I spent much of my junior year at the University of Chicago in the mid-1960s as the managing editor of the college paper, where one of my jobs was to drive with a group of other editors to a huge printing plant west of the city each Tuesday evening, and put together one of the twice- weekly issues. A highlight of the trip was a stop at a local Burger King, where I and my friends would each devour a Whopper, fries, shake, and so forth. It was a messy but filling meal, and a good thing, because those production sessions fiddling with layout and linotype at the printing plant—we were still very much in the analog age—often lasted till well after midnight.
When I left college, I dispensed with Whoppers, and all fast food for that matter, pretty much for the next fifty years…..until today. I just took my first bites of a Whopper, actually an “Impossible Whopper,” in celebration of the fact that this Whopper is made from a plant-based “Impossible” burger. Sure enough, it looks the same as those Whoppers I had a half century ago—it oozes lettuce, tomatoes, onions, mayo, ketchup and pickles from the sides of a soft bun and, most important, the char-grilled quarter-pound “burger” tastes just like those burgers of long ago, but absent the slab of CAFO output full of antibiotics and other questionable items.
Not only am I enjoying the food, but I truly feel like a new-food pioneer, because it is becoming ever clearer that the Impossible Whopper (along with the Beyond Beef burgers I’ve written about previously) are pointing food production in a profound new direction. The soaring stock price of Beyond Beef has been one indication (the stock has been around $150/share; no word yet on a stock offering from Impossible, which remains private).
A new, much better documented indication comes from an independent high-tech think tank, RethinkX, which predicts in a major new study that the Impossible Whopper is truly the tip of the soy bean when it comes to change in agriculture. Among its mind-boggling predictions: “By 2030, demand for cow products will have fallen by 70%. Before we reach this point, the U.S. cattle industry will be effectively bankrupt. By 2035, demand for cow products will have shrunk by 80% to 90%. Other livestock markets such as chicken, pig, and fish will follow a similar trajectory. There will be enormous destruction of value for those involved in rearing animals and processing them, and for all the industries that support and supply the sector (fertilizers, machinery, veterinary services, and more). We estimate this will total more than $100bn.”
For farmers who refuse to see the light and adapt, the destruction sounds as if it could be nearly total, at least for those in the business of CAFO production (concentrated animal feeding operations). Those farmers outside the commodity economy and in the business of producing high-quality real food, like raw dairy products and pasture-raised meat and chicken, could presumably survive and prosper as specialty products for high-income niche markets.
A huge driver of the emerging man-made food economy is something the study authors refer to as “precision fermentation.” Here is some context:
“Ten thousand years ago, the first domestication of plants and animals marked a pivotal point in human history. For the very first time, humans began breeding plants and animals to eat and put to work. These were wild macro-organisms, ranging from cows and sheep to wheat and barley. Humans no longer hunted and gathered their food, but began controlling its production, selecting the best traits and conditions for growing these organisms and thereby, albeit unintentionally, altering their natural evolution.
“An often-overlooked component of this first domestication is the vital role micro-organisms played. Micro-organisms exist naturally within macro-organisms, breaking down nutrient inputs to build useful outputs. For example, micro-organisms in the digestive tract of a cow help produce the protein and amino acids it needs to live and grow. Not only, then, were humans unintentionally manipulating the evolution of macro-organisms, but micro-organisms as well.
“One thousand or so years later, humans were manipulating micro-organisms in a more direct way through early experiments in fermentation. Within controlled environments such as ceramic pots and wooden barrels, humans slowly discovered how to make many staple foods such as bread and cheese, how to preserve fruits and vegetables, and how to produce alcoholic drinks. Humans were now able, in the most rudimentary way, to control the production of food. For thousands of years, the model of food production remained largely unchanged, based on the lessons learned during the first domestication.
“Today, we stand on the cusp of the next great revolution in food production. New technologies allow us to manipulate micro-organisms to a far greater degree than our ancestors could possibly have imagined. We can now unplug micro-organisms entirely from macro-organisms and harness them directly as superior and more efficient units of nutrient production.
“This is the second domestication of plants and animals. The first domestication allowed us to master macro-organisms. The second will allow us to master micro-organisms.”
The driving force in mastering micro-organisms is what the study authors refer to as “precision biology,” which “encompasses the information and biotechnologies necessary to design and program cells and organisms, including genetic engineering, synthetic biology, systems biology, metabolic engineering, and computational biology.”
Key to making precision biology work is something called “precision fermentation.” “This is the combination of precision biology with the age-old process of fermentation. PF is the process that allows us to program micro-organisms to produce almost any complex organic molecule. These include the production of proteins (including enzymes and hormones), fats (including oils), and vitamins to precise specifications, abundantly, and ultimately at marginal costs approaching the cost of sugar. These molecules are vital ingredients across a wide range of industries as they bring structure, function, and nutrition to consumer products. PF is a proven technology that has been used commercially since the 1980s – scientists have been using genetic engineering to modify micro-organisms for producing human insulin and growth hormone, enzymes such as rennet (chymosin), and various other biologics.” Indeed, more than 90% of the chymosin used in cheesemaking today is produced via this precision fermentation, the study says.
The discussion of genetic engineering and other manipulative processes will no doubt disturb some readers here. But this revolution in food production is going ahead whether we like it or not, since the potential benefits, and financial rewards, are so huge: Reductions in greenhouse gases and water use for agriculture, on the order of 50% or more, they say. Food safety problems will reduce, as will antibiotic resistance. Food costs for families will decline significantly, especially benefiting the poor.
This entire shift, with precision fermentation, is already in process. Here is how Impossible Foods describes the production of the Impossible Whopper I had: “We started by using the heme-containing protein from the roots of soy plants. It’s called soy leghemoglobin. We took the DNA from soy plants and inserted it into a genetically engineered yeast. And we ferment this yeast—very similar to the way Belgian beer is made. But instead of producing alcohol, our yeast multiply and produce a lot of heme.”
I suspect genetic engineering, minus the use of Roundup, will be much more palatable and workable on a more customized and small-scale basis than we have come to think of it. In the meantime, I recommend reading the RethinkX report. It contains much more than I could include in a blog post. In the meantime, I still can’t get over the fact that the Burger King a couple blocks from my house, which I had barely taken notice of for years, is now a hotbed of an emerging food revolution.
I still question whether a human digestive system can digest these burgers successfully. Soy protein, for me, is NOT digestible. It may look and taste like meat but my gut still knows the difference. Pasture raised beef is probably less destructive to the environment than industrial soy farming. I don’t blame Burger King for cashing in on the current trend of veganism. It will be an interesting experiment to see the effects these products have on human health over time. I just don’t intend to be one of the guinea pigs for their experiment.
yesterday, I happened upon ‘Brave New World Revisited’… startling to see how much of what Huxley said in 1932, is part of our present reality
soy lentil = “Soylent”… get it?
a search for “soylent” brings up a brand name!
What’s in Soylent?
Soy protein isolate. This is a protein that is extracted from soybean meal – it has amino acid content similar to that in meat – that has been dehulled and defatted, making it nearly carbohydrate and fat free. …
Maltodextrin. …
Isomaltulose. …
Soy lecithin. …
Soluble corn fiber. …
Gellan gum. …
Cellulose salt. …
Sucralose.
Enig and Fallon’s book : The Ploy of Soy, more relevant than ever
Watson, Another time I have to totally agree with what you say, not only the nutritional end, but soybeans, commercially raised, are an environmental disaster, almost all are GMO, requiring roundup or some other chemical concoction to grow/harvest them. And from an endocrinology viewpoint, they have quite an estrogenic effect on the human body, wreaking havoc on our system..
Good question, Bob, about digestibility. I had two of the Impossible burgers yesterday and no problem digesting. I agree, though, that it will be interesting to see the long-term effects of these new foods on human health.
One thing that impresses me about the production of these burgers is that they are made at least partially via fermentation. Fermented soy has been one of the keys to good health and long life in Asia. In reading the report I quoted in the blog post, I learned that soy is only one plant being used to make meat-like foods. Others are peas and coconut. More significant in the future is that many new foods will be produced from muscle, fat, and other proteins that are reproduced in quantity in laboratories, using specialized software, which will significantly reduce the need for large farm tracts.
Most beef in the U.S. is produced via CAFOs, by animals that never eat from pasture. So it’s the exception here. Not necessarily the same in places like Australia and New Zealand.
David, I remain leery of fermented foods despite all the claims that they in general help your diet, health etc. Color me skeptical, we’ll know more in a few decades when we won’t be here anymore unfortunately. I am not a big fan of sauerkraut, it just doesn’t taste good to me but I do like half sour pickles. I also love my homemade raw milk cheese but wouldn’t push it on people.
Ora, I would agree with you on “store bought” sauerkraut, but I have learned to really like our homemade kraut, a totally different product.
John D, another very similar food which we do make at home and love is coleslaw, so maybe I should try my hand at homemade sauerkraut one of these days. Do you have a favorite recipe? I usually use recipes for reference but often just wing it depending on ingredient availability. We try to buy everything local or grow our own, unfortunately this year we have had a rabbit infestation that has decimated some of our crops, good thing they don’t like to eat tomato plants. But greens like kale, lettuce etc has to be grown in elevated containers here, or it’s just going to be making the rabbits fat and we hardly get to taste it.
Ora, Grate cabbage into a crock, sprinkle a bit of picking spice over it in layers (not too much) cover it and let it stand at room temperature for several weeks… After its fermented skim off the top layer of moldy kraut, pack the remaining kraut into jars and place it in a cool dark place… I t will keep for at least a year or longer this way without sealing the jars. Sealing requires heat and the heat required to seal the jars destroys the value of the kraut.
Ken, I’m surprised that you do not seal the jars. I just dusted of our wide mouth Ball jars and put them in the dishwasher, we have a couple of heads of farm fresh cabbage one green and the other is red. If it turns out ok, I’ll try diversifying a bit. Thanks for your instructions…
Ora, Been doing it that way for many years… The kraut will stay crisp for about a year (in our house it is usually gone before that happens) then it will start to darken and soften up, but it is still ok to eat that way. I use mason jars that have a sealer lid but it is not snapped. Just make sure that there is about half an inch of juice covering the kraut in the jar.
Ora, Pickling salt not pickling spice…
Ken, gotcha on the pickle spice. Can’t go wrong if you make it home just be sanitary.
David, I am so very glad( and Now, have never been happier) that we raise our own beef,chicken,etc. Anyone that wants that “Stuff” can have it. Also David, those soybeans better be organically raised And, I still would not want to eat them, I will never believe that soy is that good for a person. The Asians eat it fermented and usually as a condiment, at least the folks from that culture that I know.
I totally agree! I live on a farm where beef and pork used to be raised. Also, all our vegetables where grown. Vegetables are wonderful, but they also come with issues. You have to spray to keep bugs from eating them up and soy is always sprayed. In fact, the seeds bought are already cultivated with proucts to reduce bugs and insects from destroying them. I, too can not eat soy, it’s not worth what it does to my stomach. We used to have our cows fed out with special feed to assure the meat would have good flavor. I have had grass fed beef, hate it, it has a gamey taste. I just don’t eat much beef or pork. Mostly fish, shrimp, chicken and vegetables and fruit. Of course now we have to be concerned about our seafood and where it is harvested. I am fortunate in that I have never liked fast food restaurants, but then again didn’t grow up eating that type of food. I will occasionally eat chic fil a. There are lots of fillers as well as sodium that is in these beyond beef burgers so not sure they are really a healthier alternative. Also, they smell atrocious to me. I, personally love a good steak on occasion. I guess I will remain a member of PETA, people eating tasty animals.
Well David, as the saying goes, “there’s a sucker born every minute” and this is no more evident then in the way people subjectively glom onto sterile, nutritionally inferior fast foods.
As usual with the processed food industry, it’s all about visual and taste appeal… There is little regard for digestibility and nutrition. Hence, the processed food industry along with the pharmaceutical industry is the reason why there is such poor gut health and an obesity epidemic in North America.
One Key difference that seems to be overlooked when it comes to these fake meet products is that they require prime agricultural land (land that is rapidly being lost to urban planning) and intensive agricultural practices in order to produce the crops necessary for their ingredients. Beef on the other hand and for example, namely cow calf operations, make use of hundreds of thousands of acres of mediocre, non-arable grassland in order to bring a calf to its 600 to 700 pound weaning weight as well as sustain the breeding stock. The fake meat approach does not seem to me as an environmentally sound and sustainable way of producing food!
Ken, this report is describing something much different from “the processed food industry” we all love to hate. It’s a totally new approach to food production. You may want to take a look at the report I quoted. Part of the attraction is that factors like digestibility and nutrition can be programmed into the foods, theoretically making them more digestible and nutritious than the naturally-produced product. Moreover, these foods can be produced with much less land required than what we are used to.
David, Modern technology, many times seems to work out to a negative end.
David, Their predictions as you say are indeed “mind-boggling”, as with most of the exaggerated predictions made by those who believe that they can assume control over the climate via legislation… I think the adage often used on the Myth Busters program applies here, “if it seems too good to be true, then it probably is”. As the following SAS’s (Sustainable Agricultures Systems) article states, “By far and away, the biggest contemporary driver of the anti-animal agriculture narrative is the supposed environmental impact of livestock – and that is a good place to start a critique of the plant-based diet agenda”. Indeed, “Central to the anti-animal agriculture narrative, is climate change”.
https://www.sustainableag.co.uk/whats-really-behind-the-plant-based-diet-agenda/
As the above article states, “Lord Monckton’s conclusions on what is really driving the fixation with anthropogenic climate change is important to note, if one wishes to fully understand the plant-based diet agenda.” Monckton’s speech in Toronto is well worth listening to…
The article further states, “The anti-animal agriculture narrative and plant-based diet agenda combines political ideology and commercial interests. This “movement” is insidious, unsavoury, and cannot be ignored by those who value liberty and consumer choice… Nutrition science is ambiguous enough without adding extra layers of complexity. What’s good for the planet and what’s good for human health are understandable concerns to have. But conjoining the two is imprudent, especially when innumerable falsehoods are bandied about regarding both”.
My concern David is, what happens when these plant-based diets go beyond mere recommendation to forceful implementation? The growing radical left wing ideologies and their rabid faith in anthropogenic climate change and obsession with controlling the climate indicates that such a scenario is highly plausible if they assume control of the government, as is the case in Canada under the current Liberal nanny state rule.
David,
I agree with Ken. Why the heck fall for more of the Process Food Industry’s hype? The health benefits of true organic foods kept relatively process free are legion, and the slow debilitating effects of processed foods are to be seen all around us in this country.
The US spends twice as much per capita on health care as Western Europe, but life expectancy is the same. Much of the excess US Health Care Spending is on keeping people with cancer or diabetes or excess weight alive even though the quality of their life is much reduced or nil. And why are Americans so unhealthy? I would suggest:
1. Processed foods where most of the goodness of those foods is destroyed by heating,
2. Huge refined carbohydrate consumption we see: both sucrose (sugar), white flour and white rice
3. New inorganic chemical food additives
4. Hugely reduced farm soil conditions leading to reduced nutritional value in the food produced by that land.
I would add, we are only starting to discover the wonderful complex world of the Biom, micro and macro, this is where true nationwide, long term health will be found. (Please read Missing Microbes by Martin Blaser).
In my opinion, eating factory produced meat, in health terms, is like eating plastic.
The report I quoted is describing an entirely new generation of “processed” food. Something that will be produced by small technology-oriented companies rather than the Big Food companies that dominate processed foods today (though companies like Tyson and Cargill are known to be experimenting with lab-produced foods). In the history of business, companies that dominate one generation of development have difficulty competing with upstarts that pioneer a new generation. You can see in computers, where companies like Digital Equipment, IBM, Wang and others that dominated computers during the 1970s and 1980s were outflanked by newbies like Microsoft and Dell, and eventually these were outflanked by Apple and Google (though Microsoft has been re-born). That kind of “creative destruction” helps explain why the U.S. has led the world in technology development (though that is now under attack from various quarters).
David, the small tech companies you speak of will be eaten alive by the likes of Cargill, if this product turns out to be accepted mainstream, many other small companies have fallen victim in the past. I am not trying to put a negative spin, just my observations.
Veganism
I serve ex vegans every day. Each shares with me a
similar experience of feeling nervous and some how under nourished. Their brain and nervous system has been deprived of whole nutrient dense proteins and animal fats.
These vegans recover quickly and joyously with whole raw dairy products.
Whole organic foods are not going away any more than breast feeding is going away.
Lab based synthetic GMO soy based foods are not the answer. They are a part of the problem. They are symbolic of the modern city culture that is so disconnected from the soil and the roots of farming. Pasture based animal systems sequester huge amounts of carbon and are critical to climate normalization
Who knows the consequences of this latest commercial lab based experiment ? My bet is that we will have even more vegans to rescue very soon.
I understand that many vegans object to the Impossible Burger as this fake meat is, “tissue grown in a lab with cells harvested from a living animal.” It requires the killing of animals, though less of them, but still can be regarded as animal “cruelty”.
I notice that in the two articles linked, the one on heme and the Rethinkx (if that’s the right name) the focus is on marketing, moneymaking, and other aspects of this “project” that have nothing to do with nutrition. I guess we’re supposed to eat their fake food for the “experience,” and then get our actual nutrition from supplement pills (which they or their buddies produce and sell), and if that doesn’t work out, pay their buddies in the medical industry for more pills and other interventions. YUKKKK!!!!
You’re apparently pro- raw milk, but also pro- ultra-processed GMO soybean protein isolate. Way to be a forward-thinking hipster. Us selfish dirty raw meat eaters need to grow up and become modern….., like all those cancer-stricken trendy citizens out there. So bigMEAT will be supplanted by bigMEAT-“ish.” Wow, I’m so excited you jumped on this bandwagon….
Chris, I don’t think any of the analysis or predictions in the study I quoted from propose taking your raw meat (or milk) away from you. It’s just projecting big changes in agriculture based on advances in science and technology that will likely allow food to be produced much more efficiently and cheaply, and without nearly as much of the waste, pollution, water consumption and safety risks as in our present system. I think that’s worth taking seriously. You can still buy horses and buggies (as the Amish do) and light your home with kerosene lanterns if you wish. It’s a pretty free country that way.
I’m a raw dairy consumer & often hear from vegetarian friends that humans are the only species to consume dairy as adults from another species. And that only baby calves should be drinking cows milk. What’s an appropriate response to this. I disagree, but not sure what to say, if anything. I’m okay with everyone making their own choices. Thanks!
tell them the success of the white race issues from the trait peculiar to us, whereby we continue to produce the enzyme necessary for digesting milk, in to adulthood. The Bible explains that vegetarian-ism is ‘a doctrine of demons’. And that our God – the God of Israel, namely Jesus Christ – gave us this particular competitive edge over other races, so that we have more than enough wealth to go forth and preach the Gospel + establish His Covenant in all the Earth.
Since most vegetarians are already caught up in their own cultic self-righteous-ness . … answering that query with a theological assertion causes them to become un-glued.
Professor Marshal McLuhan said “someone who feels his self-image is threatened, has a mandate for war”. Challenging someone’s core belief can be very dramatic = sometimes the demons come out screaming bloody murder … laughably dis-proportionate to what’s just been said … a lot of fun for those of us whose calling it is, to do that sort of thing.
first and last, the anti-christs railing about “white privilege” is really an attack on the Bible. Mark McAffee – for one – can be counted on to go ballistic whenever I mention the genetic aspect in the Campaign for REAL MILK
“And that our God – the God of Israel, namely Jesus Christ – gave us this particular competitive edge over other races, so that we have more than enough wealth to go forth and preach the Gospel + establish His Covenant in all the Earth.”
Gordon, I’d be curious to get your opinion about The Crusades, which were probably the biggest genocide in history of mankind, all in the name of religion and “educating the savages” who were considered inferior races.
I’ll tell you this, if I could time travel I’d love to have lived in America before the White Man arrived.
Denise – I usually say put a dish of any kind of milk in front of almost any animal and watch them lap it up. They can’t get it themselves because they don’t have opposable thumbs. They also do not have our powerful brains to domesticate mammals and are incapable of learning animal husbandry. I consume dairy (after childhood) because 1. I consider raw, pasture-based dairy an excellent food, 2. through my ancestry I have lactase persistence and tolerate it well, 3. darn tasty too!
I hate to hear this vegan myth. Adult animals of many carnivorous and omnivorous species drink the milk of other species. From lions consuming the milk-filled udders of antelope, to pigs sneaking into the pasture to nurse on lactating cows, to adult dogs in the streets of India nursing on free-roaming cows. See https://www.facebook.com/1618454338408442/photos/a.1828824454038095/2001093573477848/?type=3&theater for the photo
Vera, wish we had a “like” button!!
David wrote: “Most beef in the U.S. is produced via CAFOs, by animals that never eat from pasture.”
David’s assertion about most beef never eating from pasture is very wrong. It’s not the reality I see where I live in rural western Nebraska, with the presence of innumerable cattle ranches in the area as well as a handful of CAFO operations that most cattle are subsequently moved into.
Supposedly because of marketing pressures, cattle around here are bred to give birth between January and March, when winter is at its fiercest. [My forward-thinking rancher friend thinks that is insanity and has made her life and the calving experience much easier by breeding her cattle to give birth at the time of year Mother Nature choses, around May-June]. As the calves mature, sometimes they and their mamas are trucked to other pastures to take advantage of better forage opportunities. The important point is that all cattle are raised on pasture until they are 7-9 months old. The label of grass-fed is misleading, because all cattle start out being grass fed, even those that wind up in a CAFO.
At 7-9 months of age, most cows are shipped off to a CAFO. Ranchers do retain some cows on their ranch for future breeding purposes. Also, there are some ranchers who believe in keeping their cattle on pasture until slaughter. The beef from those cattle kept on pasture can then be called grass-finished.
Cattle sent to a CAFO are kept on the feedlot until around 12-15 months of age, when they are slaughtered.
If you’re looking for beef that has not been raised in a CAFO, look for the term grass-finished. If beef is described as grass-fed, ask if it’s also been grass-finished.
This article describes a visit by a vegan to a CAFO operation near Hudson, CO. https://www.precisionnutrition.com/cattle-feedlot-visit. A more favorable outlook than I expected.
much truth is said in jest ;
URL for the trailer of the new movie Supersize me 2 = just one minute and a half = amusing, entertaining, directly on-point what happened to the milk biz over the last couple of decades…. As the terms “organic” “grass fed” etcetera were mis-appopriated by the processors
Regarding Denise’s query about how to respond to vegetarian friends that say that humans are the only species to consume dairy as adults from another species. And that only baby calves should be drinking cows milk.
I’ve also wondered how to respond to those points. I’ve realized that if left to its own nature, a cow will only produce milk after its calf is born, and then its lactation period ends after about 10 months. The cow does not stop producing milk because the calf doesn’t want it anymore – the cries of a just-weaned calf are heartbreaking. However, for the mama to continue her cycle of life, she needs to dry up so she can subsequently rebreed and have more babies. Lactation is very stressful on the mama’s health. The life span of a commercial dairy cow is only a few years.
So for species living in the wild, I think the adults don’t drink milk because there is no supply available for them to keep drinking milk. It’s a supply-side problem. The average domesticated dairy cow supplies far more milk than is required to feed a calf, so we’ve manipulated their biology to feed ourselves milk.
Does my theory make any sense?
in fact, cows / goats / sheepies do keep on lactating, as long as someone keeps milking them. The quantity dwindles so that eventually it isn’t worth the effort for what you get. Much the same as with females of the human species
the 10-month time frame for lactation, is an invention of modern dairying, forcing the cows to conform to a minimum quantity requirement. When she doesn’t, then that poor cow is off to the slaughterhouse. The average lifespan of a cow in the CAFO model, is 42 months. So the milk America drinks and also the hamburgers served at fast food joints are based on “throw away cows’
Rather than live out a lifespan of 10 years ( or more) so as to yield a return on investment over the long haul, cows in CAFOs have their metabolism cranked-up with engineered feeds, so as to produce absurdly- large quantity of milk. They break down.
what we’re confronting, is : a contest between imaginary ‘money” versus real capital in the form of chattel on the hoof. Mega corporation food processors and their supply chain CAFOs are just a branch of the Usury racket. If you’re on that side of the usury equation, the banksters will hypothicate in to existence as much of their currency as they accredit you for.
The root cause of the ails of American industry, is : the un-utterly perverse money system. In the hands of the globalists since 1913.
the Campaign for REAL MILK definitely does pose a threat to Big Dairy. Because genuine family farms producing REAL MILK for local market, is a profitable enterprise. A wealth generator for the community. The very anti-thesis of what the Usury War Party wants. They cannot compete on quality … our present task is to educate the consumers about the difference.
Breast milk is raw milk.
Prior to modern times mankind all over the world spent a great deal of time starving. When mankind figured out that sunshine ( sunshine to grass to a four stomached ruminant ) could be converted into a whole food via a mammal, a huge competitive advantage was gained.
Milk was portable. It was also immediate food. No hunting or fishing. It was also whole and could sustain life as a whole food.
Old milk is called kefir and old kefir is called cheese. It lasts for years and gets better and better.
Raw dairy just happens to be fantastic gut biome and immune system building food.
These are the nutritional lessons of the ages.When idiots in modern times mess with a million years of nutritional genius…. Something is going to break and not go well
Interesting feature in the upcoming New Yorker about Impossible and Beyond Meat. They were both launched in CA by entrepreneurs backed by venture capital. Author seems to agree that if they succeed in their goal of knocking off Big Ag cattle industry, we’ll be doing a huge amount to help our climate crisis (via saving water, reducing carbon emissions, reducing pollution, etc).
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/09/30/can-a-burger-help-solve-climate-change?utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Magazine_Daily_092319&utm_medium=email&bxid=5be9d5a12ddf9c72dc1f451d&cndid=46074541&esrc=&mbid=&utm_term=TNY_Daily
What about the millions of beef cows that graze on wild pastures on range lands. This is an essential carbon sink and vitally important to manage wild grasses in the mountains and rolling foothills. Don’t forget the work of Alan Savory and revitalization of grass lands and soils.
If we start eating out of science labs….that’s the beginning of the end. Our earth is a super biome and an interaction between living things. The science lab plays little if any part in that bionic existence.
Our soils require animal manure to bring fertility to the earth to feed the earth worms that then feed the roots of plants and increase water holding capacity. All of this sequesters carbon and so much more.
This is the very basis of the organic revolution.
Lab phoods are a bad fad. Just like Pharma does not create health.
Soil based Real Whole Foods build immunity and nourish our biomes….earthly, animal and human alike.
Cows on pastures are an essential part of the solution.
David, one major omission in that article: the long term health care costs, which have not yet been studied and could be anywhere from zero to billions of dollars. Scary thing is nobody knows and worse, “they” don’t want us to know before we proceed with irreversible decisions. Fancy advertising may sway the uneducated masses, but there will always be many of us that just don’t trust the integrity of corporate food.
Yes, and it appears that most Canadians that patronize Tim Horton’s, apart from the vegans in British Columbia and the vegetarians in Ontario, don’t trust that pie in the sky advertising.
According to the following CBC article, Sylvain Charlebois a professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University in Halifax stated, “Charlebois said his data shows B.C. has the highest rate of veganism in the country and Ontario has the highest rate of vegetarianism, which may explain the decision to continue offering Beyond Meat breakfast sandwiches in those provinces.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/tim-hortons-cuts-imitation-meat-products-from-menus-in-some-provinces-1.4599165
Ora, I highly doubt the study’s authors even considered the possibility there might be long term health care costs. And even if they did, that’s not something our system takes seriously for nearly all foods. Of course, lots of people assume that food produced by Big Ag and other parts of Big Food wouldn’t be out on the shelves if it wasn’t safe, but that’s not the case, as we all know. Keep in mind that segments of the healthy food market have been oblivious to health care costs, including the purveyors of mostly fruit diets, low-fat diets, and healthy-fat/raw-dairy diets with heavy doses of fermented cod liver oil.
I don’t care how it tastes, it’s made of GMO Soy.
Soy makes boys into girls …. and little girls into women prematurely. ….enough said.
GMO soy makes all sorts of other mutations I can not talk about in a socially appropriate conversation.
Bad fad for sure.
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&channel=iphone_bm&source=hp&ei=EZ6JXeP8KMb9-gSd-4LQCA&q=ingredients+of+impossible+burger&oq=ingredients+ofn&gs_l=mobile-gws-wiz-hp.1.1.0i13l3j46i13j0i13l2j46i13j0i13.2142.20039..21571…14.0..1.245.3440.8j18j2……0….1…….8..0i143j0i131j0j46i131j46i275j0i10j46i10j46j0i22i10i30j33i160j0i13i30.GT3XGk48i_Q
The ingredients say it all.
An insightful and amusing letter from Joel Salatin to Ellen Degeneres
https://www.thelunaticfarmer.com/blog/9/25/2019/a-letter-to-ellen-degeneres#comments-5d8b6ca71dc85a3284980dd3=
Now that you’ve launched your #BeNeatEatLessMeat campaign, I’d like to encourage you to refine the message to #BeNeatEatLessJunkMeat. To lump all meat into a “bad for you and the environment” ball is incorrect, unfair, and offensive.
Roughly 75 percent of all the agricultural land in the world can’t grow veggies. It’s too steep, too infertile, too rocky, or two far from diesel fuel. But these areas grow grass. You could eat that grass all day and you’d die. Humans can’t metabolize grass.
But the rumen bacteria inside an herbivore can upgrade grass to meat and milk, both extremely nutrient dense foodstuffs for humans. To deny humans the food value of 75 percent of the world’s agriculture area is to condemn millions if not billions to starvation, and I know you wouldn’t want that.
Feeding the world without animals? The numbers just don’t stack up. Now how about food quality? Let’s look at a short list of comparisons:
FOOD QUANTITY PROTEIN CALORIES
Beef 3 oz. (one serving) 25 grams 173
Quiona 3 cups 25 666
Black beans 2 cups 25 613
Edamame 1 cup 25 249
In case you missed it, 3 cups of quinoa and 2 cups of black beans is a pile. I might not want to be in the same room with you if you’ve eaten that much.
A wonderful letter sent to you from Amanda Radke, a rancher, points out that your fave CoverGirl makeup uses ingredients from beef. And her point about beef producing less greenhouse (GHG) gases than landfills is good too.
Perhaps the most disingenuous aspect of your crusade is that you refuse to parse the difference between regenerative and degenerative beef production models. To refuse to recognize the clear soil building versus soil depleting reality of a mob stocking herbivorous solar conversion lignified carbon sequestration model offends anyone with an ounce of functioning brain fatty acids (most of which come from animal fats).
So how about we stop the war against diversity and nutrition? How about we stop the war against enough food? Let’s appreciate that people are different and that if you thrive on a non-meat diet, good for you. Most don’t. You of all people should appreciate diversity and not demand a one size fits all approach.
You should come and visit Polyface. You would see such abundance in wildlife, insect life, pollinators living in, above, and around our perennial pasture grasslands it will make your heart sing. I challenge you to go visit where your veggies are grown and tell me those areas germinate as much life diversity. Go ahead, take a look.
How about let’s promote eating good food, authentic food, ecologically enhancing food, from whatever source? And let’s not bathe the world in uncharitable elitism. Hmmmm?
Respectfully,
Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm
Go Joel…. Awesome words!!!
I gotta agree with Mark… Joel certainly has a way with words that resonate and just make too much sense. Love his books. Mark, why don’t you write one, I’d be curious.
MOST ! important.
I’m surprised that Mark McAffee hasn’t posted this.
Thanks to him for hosting seminars re RAWMI recently. And I mean that in a nice way
an update on the constitutional challenge underway in Ontario.
from the RAWMI newsletter
IMPORTANCE OF METHODOLOGY AND STATISTICS IN CHALLENGING CANADA’S PROHIBITION OF ACCESS TO RAW MILK
The case challenging Canada’s prohibition of access to raw milk continued September 16-18 in Toronto. This is a Petition brought forward by petitioners for Glencolton Farm. Two experts, a regulatory authority for the Canadian government and an emeritus professor in dairy science, were cross examined by the attorney for Glencolton, with assistance from microbial risk assessor and former RAWMI board member Peg Coleman.
As noted in the May 2019 Ripple newsletter, RAWMI supported work by independent statistician Dr. Nick Azzolina which confirmed not only that there is no significant increase in outbreak rates with increasing access to raw milk, but also no increase in rates of illness or hospitalizations. With additional support from the Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF) through the SRA Whole Truth, Whole Milk Campaign, Dr. Azzolina and Peg prepared a technical manuscript recently submitted to the prestigious journal Risk Analysis that includes more context and additional results for rates of illness and hospitalizations over time. For the Toronto case, this high level statistical analysis in both a report and a manuscript submitted for peer-review is directly applicable. Because of this work, expert witnesses for the Canadian government and others cannot make speculations about increasing raw milk outbreaks and illnesses without admitting that their views are based on opinion or flawed studies that are not based on a valid statistical analysis of data.
Other important questions arose in Toronto at last week’s cross examinations by the attorney for the Glencolton Farm petitioners, many regarding methodology for risk/benefit analysis. In cross examination, the experts attempted to dismiss all studies demonstrating benefits on the grounds that the mechanisms of benefit were not fully known. However, their dubious reasoning was challenged on the basis that risk predictions are also highly uncertain, and the mechanisms causing one person to develop illness and another to remain healthy are only partially understood. The reality is that uncertainties exist for predicting benefits as well as predicting risks, and formal methods are available for unbiased assessments.
It has been documented by Loss et al. (2015) that there is a significantly lower risk for children consuming raw versus pasteurized milk for monitored health outcomes including respiratory illnesses, fever and diarrhea. That same year, McCarthy and colleagues (2015) determined that pasteurized milk has unintended adverse consequences for immune system development linked to higher risks for allergy and inflammation than determined for raw milk. The advances of knowledge for raw milk benefits and risks, and their mechanisms, are the subject of another manuscript in preparation through the Whole Truth, Whole Milk Campaign.
Thanks to WAPF, RAWMI, and other donors for supporting such rigorous independent analysis using well-described methodologies essential for peer-review, thereby strengthening the scientific basis for future decisions about raw milk in Canada, the US, and around the world.
THE BATTLE FOR BUTTER
After years of waiting for the FDA to respond to a formally submitted “Citizen Petition”, there is now an exciting food fight finish on the horizon! Years ago, the FDA denied a Citizen Petition to legalize access to raw milk on a national level and to allow raw milk to be sold across state lines. The FDA’s letter of denial was lacking in scientific basis; it denied peer-reviewed literature that was published through the National Institutes of Health, and even denied that the European PARSIFAL study related to raw milk. The PARSIFAL study of over 14,000 children found that there was a statistically-significant lower rate of allergies, eczema, and asthma in kids who were raised in a farm environment and consumed raw milk. Yet the FDA insisted that “farm fresh milk” was not raw milk!
Additional EU studies followed after PARSIFAL and confirmed the findings. Raw milk is a powerful immune system building food. The FDA refused to accept any of this data even though it was PUBMED published and peer reviewed. The FDA position clearly indicated their bias against raw milk, so a different approach was needed to increase consumer access to raw dairy products.
Together with the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, a third FDA Citizen Petition was submitted in 2015. This petition was about legalization of the shipment and sale of raw butter across state lines. Instead of taking down the whole raw dairy wall, we decided to focus on the weakest brick in the wall: RAW BUTTER! The rest of the bricks would come tumbling down later, after RAWMI had done its work to make raw milk very low risk and safe.
Raw butter is an exceptionally nutritious food. For instance, the enzyme alkaline phosphatase (ALP) is found in the butter fat membrane that covers fat globules. ALP decreases inflammation in the body; it is associated with good health and less chronic illness, such as cardiovascular disease and Type-2 diabetes. Raw milk has 4% butter fat, but raw butter contains 86% fat and thus it is very high in alkaline phosphatase. ALP enzyme is destroyed by pasteurization. Americans are being denied access to raw butter which is a very powerful anti-inflammatory food, meanwhile we are suffering from more chronic illness!
Butter’s low moisture, low pH levels, high fat content and salt levels inhibit pathogen growth and the FDA science concurs with this argument. Raw butter has had a near perfect track record of zero illnesses and no deaths for 60 years. The FDA is supposed to respond to Citizen Petitions within 180 days, but the Raw Butter Petition has had no response from the FDA for more than 3 years.
Now, RAWMI and the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund are taking raw butter into the federal court system to force the FDA to respond and address each of the petition demands. The FDA should have no rational or reasonable basis for argument against raw butter and its legal access by all Americans. The courts should side with the facts and order the FDA to start regulating raw butter the way they regulate 60-day aged raw cheese, allowing it to pass freely all over America.
Additionally, RAWMI has been actively involved with working towards a change of Pennsylvania state law to allow raw butter to be produced and sold in Pennsylvania. According to those involved in the project, the new law appears to have broad support and will likely pass into law next year.
Safe raw milk makes ultra-safe raw butter with powerful health benefits. We are looking forward to this food fight and the positive Ripple effect is can have on all the other raw dairy products. We’re taking it one step at a time as we inch closer and closer to our vision of universal access to safe, low risk raw dairy products for all people.
I urge all concerned to read what’s on Peg Coleman’s page at
https://gogetfunding.com/whole-truth-whole-milk-campaign/
I am impressed ; to prevail in Court, you have to overwhelm the other side
as a member of the Society for Risk Analysis, this lady ‘has the goods’ = a world-class expert, she has the credentials / expertise to be taken seriously by the Court in the GlenColton case.
although that particular funding campaign has expired, she deserves our continuing support
I too am impressed. Unfortunately, it’s too late to donate. Not that I’m swimming in gold but do share and support real people doing the walk and talk without the glamor.
Real Organic Project:
https://www.realorganicproject.org/vermont-farmers-speak-out-about-usda-organic-standards/
I agree with their concerns… the same concerns I had 20 years ago and the reason why I chose to not be part of the organic certification process. From the accepted use of antibiotics to vaccines to genetically engineered seed inoculants… as far as I was concerned the process was a farce.
Just as predicted…here it goes with the negative health effects of impossible burger lab meat.
All sorts of toxic effects starting to show up.
The FDA and GMO links are being exposed and people are getting sick!
https://gmofreeusa.org/take-action/impossible-burger-health-survey/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=03a4a34c-3f46-42d0-b2b8-5fdd44ed0f73
Mark, to say that “all sorts of toxic effects starting to show up” is quite a stretch. if you read the press release you link to, it says something to effect that there have been a few cases of gastrointestinal upset. But basically, they are looking for people to let them know about health issues that may come up in the future. Heck, if some organization put that out about raw milk, you’d say a little gastrointestinal upset probably a good thing, since new consumers aren’t used to raw milk.
Yes….thank you Watson, that information cams from our recent Rawmi Ripple Newsletter.
Rawmi board members Mark Mcafee and Sarah Smith provided rawmi intensive training to 50 farmers in WA state and BC Vancouver Canada last month.
It was a 2400 mile Rawmi Road Trip with visits to raw dairy farmers all along the way.
The Peg Coleman statistical analysis work is awesome and it has been both an honor and a pleasure to support this work and be a part of the editing team. Team work makes the dream work ! Go Peg!
One last thing. Opdc held our biannual Camping with the Cows event this last weekend.
Wow. All I can say is WOW!!
620 people with tons of kids, camping under the stars on the pastures with 40 camp fires along our runway and great food. Farm tours, tons of educational one on one time. A tour of our new milk barn and watching the milking. Tons of questions. Campers ranged from 40 foot RV diesel pushers, to Girl Scouts in tents to people sleeping on straw Sudan bales of Hay. Wood stock had nothing on us. Music provided by the local Kerman Hi Jazz band! The kids riding the Cow Train for hours on end for nine hours!!
The humanity of the human connection from farmer to consumer and consumer to farmer was intense and soul to soul. So many hugs, so many thank you’s
So many shirts and hoodies now being worn around California that say: Drinking Raw Milk is Cool ?
So many testimonials about no lactose intolerance and reduction of allergies etc…
The biggest comment…. Opdc raw milk just tastes great ! We tasted our new truly raw cheese flavors…. Jalepeno and others. Everyone loved it! The coffee pour over station at 0600 in the morning with everyone suffering campers bed head hair was awesome and real.
It was a team work effort, months of detailed planning. A huge success.
How cool you all described!
I wish I could get there, no doubt! 😉
If traditional global meat industry giants such as Tyson and Cargill are investing heavily in the fake meat industry, without a doubt, companies who are/were the movers and shakers behind the CAFO livestock industry, then it appears to me that the fake meat industry has little to do with health. As the following article states, “It’s a curious arrangement, and it illustrates the traditional meat industry’s longstanding interest in fake meat’s success. “Since 2015, global meat giants from Tyson to Cargill have invested in high-momentum, animal-free protein startups seeking to upend the traditional meat industry,” reads a report last year from CB Insights, a research firm that specializes in startups. Indeed, Cargill, the world’s third-largest meat producer, is investing in pea protein for plant-based meat. Tyson and PWH, one of Europe’s largest chicken producers, have invested in Beyond Meat—and Tyson recently exited its investment to start its own plant-based meat brand. Last fall, Perdue Farms announced it is also looking into its own line of plant-based products.”
https://newrepublic.com/article/153998/promise-problem-fake-meat-beyond-burger-impossible-foods
As the article goes on to point out with respect to the listed nutritional superiority and supposed health benefits of fake meat that, ”that case only works if you ignore the large body of evidence that processed food consumption contributes just as much, if not more, to obesity, cancer, and other disease risk. The most convincing piece of evidence, laid out in Pollan’s book, is that people who eat a Western diet—made up of 60 percent processed foods—are uniformly unhealthier than people who eat diets made up of mostly whole foods. Even when the whole foods are high-calorie, high-fat, or high-meat, Pollan shows, the people who eat them are still less obese and less disease-ridden than Americans”.
The article goes on to conclude, “In fact, companies like Impossible and Beyond have arguably created a new, higher tier of ultra-processed food. As Engadget noted, “A Cheeto or Twinkie is unambiguously synthetic.” But these fake-meat products are engineered, specifically, to fool our senses into thinking they’re whole foods—and then marketed, by meat companies, to change our language to reflect the trick. This is nutritionism at its finest, and its success so far reflects the lengths we will go to avoid changing our behavior: We would rather change the entire definition of meat to include something we know isn’t meat, rather than eat less of it to save the planet and ourselves.
Nutitionism = Nutritional Reductionism = Scientific reductionism, a paradigm that tends to want to lump everything into one simplistic box, ultimately violating unique individual qualities. Indeed, a methodology that is counter health, vitality and sustainability…
more in the same vein… from the magazine Corporate Knights
Maple Leaf foods – Canada’s king of pork and poultry becomes the prince of plant protein in America.
https://www.corporateknights.com/channels/food-beverage/plant-burgers-bring-home-bacon-15598137/
telling – they don’t call it “fake meat”. rather, it’s “refrigerated plant protein”.
Like other meat majors, Maple Leaf had been keeping a watchful eye on the steady growth in plant-based foods. In 2016, American meat giant Tyson (with US$40 billion in annual revenue) coughed up US$13 million in venture capital for a 5% ownership stake in Beyond Meat, the much-hyped vegan startup. A few months later, Maple Leaf announced that it wasn’t just dipping a toe in the sector, it was going whole hog after the U.S. alternative protein market, dishing out US$140 million for a veteran of American veggie dogs, Massachusetts-based Lightlife Foods.
Buying Lightlife – a respected 40-year-old tempeh and tofu hotdog maker – was a solid play for Canada’s largest pork producer and chicken processor, which used some of the cash from selling off its bakery division at a time when North Americans have been shunning white bread and trying plant protein in record numbers. With four decades in the game, Lightlife had already cornered 38% of the refrigerated plant-protein market when Maple Leaf bought it out in early 2017.
Later that year, the Canadian meat maven behind the Schneiders, Shopsy’s and Prime brands forked over US$120 million for another leading heritage vegan brand, Field Roast Grain Meat, a 20-year-old Seattle-based company famous for its artisan vegan sausages and “celebration” roasts (you know, the kind you can serve up at family holidays). Within 12 months, Maple Leaf Foods had bought itself a 50% U.S. market share in the rapidly growing refrigerated plant-protein business.
And just like that, the king of Canadian pork and poultry became the new prince of plant protein in the U.S.
What I’d like to know that they never say is, what kind of plants are we talking about eating? Are they trees, bushes, tumbleweeds or some kind of grass? (the other kind,)
I’d expect they are not pine trees since those have a strong taste and recognizable odor. So let us speculate, what do you think, oak? ash? cedar? A mix? Or maybe some kind of cane since it grows fast and doesn’t even need fertilizer, yum… Maybe Mark or David can tell us but maybe it’s a “trade secret” that might leave a bad taste in one’s mouth. Definitely count me out, too shady even for a tree..
To the shock of absolutely nobody on this site, I’ve noticed that “they” are now flooding the airwaves with Impossible Burger commercials. Disguised as Burger King ads etc, but I’d bet that BK is not paying for the ads and are probably getting paid for it instead. Correct me if I’m wrong. So, what kind of plants are they made from, I still wonder about the sourcing… isn’t anyone else curious? Crickets on this front.
On second thought, maybe hemp could be the salivation (mis-spelling intended) of non-meat eaters everywhere since it does grow fast and cheap, could be the future of food.
Follow up: I know that it is a controversial subject, just as raw milk is, but hemp could well be elephant in the room. What I don’t understand is why people are willing to spend hours waiting in line and big bucks for the stuff now that it’s legal in more and more places, when you can just grow your own easier than your lawn. Seeds, baby, seeds.
Go ask Alice, I think she’ll know. Feed your head, said the dormouse.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said Tuesday in Wisconsin that he’s unsure if small family dairy farms can survive as larger institutions continue to boom.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/463955-trump-agriculture-chief-no-guarantee-small-farms-can-survive
Harvard Raw Milk Debate now up to 56K views
Cool!
Nutritional benefits of pasture-raised food
https://foodanimalconcernstrust.org/nutritional-benefits
Beef has something over fish.
The research community is finding that fish is very often contaminated with plastic micro pieces. Beef does not live in the ocean and would not be contaminated with plastic.
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/microplastic-contamination-and-seafood-safety/
Houston we have a real problem. We thought carbon sequestration was a problem with climate change…. And temperature increases.
Eat beef. Recycle plastic.
Regional asynchronicity in dairy production and processing in early farming communities of the northern Mediterranean
https://www.pnas.org/content/113/48/13594.abstract
Cows painted with zebra-like striping can avoid biting fly attack
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0223447
Here is an interesting twist. We recievdd two more visits from the FDA in the last two weeks. The inspectors were professional and helpful.
However, one if their critiques was that we Post Peer reviwed published NIH approved PubMed science on our opdc website for consumers to review. They don’t want us to post evidence of medical or health benefits of raw milk…. Even though that evidence is NIH ( FDA approved ).
Sounds pretty crazy. We are asking them to officially make that statement on FDA letterhead and clarify that rational.
It would appear that NIH HHS approved science should be available for every one to see and review. If not…..why not?
Any thoughts ?
Mark, It’s called, “situation ethics” = “the doctrine of flexibility in the application of moral laws according to circumstances”. A similar paradigm that the disciple Paul was confronted with and felt a need to address in his letter to the Romans about what happens to those who “suppress the truth”… “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased/reprobate mind to do what ought not to be done”.
might have something to do with the report on Food Chemical News
= FDA rejects petition to allow interstate sales of raw milk with warning labels
https://iegpolicy.agribusinessintelligence.informa.com/PL221790/FDA-rejects-petition-to-allow-interstate-sales-of-raw-milk-with-warning-labels
Reminds me of a company I profiled some years ago that got into trouble with the FDA–supposedly over “health claims.” But they never could get a straight answer from FDA, They were shaken down for a ton of $$$ to pay for FDA inspections of their site.
https://www.davidgumpert.com/were-still-in-business-says-determined-wilderness-family-naturals-despite-fdas-determination-to-bleed-firm
Mark, I’d guess it might be because they don’t want to be undermined and discredited by info put out by their own side, that would undermine their hysteria and “chicken little, boy cries wolf” stance about the safety of drinking raw milk.
Can you guess which one is the dog food?
https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/quiz-veggie-burger-or-dog-food?fbclid=IwAR3suUITEnAA3NUy55NsjfJa6Huj5BLIpQzWgcRjgYunhTm-inYW4tghDuQ
Grass to the Glass
https://www.njskylands.com/farm-raw-milk
Dr Heckman,
I forwarded your recent article to our researcher friends at UC. Davis IMGC. Well written and on point. Nice piece.
What is going to happen when advances in pathogen testing technology become really cheap, field expedient, highly accurate and farmer available??
Who will Marker sue? Who will the FDA move against? There will no longer be a basis to hate on raw milk.
What will processors do ? Will continuing to produce a highly allergenic and hard to digest dairy product still be defensible?
Dairy market researchers have found the following dairy trends in CA:
1. Plant based
2- Eco and ethical treatment of animals
3. Farm to Table
4. Organic and unprocessed.
5. Gut friendly
At OPDC we check 80% of those boxes. This comes directly from a multimillion dollar 2019 annual Got Milk? Market research report.
Funny how they used “unprocessed ” verses raw in their description of trends.
New Research Finds Multiple Effects on Soil from Exposure to Manure from Cows Administered Antibiotics — Colorado State University
Source: Colorado State University
October 9, 2019
Mary Guiden
“Use of antibiotics is under heightened scrutiny due to the increased prevalence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. While the primary focus is on more stringent use of antibiotics in medical settings, the use of antibiotics in the livestock sector is gaining increased attention. A new study led by Colorado State University and the University of Idaho found multiple effects on soils from exposure to manure from cows administered antibiotics, including alteration of the soil microbiome and ecosystem functions, soil respiration and elemental cycling. The team also saw changes in how plants allocate carbon below ground and take up nitrogen from the soil. In addition, they observed a decrease in ecosystem carbon use efficiency. This means that when antibiotics are used, less carbon is stored in the soil and more is lost to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. The study, “Prolonged exposure to manure from livestock-administered antibiotics decreases ecosystem carbon-use efficiency and alters nitrogen cycling,” is published Oct. 9 in Ecology Letters. Carl Wepking, the lead author and a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biology at CSU, said the findings give him “pause” due to the widespread use of antibiotics. “There’s no environment on Earth that is free from the effects of antibiotics,” he said. In the U.S., 80% of antibiotics are used in livestock production. Globally, livestock antibiotic use is projected to increase by 67% by the year 2030.”
The use of antibiotic resistant marker (ARM) genes in GE foods and soil/seed inoculants etc. should also be cause for concern! Studies from the University of Illinois and University of Newcastle have identified the ability of DNA transfer from GE foods to microbes in the gut. The WHO has issued warnings and the British Medical Association has called for a ban on using antibiotic marker genes.
http://www.pnf.org/Genetically_Engineered_Foods.pdf
When genetic engineers splice a foreign gene into a plant or microbe, they link it to another gene, called an antibiotic resistance marker gene (ARM), that helps determine if the first gene was successfully spliced into the host organism. As an example, Upjohn’s recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbSt), contains an ampicillin resistant marker gene in its plasmid variety BST-1 and a tetracycline resistant marker gene in its plasmidless variety BST-1C. (Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology, Volume 11
In an ISIS (Institute of Scientists In Society) article entitled “GMOs Genetically Modified Food and Animal Feed” Dr Harash Narang, a clinical virologist and BSE expert states, “It is known that DNA from GM material can persist in the environment and is not completely broken down by either processing, decomposition or digestion… Antibiotic resistance genes may escape from both silage and manure to bacteria in the gut and in the environment. GM animal feed serves to greatly increase the potential for new strains of antibiotic resistant bacteria.”
Joe Cummins Professor Emeritus of Genetics at the University of Western Ontario also states in another ISIS article that genetically modified soil inoculants have, “the antibiotic resistant marker genes for streptomycin and spectinomycin”, and that the commercial release of this GM bacterium, “has resulted in the establishment of GM microbes in the soil of millions of acres of cropland, where it can spread antibiotic resistant genes for antibiotics that are extensively used in medicine and agriculture.” In reference to several studies he states, “there is little doubt that the antibiotic resistant markers for streptomycin and spectinomycin will be transferred to soil bacteria and to a range of animal pathogens.” He also states, “these organisms have, “persisted in the soil for six years even in the absence of legume hosts.”
Coming to New Jersey, Charlotte Smith of 3 Cow Marketing
https://nofanj.org/event/annies-project-farming-in-new-jerseys-cities-and-the-urban-fringe/
https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-10-18-backlash-building-against-fake-meat-products-beyond-meat.html
…and the relentless push continues, now for babies too. (Note: I am neither promoting nor deriding these products, just bringing it to the debate here.)
https://microsmallcap.com/else-nutrition-holdings-inc/baby-3/food-revolution/LP1-BA1?utm_source=investingchannel&utm_medium=LP&utm_campaign=investingchannel_BABY_LP-food-revolution-MSC_cmt_CA-US_NA_400105
Researchers find persistence of antibiotic-resistant GMO genes in sewage sludge
https://news.wsu.edu/2019/10/18/researchers-find-persistence-antibiotic-resistant-gmo-genes-sewage-sludge/?fbclid=IwAR0BAeC9BfU-o2HvkzgheaOMFmXjLz4Woq8DnEWRg1ZCffCb-l9dY-nUxlI
“half of the biosolids produced in the U.S. after wastewater treatment are used as agricultural fertilizers every year, providing a potential pathway for moving the antibiotic resistant genes and bacteria through the environment.”
Does this bug you at all?
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/06/you-will-be-eating-replacement-meats-within-20-years-heres-why
From that same website, here’s an idea that I think the US should copy. Personally, I tend to look for the ripest fruit and veggies anyways so I would definitely support it. It’s a win win: less waste and greater availability to all, especially poor people:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/10/these-finnish-supermarkets-have-a-happy-hour-to-stop-food-waste/
Holy Cow! Milk From a Nut? Are Plant Milks Good for You? Are veggies?
You decide… long Holiday weekend reading:
https://www.today.com/food/many-plant-based-milks-are-not-nutritious-dairy-consumer-reports-t163633
https://www.consumerreports.org/plant-milk/are-plant-milks-more-healthful-than-cows-milk/
https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/what-growers-are-doing-to-keep-romaine-lettuce-safe-to-eat/
This was the article I originally meant to post this morning, before I promptly lost the link to it. Enjoy your cows while you can and give Thanks:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2019/11/29/opinion/disrupting-cow/
Thanks!
Please Stop The Ride To A Biotech Food Takeover –
Maybe you should think twice before eating that Impossible Burger.
Spoiler Alert – This has started way before Trump and will continue long after Trump – so if you want to blame Trump for this, well, you might have to look deeper than that. That would be way too easy. Biotech is everywhere now and entrenched in our industrialized food system.
Until I watched the video below, I did not realize just how much. Factory farming seems tame compared to this and the Impossible Burger. It makes me question everything. I am even worried about the probiotics I am taking.
Would anyone know a website with a list of trustworthy probiotics that is not biotech engineered? Will I eat an Impossible Burger? Only at gunpoint.
Please click the link below.
Janet
Here’s another recent new article about “plant food:”
https://www.eater.com/2020/1/6/21048632/plant-based-diet-vegan-vegetarian
There’s such a surge in these articles about “plant foods” that I’m getting a little worried about the onslaught of propaganda affecting not only consumers but also regulators’ perspective and acceptance. Just like GMOs, they have not been tested over time to assure that they deserve to be “gras” (generally regarded as safe.)
Here’s today’s installment:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/01/07/lifestyle/company-is-making-milk-without-moo/
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/01/07/lifestyle/vegan-buttery-spread-that-melts-glistens-like-real-thing-tastes-great-too/
Mark, how do you feel about these? David?
Another case of “not so good news” in the chemical front for making food industry safe or better:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/07/honeybees-deaths-almonds-hives-aoe?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&fbclid=IwAR1f-r8hCkEPPAxvxqoh-XyKeOGT5TBO7S_StW3McGf90Ul04xRgWUxnDQk
“So while all this is going on over here, I can’t even choose to buy a glass of raw milk. I can’t choose to buy a pepperoni from a neighbor’s kitchen craft. I can’t choose to buy a meat pie from Aunt Matilda. When you think of the choices our society gives people and the ones it doesn’t it’s pretty ridiculous.”
https://www.thelunaticfarmer.com/blog2/1/8/2020/roundup-round-2