Animals
A Win For Dolphins
Expedia Group is the latest travel company to join other major travel brands — including TripAdvisor, Virgin Holidays, British Airways Holidays, Air Canada and WestJet — in committing to stop selling tickets for captive dolphin shows. Public sentiment is shifting globally towards the better treatment of marine animals, and jurisdictions around the world are passing laws to ban or significantly restrict their captivity. These include governments in Brazil, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, France, India, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Norway, the UK, and most recently New South Wales in Australia. Expedia Group’s commitment helps continue the trend and puts more pressure on other travel companies to follow suit.
Food
How to become a Planetarian
When it comes to eating less meat and dairy, why not take it a step at a time and become a Planetarian! This is someone who changes the way they eat for the good of the Earth. Website Planetarian Life offers a flexible strategy to ease into a more plant-rich diet. It says, “There is no right or wrong, no judgment, and no 'good' or 'bad' foods." Using small steps, the idea is to help plant-curious cooks easily reinvent how they prepare their meals. Mix-and-match recipes, and ‘how-to’ tutorials provide lots of options. Instead of cutting out meat entirely, Planetarians make small replacements in their regular meals as it suits them. The impact of small tweaks adds up over time and they’re easier to stick with than drastic cuts.
the Climate Crisis
Leave Us Alone For Climate’s Sake
Tropical forests, if left alone by humans, can recover almost 80% of their old-growth status in 20 years. A new study in the journal Science shows that the natural regeneration of tropical forests can happen more quickly than expected and is more effective for climate mitigation than reforestation. Researchers looked at more than 2,200 sites in the Americas and Africa and were surprised at the rapid rates of recovery. They found that tropical forest areas that were used for farming and then abandoned can provide fertile areas for regrowth. While soil, plants, animals and trees all recovered at different rates, the overall beneficial effect offers new hope for biodiversity recovery and climate mitigation.
words of wisdom
“Every action, by every person matters. Every bit of warming you prevent reduces the risk of human and planetary suffering.”
— Damien Carrington, Environmental Editor, The Guardian
“When you are taking action for climate, it’s not for climate change, it’s for you. It’s for your family, it’s for everything you love, everyone you love, every place that you love — that’s why you’re doing it.”
— Katherine Hayhoe, climate scientist
perspective
Why and When We Choose Which Animals to Protect
One of the widely accepted solutions to the climate crisis is to incorporate more plants into our diet to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, freshwater and land use, and global biodiversity loss that stem from consuming animal products. If we don’t make this transition – especially in richer nations – today’s children will face the disastrous consequences.
It sounds simple but it’s not. Eating more plants means challenging psychological mechanisms that protect our dietary decisions says Dr. Luke McGuire, lecturer at the University of Exeter Department of Psychology. In a recent blog, Dr. McGuire explains our relationship with animals as friend or food is highly complex and includes moral principles (“does this decision cause harm?”), social conventions (“what do most people in my culture or society eat?”) and personal autonomy (“it’s my business what I put in my body”).
The first issue — whether we feel moral concern towards a particular animal – often depends on the species. There is a hierarchy of concern starting with humans, to animals we care for (pets, some wild animals), through to farm animals, and those classed as “pests”. We treat our pets as beloved family members but as adults, we and our society accept the great harm done to farm animals treated as commodities to produce cheap meat and dairy. Because we don’t have the same moral concern for them as we do for our pets, their suffering is acceptable. This is called “speciesism”.
Speciesism and diet are intertwined. Research has shown that we regard the animals we eat as less sentient and less able to suffer than animals we don’t eat and this reduces our moral concern for them. Are we born with this hierarchy of moral concern which drives our view of other species or do we develop it?
Dr. McGuire says early evidence indicates that our attitudes towards animals and animal-based foods go through a transition between childhood and adulthood.
One study asked 5—9 year-olds, along with adults, to select who they would choose to save in a boating accident. The options included varying numbers of human lives, dog lives and pig lives. Adults evidenced their speciesism by invariably choosing to save humans and being prepared to sacrifice up to 100 dogs or pigs to save one human life. The majority of children didn’t prioritize humans and, instead, chose to save 10 pigs over one human. This suggests that at least by the age of nine, the hierarchy of concern hasn’t yet emerged.
Another study compared samples of children (9—11 years old), young adults (18–21 years old) and adults (30–60 years old) who were asked how well they thought humans should treat different animals, and whether it was morally acceptable to eat animals and animal products. Children rated eating animals and animal products as less morally acceptable than both groups of adults by attaching importance to animal welfare and not causing harm.
Adults were more likely to reference social conventions such as a perceived natural order placing humans above animals, and the need for animal protein. Also, children thought we should treat farm animals (in this case pigs) better than adults thought we should. These findings demonstrated that speciesism in late childhood remains lower than in adulthood.
This would seem to indicate that conversations around eating plant-rich diets as a strategy for tackling the climate crisis could usefully begin in childhood, when children advocate for the moral standing of non-human animals. And a place to start would be to reimagine the traditional farmyard narratives which present children with an idealized view of animals’ lives on farms.
deeper dive
Soy beans planted on an unplowed corn field. No-till planting is a core practice of regenerative agriculture. Photo: US Department of Agriculture
Regenerative Ag: Green Or a Snow Job?
Much as our brains love a binary choice, the promise and perils of “regenerative agriculture” play out across a broad spectrum of choices. The farming and food system is complex and the current amped up focus on regenerative agriculture (RA) as the solution to what ails our food system can be confusing and a climate-action-delaying distraction. Is it green or a snow job? RA has the hallmarks of both.
The challenge is clear. Agriculture is responsible for 35% of global emissions, 60% of which come from livestock and we cannot reach the Paris climate targets without addressing food system emissions.
So, food producers, farmers and governments are jumping on the RA hay wagon. But how do we tell which green plans constitute fundamental reforms, incremental measures with minimal benefits or merely clever marketing to defend the status quo?
RA has been described as the new “sustainability”, a term that is becoming increasingly meaningless through overuse. There is no accepted definition of RA, unlike organic which is defined and certified. Common RA practices are no-till farming, cover cropping, increased crop diversity, agroforestry, rotational grazing and the reduction or elimination of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. Each of these carry varying degrees of green benefits.
Let’s take the carbon storage potential of soil — the degree of effectiveness is a matter of scientific debate. How much is being stored? Is it preserving carbon or increasing storage, and for how long? There are some benefits but the key question is compared to what? Even the greenest rotational grazing system for beef cattle has 7-10x the GHG footprint per kilogram of all plant-based foods. Soil can be part of the solution, but it’s only one part of a bigger picture.
The soil in livestock pastures can store carbon to some extent, but a sole focus on this risks ignoring all the other challenges posed by animal agriculture.
Reforming food and agricultural systems is like playing “whack-a-mole.” There are multiple challenges —GHG emissions, water, air and soil pollution, antibiotic resistance, food safety etc. Correcting for one, while ignoring others not only doesn’t get the job done but could worsen impacts in other areas. For example, Oxford University researcher Hannah Ritchie shows that focusing solely on emissions in changing food systems, results in negative impacts on the welfare of billions of factory farmed animals.
Another potential barrier to transformative reform is the danger of minor tinkering that delivers minimal impact but fuels grandiose green claims. Recent examples include seaweed feed additives to reduce methane (possible but how practical?), potty training dairy cows to reduce ammonia emissions or zapping manure with artificial lightning. Or capturing methane from manure lagoons for renewable natural gas. None of these measures will come close to being as beneficial as adopting a plant-forward diet.
An effective way to ensure real, substantial reforms to the food system is exemplified by the $46 trillion investor coalition FAIRR. It measures the 60 largest food companies for their performance on 10 risk and return investment factors. The 4th Coller FAIRR Protein Producer Index assesses ALL major factors affecting our food system and puts pressure on companies to improve their records on GHG emissions measurement and reporting, antibiotic resistance, food safety and investing in alternative proteins.
These reports include measurements of some of the risk factors that RA is trying to address, but the “whole system” report card from FAIRR shows there is still a lot of work to be done. And while it’s fair to say regenerative agriculture has a role to play in reforming our food system, it’s not a silver bullet and we need to be cognizant of the pitfalls.
animal protection
Being viewed as property makes animals especially vulnerable to abuse which is why a recent victory achieved by animal legal protection advocates Animal Justice, in the Alberta Court of Appeal, is important. In a case involving a puppy who had been beaten, the appeal focused on how judges should sentence people convicted of cruelty offences. Viewing animals as sentient and capable of suffering, the judges concluded animal abuse is a crime of violence and not merely a property offence. And they said it’s important to consider not only punishment but banning an offender from caring for animals in the future. The ruling will influence judges across Canada to consider animal interests in cruelty cases and protect them from future harm.
Good news
World’s Largest Pea Protein Plant Opens in Manitoba
Roquette Canada — a key supplier to Beyond Meat — recently opened its $600 million pea protein facility to process 125,000 tons of peas per year. It’s another example of food companies ramping up the supply of food ingredients for alternative proteins.
Despite the recent drought and low crop yields, demand for pea protein is expected to climb by 15-24% a year for the next decade. Canada currently produces 30% of global pea production. Nutritionally, yellow peas are an excellent protein source. They're high in fibre, low in fat, easily digestible and make delicious meat alternatives, nutrition bars and sports drinks. Their environmental benefits include requiring less water and nitrogen fertilizer than most other crops, and contributing to soil health.
Finns Will Only Be Eating Meat With Fins
The City of Helsinki is making its catering menu more sustainable. Starting this month, no meat, besides fish, will be served at its meetings, seminars, workshops or public events. Instead, attendees will be offered seasonal vegetarian food and/or “responsibly caught local fish.”
Also, cow’s milk will be replaced by oat milk for coffees, there’ll be a focus on Fair Trade products and attendees will be encouraged to avoid food waste. Helsinki’s City Council committed in 2019 to halve meat and dairy consumption by 2025 to cut emissions.
Finns’ consumption of animal products used to be among the highest in the EU but according to the Finnish Natural Resources Institute, meat consumption has fallen for two consecutive years.
Progress in the Fight Against Antibiotic Resistance
The top 10 UK supermarkets now have farm antibiotic policies that ban most or all of their UK suppliers from using antibiotics for routine disease prevention, according to the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics. However, the ban is only for own-brand meats. Imported and/or frozen meat products are not yet included,
The progress so far is due in part to the Resistance and Responsibility campaign. Since 2018, the UK has reduced its average farm antibiotic use by just over 50%.
Resistance to antibiotics, caused by their overuse in livestock and humans, is increasing and threatens to undermine medical procedures such as joint replacements, cancer chemotherapy and organ transplants. Without a radical reduction in antibiotic use, antimicrobial resistance — which already causes more than 700,000 deaths globally per year — is forecast to kill more people in 2050 than cancer does today.
The alliance says continued pressure on food businesses and governments from health professionals, advocates and consumers is needed to keep reducing the threat.
Data Points
The US government spends approximately $38 billion each year to subsidize the dairy, meat and egg industries and only $17 million to subsidize fruits and vegetables.
At our current rate of emissions, the remaining carbon budget that would allow us to remain at 1.5C degrees of warming, will be used up in six years.
53 million metric tons of carbon per year. That’s the carbon footprint of 39,000 McDonalds’ restaurants around the world, which is greater than the GHG emissions of Norway, according to Bloomberg Green.
A $29 million upgrade to a river dike in Washington State could have avoided $500 million in flood damage in the Abbotsford region of British Columbia this year. BC also ignored numerous engineering studies and failed to upgrade flood containment systems. This outstrips the general recommendation that $1 invested in climate adaptation will deliver at least $7 in benefits, according to the Global Commission on Adaptation.
the third annual puffin awards
Our Puffin Awards usually appear on our blog but this year we’re including them here too.
And the “Puffin” goes to …
Don’t Mess With Jann!
Canadian award-winning singer/songwriter Jann Arden for her “take-no-prisoners” style of activism on behalf of animals – especially her #horseshit campaign and her support of the Canadian Horse Defence Coalition — to raise awareness and bring an end to Canada’s export of live horses to be slaughtered for food.
Net Zero Is a Zero
Juice Media for its hilarious and incisive ‘take down’ of grandiose “green” climate promises by world leaders. Check out their scientifically solid lampoon of the much bally-hooed net zero target. Some top climate scientists are their biggest fans. WARNING: Some language may be considered appropriate.
Okay, Truth to Power, but What Will They Do With It?
The UK’s National Food Strategy for having the plant-based balls to propose a 30% reduction in meat eating to cut emissions. It’s all part of a comprehensive overhaul of every aspect of the food and farm system in the UK to improve health, food security and the climate. Will the British government buy the recommendations or, rather than cut emissions, will they cut and run?
And Here’s What Power Can Do!
The Dutch government for its €25bn plan to radically reduce its livestock to cut down on nitrogen/ammonia pollution caused by an overload of animal manure. The Netherlands has the highest density of livestock in Europe, more than quadruple that of France or the UK, with over 100 million cattle, chickens and pigs. The plan will help transition farmers with buy outs or incentives to switch to lower impact farming.
Denmark for its plan to slash GHG and nitrogen emissions from farming by 55% by 2030. Part of the program to fight the climate crisis, Denmark is funding farmers who transition out of livestock farming and is offering incentives for plant-based food production.
A Plant-Based Vaccine?
Yep, Canadian pharmaceutical company Medicago gets a Puffin for producing the world’s first plant-based COVID vaccine for use in humans. The novel vaccine platform produced a 75% efficacy rate against severe disease in third-stage clinical trials and is about to file for regulatory approvals around the world.
The Revelations Kept Coming
The film makers who made more documentaries to change hearts and minds and challenged the power of those invested in the status quo. 2021’s crop reached millions of viewers and included: “Eating Our Way to Extinction”, “Seaspiracy”, “Meat Me Halfway” and, “Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet” with David Attenborough and Swedish climate scientist Johan Rockstrom.
Recipes for Change
The chefs who published cookbooks to help people incorporate more plants into their diet: Anna Pippus, Myoko Schinner (how to cook using plant-based meats), Omari McQueen (recipes for kids, Omari is 13), Dustin Harder gets it down to one pot, one pan, Jeeca Uy concentrates on Asian dishes, and Kirsten Kaminski on Mediterranean and Middle Eastern.
Ouch! That’s a Gut Punch
“Canada’s Most Popular Food Truck”, a new campaign by the city of Peterborough, Ontario, and Hellmann’s Canada to raise the profile of food waste (58% of food is wasted in Canada — higher even than the global average of one-third).
riveting reads
1. A sobering look at the harm being done by the standard American diet. Although the US is the focus of this story, it’s worth remembering that the diet is exported all over the world (Newsweek).
Americans are addicted to ultra-processed foods and it's killing us
2. A provocative and compelling opinion piece arguing for a more just way of sharing the burden of cutting our carbon footprint (The Guardian).
The richest 10% produce half of greenhouse gas emissions. They should pay to fix the climate
3. A practical look at how the new plant-based burgers are — all things considered — a win for the planet, the environment and animals, by the producer of the documentary “Meat Me Halfway” (Fast Company).
Plant-based meat isn’t perfect, but it’s a form of harm reduction
4. An opinion piece offering a realistic perspective on our current food system (The New York Times).
We will look back on this age of cruelty to animals in horror
5. This article calls out the meat industry’s PR campaigns to position itself as part of the climate solution (Future Feed).
The industry campaign to downplay your climate concerns about meat