DONNA BERRY: New brands and styles of meat and dairy alternatives continue to steal retail space from the animal-based products they try to simulate. This is due to advancements in ingredient technology to deliver cleaner, simpler and more authentic analogs. “Consumers are attracted to many of the attributes associated with products made with plant proteins, but taste still drives repeat purchase,” said Melissa Machen, senior technical services specialist – plant protein, Cargill, Minneapolis. “Emerging plant proteins can bring along flavor issues, including astringency and bitterness. Even…

MANEKA GANDHI: When Britain’s largest bakery, Greggs, brought, a vegan sausage roll into the market, it was attacked by a senior reporter as “Stalinist”, and the idea of having a vegan roll as “nauseating”. In India, we never have this problem, because almost everyone at the top of society/media/government/sport/films is vegetarian. But all over the world hundreds of vegans/vegetarians can tell you horror stories about the reactions of “conservatives”. One study found that more than half of vegetarians had experienced discrimination, and nearly 10% of vegetarians said that family had…

SHANI ASHKENAZI: When Efrat and Ofir Dvash were children in Moshav Hatzav in Israel's south, their father grew tomatoes in the family greenhouse. The siblings had a special role: they were the bees. Because the tomatoes were being raised in a closed, humid greenhouse, there was nothing to pollinate the flowers and induce growth. So, brother and sister would run through the rows and shake the plants. Today, some three decades later, they have taken this childhood pastime countless steps forward... Israeli family foodtech company Bee-io seeks to save the bees we need from extinction while…

SHERRY F. COLB: Actor Joaquin Phoenix gave an interview with the Sunday Times. During the conversation, he spoke of his nine-month-old son River. Phoenix said that he would expose the boy to the truth about animal products and the misery they inflict. His son would know that a “happy meal” is anything but. Controversially, Phoenix added that he would not “force” his son to be vegan, though he hoped he would be. Both the question and his answer were provocative... When a person asks a vegan parent or prospective parent whether the latter will “force” her children to be vegan, the question…

HUAXIA: Sustainable consumption of livestock-based diets including meat, eggs, and milk should be prioritized in order to combat malnutrition affecting pregnant mothers and children in low-income countries, UN Nutrition said in a new report launched in Nairobi... Titled "Livestock-Derived Foods and Sustainable Healthy Diets," the report says that resource-constrained households should be encouraged to consume animal-based proteins in order to reduce undernourishment and stunting... It says that plant-based diets alone are not enough to eliminate the global malnutrition crisis, which…

ANNA MATTILA: Consumers are more likely to choose a plant-based meat substitute when the restaurant’s advertising highlights the social benefits of doing so rather than its taste, according to recently published research I conducted with a colleague. We also found that showcasing the social costs of meat consumption also leads to a preference for plant-based “meats.” To reach this conclusion, we conducted two online experiments to examine the advertising of plant-based burgers and meatballs. Participants were recruited via the crowdsourcing website Amazon Mechanical Turk. In the first one,…

CITY NEWS SERVICE: The 11th National Animal Rights Day (NARD11) will be commemorated on Sunday June 6, 2021, in more than 70 cities around the world, plus a global event on Zoom. NARD is part rally, part memorial service. As in past years, a small number of volunteers dressed in black will hold the bodies of dead animals as attendees observe moments of silence. Those animals — who died on their own and were donated by various farms that raise animals for human consumption — serve to represent all non-humans killed for food, clothing, medical experiments and other reasons, and will later be…

DAVID O. WIEBERS & VALERY L. FEGIN: The world is enveloped in a global health emergency that is exacting enormous medical and economic tolls upon humanity... The medical community finds itself on the front lines throughout the world dealing with the immediate human health consequences of this rapidly evolving crisis and trying to develop therapies and vaccines, as countries and their leaders attempt to mitigate the overwhelming societal and economic devastations that are unfolding... Yet, in the midst of all of the pandemonium and destruction, and as we begin to find our way through…

TESSA NOWOSENETZ: While veganism and vegetarianism appear to be increasing, only 1% of the population of developed countries claim to be vegan and only 5% claim to be vegetarian. Another trend is plant-based food. You might assume that this correlates with the increase in veganism and vegetarianism but, with such small numbers, neither group actually has the scale to command significant buying power. Is it worth it for retailers to cater to the needs of this small segment of the population? And if so, how?.. Walk the aisles of most food retailers and there’s no major emphasis on food…

GISELE GALOUSTIAN: As early as the Neolithic period (circa 3900 BC), the domestication of animals likely led to the development of diseases including measles and smallpox. Since then, zoonotic disease has led to other major transnational outbreaks including HIV, Ebola, SARS, MERS, and H1N1 swine flu, among others. Currently, more than half of all existing human pathogens, and almost three-quarters of emerging infectious diseases, are zoonotic in nature. COVID-19 is the latest and most impactful zoonotic event of the modern era, but it will certainly not be the last. Given the breadth of…