When I saw the headlines, BAN REAL MEAT, I could hardly believe my eyes. I suspected this must be in the USA and sure enough it was. If history is any indication, the same decision may be taken by other countries too, which is why I have drawn attention to it. The decision comes on the heels of repeated public appeals to the Western world by Bill Gates to stop eating Real meat as a means to combat climate change and eat synthetic food instead. However, most people know by now that this individual is primarily motivated by power and financial gain.
FAKE FOOD FROM SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
In a recent interview, Gates says Fake food would replace animal products with highly processed food, like fake meat, fake dairy products or fake eggs grown in laboratories. It is made possible by technical innovations such as synthetic biology, which involves reconfiguring the DNA of an organism to create something entirely new. For instance, plant-based meat companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods (partly funded by Bill Gates) use a DNA coding sequence from soybeans or peas to create a product that looks and tastes like real meat. Some companies are also investing in cell-based meat, grown from real animal cells, but it has yet to reach the market. METHANE FROM FACTORY FARMS According to the FDA, natural beef production is a primary culprit of climate change. University of California researchers have measured the amount of methane emitted by the average cow, concluding cattle “are the No. 1 agricultural source of greenhouse gases worldwide”. What they failed to admit is that it is the intensive farms, known as factory farms or CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation) with their lagoons of slurry, that are the main source of pollution, not pasture fed cattle. The answer to the problem is obvious; drastically reduce the number of these factory farms as quickly as possible and then get rid of them for good rather than ban real meat in favour of synthetic food. GRASSLAND CAPTURES CARBON Graham Harvey, agricultural graduate and journalist, points out in his book ‘The Carbon Fields’, tests have shown methane produced by pasture fed cattle is 20% lower than that from conventional, high yielding herds. Furthermore, he claims for example that the overall carbon footprint per litre of milk produced was as much as 40% lower on grassland farms compared to intensive farms, not to mention the important potential for capturing carbon in the soil. FACTORY FARMS A SOURCE OF DISEASE Livestock raised in these massive industrial CAFO’s, have also been identified as a source of food borne illness. Covered in faeces and urine, dehydrated and often sickly, these animals are slaughtered using mechanized equipment and procedures that convey these infection-loaded excreta into the final meat product. The food and food-contaminant combination that causes the most harm to human health is campylobacter, which sickens more than 1.5 million people in the U.S. alone, costing an estimated $1.3 billion a year. In second place is toxoplasma, costing society another $8 billion annually. JET-SETTING ELITE The sheer hypocrisy of Bill Gates who lives in a 66,000-square-foot mansion (6,200 square metres) and travels in a private jet that uses up 486 US gallons of fuel every hour, talking about how to save the environment isn't lost on everyone. A recent newsletter from Dr Mercola reveals "According to a 2019 academic study looking at extreme carbon emissions from the jet-setting elite, Bill Gates's extensive travel by private jet likely makes him one of the world's top carbon contributors — a veritable super emitter. In the list of 10 celebrities investigated, including Jennifer Lopez, Paris Hilton, and Oprah Winfrey, Gates was the source of the most emissions." |
FACTORY FARMS ACTUALLY ON THE INCREASE
The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting in the US shows that the number of new concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) has increased over the past seven years - bringing the total operations to just under 20,000, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency. From 2011 to 2017, the United States saw more than 1,400 new large-scale CAFOs established; an increase of 7.6%. Even in the UK, the shameful reality is that, today, over 70% of farm animals are raised on these factory farms. In fact, in March 2021 there were at least 1,674 factory farms in the UK, with almost 800 of these classed as 'mega farms’. 
To meet the definition of a CAFO, a facility must have at least 125,000 broilers (chickens raised for meat), or 82,000 layers (hens which produce eggs) or pullets (chickens used for breeding), or 2,500 pigs, 700 dairy cattle or 1,000 beef cattle. The report reveals that in the UK the growth in intensive farms is concentrated in certain parts of the country where major food companies operate. Many are in the process of expanding and have often gone unnoticed, despite their size and the controversy surrounding them, partly because a fair number of farmers have expanded existing facilities without planning approval rather than seeking new sites. On these factory farms the vast majority of chickens and pigs raised for meat spend their entire lives indoors and even dairy cows are increasingly kept inside for the whole year.
EAT LESS MEAT BUT NEVER BAN IT The obvious solution is not to ban meat altogether, as Bill Gates is advocating, but simply to eat less meat and dairy which would reduce the pressure on the food industry to supply the demand that some would say justified intensive farming in the first place. In Western societies, where obesity has become a major health problem, we have become used to eating meat every day whereas in previous generations it was considered a luxury eaten only two or three times a week. Without intensive farming it would encourage people to be more selective and buy healthy meat from grass fed beef and dairy cows. Meat still plays an important part in the diet. Grass feeding improves the quality of beef, and makes the meat richer in omega-3 fats, vitamin E, beta-carotene, and CLA (a beneficial fatty acid named conjugated linoleic acid). The all important vitamin D must be provided from animal tissue or animal products as humans cannot synthesise enough of this vitamin without them. Vitamin D is not found in plants. In addition, grass-fed beef contains just a quarter of the fat of grain-fed beef. |
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THE DYE IS CAST ALREADY
While much of this information about Fake food applies to the US, ties with the UK and other countries are strong and often ideas emanating from the US are later adopted by them. Indeed, in November 2021, an Edinburgh biotech firm, Roslin Technologies received a major grant from the UK government to develop its cultivated meat technology. The company is working to grow meat directly from animal cells in bioreactors producing animal protein without the need to raise animals.
In January 2022, it was reported that in a $50 million facility, just outside Berkeley, Calif., workers cultivate small clumps of animal cells in large vats over two weeks, slowly growing them into chicken breasts and steaks. No animal is slaughtered at any point in the process—the flesh is manufactured. This link below describes the process in detail.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-10/fda-weighs-approval-of-lab-grown-meat-sales-in-2022
While much of this information about Fake food applies to the US, ties with the UK and other countries are strong and often ideas emanating from the US are later adopted by them. Indeed, in November 2021, an Edinburgh biotech firm, Roslin Technologies received a major grant from the UK government to develop its cultivated meat technology. The company is working to grow meat directly from animal cells in bioreactors producing animal protein without the need to raise animals.
In January 2022, it was reported that in a $50 million facility, just outside Berkeley, Calif., workers cultivate small clumps of animal cells in large vats over two weeks, slowly growing them into chicken breasts and steaks. No animal is slaughtered at any point in the process—the flesh is manufactured. This link below describes the process in detail.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-10/fda-weighs-approval-of-lab-grown-meat-sales-in-2022
