways individuals can <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/serve-plants-save-planet-2641555444.html" target="_self">reduce their carbon footprint</a>. Global meat production, especially beef and lamb, requires a high amount of carbon emissions and strains natural resources, something meatless alternatives can largely avoid, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/30/dining/climate-change-food-eating-habits.html#:~:text=But%2C%20in%20general%2C%20it%20takes,digest%20grass%20and%20other%20foods." target="_blank">New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>"We're destroying the planet for our taste buds," warned Foster, reported Camden New Journal.</p>
<p>The UK plant-based movement is booming, despite the fact that only one percent of the population is vegan, reported Business Insider. Sales of plant-based foods grew 40 percent between 2014 and 2019 to around $1.05 billion per year in the UK, the report estimated. This figure is expected to exceed $1.41 billion by 2024.</p><p>Globally, the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/meatless-meat-sales-coronavirus-2645943304.html" target="_self">interest in plant-based products and alternative protein options</a> mirrors that of the UK, reported Fox News. The U.S. trend has been boosted by <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/meat-shortages-coronavirus-slaughterhouses-2645861788.html" target="_self">meat shortages at grocery stores</a>, due to meat plants closing during the pandemic.</p><p>"Many consumers perceive that <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/vegan-diet-health-benefits-2608604362.html" target="_self">plant-based foods are a healthier option</a>, and this notion is the key driver behind the reduction in meat consumption in recent years," food and drink analyst Kate Vlietstra told Business Insider.</p>
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