Climate Change Fanatics Going After Milk and Meat By James Reed
Before it was simply speculation that taking away milk and meat from us ordinary folk, would “save the planet,” or whatever nonsense, even though at every climate change talkfest, the stars are flying in in their private jets, and at meal time, gorge themselves on the choicest meats, such as smoked salmon, while having delivered sermons saying that the peasants need to eat bugs. Of course, the endgame is for there to be none of us, in the depopulation agenda of the Great Transhuman Replacement. In the end, we become the bugs, as has been depicted in sci fi movies since the 1960s.
- A new study from researchers in Finland, published Monday, found that diets that simply cut down on meat and dairy are nearly as climate-friendly as diets that rely on culture-grown meat and milk.
- Global agriculture and food systems, especially the production of meat and milk, accounted for 31% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2021, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization.
Could eating bug powder and fungus meat help stop climate change? Yes, say scientists in Finland, but they’ve also got some more palatable suggestions.
The researchers created a model that calculates how different diets reduce the potential for global warming. With some tweaking, they got that reduction as high as 80% but it came at a price – some variants of the diet got much of their protein from things like cell-based cultured meat, microalgae and milk produced in a tank from cow mammary cells.
The happy surprise was that diets that simply cut down on actual meat and dairy were almost as climate-friendly.
“It doesn’t need to be technology,” said Rachel Mazac, a food systems researcher at the University of Helsinki and one of the paper’s authors.
Their model showed that even replacing 80% of animal food sources with plant-based options resulted in a 75% reduction in climate impact. Reducing meat consumption alone was responsible for a 60% lower environmental impact.
“The real take-home message,” she said, “is we have food pathways forward.”
Those pathways will be necessary, say experts. The world is expected to have 9.7 billion mouths to feed in 2050, up 1.9 billion from today. At the same time, almost every country has signed on to the Paris Climate Agreement, a pledge to begin shifting to a carbon-neutral economy to fight climate change.
Food will be a big part of that. Global agriculture and food systems accounted for as much as 31% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2021, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization. For the United States, agriculture alone accounts for 11%.
“We need to make some pretty sweeping changes if we want to minimize our impacts,” said Mazac.
Future foods: Vat-grown milk, culture-grown meat and microbial proteins
The authors of the paper, published in the scientific journal Nature Foods, focused on what they call “novel or future foods” which include some very old fare and some very new.
In the ancient category would be insect meal. In the Bible, John the Baptist ate locusts and wild honey. Many cultures still eat insects, which provide an excellent source of protein and healthy fat.
In the new category are things like spirulina, mushroom meat and kelp.
Spirulina is a blue-green algae powder that’s vitamin-rich and added to smoothies and other foods. Mushroom meat, which is actually made from a fungus, is sold in the U.S. as Quorn. Kelp burgers and jerky are already available.
Plant-based meat substitutes such as Beyond Burgers and Impossible Burgers are already popular – even at fast-food restaurants including Burger King, KFC, Starbucks and others.
In the future category are milk grown from cells, culture-grown meat and microbial proteins.
These last aren’t on the market yet but there are several companies working on them. Singapore-based Turtle Tree Labs has an operation in West Sacramento, California, that’s testing cell-based dairy. Several companies around the world are working on lab-grown meat. A San Franciso company is working on brewing precision food-grade proteins.
Adding these novel foods to a daily diet wouldn’t require chowing down on whole crickets or having big strings of kelp in your salads, said Mazac. Most come in powder form.
“It's more like you can incorporate it into breads, protein shakes, those kind of things,” she said.
For those who want to double down on future foods, Mazac offered a possible menu.
The day could start with a protein shake for breakfast made from cow milk brewed in cell cultures, with added insect powder for protein, blue-green algae for vitamins and lab-grown cloudberry slurry for taste. At lunch there could be a burger made from beef grown in a vat and for dinner a burrito made from scrambled cultured fungal protein.
It’s not much of a contrast with a meal available today from plant-based options, she noted. That might include a breakfast of whole grain toast with peanut butter and a smoothie made from banana and oat milk. For lunch, an Impossible Burger and for dinner a burrito filled with spicy jackfruit in barbecue sauce.
Once climate change deniers, the agriculture industry positions itself as part of the solution
The transition to diets including foods that contribute less to global warming is already beginning, said Fabrice DeClerck, director of science at EAT, an international foundation that works to make food systems more sustainable.
Speaking from Amsterdam, he said it’s much more common to find healthier and more plant-forward foods at train stations, airports and the like today than it was even five years ago.”
How about the elites live on this diet, and if it is so fantastic, maybe we give up milk and meat at some point, like in 300 year’s time.
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