SCIENCE

MANASEE WAGH: About 40 years ago, the first beef burger—grown from cow stem cells in a laboratory setting—hit the frying pan. This landmark achievement in “cultured meat” made news headlines because it sidestepped the cow’s meat entirely. While this endeavor created a $325,000 burger, more than 100 startup companies have since taken up the challenge to perfect not only cultured beef, but also chicken, pork, and fish, in hopes of scaling up the process, lowering the cost, and ultimately bringing cruelty-free meat to your table. For example, BELIEVER Meats, headquartered in Rehovot, Israel,…

JONNY ANOMALY, ET AL: Synthetic meat made from animal cells will transform how we eat. It will reduce suffering by eliminating the need to raise and slaughter animals. But it will also have big public health benefits if it becomes widely consumed. In this paper, we discuss how “clean meat” can reduce the risks associated with intensive animal farming, including antibiotic resistance, environmental pollution, and zoonotic viral diseases like influenza and coronavirus. Since the most common objection to clean meat is that some people find it “disgusting” or “unnatural,” we explore the…

EMMA BRYCE: Untangling the worst impacts of livestock on our planet won’t require us to completely reject meat and dairy: in fact, replacing 50% of these products with novel plant-based substitutes in our global diet would chop agricultural and land-use emissions by 31% in just 30 years. More intriguingly, that figure could be doubled if the land released by livestock was devoted to reforestation. There’s lots of talk about how transitioning to novel plant based foods like meatless burgers and soy sausages can revolutionize our food system. But until this study there hasn’t been a global…

WORLD ANIMAL PROTECTION: 'The Thoughtful Pig', a groundbreaking global campaign in partnership with World Animal Protection and All Mighty Pictures, is a new initiative that aims to raise awareness about the devastating impacts of factory farming on animals and the environment. Jorge Montiel, animation director at The Mill (a British VFX production company and creative studio headquartered in London, England)... has been instrumental in bringing the campaign's visual elements to life. "At the heart of this campaign lies our protagonist, a photorealistic CGI pig asking the question that tugs…

UNIVERSITY OF YORK: Dr. Helen Cowie from the University of York's Department of History is investigating human-animal relationships throughout history. Dr. Cowie's research, published in a book, "Animals in World History," which is due out next year, shows that instead of steady progress to eliminate animal cruelty, the priorities of animal welfare organizations have instead evolved to tackle new and emerging problems that reflect the changing attitudes of humans towards animals. Dr. Cowie highlights, for example, that in the 1820s the emphasis was on the elimination of blood sports such as…

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…

…

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…

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-…

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…