Are vegetables vegan? The man taking aim at animal products in organic farming

Even if you avoid industrial farm produce it’s likely that your veggies will have been grown with the help of manure and other animal products

Will Bonsall is a homesteader and 45-year vegan living in rural Maine with a message for Americans – your vegetables are “very un-vegan”.

Bonsall is an influential member of a small but growing group of vegan and organic – “veganic” – farmers, who want to revolutionize organic agriculture, which traditionally depends on animals byproducts such as cow manure.

“There’s a little bit of a disconnect, even hypocrisy, in vegans … We vegans like to put on our plates [vegetables] grown in methods that are very un-vegan,” Bonsall said.“Most organic agriculture is focused on moo poo,” said Bonsall. “Cow manure, animal manure, but also blood meal and bone meal,” he said.

A tractor spreads muck over field of stubble. ‘Most organic agriculture is focused on moo poo,’ says ‘veganic’ farmer Will Bonsall. Photograph: geogphotos/Alamy Stock Photo

A vegan diet excludes all products derived from animals, including meat, dairy, eggs and honey. Often, these products are avoided for health, environmental and ethical reasons.

Standard organic vegetable farming practices have used animal-derived products for centuries to boost soil fertility, such as cow manure, which farmers like Bonsall argue supports large-scale industrialized animal farming and, in his estimation, is unethical.

But the question of whether organic farming should necessarily exclude animals is hardly settled. Even proponents of veganic farming describe it as “controversial”.

The Rodale Institute helped develop the US Department of Agriculture standard for organic farming. Researchers there are pushing not for veganic methods, but for “regenerative organic certification”, which they hope can promote animal welfare, social justice and soil health.

“We’re at a point in time where our soils have been so degraded that it is actually becoming more and more difficult to grow crops in those degraded soils,” said Jessica Lang, research coordinator for the Rodale Institute. “This word – regenerative – is one that really needs to get into the vocabulary of the general population,” she said.

Bonsall’s is one of just 50 or so veganic farms in the United States, according to research by Professor Mona Seymour of Loyola Marymount University. Bonsall’s method of growing “perennial food crops with minimal fossil fuel and animal inputs”, is laid out in his book, an Essential Guide to Radical, Self-Reliant Gardening.

In a myopic sense, industrial agriculture – which uses nitrogen-fixing synthetic chemical fertilisers – is vegan. They are not derived from animals and allow farms to grow vegetables that are bigger and more tightly packed together, and free from animal manure and byproducts.

Freshly harvested Leeks from the plot...slightly various sizes, not huge but totally happy with them plus there’s many more 😆 Next year I’m going to try the multi sow approach 👍🏻🌱#leeks #allotment #veganic #nodig pic.twitter.com/k0Jebs8I4e

— Ellen Mary (@EllenMaryGarden) 1 December 2019

“The next logical step from that is growing organically but without animal manure,” said Jenny Hall, a trustee of the Vegan Organic Network based in the UK, and co-author of Growing Green: Animal-Free Organic Techniques. Hall has been vegan for 25 years.

“Within the organic movement it’s still controversial,” she said. “But actually, the reality is all plants are the original source of energy. In any ecological system plants are the bottom of the food chain, so it’s really just following nature’s cycle,” said Hall.

Industrial animal agriculture is one of the most environmentally damaging activities humans do, and many believe vegetarian and especially vegan eating could radically decrease greenhouse gas output.

If the world adopted a vegan diet, a recent study in Science found, global farmland use would shrink by 75%, equivalent to the area of the US, European Union, China and Australia combined. Industrial animal agriculture is the second-largest contributor to human-made greenhouse gas emissions after fossil fuels and is a leading cause of deforestation, water and air pollution and biodiversity loss.

Veganic farms remain small scale now, and less developed in the United States than in the European Union, where growers already have a certifying body, called “biocyclic vegan”. In the US, there is no certification, and veganic produce is harder to find, though not impossible if buying direct from farmers, Hall said.

To date, most veganic farmers are growing vegetables and fruits. As interest in veganic farming grows, the next phase of the movement is to bring onboard traditional grain farmers, Hall said.

“For a long time, no one gave two poops about the organic movement, because it was just a bunch of hippies,” said Bonsall. For decades, many argued if world agriculture went organic “we have to decide which third of the world is going to starve to death,” because without petrochemicals farmers couldn’t grow the necessary amount of produce. “Nowadays, there are lots of people doing it, and I’m just another fly on the wall.”

(Source: The Guardian) 

The vegetarian 'meat' aimed at replacing the real thing

Meat-free foods that "bleed" like the real thing are becoming increasingly common. Could these vegetarian alternatives replace "traditional" burgers and sausages?

Concerns about the environmental and health impact of our diets has seen interest in vegetarian and vegan foods grow.

This has boosted everything from flexitarianism to vegan sausage rolls and campaigns like "Veganuary".

While Quorn and Linda McCartney once ruled the meat substitute aisles of our supermarkets, new companies are appearing with a radically different vision of "meat-free".

Vegetarian "meat" designed to mimic the look, smell and taste of the real thing are already available, while scientists are developing lab-grown meats

But with the arrival of these new dishes comes an increasingly animated debate about what can be called "meat", as well as how - and even if - it should be sold.

The first type of these new meat alternatives are plant-based products.

These are already available in restaurants, pubs and supermarkets, contributing to a growing market worth an estimated £4.6bn. Last week, the value of US firm Beyond Meat rose to nearly $3.8bn (£2.9bn) after its Wall Street debut.

The aim of plant-based "meat" is for it to be so similar to cook and eat as the real thing, that it is virtually indistinguishable.

It is made from plant proteins - usually wheat, pea or potato. Natural colourings like beetroot juice usually provide the "blood".

Another US firm, Impossible Foods, has developed a plant version of heme - which gives beef its colour and taste.

The second type of meat alternative is known as cultured or clean meat, which is produced using animal stem cells.

These cells are grown in a lab or bioreactor, usually with the help of a growth-enhancing substance taken from a calf foetus.

The process is arguably closer to a scientist growing replacement tissues and organs than the work of a cattle farmer.

Although not yet available in shops and restaurants, the techniques are being explored in a number of countries and could be on our plates in a matter of years.

A firm called Just hopes to have its lab-grown chicken on US shelves by the end of 2019.

These meat analogues are not aimed at vegetarians and vegans.

There are high hopes that both the plant-based and lab-grown meats will appeal to hardened meat-eaters.

US firm Impossible Foods has developed a plant version of heme - which gives beef its colour and taste

But getting these products on to our plates is not as straightforward as simply putting them into shops and restaurants.

Arguably, the biggest hurdle is getting permission to sell them.

Cultured meat firms must undergo a rigorous safety assessment.

In the EU, this process can take up to two years. If the European Food Safety Authority decides the product is safe to eat, a decision must be made about whether it can go to market - and how it should be labelled.

In the US, the timeframe is less certain and relies on approval from two separate departments: the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates the collection and culturing of animal cells, and the US Department of Agriculture, which decides how cultured meat can be marketed.

Even with approval from regulators, there is still the need to win over the public.

For many consumers, the so-called "yuck" factor of lab-grown meat could be too strong for it to be considered an alternative to real meat - or something they even want to eat.

For others, the most important thing may be clear and transparent information on what they are eating and from where it has come.

In the US, there are demands for a more precise definition of "meat" before this new technology hits the shelves.

The term should only be used to describe "the tissue or flesh of animals that have been harvested in the traditional manner", the US Cattlemen's Association argues.

For producers of meat alternatives, the outcome of these debates could make or break their businesses.

It is thought that consumers are more likely to buy meat described as "clean" or "slaughter-free" than "lab-grown".

Naming is also important to the plant-based "meats", with opposition to the use of terms like "burger", "steak" or "sausage" to describe them growing.

The EU is to consider proposals to restrict these terms solely to describe edible animal products. It led to reports that this could mean veggie burgers and sausages might have to take on more descriptive names like "discs" and "tubes".

France has already chosen to ban the "misleading" labelling of vegetarian products, suggesting that labels including "veggie burger" and "vegan bacon" risk confusing people.

Producers and investors in plant-based and cultured meat hope it will rival the taste, cost and convenience of conventional meat.

Some think it could take the place of our most environmentally-damaging meats and help meet climate targets.

Conventional meat production is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and a leading driver of environmental damage. A shift in diets has been described by scientists as critical to tackling climate change.

Plant-based "meat" produces significantly fewer greenhouse gas emissions and requires far less land and water.

However, growing meat in a lab still requires lots of energy. A report from the Oxford Martin School suggested that in some circumstances - over the very long term, and not taking into account emissions from land-use change associated with livestock production - lab meat could result in more warming than meat from cattle.

Lab-grown meat is still only being produced in small quantities, meaning it is difficult to assess what large-scale production could look like.

Another issue is how a switch to meat alternatives would affect livestock farmers, some of whom argue that much of the land on which animals are farmed is not fertile enough for crop production.

For consumers, there are important questions.

Are they willing to rethink the role of animal farming in diets and in our culture?

And if "meat" comes from plants or animal cells is it still meat at all?

(Source: BBC)

The butcher who went vegan in secret

After about 15 years working in the meat industry, butcher Brian Kavanagh found he was concealing a secret.

Much of his adult life had been spent shaping, slicing and trimming animal products by the slab without a qualm - a career that began when he was just 16 in a small family-run butcher in Burnside, South Lanarkshire.

But as he stood silent behind the meat counter in Morrisons supermarket, aged 33, Brian couldn't quite find the words to tell colleagues he had become vegan.

Brian Kavanagh is a vegan butcher for Sgaia's Vegan Meats

"I kept it to myself," he said. "I didn't tell anyone because I was worried about them making jokes. Before I just looked at it as a piece of meat going on a dinner plate but then you see it as an animal and not just a steak.

"I was a bit depressed, it just didn't feel good, so I had to leave."

Brian now makes products like this vegan streaky bacon - part of his employer's 'mheat' offering

Brian said becoming a butcher was the first job he picked at the Job Centre as a teenager - and it was "just something to keep my dad quiet".

As an adult, he said eating meat such as steak or chicken was routine and he would often buy meat from work for convenience.

He first considered giving up animal products when his wife Rebecca became vegan, but it was the animal welfare documentary Earthlings, narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, that finally pushed him to make the change.

The award-winning film, directed by Shaun Monson, contains footage of the conditions inside factory farms. Now Brian, his wife and his two children, age nine and six, stick to a plant-based diet.

"Me and the kids would have separate meals from my wife," he said. "Now it's so much easier doing it together."

Brian, Lucy and Jack went from eating meat daily to a plant-based diet

Brian, who is now 36, gave in his notice to Morrisons and was eventually hired at the Glasgow base of Sgaia's Vegan Meats, founded by Hilary Masin and Alberto Casotto.

"I was worried my background and my story might put them off, and they wouldn't want someone who was a meat butcher for 15 years," he said.

"But they were really excited about it and wanted me just as much as I wanted to work there."

He now calls himself a vegan butcher.

By blending a combination of soy, gluten and spices, Sgaia's creates a number of vegan products which they call 'mheats' - from staples like streaky bacon and burgers to more specialised foods such as charcuterie.

The firm supplies a number of restaurants and kitchens in Glasgow - including the pop-up Durty Vegan Burger Club.

The beginnings of a 'mheat' blend - gluten, soya and spices

The job transition was a worry for Brian but quickly soon after joining he helped to launch one of its most popular products - the vegan lorne sausage.

He said: "Making sausages was a big part of being a butcher. Once I saw how the [vegan] base was made I thought it would be interesting to try to play about with that and create a lorne sausage.

"All the feedback has been really good. We took it to a festival and some people were coming back two or three times."

Sgaia's square sausage is among their most popular products

Recent years have seen a large rise in small food manufacturers marketing their products as a new form of meat, despite resistance around the world.

In the US, last week, the governor of South Dakota signed legislation that required "fake meat" products to be appropriately labelled as it "misled" consumers.

It came after the US Cattlemen's Association lodged a petition calling for an official definition of "beef" and "meat" in 2018.

France has also banned labelling vegan or vegetarian products as a meat item to avoid confusion.

But regardless of labels, Brian claimed his own lifestyle changes have brought him nothing but happiness.

He said: "My skin was the first thing I noticed. I always had spots until I was 30, but my skin became a lot clearer. I feel clearer in the mind too.

"It's that psychological thing - you eat something healthy, you feel good."

(Source: BBC)

The diet to save lives, the planet and feed us all?

A diet has been developed that promises to save lives, feed 10 billion people and all without causing catastrophic damage to the planet.

Scientists have been trying to figure out how we are going to feed billions more people in the decades to come.

Their answer - "the planetary health diet" - does not completely banish meat and dairy.

But it requires an enormous shift in what we pile onto our plates and turning to foods that we barely eat.

What changes am I going to have to make?
If you eat meat every day then this is the first biggie. For red meat you're looking at a burger a week or a large steak a month and that's your lot.

You can still have a couple of portions of fish and the same of chicken a week, but plants are where the rest of your protein will need to come from.

The researchers are recommending nuts and a good helping of legumes (that's beans, chickpeas and lentils) every day instead.

There's also a major push on all fruit and veg, which should make up half of every plate of food we eat.

Although there's a cull on "starchy vegetables" such as the humble potato or cassava which is widely eaten in Africa.

So what is the diet in detail?
If you served it all up this is what you are allowed each day:

1. Nuts - 50g a day
2. Beans, chickpeas, lentils and other legumes - 75g a day
3. Fish - 28g a day
4. Eggs - 13g a day (so one and a bit a week)
5. Meat - 14g a day of red meat and 29g a day of chicken
6. Carbs - whole grains like bread and rice 232g a day and 50g a day of starchy vegetables
7. Dairy - 250g - the equivalent of one glass of milk
8. Vegetables (300g) and fruit (200g)

The diet has room for 31g of sugar and about 50g worth of oils like olive oil.

Will it taste awful?
Prof Walter Willet, one of the researchers who is based at Harvard, said no and that after a childhood on a farm eating three portions of red meat a day he was now pretty much in line with the planetary health diet.

He said: "There's tremendous variety there.

"You can take those foods and put them together in thousands of different ways. We're not talking about a deprivation diet here, it is healthy eating that is flexible and enjoyable."

These are some plates of food that meet the planetary health diet rules.

Is this for real life, or is this just fantasy?
This plan requires changes to diets in pretty much every corner of the world.

Europe and North America need to cut back massively on red meat, East Asia needs to cut back on fish, Africa on starchy vegetables.

"Humanity has never attempted to change the food system at this scale and this speed," says Line Gordon, an assistant professor at the Stockholm Resilience Centre.

"Whether it's a fantasy or not, a fantasy doesn't have to be bad... it's time to dream of a good world," she says.

Taxes on red meat are one of the many options the researchers say may be necessary to persuade us to switch diets.

Who came up with this?
A group of 37 scientists from around the world were brought together as part of the EAT-Lancet commission.

They're a mix of experts from farming to climate change to nutrition and they took two years to come up with their findings which have been published in the Lancet.

Why do we need a diet for 10 billion people?
The world population reached 7 billion in 2011 and it's now around 7.7 billion.

That figure is expected to reach 10 billion around 2050 and will keep on climbing.

Will it save lives?
The researchers say the diet will prevent around 11 million people dying each year.

That number is largely down to cutting diseases related to unhealthy diets such as heart attacks, strokes and some cancers.

These are now the biggest killers in developed countries.

How bad is farming for the planet?
The use of land for growing food and forestry accounts for around a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions, about the same as from electricity and heating, and substantially more than from all the trains, planes and automobiles on the planet.

When you look more closely at the food sector's environmental impact, you can see that meat and dairy are the major factors - worldwide, livestock accounts for between 14.5 and 18% of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.

When it comes to other warming gases, agriculture is one of the leading contributors to both methane and nitrous oxide emissions.

Agriculture is also a significant source of air pollution with ammonia from farms a major cause of fine particulate matter, which the WHO says is a threat to health worldwide.

Similarly when it comes to water, agriculture and food productions are one of the biggest threats, consuming 70% of global freshwater sources for irrigation.

So will the planetary health diet save the planet?
The researchers aim was to feed more people while:

• minimising greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change
• preventing any species going extinct
• have no expansion of farmland
• and preserve water

However, just changing diets is nowhere near enough.

In order to make the numbers add up, it also requires a halving of food waste and to increase the amount of food produced on current farmland.

Why isn't meat being banned?
"If we were just minimising greenhouse gases we'd say everyone be vegan," said Prof Willet.

However, he said it was unclear whether a vegan diet was the healthiest option.

So what happens now?
The EAT-Lancet Commission is going to take their findings to governments around the world and bodies such as the World Health Organization to see if they can begin to change the way we eat.

(Source: BBC)

Veganuary bus adverts 'should be removed in Shropshire'

Adverts promoting veganism should be removed from buses in Shropshire because of the county's agricultural history, a senior councillor has said.

Deputy council leader Steve Charmley said in a series of tweets the posters meant bus firm Arriva was being used to promote "fake news of vegangalists".

The adverts, encouraging people to try veganism in January, were paid for by Shropshire Veggies and Vegans.

The group's Michelle D'Arcy Jewell said it also supported county farming.

The adverts for Veganuary, which feature a picture of a cow and a caption about milk production, are being displayed on buses in Telford and Shrewsbury.

Steve Charmley said he did not object to people choosing what they want to eat

Conservative Mr Charmley, who has been deputy leader for more than three years, has called on Arriva to meet him.

He said he did not object to people choosing what they ate but said: "I come from a farming background.

"I know farming is highly regulated, we have some of the highest quality food around the world, responsibly sourced and that conforms to the highest welfare standards."

Mr Charmley's original tweet received more than a dozen replies, some criticising his stance.

Duncan Jones asked: "Seriously do you think a couple of adverts on a bus is going to affect livestock agricultural in Shropshire?"

Other responses questioned whether the politician was right to suggest censorship of legal advertising.

The row comes in the same week bakery chain Gregg's launched a vegan sausage roll, which gained publicity when Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan reacted with apparent outrage - in turn prompting a barrage of criticism over his stance.

Nobody was waiting for a vegan bloody sausage, you PC-ravaged clowns. https://t.co/QEiqG9qx2G

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) January 2, 2019

Ms D'Arcy Jewell said this was the second year adverts had run on buses in Shropshire. She said the campaign was designed to get people thinking about veganism and received a largely positive response in 2018.

"Shropshire has fantastic agricultural history, including producing fruits and vegetables," Ms D'Arcy Jewell added.

"There is no reason we can't feel proud of that agriculture."

Arriva said the third party that runs its advertising worked with the company to ensure campaigns did not cause offence and was looking into the issue.

It said it would be happy to meet Mr Charmley.

A year ago this week, a chef at a restaurant in Shropshire offered her resignation after claiming on Facebook she had "spiked a vegan".

(Source: BBC) 

Big in Israel: Vegan soldiers

How the IDF is handling the changing dietary preferences of its servicemen and women.

Last december, Colonel Avi Harel, a commander in the Israel Defense Forces, was facing a strategic quandary. According to media reports, protesters were threatening revolt from within. They were not satisfied with previous concessions; the status quo, they said, had to change. In hopes of staving off conflict, Harel extended a peace offering: soybeans, legumes, and lentil-based hamburgers.

Veganism has surged in Israel in recent years. According to Israeli news sources, nearly five percent of Israelis now forgo meat, dairy, and eggs, making the Jewish state the most vegan nation, per capita, in the world. Vegan activists point to a 2012 visit from Gary Yourofsky, an American animal-rights crusader, as a turning point. One Yourofsky YouTube video with Hebrew subtitles racked up 1 million views, a substantial number in a country of 8 million people. Israeli restaurants soon jumped on the bandwagon, with Tel Aviv brasseries and Domino’s franchises alike rolling out special vegan menus.

Because Israel has mandatory military service, the surge in vegan citizens has translated into a bumper crop of vegan soldiers. Last year, some of them banded together to protest the lack of animal-free options in mess halls. “We are striving for equal opportunity, to allow vegan soldiers to live honorably and serve the country in the best manner possible,” Major Omer Yuval, a reservist and one of the protest leaders, told Bamahane, the IDF’s weekly magazine.

Which is how Harel, the commander of the IDF’s Food Center, found himself tasked with an unexpected challenge: figuring out how to provide soldiers the fuel necessary to fight, without harming any animals. The resulting vegan meal plan, which debuted in February, includes breakfast boxes packed with tahini, nuts, and dried fruit, as well as soy-based meat substitutes for dinner.

The IDF is also issuing leather-free combat boots and wool-free berets to soldiers who register as vegan, so they can march into battle knowing that no living creature has been harmed in their provisioning. (What happens during battle is, of course, harder to control.)

Support for reduced-cruelty meal plans appears to go all the way to the top. The Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed support for Israel’s “Meatless Monday” movement, adopting a vegetarian day for his staff, security guards, and family at his residence in Jerusalem each week. According to Haaretz, Netanyahu has been reading up on the topic. “[I] understood that animals are more conscious than we thought, which is bothering me and making me think twice,” he said at a cabinet meeting.

(Source: The Atlantic)