Animals
A Step in the Right Direction
The Canadian government recently announced changes to Canada’s Environmental Protection Act which include support for “reducing reliance on animal testing” when assessing the risks that substances may pose to human health and the environment. The amendments will encourage federal government departments to promote the development and timely use of alternative methods and strategies as science permits. This is the first time the Canadian government has formally recognized the need to move away from this type of testing on animals in legislation, and it’s a welcome step in the right direction. See the four-minute, animated film Save Ralph (a rabbit) voiced by Ricky Gervais for a non-graphic look at what toxicity testing can mean for the animals.
Food
Turning Intention into Action
Unsurprisingly, surveys have shown that young people are interested in eating less meat than older people. However, a recent analysis by the World Resources Institute discovered a gap between their intentions and their actual food choices. Multiple data sets show young people are actually purchasing more animal-based foods than older people. Why the disconnect? Dining and retail environments are a big influence on people’s choices. We may go to a grocery store planning to buy only healthy, sustainable food but what ends up in our carts is driven more by habit, familiarity or displays in the store. Dining and shopping environments can do more to support food choices that align with the values of young adults by offering tasty, affordable, convenient plant-based foods.
the Climate Crisis
A Surfeit of Hot Air
Research on the role of the 35 largest meat and dairy companies globally in the GHGs emitted by animal agriculture found that while some of them are working to mitigate climate impact, only four have committed to net-zero emissions by 2050. Also, some companies didn’t report their emissions at all; others counted only some types of emissions; and several companies said they would mitigate carbon dioxide emissions but ignored methane (one of the most powerful GHGs). All 10 US-based meat and dairy companies had been actively undermining climate policies by contributing money to political campaigns and organizations that minimize the connection between animal agriculture and climate change, and lobbying Congress and the EPA on climate related issues.
words of wisdom
“If we don’t change our eating habits, food-related emissions would increase 9% by 2030, moving us further from our climate goals.”
— Stephanie Feldstein, Population and Sustainability Director, The Centre for Biological Diversity.
“We can’t get to where we need to be on climate if we don’t also address our agricultural system.”
— Richard Waite, senior research associate, The World Resources Institute.
“If we could produce the meat we want without the suffering we now inflict, it would be one of the greatest achievements of our age.”
— Ezra Klein, Founder, Vox
perspective
Marketing Junk Food to Kids Puts Their Futures At Risk
Obesity and other health issues are inevitable outcomes of the modern food environment where marketing of inexpensive, highly palatable, energy-dense foods and beverages is pervasive. Especially concerning is the targeting of children and teens. Globally, the prevalence of obesity has risen dramatically among children aged 5–19 years, from 4% in 1975 to 18% in 2016.
And, the food industry is playing the long game. Obesity in childhood tends to track into adulthood, so millions of children will potentially become obese adults. Unhealthy food habits become deeply ingrained as food companies spend billions of dollars conditioning children and teens to become ‘customers-for-life’ through extensive, sophisticated, persuasive marketing campaigns.
In 2016, food, beverage and restaurant companies spent almost $14 billion on advertising in the US alone. More than 80% of that ‘spend’ promoted fast food, sugary drinks, candy, and unhealthy snacks, dwarfing the $1 billion budget for all chronic disease prevention and health promotion at the US CDC. The US food system is the second largest advertiser in the American economy, and it aggressively targets adolescents to build brand awareness, preferences (mainly for unhealthy foods) and loyalty.
A study from the University of Ottawa found that nearly three-quarters of Canadian children are exposed to food marketing while using social media apps. They see an estimated 111 advertisements for food a week, or an average of 5,772 ads per year on apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and YouTube. The majority of those ads promoted ultra-processed foods (85%) and beverages high in fat, salt, or sugar (97%).
“This level of exposure may greatly influence children’s perception of a normal diet, as well as their food preferences and the foods they actually consume,” said study author Monique Potvin Kent. Childhood obesity in Canada has doubled since the 1970s, while obesity in adolescents has tripled in the past 30 years, putting kids at greater risk for chronic conditions and illness.
In the face of growing childhood obesity rates around the world, the World Health Organization has urged countries to adopt policies that limit childhood exposure to marketing that promotes unhealthy food.
However, despite strong evidence of the link between food marketing and childhood obesity, governments and the food industry are doing little to restrict children’s exposure to it. Canada, for example, lacks formal regulations to address the marketing of junk food to children outside of traditional broadcasting.
In 2020, US ABC News reported on the inundation of junk food advertising that contributes to the rising rate of teen obesity, a public health crisis among a cohort that is especially vulnerable to the messaging.
Foods high in fat, sugar, refined carbohydrates, salt etc., have been shown to have addictive properties that can increase cravings. These ultra-processed foods are engineered to be intensely rewarding. Biologically, adolescents are very vulnerable to addiction because their reward systems develop rapidly and peak in adolescence, but the parts of the brain that exert control and impose restraint develop more slowly.
Food advertising to children and teens almost exclusively promotes highly processed, unhealthy food loaded with fat and sugar. According to the CDC, 20.6% of those aged 12—19 are obese. And obesity in adolescence can lead to serious long-term physical and mental health consequences, and increases the risk of developing chronic diseases, including heart disease and diabetes.
We cannot address the obesity crisis unless the marketing is drastically lowered, Dr. Jennifer Harris, senior research adviser at the University of Connecticut’s Rudd Center for Food Policy on Obesity, told ABC News.
A July 2019 study on kid influencer channels showed they generated 48.2 billion views and 38.6 million subscribers through 10, 058 videos posted on YouTube. The average age of the kid influencers was 7.3 years and the children who starred in the videos ranged in age from 3—14 years.
The videos generated 16 million impressions for the food and/or drinks they featured. And nearly 90% of them promoted unhealthy branded products. Influencer endorsements can generate millions of views, and industry data suggest these endorsements can increase sales by up to 28% for the endorsed product.
Estimates suggest that companies will spend $15 billion over the next few years on influencer-based marketing which demonstrates the urgency of reducing unhealthy food and drink product placement in videos featuring and targeting young children.
Former NYT columnist and best-selling food writer Mark Bittman, author of the book “Animal, Vegetable, Junk” told The Guardian recently, “I think some limits on marketing junk food to children, along with teaching children where food is from and what food is about is really important. Because if you’re going to allow marketers to target kids, they will convince them that Tony the Tiger is their friend and that Coke is the best beverage to drink. And that McDonald’s is the most fun place to eat.
“If you’re going to let kids become convinced of that then you’re going to have generation after generation of adults who were saddled with food preferences that are dictated by big food. And we all know how difficult it is to change our food preferences.”
But there are three things we can do today:
Support offerings of plant-based food options. As they become profitable, Big Food and Fast Food will re-deploy their marketing muscle.
Prepare tasty, plant-based family meals.
Encourage governments to regulate and limit unhealthy food marketing to children.
pet peeves
A light-hearted glimpse into the lives of our furry and feathered friends.
Ya I know Greta said “stop flying” but I’m pretty sure she didn’t mean you!
The deeper dive
Photo: Leopold Maitre on Unsplash
Meat and Methane: Climate Solution With a Paradox
A new report by the UN says that cutting methane emissions is the quickest way to slow down global warming and it can also deliver multiple wins for people and the planet. Cutting human-caused methane emissions by 45% by 2030 can prevent 225,000 premature deaths per year due to air pollution and avoid lower crop yields. But the report reveals the battle between the most effective solutions and the art of what’s perceived to be possible. The multiple benefits are significant, as seen in the chart below.
Source: UN/Climate and Clean Air Coalition
Methane is a short-lived but very powerful greenhouse gas, 86x more powerful than CO2 over a 20-year period and it dissipates in 10—12 years. The biggest sources of human-caused methane are agriculture, fossil fuels and waste dumps. But there is a gap between the UN’s analysis of the problem and the proposed solutions, revealing some of the practical and political challenges of tackling the climate crisis.
Source: UN/Climate and Clean Air Coalition
Cutting emissions from fossil fuel and waste dump operations can be done relatively quickly and is lower-cost. These include sealing leaks in oil and gas installations and sending less biodegradable waste to dump sites. Agriculture is the number one source of methane at 42%, and 80% of this comes from animal agriculture from the digestive systems of cows and sheep, their manure, and fertilizer to grow feed crops. And this number could be low. A new study says that methane from livestock in the US is being significantly undercounted given current measuring methods.
But the UN report suggests that agriculture can contribute only 20—25% of the reductions because of the perceived difficulty of changing our food and agriculture systems and convincing enough people to quickly adapt what they eat. Add to that the expedient inclination to tinker with the current agriculture system, like feed additives, rather than adopting wholesale changes in production systems and food choices.
The significant benefits of reform in this sector could be even greater with more ambition. “Three behavioural changes, reducing food waste and loss, improving livestock management, and the adoption of healthy diets (vegetarian or with a lower meat and dairy content) could reduce methane emissions by 65–80 Mt/yr over the next few decades,” the report says. These recommendations show the political and cultural challenges of fighting the climate crisis and the difficult, sometimes unpalatable, trade-offs involved.
The challenge is to overcome the deeply embedded cultural traditions that tend to drive our food choices and how we produce our food, never quick or politically easy. But the science is clear that we cannot meet the Paris climate goals or net zero by 2050 without changing how we produce our food and what we eat. Numerous authoritative studies show that richer nations need to significantly reduce the amount of meat and dairy to reduce global heating. Even if we were able to stop all fossil fuel GHGs today, emissions from our food system mean that we would still blow by the Paris Climate goals.
The danger is that vested interests from the fossil fuel and/or Big Food and ag systems combined with political opportunism that weaponizes perceived threats to traditional diets and meat eating, work to undermine climate action and shut down one of the most effective ways to avert the climate crisis.
The opportunity lies in the attitudes of younger generations who are more open to changing their diets to reduce their carbon footprint, the plethora of tasty and more widely available plant-based foods and the emergence of cell-based meat alternatives without the downsides of industrialized animal agriculture.
fewer people are going to the dogs
Greyhound racing is in decline. It’s now only legal in seven countries: UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Vietnam, Mexico and the US — although it’s illegal in 41 states and will be phased out in Florida this year. Twenty years ago, 26,000 dogs were bred to race in the US and that number is down to 6,000. In a 2016 poll of Australians, 82% said the industry should be shut down and 66% of people in Ireland think the government should stop funding it. Welfare abuses abound in the industry including using live “bait” for training e.g., hares or piglets, the dogs are kept in cages, and they are typically killed once their performance declines.
Photo: CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Good news
Science tells us that animals are thinking, feeling beings otherwise known as sentient. Sentient beings experience positive emotions like happiness, joy, and gratitude, and negative emotions like pain, suffering, and grief. Recognizing that animals are sentient carries a moral and legal responsibility to consider their interests when making decisions that affect them.
The UK recently announced its Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill as part of the Government’s new Action Plan for Animal Welfare, to formally recognize animals as sentient beings in domestic law. This became necessary post-Brexit as the UK chose not to retain the EU legislation recognizing animal sentience which it viewed as too weak. A new more effective animal sentience bill will position the UK as a global leader on animal welfare. For more, see Canada lags behind as the UK steps up for animals.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a stark illustration of how closely human, animal and environmental health are connected. And the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE); the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); and the World Health Organization (WHO) have launched a panel of experts to increase our understanding of the root causes of diseases with the potential to trigger pandemics. The panel will also advise on a long-term plan to avert outbreaks of diseases such as H5N1 avian influenza; MERS; Ebola; and Zika.
The panel will consider the impact of human activity on the environment and wildlife habitats including food production and distribution; urbanization; international travel and trade; and activities that cause biodiversity loss and climate change; all of which can trigger the emergence of zoonotic diseases.
New proposals by the French government would see one compulsory vegetarian menu one day a week in all schools and one daily vegetarian option standard in all state-run cafeterias. The program also includes training for cafeteria staff to ensure quality plant-based meals.
Introducing the “Climate and Resilience” bill, the French minister for ecological transition told The Guardian that developing a vegetarian offering means acting for the climate. The goal is to make it easy for people to lead environmentally friendly lives, by providing greener options and removing some of the highest-carbon alternatives.
data points
Pig factory farm and manure lagoon. Photo: Jo-Anne McArthur, We Animals Media
Denmark has more pigs per capita than any other country. It produces 28 million pigs every year in 3,000 factory farms in a nation of 5.8 million people. A powerful Greenpeace documentary profiles the lives of several Danish families enduring poor living conditions due to neighbouring pig factory farms.
Global meat production has more than quadrupled from 71 million tons in 1961 to 340 million tons today and per capita meat consumption in China has more than doubled since 1990.
Approximately 25% of global GHGs are traceable to our food chain — 75% of which is attributable to animal agriculture. If all fossil fuel production ceased today our current food system would still take us past 1.5C degrees of global warming.
A large majority (79%) of people surveyed by Finland’s Natural Resources Institute said they’d be willing to pay more for food sourced from farms practising crop diversification to protect soil, boost species diversity and prevent pollution. While these findings indicate support for pricing food to reflect the value of sustainable farming, it would risk creating a hierarchy of affordability, offloading the burden of sustainability onto consumers and potentially letting governments and corporations off the hook.
charting our path
Chicken production and consumption in the UK
Eating Factory-Farmed Chicken Comes At a Cost
The dramatic growth of chicken consumption and factory farms in major markets around the world is raising concerns about a host of environmental, health, climate change and animal welfare issues. A recent study of the multiple impacts in the UK is a case in point. See our blog: “Revealed: true cost of Britain's addiction to factory-farmed chicken.”
“Our diets do not need more chicken and from deforestation to pollution, promoting further growth of the chicken industry as a sustainability solution does not make sense,” concludes a report by “Eating Better”, a British advocacy group in the UK.
The report argues that replacing red meat with chicken, without substantially lowering consumption, “perpetuates a system that dissociates food production from its effects on the local environment, those who produce it, animals and human health.”
Eating Better is calling for a 50% reduction in all meat and dairy consumption by 2030, a transition to diets rich in fruit and vegetables, moving to more sustainable farming practices and a significant scaling back of factory farming.
riveting reads
Air pollution from farms leads to 17,900 U.S. deaths per year, study finds (The Washington Post)
Focuses on the almost completely unregulated issue of deadly air pollution coming from agriculture and factory farms. The predictable pushback from vested industry interests illustrates the barriers to changing our food production systems.
How to Replace Meat (The Bittman Project)
Five recommendations for how to replace meat and address the ills of the current food production system by former NYT columnist and best-selling food writer Mark Bittman, author of “Animal, Vegetable, Junk.”
The big money is going vegan (The New York Times)
Good overview and context for the money pouring into plant-based proteins, without the hype.
A no-beef diet is great, but don’t replace it with chicken - Vox
Balanced discussion of why turning to chicken as a meat source is problematic too.
The Red Meat Issue Biden Won't Touch (Politico)
Looks at the political and industry pressures to resist climate action in the US meat industry.