Frédéric Leroy Vrije Universiteit Brussels - Red meat: facing the challenges of the post-truth era - Red Meat Sector Conference
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Frédéric Leroy
Vrije Universiteit Brussels
Red meat: facing the challenges
of the post-truth era
July 29th, RED MEAT SECTOR CONFERENCE, CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND
Red meat: facing the challenges of the post-truth era
Research Group of Industrial Microbiology
and Food Biotechnology
Prof. Dr. ir. Luc De Vuyst Prof. dr. ir. Frédéric LEROY
Prof. Dr. ir. Frédéric Leroy
Prof. Dr. Stefan Weckx
Foodscapes are getting surreal/hyperreal
Food. The future of food?
Water, Mung Bean Protein
Isolate, Expeller-Pressed Canola
? Oil, Contains less than 2% of
Dehydrated Onion, Gellan Gum,
Natural Carrot Extractives
(color), Natural Flavors, Natural
Turmeric Extractives (color),
Potassium Citrate, Salt, Soy
Lecithin, Sugar, Tapioca Syrup,
Tetrasodium Pyrophosphate,
Transglutaminase, Nisin
“Egg-free” (preservative). (Contains soy.)
Solid nutrition, Flimsy nutrition,
in a flimsy shell. in a solid bottle.
The case of post-modern meat
Food. The future of food?
According to According to
most people. a loud minority.
When the Narrative crosses a line (UPFs being proclaimed UN Environment’s “Champion of the Earth”)
Enters the pharmakon
φαρμακός
Propagation: the role of mass media
In 2017, the Guardian received a $886,600 grant from
OPP to publish a series (Animals farmed) that paints
animal agriculture as inhumane, unhealthy and
dangerous to the environment. OPP was founded by
Moskowitz (Facebook), has links to animal right
activists and is an investor in Impossible Foods.
Appetite 125 (2018) pp. 345-355
• Post-truth (declared “an era” in 2004): the scientific method is sub-
ordinated to the amassing of information via cherry-picking, invention,
and bricolage
• Attention economy (clickbait, etc.): media need to attract attention in a
setting of information overload, driving sensationalism and favouring
manipulation by activists
Propagation of the Narrative: the role of mass media
In 2017, the Guardian received a $886,600 grant from
OPP to publish a series (Animals farmed) that paints
animal agriculture as inhumane, unhealthy and
dangerous to the environment. OPP was founded by
Moskowitz (Facebook), has links to animal right
activists and is an investor in Impossible Foods.
Appetite 125 (2018) pp. 345-355
2006
Red meat can
'raise cancer risk'
2015: a pivotal year?
Appeal to authority shapes dietary beliefs and policies
2017
Flemish food pyramid
To conclude, we regret that fermented meat products are being incorrectly
stigmatized as unhealthy foods in certain nutritional models, whereas they
have many nutritional and other benefits to offer.Authoritarian push for a Great Food Transformation (and its Planetary Health Diet ) Vegan, vegetarian, or semi-vegetarian
When authority becomes controversy Vegan, vegetarian, or semi-vegetarian
Grand Narratives require solid backers: but what’s in it for them?
$ $$ $$$
Where next?
Pleasure Novelty (Quarterly
Global
Convenience markets & lifestyle revenue )
marketing growth
High prices
Added value
= ultra-processing
+ story-telling
Lofty promises
Cheap materials
• Economic capital
Difficult sector (welfare, farmers, …) • Cultural capital
limited processing, small margins
• Scientific capital
= the NarrativeWe’ve been there before… ($$$ + ‘progressive’ appeal + scientific backup) Margarine was created in 1869 to meet a request of Napoleon III to create a butter substitute for the army and lower classes (from beef tallow), the patent was bought by Jurgens (NL, now Unilever). In 1911, P&G introduced Crisco, initially intended to make soap from cottonseed oil.
‘Systemic change’ requires social engineering The scale of change to the food system is unlikely to be successful if left to the individual or the whim of consumer choice. This change requires reframing at the population and systemic level. By contrast, hard policy interventions include law, fiscal measures, subsidies and penalties, trade reconfiguration, and other economic and structural measures….[C]ountries and authorities should not restrict themselves to narrow measures or soft interventions.
‘Types of behaviour change interventions’
"Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is defending his
government's update to the Canada Food Guide in
the wake of attacks by Conservative Leader
Andrew Scheer who suggested the changes were
riddled with "bias" and driven by "ideology.“ […]
The process was flawed […] Complete lack of
consultation. Seems to be ideologically driven by
people who have a philosophical perspective and
a bias against certain types of healthy food
products. So absolutely we want to get that right."Tax?
Ban?
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio
• Reduce (by 50%) the city’s
beef purchases
• Phase out all purchase of
processed meat by 2030
• Introduce Meatless Mondays
in all public schools
“How about restaurants in 10-15 years
start treating carnivores the same way
that smokers are treated? If they want
to eat meat, they can do it outside the
restaurant.”
Christiana Figueres
Former Executive Secretary of the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change and convener of Mission 2020But is a ban or a sin tax justified?
Sin tax Prof. Michael E. Mann
Earth System Science Center
Penn State UniversityIndividual GHG emissions of a Western individual
12 t CO2-eqBreakdown in categories and effect of dietary shifts
12 t CO2-eq
Switch to plants
1-6% effect
2.4
t CO2-eq
Avoid flights
London-LA
- 1.6 t CO2-eq Vegan 6% 3%
London-Rome - 0.8 t CO2-eq
- 0.2 t CO2-eq
Vegetarian 4% 2%
Live car free - 0.5 t CO2-eq
- 1.0-5.3 t CO2-eq
Flexitarian 2% 1%
https://ravijen.fr/?p=440; Carbone 4; Agreste; INSEE; 2015-2016
- 0.3 t CO2-eq
Environmental impact of dietary change: a systematic review.
Hallström et al. (2015) Journal of Cleaner Production
The rebound effect of switching to vegetarianism. A microeconomic analysis of Swedish consumption behaviour.
Grabs (2015) Ecological Economics
The climate mitigation gap: education and government recommendations miss the most effective individual actions
Wynes & Nicholas, (2017). Environmental Research LettersSame order of magnitude (few %) is found on macro level
Dietary change US
• Vegan = - 2.6%
Livestock
• Meatless Monday = - 0.3% 4%
Compared with systems with animals, diets formulated for
the US population in the plants-only systems had greater
excess of dietary energy and resulted in a greater number of
deficiencies in essential nutrients.Fossil fuels, the elephant in the room
In Flanders, a single steel factory
produces more GHG-e than all
agriculture combined! 78 Mt CO2-eq/y Agriculture
7 Mt CO2-eq/y (9%) Transportation = 21% Energy = 22%
Livestock: 5 Mt (6%) Industry = 28% Others = 19%
ArcelorMittal Ghent
9 Mt CO2-eq/y (12%)
Brussels Airport
6 Mt CO2-eq/yIs livestock (meat/dairy) used as a scapegoat?
The cement industry
produces 7% of man-made CO2. If
it were a country, it would trail only
the US and China in emissions of
CO2. China used more cement
between 2011 and 2013 than the
U.S. used in the entire Global tourism accounts for 8% of the world’s GHGE
20th Century.
ICT is expected to reach >14% by 2040
(by 2020, the footprint of smart phones alone would surpass the
individual contribution of desktops, laptops and displays)
Umwelt Belastung Punkten
Keeping a horse is >1/3 of
a person’s environmental FAO: 30% of the world’s agricultural land is currently
impact
occupied to produce food that is never eaten; food
waste is up to 20% of purchases
US pet feed impact is 25–30% of the
environmental impact from animal productionBeware of slogans and metrics
1
14.5%
2006 - 201314.5% number is a global number
2
GLEAM Per capita beef consumption
vs. enteric methane (2013, FAOSTAT)
India is #1 emitter, but with less than 1 kg beef/p/y
FAO
Spatial distribution of GHG efficiency of bovine meat
production (kg CO2-eq per kg product) in the year 2000
Herrero et al. (2013)You can also read
