It's all about soil

Today, it's all about soil and its role in helping us fight climate change. In my previous posts, I have addressed the misfortunes today's agricultural soil faces due to the use of fertilisers in modern farming. Before chemical fertilisers come into play, healthy soil is packed with microorganisms, retaining nutrients and moisture to grow plants. Healthy topsoil organic matter sucks up atmospheric nitrogen, converting it to ammonia and nitrates that is consumed by the plants. This biological cycle breaks down as soon as soil is treated with synthetic fertilisers, leading to topsoil loss and the release of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas causing global climate change. So how do we stop this disastrous cycle?

Michael Pollan (author, journalist and professor of journalism at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism) and Debbie Barker suggest that there is a way to make the soil work in favour of climate change mitigation.

(Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com)

But firstly, with the help of Pollan and Barker, let us take a closer look at what exactly has happened to our soil across the globe. Their article in the Washington Post explains: the industrialization of farming has allowed farmers to grow more crops more quickly. But modern techniques have also wreaked havoc on the earth, water and atmosphere. Intense plowing, for example, has introduced more oxygen into the soil, boosting the microbes that convert organic matter into carbon dioxide. The quest to wring every last dollar out of fields has put pressure on farmers to rely on chemical fertilisers. This often leaves fields more bare between growing seasons, allowing carbon to escape into the air. Scientists estimate that cultivated soil has lost 50 to 70 percent of its carbon, speeding up climate change.' Industrialised farming is also having a detrimental effect on water security, especially in places that are already experiencing acute water scarcity. The chemical treatment and extensive plowing of soil causes the ground to absorb water less efficiently. Any water that the soil cannot absorb becomes runoff, taking some of the chemicals and fertilisers with it to the nearest water body. This contaminates rivers, lakes and seas while putting human water supply sources at risk.

This all starts to sound very apocalyptic (as talking about climate change tends to do from time to time) but Pollan and Barker do suggest there is something we can do. It's called 'cover crops'. To all the farmers out there, try this! Cover crops (beans, rye and oats for example) are planted in between vegetable rows, keeping as much of the crop field covered and using up as much photosynthesis potential as possible. Cover crops also help to keep nitrogen and other nutrients in the soil, making it a favourable environment for the 'main crops' to grow without needing fertiliser treatment. Additionally, cover crops can be grown throughout the year to ensure the field never sits empty, leaving the soil exposed and wasting photosynthesis potential.

In reality, growing cover crops may be more difficult than it sounds. Pollan and Barker explain that current federal policy in the United States ensures that farmers do not waste their time growing crops they cannot sell, limiting growing season for cover crops. In order to allow carbon friendly farming, these policies need a revisit.

(Source: https://broadforkfarm.files.wordpress.com)

In addition to the cover crop strategy, a switch towards organic fertilisers instead of synthetic nitrogen ones should be encouraged. Research at UC Berkeley shows that 'applying a single layer of compost, less than an inch thick, to rangelands stimulates a burst of microbial and plant growth that sequesters dramatic amounts of carbon in the soil - more than 1.5 tons per acre.' All these practices fit into a lifecycle of a sustainable, organic and self-sustaining farm. Cattle are used to graze the fields, cattle manure is used to fertilise the crops and fields, plant growth increases due to manure fertilisation and the process starts again. In the meantime, cattle are fed with organic grass rather than corn, leaving out the industrialised, fossil-fuel intensive corn production from the equation. Sounds too good to be true?

Unfortunately, it probably is, for the moment. At a global level at least. As world leaders gather in Paris over the next week to address the global action plan on climate change, food production and food related climate change does not seem to be on the list of priorities. Transport and energy sectors will likely to take the front seat at the conference. However, I do hope that when the next climate change conference comes along, agriculture induced climate change will have a central seat at the table. In the mean time, change will have to come from local and government level. It seems to me that changes that can be done in the agriculture sector to slow down climate change are just too good to miss out on. But hey, that's just me.

Until next time,

Laura

Vlog: Soil, scale and other videos you should watch

Today, simply a list of videos you should watch, think about and show your friends. Enjoy!

Michael Pollan at 2014 New York Times Food for Tomorrow Conference

Informational video by L'institut de recherche pour le developpement (IRD)

2014 New York Times Food for Tomorrow Conference Panel discussion with Patrick Holden, Danielle Nierenberg, Ron Shaich, Jack Sinclair and Michael Pollan

Peter Lehner at TEDxManhattan

All the videos above raise so many interesting questions, I will get to them in the next few posts. Next up, soil!

Until next time,

Laura

Dangers of a standardised diet

When you walk down a city supermarket isle almost anywhere in the world, it will rarely feel like the shops are lacking in variety. When strolling through the America's king of supermarkets, Walmart, one can find 150 different ice cream flavours, hundreds of varieties of chocolate and about 30 kinds of potato chips. On the surface, the ginormous supermarkets of our time house a sea of choice but in reality the variety of base ingredients and recipes is very limited. In fact, humankind has weeded out the often most tasteful and pleasant varieties and kept the ones that are most easily transportable and least vulnerable to disease. This has led us to be highly dependable on a handful of base ingredient varieties- the Cavendish banana, the Granny Smith apple and others. And all those 'basics' have evolved to be the optimal breed of vegetable, fruit or even meat for commercial cultivation and use. 

Simran Sethi, the author of 'Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love’, writes on food standardisation and how climate change threatens our current way of eating. Sethi accurately points out that we are all moving towards a global ‘standard diet’, often taking America as the role model. And as it turns out, the standard diet is largely made up of the basic ingredients that have come to dominate the food industry: corn, soybeans, rice, palm oil. Sethi writes: ‘globally, foods have become more alike and less diverse. As the amount of food around the world has shrunk to just a handful of crops, regional and local crops have become scarce or disappeared altogether. Wheat, rice and corn, plus palm oil and soybeans, are what we all eat now—the same type and the same amount.’

The statistics are astonishing: the FAO’s research suggests that 95 percent of the calories consumed across the planet come from 30 species. Out of the 300 000 edible plant varieties, we only use and cultivate 150. In fact, 75 percent of world’s food produce comes from 12 plant species and 5 animals. This standardisation has an obvious negative effect on biodiversity, with local plant species disappearing to make room for the megacrops. Additionally, by depending so heavily on just a handful crops and animals, the global food industry is putting itself in a very vulnerable position when it comes to climate change. If the world continues to warm, bringing along more climate extremes and changing seasonal cycles, many of these megacrops may be in danger.

Our standardised diet is making us put all our eggs in the same basket, both figuratively and literally. And unfortunately, it is not only climate change that is affecting our basic megacrops. We also need to be on the lookout for crop diseases. One of the current biggest worries in the agribusiness is wheat rust, an airborne fungus that has quickly spread from Africa to East and Central Asia, Middle East and Europe. Wheat rust is a powerful fungus dubbed as the ‘polio of agriculture’ which threatens to wipe out the wheat crop on a global scale, putting our current wheat intensive diet in danger.

In conclusion, to protect the planet’s biodiversity and ensure that we do not lose some of the most important ingredients in our food system, a more balanced and locally sourced diet is sought. Locally sourced, seasonally balanced and diversified diets will embrace the local biodiversity and benefit us in many other ways (check out the previous posts on local/organic topics).

PS. To all the food lovers, 'Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love’ is a powerful and delicious read, a true eye opener.

Until next time,

Laura

Weekday vegetarian

In the spirit of today's announcement by the WHO that proves the link between processed meat and cancer, we should all take a second to consider becoming vegetarian. But it is easier said than done right? I can completely relate to that! So how about becoming half vegetarian or better yet, a weekday vegetarian? Graham Hill, the founder of LifeEdited and an advocate for sustainability and minimalism, teaches us how!

'We all know the arguments that being vegetarian is better for the environment and for the animals - but in carnivoruous culture, it can be hard to make the change. Graham Hill has a powerful, pragmatic suggestion: Be a weekday veg.'

Are you up for the challenge?

Until next time,

Laura

Can a smaller plate help you reduce food waste?

Apparently so, according to recent research. The following infographic points out that our dinner plates have actually grown by 51% since 1900. Those bigger plates are pushing us to serve ourselves bigger portions because the ration between food and plate surface we are trying to achieve. From the work of mathematician and psychologist Joseph Delboeuf we can read that container size affects how we perceive the amount of food we serve. In essence, a bigger plate equals a bigger portion.

And the portions have been growing with the plates since 1900. Even modern cookbooks incorporate larger portions when composing recipes for dinner dishes. While we serve ourselves more, we are more likely to send some of that food into the trash can once we are finished. In 2010 the US threw away 141 trillion calories, an equivalent of us throwing 20 oranges into the bin every day.

So the next time you are cooking dinner or having a house party, think of using smaller plates and containers when setting the table and preparing the food. Of course you don't want to scare off your guests by serving soup from an espresso cup but you get the idea.

Until next time,

Laura

Bird's Eye View of Meat Factories

I came across these horrific satellite pictures collected by Mishka Henner who was initially looking for satellite images of oil fields, but discovered something just as disturbing. The seemingly beautiful and colorful lakes are cesspools of animal and chemical waste. Interestingly enough, these photos are rather controversial as many US states are protected by what they call 'ag-gag' laws which ban all undercover photography, video and sound recording in farms. They say these are in place in order to protect the farmers from unwanted intruders, but in my opinion, they work better to cover up the animal cruelty and environmental disaster that is ongoing inside closed doors of these factories.

These cesspools are a result of an unnatural growth cycle of the cattle, where their natural growth of about 5 years to slaughter weight has squeezed into 12 to 14 months. The diet of the cattle has been switched from grass to corn, protein and fat supplements. This ,combined with the fact that land per cattle ration in these factories is exceptionally low, means that factory produces a considerable amount of waste that naturally would be used as fertiliser. But due to the chemical composition of manure produced by factory cows, it  cannot be put to any good use and needs to be disposed of. And in come the cesspools, where all this chemical waste will just sit and damage the local water supply and air quality, causing disease within local human, animal and natural populations. Have a look at the photos:

(Source: http://www.filmsforaction.org)

(Source: http://www.filmsforaction.org)

(Source: http://www.filmsforaction.org)

(Source: http://www.filmsforaction.org)

The answer to this environmental disaster lies within the larger de-concentration of meat factories and food production in general. 'Farms' need to become farms again. The unnatural processes taking place in the factories are the root cause behing the photos above and rather than thinking how to sustainably dispose of the toxic waste, we should be thinking how to avoid creating it in order to arrive at a truly promising solution. Our meat production should be pasture-based, allowing the cattle's manure to be distributed so that the soil would be able to absorb it, making it a valuable fertiliser and creating a healthy lifecycle between the animal and the soil it feeds on. The road there is bumpy, but more on that later!

Here is the link to the initial article where all the photos are from: http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/unbelievable-photos-show-factory-farms-destroying-the-american-countryside/

Till next time,

Laura

The Return

Hello again! It has been 6 months since my last post here and I have decided that it is time for me to return. What have I been up to in the last 6 months you ask? Since April: I managed to get through my last exam period in UCL, spent an amazing summer travelling and enjoying myself, started a new job in London, graduated from UCL Class of 2014 and found a new home in East London. After some big changes in my life I felt like it was time to come back to The Big Hungry Planet to catch up on the last 6 months and look forward to the next. This blog started off as a piece of coursework supporting my studies in UCL in one the geography modules: Global Environmental Change. When I first learnt that one of my chosen 3rd year modules has a blog as a gradable coursework, I was a little dubious. I had grown used to our traditional ways of assessment through essays, problem sets and written examinations. But soon after starting my discussions in The Big Hungry Planet, I became inspired and passionate about my chosen topic and found myself looking forward to researching and writing my weekly posts. This sparked a real interest and even though I have been away for 6 months now, I never forgot this space here. 

In the spirit of my return, I think the best way to revive and refresh this place is to turn to a topic that is very close to many of our hearts and morning routines: coffee. In the process of warming the planet and polluting our resources, it is coffee production that might be at risk with advancing climate change. In short, us coffee lovers, we are shooting ourselves in the foot. 

(Source: http://charlestoncoffeeexchange.com/)

The historical home of coffee of the most delicious coffee beans, Ethiopia, is already facing a change in its climate with more extreme weather events and dramatic shifts in precipitation balance. Even though there are more than 120 varieties of coffee beans, only 2 of them are used to make the black golden drink so many of us love. This low genetic variety, with increased pressure from climate change, make these species extremely vulnerable to pests and infections. Without powerful pesticides (and we know how unfortunate these are to the health of the climate from previous discussions) that may jepordise the quality and taste of the beans, we may need to find ourselves a new morning ritual. In addition to being an essential kick-starter to our day, the coffee industry employs about 25 million people worldwide, mainly in the tropics, making it essential for the livelihoods around the world. 

Here is a short clip about the future of coffee:
'A study conducted by scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in collaboration with scientists in Ethiopia, reports that climate change alone could lead to the extinction of wild Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica) well before the end of this century...'

Till next time,

Laura

GMO Debate

Another interesting piece by the brilliant Jonathan Foley from the Institute on the Environment. And again, on my favorite blog space- Ensia. If I haven't said this before, for anyone who is interested in anything environment-related, be it biodiversity, technology or culture, Ensia is an excellent place to follow!

(Source: ensia.com)

This time, Foley addresses the problems of GM and the polarised debate it causes in today's world. He points out the current failures of GM and reminds us that it cannot be treated as a silver bullet solution. This article goes somewhat against my previous rather positive arguments about GM, providing a balanced debate of an important question in current food system.

In theory, GMOs sound very useful. They are supposed to help us “feed the world” because they will improve food security, dramatically boost crop yields, combat weeds and pests using fewer chemicals, make crops more nutritious, and have tremendous benefits to society. But have they?

Here is the link to the article: http://ensia.com/voices/gmos-silver-bullets-and-the-trap-of-reductionist-thinking/.

Laura

Solving the Global Food Waste Problem

Found this interesting piece on my favorite blog space Ensia on how to solve the global food waste problem. Having addressed this topic in my previous posts, this is a good continuation! 

(Source: http://ensia.com)

'Around the world, one-third of the food produced for human consumption is not actually consumed, according to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization. Despite high demand — even in the United States, one in six individuals lacks food security — perishable food often misses its mark, at epic proportions. Globally, this adds up to 1.3 billion metric tons of uneaten food annually. Not only that, but growing and transporting that food is estimated to produce 3.3 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, making wasted food one of the largest contributors to emissions in the world.'

Here is a link to the article by Mary Catherine O'Connor: http://ensia.com/features/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-food-waste/. 

Lessons Learnt

Firstly, I would like to thank all of you who read and engaged in interesting discussions with me on the course of this blog, I really appreciate it! I never knew there was a blogger inside me, but I throughly enjoyed writing this blog and I have a feeling I will be back here soon. It was interesting and liberating, in a way, to be able to incorporate different kinds of resources and engage in a wider discussion than I would be able to with 'traditional' piece of coursework. I hope I provided a good overview of the issues concerning our hungry planet and provided you an opportunity to draw your own conclusions.

Main topics and key words to take away from my blog.

I started my journey with a few questions (mostly to myself): how does our food system affect the global climate today? How can we make food production and farming more sustainable and healthier for the planet? How do consumers choices enter the picture and how can we be part of the solution? I hope that my previous post on climate-friendly diet already gave you an idea how consumer choice makes a difference in today's food industry If you are still wondering about the answers to the rest, here is a summary of where this blog has taken me.

In the past months I have talked about many aspets of today's foor production, which harm the environment and if you asked me now 'what is wrong with our food system?', I think my first answer would be 'everything!'. But how does our food system really affect the global climate change today? Without even taking a look at my previous posts I would have to say the biggest polluters in our food system today are meat production, food waste, food trade and the improper use of agro-chemicals. Other environmental issues relating to food production are food processing and the (over)use of palm oil and its unsustainable management. In terms of sustainable farming solutions, moving away from monocultures and meat factories is the first step that would bring significant improvements to environmental health. I talked about a few agroecological practices in one of my previous posts and turns out, these changes do not require us to sacrifice production yields or need significant investment of resources. 

But how do we promote sustainable farming and change the public opinion about food production? To be honest, I had no idea about how harmful today's food industry actually is to the environment and how big of a role meat consumption plays. In my opinion, the biggest players with power to change the perception of food are international organisations, media and the global community (public and scientific). And doesn't it also start with information outlets exactly like this blog here? It is important that there is a global discussion out there surrounding these issues and that the wider public starts to think more critically about what goes on their plate. There is obviously the issue of largely higher prices for 'environmentally friendly' food products but with advancements in technology and science, I see these costs shrinking in the future and sustainable farming becoming a norm. 

(Source: http://ensia.com)

I would like to end on a hopeful note and let you know that United Nations have named year 2014 the International Year of Family Farming! Along with food security and poverty issues, environmental impacts are on the list of problems to tackle. Here is final piece of reading by Danielle Nierrenberg published a few weeks ago on Ensia magazine website (one of my favorite spaces to follow since starting my blog): 2014 The Year of Family Farming- A United Nations designation provides the perfect opportunity to invest in small- and medium-sized farms. To a hopeful future!

Thank you for reading!

Laura

Climate-Friendly Diet

Having pointed out the things wrong with today's food production, I thought it would be a nice closing remark to suggest a plan for a climate-friendly diet. After reading and writing about the topic for the past three months, I want to leave you with an useful post that can help you change your eating habits for the better (and fulfill the purpose of my blog!).

People tend to acknowledge the role of packaging of food products has to play in the climate change discussion but many of us do not realise the harm meat consumption does to our planet. Even though cutting down meat is not necessarily difficult and can save you money, people seem to be reluctant to do it (Mäkiniemi and Vainio, 2013). It also depends on whether people perceive climate change as a moral issue. Although diets can be controlled at an individual level, changes in our society are also needed. We are in a need of clear labeling and availability of climate-friendly products alongside with public knowledge about environmentally harmful food products (Mäkiniemi and Vainio, 2013). So what basic steps could we take to make our everyday diets more sustainable? After going through the posts on my blog you should already have a good idea of the action we should all take, but this post should act as a helpful guide to anyone interested in making their eating habits more environmentally sustainable.

(Source: http://sustainablediets.com)

Baroni et al (2006) have once again confirmed through empirical testing that diets based on high meat consumption and chemical conventional agriculture have the greatest environmental impact than any other diet out there. The objective of their study was to tease out the 'critical points' of environmental impacts, the smallest changes in our eating habits that will lead to largest environmental benefits (without any extreme changes). And cutting down on meat consumption is the main trigger. Even though people are often reluctant to change their consumption of meat, raising awareness of its climate change impacts may change public opinion about meat consumption. So rule number one for a climate friendly diet: trade your meat for vegetables.

Second guideline towards a sustainable diet: eat real food that is free from processing. Remembering my previous post on processed food we know that, each step of the way on the processing cycle heats our climate: processed foods require more energy than whole foods. From chemical fertilisers and synthetic additives to freezing and canning, these foods carry a higher energy need than whole foods. Look for foods that are as close to their natural state as possible to be sure they have not gone through energy-intensive processing. Here is a video that takes on a tour on a typical American supermarket with two food specialists (learn to look out for the processed food):

Third suggestion for a climate-friendly diet: eliminate food waste. While approximately one third of the global food is getting lost or wasted (FAO, 2011), our individual efforts to cut down on the food we bin every day can go a long way. Food waste brings horrific environmental impacts (remind yourself from my earlier post): emission release, toxin infiltration into soil and waterways and land loss to land-fills. With helpful tips by Love Food Hate Waste, cutting down food waste can be easy, cut down your spending in the supermarket and bring improved environmental health. And if despite all efforts to bring your food waste to zero, make sure you compost the food that you no longer want. Consumers with gardens are especially lucky, getting a viable source of fertiliser, but even urbanites without a green space can often dump their compost in local farmers markets. 

(Source: http://motherorganica.com)

Having addressed the issues of food trade and agro-chemicals in previous posts, the fourth guideline for sustainable eating is: look for local and organic produce. It is important to get to know the food miles and the way your food is grown. Although finding organic and local produce can turn out to be challenging due to limited availability and priciness, the 'locavore' movement is growing. In order to really push for the organic movement, appropriate labeling is needed for customers to identify desirable products and that is largely in the hands of the policy makers and producers. But as the demand for organic produce increases, so does the need for labeling. 

And a final suggestion for the fans of climate-friendly eating: grow and cook as much of your own food as possible. This is the purest form of local and organic eating and has been largely in the shadows during the course of this blog. Why not start your own sustainable farm? Everyone with a garden is lucky enough to benefit from available green space but even in urban areas, technological advances and new ideas are making way for agricultural solutions that can be practiced by urbanites like many of us. A good example of this is Incredible Edible (check previous post), bringing gardens to urban areas. I am currently experimenting with Click & Grow to see how my own little garden turns out in the heart of London. Growing your own food can be one of the best ways to cut down individual impact on the environment. (Plus it is fun!)


I hope this gives you a guideline where to go from here as my blog slowly comes to a close. For me, reading and writing about the global industrial food production has definitely changed the way I think about food. Thanks for reading!

Till next time,
Laura

Cultured Meat

Happy New Year everyone! This time, I want to continue on the topic of cultured meat. Livestock is the biggest contributor to environmental damage in the agricultural sector. It takes up 30% of global ice-free land and produces 18% of global greenhouse gases (FAO, 2006). As the world's population is estimated to increase to 9 billion by 2050 and many nations are becoming wealthier, demand for meat is going to rise inevitably. Unless we manage to reduce meat consumption through individual diets, there is an immediate need to change how meat is produced. But even if diets change and the world becomes less meat hungry, total elimination of meat consumption is unrealistic and alternatives for conventional production should be considered. An interesting alternative, which is still in the research stage, is cultured meat. This is meat that has never been part of a living animal and is produced through tissue growth by adding protein to initial muscle cells. It is meat production without the animal, also referred to as vertical farming.

(Source: http://www.new-harvest.org)

Tuomisto and Mattos (2011) have compared the production process of in vitro meat to the conventional method and the results are impressive. Cultured meat emits significantly less greenhouse gases: the energy use in in vitro production can be up to 45% lower while greenhouse emissions are reduced by 78-96%. On top of that, due to the fact that meat will be produced in laboratories  cultured meat is less land intensive with 99% (!) lower land use than with conventional meat production. Tumisto and Mattos also point out that most of the emissions released during in vitro production are related to fuel and electricity, emissions could be further reduced if using renewable energy. In contrast to in vitro production, conventional meat industry has little chance of cutting its emissions because most emissions (57% if 100 years global warming potential is used) are due to methane release by cows (Tuomisto and Mattos, 2011). Below is a graph showing the comparison of primary energy input, greenhouse emissions, land use and water of in vitro meat with conventionally produced meat:

(Source: Tuomisto and Mattos (2011)

An additional benefit of cultured meat production can be cutting down in transport, as production sites can be located closer to demand. This will reduce the emission toll on meat production dramatically. Alongside reduced transportation, refrigeration needs can be reduced as in vitro meat is free from excess bones, fat and other parts that are discarded during meat production. Cultured meat would also eliminate unwanted waste occurring production, not to mention the fact that all the feed that is currently grown for feeding our livestock could be used for human consumption. In vitro meat production seems to address all the harmful environmental impacts that follow today's conventional meat industry. But in reality, cultured meat is still unrealistically expensive and public acceptance is a problem still to overcome. In order to commercialise lab-grown meat, a further estimated $ 160 million is needed to invest in research and further efforts are needed to tackle the public opinion about the so called 'zombified' food (Tuomisto and Mattos, 2011).

Beyond the environmental benefits that may yield with commercialising cultured meat, human health may also benefit. It is argued that cultured meat can prevent the spread of animal-borne diseases by reducing human-animal contact and since tissue engineering is able to control the quality and quantity of fat, nutrition-based diseases can be eliminated as well (Tuomisto and Roy, 2012). Lab-grown meat will be free from ethical issues relating to animal rights but may be tainted with other concerns about its 'unnatural' way of production. This comes down to a matter of value judgement but as any unconventional approach, in vitro meat remains highly controversial in public opinion. 

(Source: http://www.new-harvest.org)

In my opinion, cultured meat shows great potential and a possibility of replacing our conventional, energy intensive and emission rich way of meat production with a sustainable, clean, waste-free and animal friendly one. Cultured meat is becoming hugely popular in various fields of science and technology. The interest around it predicts its future to be promising and as research advances, I believe that sooner or later, cultured meat will find its way onto our plates. 

Here are some interesting (and crazy) news about in vitro meat:

Lab-grown meat could 'cut emissions and save energy'

Modern Meadow: Making Leather and Meat Better

Billionaire Peter Thiel's Latest Investment: 3D-Printed Meat

Meat the Future Cookbook
Inside the meat lab: the future of food

Till next time,

Laura