Currently browsing posts about: Meat

One of the ways I keep up with current issues is through daily newsletters focused on the food industry.  This example comes from GlobalMeatNews.com.

Global Meat News: Focus on Brazil

One of the major players of the global meat industry comes under the spotlight. Brazil is always near the top of the list when it comes to production and exports, and it’s a nation that other countries pay close attention to. This special focus on Brazil looks at some of the top news stories to come out of the country’s meat sector over the past few weeks.

• ABPA calls for swift solution to BRF exports embargo: The Brazilian Association of Animal Protein (ABPA) has expressed confidence that “immediate and effective solutions” will be put in place by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply in order to resume BRF exports to the EU following recent revelations… Read
• Brazil: Focus on sustainability: Brazil has hit the headlines once again for the wrong reasons but while one processor is under investigation, the entire meat industry is working to make the sector sustainable for the future… Read
• European Commission steps up action against Brazilian meat fraud: The European Commission wants to delist all companies involved in the latest cases of fraud in Brazil’s meat sector from having access to European Union (EU) markets, the EU executive’s spokesperson for health and food safety Anca Paduraru has told GlobalMeatNews… Read
• Brazilian meat industry under further investigation: Brazilian authorities have re-ignited their investigation into the meat industry, with a probe into processor BRF SA as well as laboratories accused of covering up salmonella in chicken… Read
• Meat equipment manufacturers join Anutec Brazil: Anutec Brazil takes place this summer and some of the major players in the global meat industry are already involved… Read
• Brazil hits back at ‘health risk’ chicken claim: The Brazilian Association of Animal Protein (ABPA) is “appalled” by allegedly defamatory remarks made by South Africa’s Fairplay Movement on the quality of Brazil’s chicken… Read
• Trade deals pivotal for 2018 beef production: A series of trade deals set to be completed in 2018 are expected to be key turning points for beef production this year… Read
• Banking heavyweight Gabriel Sanint Jaramillo joins Minerva’s board: South American finance executive Gabriel Sanint Jaramillo has joined Brazilian meatpacker Minerva Foods’ board of directors… Read
• Brazil overturns short-lived cattle export ban: The Brazilian government has overturned a two-day injunction on live cattle exports, imposed after animal activists claimed cows shipped thousands of miles abroad faced cruel treatment upon arrival… Read

I’m collecting reports about meat.

The first is The Bacon Report from MeatPoultry.com.

And here’s Restaurant Report Card: What’s in your fast food meat?

I’ve never understood why people who do not want to eat meat for reasons of health, animal welfare, environmental protection, or religion want to eat meat substitutes when vegetarian and vegan diets can be delicious on their own.

Because one of my food rules is “never eat anything artificial,” meat substitutes are not on my food radar.

Nevertheless, I am fascinated by the intense interest of venture capitalist investors—and many eaters—in plant-based or lab-based concoctions that look and more-or-less taste like meat (I’ve tried as many of them as I can, but find them all too salty).

Global Meat News

The industry newsletter, GlobalMeatNews.com, is a great place to keep up with what’s happening with meat substitutes.  From it, I learn:

• UC Berkeley (my alma mater) has started an alt.meat lab funded by Givaudan  (maker of flavors and fragrances), in partnership with the Good Food Institute.
• The size of this market is estimated to reach $5.2 billion by 2020
• Hampton Creek is in talks to license its lab-grown meat to big meat firms.
• Pork grown in a lab nearer to reality
• Chef cooks the world’s first lab-grown chicken
• First lab-grown meat made in Russia
• Lab-made meat rebranded ‘clean meat’ to address ‘yuck’ factor
• Lab-grown meat to ‘revolutionise’ food sector
• SuperMeat wants you to produce lab-grown chicken
• Tyson Foods buys stake in Beyond Meat start-up

Impossible Burger

And then, there is the fuss over this lab-based substitute so realistic that it appears to “bleed.”  It has had some difficulty with the FDA over the safety of this ingredient.

• The New York Times article on Impossible Burger’s FDA situation
• The FDA documents related to Impossible Burger
• An open letter from Impossible Burger’s CEO, Pat Brown
• Complaints from animal welfare advocates about how the “bleeding” ingredient is tested
• Objections from Friends of the Earth (FOE) about the safety of this ingredient and the fact that it is vat-based and GMO.

—Impossible Burger FOIA documents

—On-line searchable database of synthetic biology derived ingredients, including Impossible Food’s “heme”.

–FOE website on the risks of synthetic biology to health and environment.

My opinion (for what it’s worth)

If people would rather eat these things than real meat, that’s fine for them.  I’m not concerned about the safety issues; the probability of this protein’s being unsafe seems small.  

• Should we all be eating less meat?  Yes, for reasons of health and environment.
• Will these products help us do that?  Maybe.
• Will they make lots of money for investors?  It sure looks that way. 

I will be following this topic with great interest.  Stay tuned.

I love Civil Eats’ Infographic explaining the global meat situation.  Here’s how it begins.  Click on the link to see the rest of it.   Definitely worth a look.

Katy Keiffer. What’s the Matter with Meat?  Reaktion Books, 2017.

Katy has a terrific show on Heritage Radio that I’ve been on several times and I was happy to do a blurb for her new book:

Katy Keiffer has produced a thorough and well researched analysis of everything that’s wrong with industrial meat production.  Her book is worth reading for its focus on animal welfare, antibiotic resistance, and worker safety, but even more for its critique of the effects of animal feed production on international trade and land grabs.  This book is for everyone who cares about how meat-eating affects our planet.

Global Meat News is another one of those industry newsletters I follow closely.  It’s been tracking what’s been happening with meat in Brazil.  This is a great place to find out about this quickly.

The USDA has just issued a report on trends in per capita food availability from 1970 to 2014.

Here’s my favorite figure:

The inner ring represents calories from those food groups in 1970. The outer ring includes data from 2014.

The bottom line: calories from all food groups increased, fats and oils and the meat group most of all, dairy and fruits and vegetables the least.

The sugar data are also interesting:

Total sugars (blue) peaked at about 1999 in parallel with high fructose corn syrup (orange).  Table sugar, sucrose, has been flat since the 1980s (green).

Eat your veggies!

Marta Zaraska.  Meathooked: The History and Science of Our 2.5-Million-Year Obsession with Meat.  Basic Books, 2016.

If this were just another diatribe against meat-eating, I would not have bothered to read it but this book is much more interesting than that.  The Polish-Canadian journalist Marta Zaraska describes herself as a “sloppy vegetarian,” someone who doesn’t eat much meat but

can’t seem to completely let go of meat either.  There is something in it—in its cultural, historic, and social appeal, or maybe in its chemical composition—that keeps luring me back.

And that’s what this book is about: the cultural, historic, and social (and maybe even the chemical) appeal of eating meat.  Zaraska identifies the reasons—the hooks—of this appeal, linked as they are to genetics, culture, history, and the politics of the meat industry and government.

Although Zaraska clearly thinks eating less meat would be good for health, animal welfare, and the environment, that’s not really the book’s goal.  Instead, it’s to understand why most people don’t want to be vegetarian, let alone vegan, and why even small steps in that direction are worth taking.

What’s impressive about this book is the friendliness, human understanding, and charm of its writing, and the global scope of the interviews on which it draws (full disclosure: it briefly quotes my work).

A couple of scientific points didn’t ring right (beans do have methionine, just not as much as is needed), and I’m not sure that mock meats, meat substitutes, and edible insects will satisfy the “hooks” she describes so well, but these are minor quibbles.