Ongoing climate emergency and antibiotic resistance emerge as the most serious threats to the survival of the planet. Will laboratory ‘meat’ save us?
Climate emergency
Climate emergency has been declared in the last couple of years by several countries and local governments. The topicality of the emergency is evident in a number of factors that are both its cause and symptom:
– fires and epochal deforestation on 5 continents. FromIndonesia and Borneo toAustralia, from Brazil to Siberia via Central Africa,
– global warming and climate change, but also extreme phenomena,
– desertification and loss of biodiversity, so malnutrition and water scarcity.
The Global Syndemic analyzed in The Lancet actually identifies climate emergency as one of the three causes of the global epidemic, along with obesity and malnutrition. Liz Specht – Associate Director of Science and Technology at The Good Food Institute – in turn raised the apocalypse alarm. (1) In a magazine, Food Navigator, which for years among others has celebrated palm oil in service to palmocrats (sic!).
Antibiotic resistance
Antibiotic resistance seems to be the missing piece in the Global Syndemic analysis. According to recent British government analysis, the threat to the human species caused by deadly new strains of drug-resistant viruses and bacteria is ‘more certain’ than that of climate change. All the worse when it comes to biological weapons. (2)
‘A post-antibiotic era means, in effect, the end of modern medicine as we know it. Common things like a sore throat or a child’s scraped knee could once again kill‘. (Margaret Chan, former director-general of the World Health Organization. See footnote 3)
The phenomenon, as noted, should be attributed primarily to the misuse of antibiotics in animal husbandry. And that is why the European legislature has introduced strict limits on their use in veterinary medicines. But also to the inappropriate use of antibiotics by the population.
Revolution in agriculture or elimination of agriculture?
The Good Food Institute
and various others-including George Monbiot, the ideologue of the Extinction Rebellion movement (4)-tend to place all blame for the world’s ills on factory farms and meat production. They call for a ‘revolution in agriculture,’ in the collective imagination, but aim exactly to convince the masses that the only way to save the planet is to consume ‘alternative’ foods. And it is curious to note the dialectical violence that excludes any eco-logical approach to animal food productions. Not a mention of the value of organic production, nor the substantial differences between GMO and non-GMO soybeans. Nor any mention of the possibility of cutting ruminant methane emissions (-70%) by adding minimal shares of algae to their feed.
The only ‘revolution’ being proposed, interestingly (sic!), is in perfect sync with the billion-dollar investments on so-called Lab Meat by the IT Corporations and Big Food itself. That they do not aspire to any ‘revolution in agriculture’ but rather to a paradigm shift. From Carlin Petrini’s ‘eating is anagricultural act‘ to the ‘eating is a technological act‘ of Lab Meat’(Lab Meat). Thus, the strategy seems to be to transfer food production-and thus control of populations, as Henry Kissinger explained-from agriculture to hi-tech industry. From 570 million agricultural enterprises–of which 500 million are family businesses, 475 less than 2 hectares in size, 410 less than 1 hectare in area (FAO data) to the few giants able to invest huge resources on new technologies. Once again, in a logic of aggregate concentration. (5)
Is eating a technological act?
Impossible Foods
has in just a few years raised funds of nearly US$1 billion. Theorizing, in company with Beyond Meat, that offering populations a synthetic ‘meat’ is the winning strategy. For their businesses, probably. Nestlé, the first food industrial group on the planet, is also investing in Lab Meat with apparent success. His Incredible Burger is already sold in all German McDonald’s, and that’s just the beginning. Kraft Heinz and Kellogg’s in turn direct investments toward alternative ‘meats’.
Meat industrial giants-JBS LINK, Tyson, Cargill, Maple Leaf, Bell Foods-are also preparing to develop meat ‘cell culture’ facilities. ‘If we can grow meat without the animal, why shouldn’t we?‘ (Tom Hayes, CEO of Tyson, Bloomberg Businessweek, 15.8.18).
Alternative, plant-based or lab-based ‘meats’ currently account for less than 1 percent of the global meat market. And yet – in the face of unparalleled investment and brainwashing taking place – formidable growth is expected. A recent report by international consulting firm AT Kearney speculates that by 2040, 60 percent of the ‘meat’ consumed in the world will be plant-based or cultivated. It is difficult to assess the reliability of the assumed scenario, which nevertheless implies a couple of additional considerations.
Agriculture and the environment
The innovations introduced in the agri-food supply chain in recent decades — starting with the ‘smoky gray revolution’ falsely touted as the ‘green revolution’ (6) — have over the years proved to be a real disgrace to biodiversity, the environment and farming systems, and farmers’ incomes.
The idea of a significant reduction in ammonia and related imbalance of the nitrogen cycle-now threatened by exploding pig farms in the Amazon, China and North Carolina, as denounced in the masterpiece
Soyalism
by Stephen Liberti – is undoubtedly positive. However, it is doubtful that the paradigm shift from meat to ‘non-meat’ is the solution to the environmental problem. Because the behemoths behind it are the same ones who carry on agriculture based on GMOs–old and new–and agrotoxics.
Food and nutrition security
The food and nutritional safety of non-meats also deserves attention. The products that have already appeared on the market are ultra-processed foods, loaded with water and food additives. And this is the real business of the financial industry, to manufacture at derisory cost illusions of ‘foods’ that resemble those of which the consumer still has memory. Plant ingredients often GMOs, genetically modified microorganisms and enzymes, ‘revolutionary’ processes, and artificial flavorings.
Just as we are beginning to understand theinteraction of foods with the microbiota-detecting the favorable effects of organic foods, as well as the negative effects of agrotoxics and synthetic additives-there is an insistence on building ultratransformed products. Of which, it should be noted, no one has any need.
Instead, food security can come from ecoagriculture, as shown by independent scientific studies. Because nature already provides grains, legumes and even animal products that, in the right balance, are perfectly capable of nourishing humans. Thus, it is about recovering native species, particularly the most resilient ones, to help combat climate change. And guarantee every individual the universal right to food, not surprisingly at the top of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Where then is the lab meat, between the 99.9% reason and where the 0.1% business?
#Égalité!
Dario Dongo and Guido Cortese
Notes
(2) See the relevant chapter, in the valuable book by Manlio Dinucci and Carla Pellegrini. SOS Environment – for sustainable development in a world without war (Edizioni La Vela, Viareggio, 2019. 135 pages, €10)
(4) Margaret Atwood’s novel, among other things, was picked up in a successful television series(The Handmaid’s Tale)
(5) George Monbiot. The Guardian, 8.1.20. Just these days a screening of his documentary #ApocalypseCow – how meat kills the planet takes place.
(6) Aggregate concentration of power over the food supply chain is already in vogue in the seed and agrotoxin sectors. V. https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/sementi-i-4-padroni-del-mondo
(7) See Chapter ‘The Smoke Gray Revolution‘ in the free ebook ‘
GMOs, the Big Scam
‘
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
Graduated in law, master in Food, Law & Finance. You have explored the theme of green procurement and urban food policies in the International Cooperation and Peace sector of the City of Turin.
