By Jessica Scott-Reid
Jessica is a Canadian writer, animal advocate and plant-based food expert. Her work appears regularly in media across Canada and the US.
As some parts of the world slowly emerge from the current COVID-19 pandemic, and others continue to linger in lockdown, conversations about a new normal are being had, particularly about how we will get our food going forward, and how we will interact with animals. Concerns about future zoonotic diseases are intertwining with concerns about current meat shortages and the mass killing of animals on farms, due to slaughterhouse closures.
For a growing number of experts, authors and advocates, a revamping of protein production minus animal farming, is the only way forward. Plant protein and cultivated cell-based meat production were already on the minds of many pre-COVID-19, due to concerns about climate change, and today they are making headlines and being considered more than ever.
Bruce Friedrich is the co-founder and executive director of The Good Food Institute, a global non-profit that works with scientists, entrepreneurs, and policy experts, “to harness the power of food innovation and markets, to accelerate the transition of the world’s food system to plant-based and cellular agriculture,” he describes. Friedrich calls current methods of protein production based on animal agriculture, fragile and vulnerable.
“This is in part due to lack of biodiversity among crops," he says. "Corn, soybeans, and wheat crops dominate U.S. agriculture, in large part to feed livestock. This extreme uniformity creates fragility in the food supply, as a single adverse event can have widespread effects,” as we are seeing today. The margins in animal agriculture are also very thin, he adds. “Any global economic disruption or volatility -- of feed supply, shipping, or ability to sell by-products overseas -- or even just a modest downturn in demand can put them seriously at risk of toppling, especially if these disruptions are unpredictable and prolonged.”
On the other hand, Friedrich explains, “supply chains for plant-based and cultivated meat are much easier to turn on and off, so plant-based producers can respond to world events much more quickly than conventional animal agriculture, which has more links and much longer lead times.” For example, with animal-based pork production, “companies have to plan for enough soy and other crops to feed animals, they have to grow breeding animals for years, and then it takes 10 months from gestation to birth to slaughter for a pig.” As we are seeing now, “a chink in any of those chains can have a massive impact on meat supply.”
Alternatively, “plant-based companies can quickly and easily adjust the amount of product made from stored, shelf-stable dry ingredients.” And when it comes to processing, Friedrich adds, “it is much easier to social distance in a plant-based meat manufacturing plant, which is significantly more automated than a slaughterhouse.” Facilities processing plant-based ingredients are just cleaner and safer, he says, “since they are not dealing with live animals.”
Photo: Jo-Anne McArthur, We Animals Media
As animals are being killed on farms, slaughterhouse workers are falling ill, meat supplies are dwindling and fears of future zoonotic diseases are rising, Beyond Meat co-founder Ethan Brown, recently stated in an interview with Yahoo Finance: “This is the industry’s moment,” and “we need to make sure that we are part of a solution.” The company plans to drop prices and increase supply in stores across North America this summer.
“Plant-based meat is better for our climate, better for biodiversity, and requires no antibiotics at all so it won’t lead to the end of modern medicine,” says Friedrich. “Plus, there is no possibility that plant-based meat will create the next pandemic, which could easily come from an industrial animal farm.”
But while a solution to our current food system woes seems to be appearing before our eyes, evolution appears to be thwarted by lack of financial support. “There is still a lot of R&D (research and development) that needs to happen,” says Friedrich, to make plant-based meats viable for the broader public. “For the same reason that governments give tens of billions of dollars annually to renewable energy R&D, and more than a hundred billion dollars annually to global health research, governments should be funding open access research and development into better ways of producing the protein people want.” Instead, animal agriculture sectors continue to receive massive government bailouts – a very expensive band-aid solution to a pandemic-sized problem.
As Dr. Liz Specht, associate director of science and technology at GFI recently wrote for Wired: “We can’t afford not to have the same level of urgency in directing funding, effort, and talent into accelerating the development and deployment of safer, modern meat production methods. It is past time to move away from animal-derived meat altogether. Rather than trying to close the door after the horses have left, it’s time to build a better barn.”