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As USDA approves cell-cultivated chicken, more states tighten labeling laws
MADYSON FITZGERALD: Select U.S. restaurants have begun serving laboratory-grown chicken, spurring long wait times for reservations by diners curious to taste it.
In June, the U.S. Department of Agriculture gave final approval for a few California-based companies to begin selling lab-produced chicken across the country.
While it may be years before lab-grown meat is available at grocery stores, a handful of states are tightening rules on labeling the new food, which is produced by growing cells acquired from living animals into muscle tissue.
Consumers interested in sustainable foods that…
FERTILE GROUNDS: Can a vegan diet impact your fertility health?
KIRTIKA KATIRA: The choice to adopt a vegan diet is often driven by ethical, environmental, or health-related reasons. While a well-balanced vegan diet can offer numerous health benefits, including lower risks of heart disease and certain cancers, questions have arisen about its potential impact on fertility health. In this article, we will explore the relationship between a vegan diet and fertility, addressing concerns and offering guidance on maintaining optimal fertility while following a plant-based lifestyle.
Before delving into the effects on fertility, it's essential to understand…
MEAT MARX: The base, superstructure and cultivated meat
JON HOCHSCHARTNER: For those who don’t know, cultivated meat is grown from animal cells, without slaughter. The technology faces a number of hurdles. Perhaps the most significant of these is achieving price parity with slaughtered options. This is crucial for widespread adoption, which could save countless creatures.
Within Marxism, 'base' refers to the productive forces of society, like tools, materials and factories. Superstructure refers to a society’s ideological system, such as laws, religion and art. Marxists generally believe base influences superstructure to a far greater degree…
REPORT: Chewing It Over: Public attitudes to alternative proteins and meat reduction in the UK
SOCIAL MARKET FOUNDATION: Whereas vegetarianism and veganism were once relatively fringe, interest in reducing meat consumption – whether on animal welfare, health or environmental grounds – is on the rise. This report, the second of three in a series on the impact of alternative proteins on animals, investigates public attitudes towards meat reduction and the role of alternative proteins in these societal shifts.
SUMMARY:
Although policymakers are reluctant to engage with the idea of meat reduction for fear of sparking a political backlash, the public are much more
… ‘No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating’
LILY MEYER: Alicia Kennedy’s first book, 'No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating'... is a tour through meatless eating in the United States, starting with Frances Moore Lappé’s 1971 hit, Diet for the Small Planet, which made the case for vegetarianism as a solution to global hunger, and ending with contemporary debates over lab-grown meat and other food technologies as a major new culinary frontier. It’s also a work of climate activism. Industrial meat is a major source of the emissions causing global warming. Eating it regularly, Kennedy argues, is…
THE LIES WE BURY: The myths we tell ourselves about American farming
KENNY TORRELLA: If you were to guess America’s biggest source of water pollution, chemical factories or oil refineries might come to mind. But it’s actually farms — especially those raising cows, pigs, and chickens. The billions of animals farmed each year in the US for food generate nearly 2.5 billion pounds of waste every day — around twice as much as people do — yet none of it is treated like human waste. It’s either stored in giant pits, piled high as enormous mounds on farms, or spread onto crop fields as fertilizer.
And a lot of it washes away into rivers and streams, as does…
STUDY: Playing down the ‘green’ benefits of plant-based meat could attract more consumers
JENNIFER YULE: Despite sustained growth for several years, sales of plant-based meat products are now stagnating. Even market leaders like Beyond Meat are hitting significant lows...
The environmental benefits of adopting a diet that is less reliant on meat have been well-established. As UK nature presenter David Attenborough has pointed out: “We must change our diet. The planet can’t support billions of meat-eaters.”
So, working out why consumers are cooling towards this once-hot product is crucial, not only from a business point of view but to support the environmental benefits of low-…
Mr. Charlie’s: Vegan fast-food restaurant chain selling ‘the cheapest vegan hamburger of all time’
JOCELYN MARTINEZ: Perhaps one of the most well-known vegan fast-food concepts today is Mr. Charlie’s. After launching in Los Angeles in February 2022, Mr. Charlie’s quickly rose to prominence, with fans on TikTok dubbing the restaurant the “vegan McDonald’s.”
Riding the wave of its new cult following, Mr. Charlie’s opened its second location in San Francisco less than a year later. And more recently, the micro-chain opened its newest location in Venice, CA this July...
With its “vegan McDonald’s” nickname, Mr. Charlie’s faced constant comparison to the real McDonald’s, which offers much…
‘Sea Things In a Different Light’: Controversial ‘dead cat’ advertisement not in breach of standards authority code
LIAM O'DELL: Back in April, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) organisation revealed it had put up a billboard advertisement in the seaside town of Cleethorpes, in Lincolnshire. The blog post announcing the advert came with a headline which made the argument that “eating a fish is like eating a cat”.
The charity wrote: “From one angle, you may see a smiling fishmonger holding a dead fish, but from another, she is holding a dead cat. “This unsettling sight has been erected by Peta to provide locals with food for thought. “Fish – like cats and other animals – are…
SURVEY: The number of vegans in the U.S. hits 10-year low, only 1% identifying as such
ANAY MRIDUL: Only 1% of Americans say they are vegan – down from 3% in 2018 and 2% in 2012 – according to a new Gallup poll. The number of vegetarians, meanwhile, has also dropped from 5% in 2018 to 4% in 2023. The Gallup survey, conducted with 1,015 Americans in July, found that political liberals adults were among the demographics most likely to be vegetarian. 9% of liberals identify as vegetarian, three times as high as political moderates or conservatives.
Lower-income Americans were around twice as likely as middle- (4%) and upper-income (3%) consumers to be vegetarian. The same goes…