Farming

‘Plant-Milk Craze Has Created an Oat Bubble That’s About to Burst’ ∞

March 2, 2020

Jen Skerritt and Michael Hirtzer for Bloomberg:

While consumption is robust, that expansion in planting will probably outstrip annual growth in export and milling demand. The pending glut could cause prices to collapse, said Randy Strychar, president at Vancouver-based Oatinformation.com.
“You’re going to drive prices down,” Strychar said. “Once the seed gets in the ground, I’d say April, May, you’ll begin to see some declines.”
For vegans, it means cheaper oat milk and oatmeal could be on the horizon. Oat futures for May delivery in Chicago have risen 16% from a low last year. Growers in Canada, the top exporter, will boost acres by 9% to the most since 2009, according to a February report from the nation’s agriculture ministry.
“The net profit is a lot easier to pencil on oats than it is for anything else,” said Henning Wubbe, a farmer in La Riviere, Manitoba, who is doubling oat acres on his farm to 650 acres. A U.S. buyer has already agreed to purchase 80% of that future harvest.

Go, oat, go.

‘Climate Change and the American Diet’ ∞

February 24, 2020

A new study from Yale’s ‘Program on Climate Change Communication’ came out with some interesting statistics. I’d click the link and futz around a bit, but I think these were the juiciest parts:

More than nine in ten Americans (94%) say they are willing to eat more fruit and vegetables, and six in ten (62%) say they are “very” willing to do so. More than half of Americans (55%) say they are willing to eat more plant-based meat alternatives (products made with vegetables such as soy, potatoes, peas, etc.) and 54% say they are willing to eat less red meat (beef, lamb, pork).
More than four in ten Americans say they are willing to use dairy alternatives (soy milk, almond milk, etc.) instead of dairy-based milk or cream (46%) and/or to consume less dairy (42%).
One in four Americans (26%) say they are willing to eat lab-grown meat rather than meat taken from animals.

Those are the nuts and bolts of ‘The Now’ of plant-based eating. People are interested — when they understand the effects of diet on the climate and its overall taste improves. People are willing to eat more plant-based meats when they cost less than real meat. Subsidies are too important here. Beef and dairy are subsidized in a way that essentially is like giving steroids to Goliath.

These are all good signs and honestly better than I expected. For your ‘TL;DR’, their executive summary is available here.

(via VegNews)

‘After three years, USDA releases previously hidden animal cruelty records’ ∞

February 20, 2020

H. Claire Brown with

On Tuesday, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS) announced it had released a searchable database of thousands of inspection reports documenting animal welfare violations at research labs, breeders, dealers, zoos, and other facilities.
The agency removed many of the records from the internet in early 2017, shortly after Trump took office, citing “privacy concerns.”
[…]
As The Washington Post reported last year, the larger issue with the USDA’s enforcement of animal welfare laws under the Trump administration may be that the agency is simply doing fewer inspections and citing fewer violations than it used to. Between 2014 and 2018, the number of inspections decreased from 9,489 to 8,354. The decline in violations cited was far more dramatic: Whereas 6,052 violations were issued in 2014, by 2018 just 1,716 went on the books. That’s a 72 percent decline.

It’s disheartening but not surprising that this seems to be a partisan issue in our government.

‘Banish ‘Eat Local’ From Your Environmental Playbook’ ∞

February 4, 2020

Akshat Rathi for Bloomberg Green:

For beef from herds grown for meat, transport makes up only an average of 0.5% of its emissions. Each kilogram of beef produces 60 kg of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions (CO2e), the majority of which comes from the methane that cows belch when alive.
Across the complete supply chain, each kilogram of avocados produces 2.5 kg of CO2e emissions. Of that, transport costs are less than 10%. Importing Mexican avocados to the UK generates 0.21 kg of CO2e.
Such is beef’s carbon impact that, in the US, a consumer who eats vegetables instead of one day’s worth of beef calories would have a greater impact on reducing emissions than buying all food from local sources, according to a 2008 study. […]
The real takeaway from the research is that 1 kg of animal-based foods generate between 10 times and 50 times as much greenhouse-gas impact as plant-based products.

I can’t believe how little eating local factors into emissions, but this is staggering.

In an analysis published last week, Ritchie finds that transport’s contribution to any food’s overall carbon footprint is tiny. “For most food products, it accounts for less than 10%” Ritchie concluded, based on data collected from 38,000 commercial farms in 119 countries.

It really is about WHAT you eat, not HOW it gets to you.

‘Almonds are out. Dairy is a disaster. So what milk should we drink?’ ∞

February 4, 2020

From The Guardian, the intro from Annette McGivney says it all:

For environmentally minded consumers, the news is hard to swallow: almond milk is not healthy for the planet and the popular milk substitute is especially hard on bees. Our recent investigation into the connection between California’s industrialized almond industry and a record 50bn commercial bee deaths created quite a buzz. The widely read story prompted one primary response from readers: “What should we be drinking instead?”
This is a thorny question, and food sustainability experts are reluctant to single out any one plant milk as best because all have pros and cons.
But we’re going to try.
One thing is clear. All milk alternatives are far better for the planet than dairy. A 2018 study by researchers at the University of Oxford showed that producing a glass of dairy milk results in almost three times more greenhouse gas emissions than any plant-based milk and it consumes nine times more land than any of the milk alternatives. (Land is required to pasture the cows and grow their feed, which the animals belch out in the form of methane.)

This article has a great milk-by-milk breakdown of how the alternatives are made and what they are doing to our climate.

‘Can Vegans And Ranchers Work Together To Rebuild The World’s Soil?’ ∞

January 30, 2020

Brian Kateman for Forbes:

The agriculture sector is one of the biggest emitters of CO2. A 2018 study published in Nature concluded that Americans need to eat 90% less beef and 60% less milk to keep global warming under 2 degrees Celsius.
But as awareness spreads around the benefits of a plant-based diet on the environment, a growing regenerative agriculture (RA) movement says livestock is actually integral to shaping farming practices that will save the planet.
The world’s soil has been degraded by humans via their management of animals—ploughing, intense grazing and clear-cutting—and according to the United Nations, it will be completely degraded in the next 60 years. […]
While there is growing awareness of RA, it has some way to go before it becomes mainstream. But, beginning this year, food made from RA practices will have its own food label.
The Regenerative Organic certification will be applicable to foods made of organic agricultural ingredients, sourced from farms that practice pasture-based animal welfare and prioritize soil health, biodiversity, land management and carbon sequestration.

Clearer labeling and a better world. I like it.

‘Cooking human waste in the microwave could make it a safer fertilizer’ ∞

January 27, 2020

Since I went vegan, I’ve always had a question in my head. How does the world replace cow pies as we start eating less and less beef? I’d talked to people about the cow poop we use to grow crops all over the country, and I never heard a straight answer on what could replace it.

This article from Jessica Fu at New Food Economy touches on a possible option: the microwave.

Last year, the city of Montgomery, Alabama, agreed to pay $32,000 in penalties over sewage sludge—the leftovers that remain after wastewater gets treated—that it had applied as fertilizer on farms. At issue wasn’t the application itself; it was that the sludge was really high in nickel. Too high, in fact. Testing showed that the sludge exceeded limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the metal by as much as 25 percent, according to a consent decree. Overexposure to nickel can cause allergic reactions, stomach pain, and breathing issues, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Maybe the city should have treated its sludge with more caution. Maybe it should have microwaved it.
As it turns out, electromagnetic radiation can be quite helpful in facilitating the removal of heavy metals from sewage sludge. Scientists recently made this discovery through a crude yet effective method: putting human waste in a kitchen microwave. A team of researchers at the Florida A&M University-Florida State University (FAMU-FSU) College of Engineering found that putting a sludge sample in a 1000-watt Emerson-brand microwave for 10 seconds greatly increased the percentage of metal that could be extracted from it.

But it seems to be complicated too:

“Even if you could theoretically remove all the heavy metals, what is remaining that we’re not focusing on?” asks Amanda Starbuck, senior food researcher and policy analyst at environmental advocacy group Food and Water Watch. The use of sludge as fertilizer has drawn vocal backlash because it can sometimes contain measurable amounts of pathogens—disease-causing microorganisms that include Salmonella, E. coli, and listeria. To market food as organic, farmers aren’t allowed to use biosolids on their fields. Last year, Whole Foods announced that it would not sell produce grown on land treated with sewage sludge.
That said, there’s no consensus about whether biosolids actually impact eater health. And, save for incinerating it, placing it in a landfill, or spraying it onto land—what can we do, practically speaking, about the enormous amounts of human waste that we generate?

I need to learn more about poo.

‘The Plant-Based Movement to Transition Farmers Away from Meat and Dairy Production’ ∞

January 15, 2020

Nadra Nittle for Civil Eats:

As contract farmers struggle to stay financially afloat and concerns about animal agriculture’s role in climate change mount, MFA launched its Transfarmation Project in November to help farmers currently raising animals on a large scale grow crops such as hemp, mushrooms, and hydroponic lettuce instead. The group will include investors, engineers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers in an effort to provide alternatives. During the first phase of its fledgling project, MFA plans to help 10 yet-to-be named individuals leave factory farming behind.
“We decided to create a platform where we would have this conversation about our current factory farm system and how to get the people who want out involved in the plant-based space, whether it’s hemp or even solar and wind energy,” said MFA President Leah Garcés. “I’m not pretending that taking 10 farmers out of factory farming is going to end it, but we’re trying to work collaboratively and be constructive about creating new jobs for those who want them.”

As America’s preferences move away from dairy, I hope programs like this will lay a framework for how to move forward.

‘The Ice Stupas: Artificial glaciers at the edge of the Himalayas.’ ∞

January 9, 2020

Elizabeth Kolbert for the New Yorker:

The ﬁrst ice stupa was created in 2013, in Ladakh, in Kashmir. Villages in Ladakh, a high mountain-desert region bordered by the Himalayas, largely depend on glacial runoﬀ for water. As the glaciers recede, owing to climate change, the ﬂow of water has become more erratic. Sometimes there’s too much, producing ﬂash ﬂooding; often, there’s too little. The ice stupa, a kind of artiﬁcial glacier, is the brainchild of a Ladakhi engineer named Sonam Wangchuk. In a way, it, too, is designed to house relics.

The stupas are an absolutely stunning and unique solution to climate change in Kashmir. Be sure to click the link and look at the incredible photos from Vasantha Yogananthan.

‘For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity’ ∞

January 9, 2020

Adam Belz for the Star Tribune:

Kris Folland grows corn, wheat and soybeans and raises cattle on 2,000 acres near Halma in the northwest corner of Minnesota, so his operation is far from small. But when he last bought a new tractor, he opted for an old one — a 1979 John Deere 4440.
He retrofitted it with automatic steering guided by satellite, and he and his kids can use the tractor to feed cows, plant fields and run a grain auger. The best thing? The tractor cost $18,000, compared to upward of $150,000 for a new tractor. And Folland doesn’t need a computer to repair it.

If you haven’t heard about what farmers are doing to avoid the hell that is a modern John Deere tractor, this story is a good place to start. And this Vice video and story is informative too.

Farming

✏️ by C. W. Moss