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Is making beef like making beer?

That is the claim in this piece at CNN by the Director of New Harvest, which aims to make lab-raised meat. 

The production of beer requires living organisms -- yeast -- and nourishment for those organisms -- grain. How these elements come together with others to make beer is straightforward in theory, and nuanced in practice. The products are varied and distinct.
Cultured meat production is extremely similar. Explained simply, all that is required is a cell line and nourishment for those cells. How the cells are grown, and under what conditions, are adjustable. The potential variety of materials and processes will allow cultured meat to take on many distinctly unique forms, flavors and textures.

I really liked the following two paragraphs about technology in food:

It's a new way of thinking because this is food science by the public, for the public. It prompts a widespread conversation about a food technology years in advance of its market release rather than years afterward. It's a new way of thinking because it's a technology largely driven by societal demand and people have pushed this forward, as donors to a cause.
The biggest reasons why cultured meat hasn't progressed further is a lack of funding and a lack of creative understanding. We're not used to food technology being a positive solution. We're not used to food development being nonprofit. And we're not used to a nonprofit group generally categorized as an animal rights/environmentalist group requiring a cancer research-scale budget. But we're learning.

 

 

Animal Shelters for Chickens

That is the title of a post by Yvonne Vizzier Thaxton at Meatingplace.com.  She writes:

It was inevitable.  Community shelters are reporting the appearance of chickens looking for a new home. 

and

The problem is that many of the people who thought having a few chickens to supply eggs and teach their children about food had good intentions but not enough information.  First, several chickens can completely strip a small yard of vegetation leaving the area muddy and unattractive – gone is the image of chickens in the grass.  They don’t always lay an egg a day and don’t lay many, if any, after about 2 years but they still eat.

and

Our local shelters have been struggling for years to take care of the many cats and dogs they receive along with the occasional horse, exotic bird and reptile.  Finding homes for these, more common pets, is not easy.  Finding a home for chickens is likely to be significantly more difficult.

Think the HSUS will help out?

Vegetarian Revolution

Saturday was Bastille Day, the French holiday commemorating a pivotal moment of the French Revolution: The storming of the Bastille prison. But in addition to remembering the revolutionaries with a spirited verse of "Do You Hear The People Sing?"* should we also celebrate with a plate of veggies?
The French Revolution storyline that lives in history books and popular culture involves the lower classes, driven by hunger and rising bread prices, fighting back against oppression from their 18th century rulers.
However, nearly lost to history were the middle and upper class opponents of the political system, some of whom were reported to have used vegetarianism — not the guillotine — to protest the monarchy.

That's from the NPR blog, the salt.  I also thought this line at the end was interesting: 

Of course, political vegetarianism did not begin or end with the French revolutionaries.

As an aside, I was sitting on a beach in Nice France on Bastille Day in 2011 watching fireworks with my wife and kids, and I couldn't help but think it was a bit odd that the Beach Boys were blaring over the loud speakers as the French were celebrating their revolution.

 

 

 

Why don't people shop like they vote?

The fact that people are often willing to vote to ban items that they willingly buy in the supermarket is something of a paradox.  In the case of eggs from caged hens, about 63% of Californians voted to ban eggs from cages, but the market share of caged eggs is only about 5-10%.  I talked about this in my co-authored book on animal welfare with Bailey Norwood and I've written about it in published research in other contexts with Kate Brooks.

I've heard Glynn Tonsor at K-State refer to the effects of this sort of situation as an unfunded mandate, and I think that is an apt description.  Voters mandate that farmers adopt a practice that they subsequently are unwilling to fund with their shopping behavior.  

Yesterday, Modern Farmer ran a story on precisely this quandary.  They interviewed Norwood about the issue and here is what he had to say: 

“It is a real part of them, just like it’s real when you say you want to lose weight,” hypothesizes Norwood. “But then when you actually have to go to the gym or eat the smaller meals, you’re less likely to do it. We always fall short of our ideal self.”
Also, he says, humans are social animals, and in different settings, people act differently. At the store you’re thinking about getting what you need, saving money, acting as an individual. “In the voting booth, you’ve got your ethical hat on, thinking as a citizen,” says Norwood.

Bailey is describing what many have referred to as the citizen vs. consumer hypothesis.  I definitely think that is part of what is going on.  

When I present this "paradox" to academic audiences (or when I've heard others present it), it is very common for someone to conjecture that people vote this way to constrain their future selves.  The argument is that consumers really want to buy cage free eggs but when they get in the store, they just can't commit to doing so.  This sort of answer is conceptually plausible and it is partially (though not fully) consistent with Bailey's explanation.  But, I don't find it likely.  Here's why.  People could constrain themselves in other ways but they don't.  For example, they could shop only at grocery stores (like Whole Foods) that only carry cage free eggs.  It is simply hard for me to imagine that paying an extra $1 to $2 for a dozen eggs is a result of a lack of willpower.

I seriously doubt that there is a single explanation for the "paradox."  My favorite (unproven) hypothesis is simply that price is more salient in the store than the voting booth.  People are more likely to vote for a ban because, unlike the grocery store, the costs aren't transparent, immediate, and direct.  

Of course, there are many other competing hypotheses and I'm working now with Norwood and Tonsor and Brooks to try to understand the issue more fully.  It's problems like this that make research fun!

 

 

Urban Chickens

A USDA report on urban chickens (from a survey conducted in four US cities): 

 

Overall, 0.8 percent of all households (0.6 percent of all households excluding single-family homes on 1 acre or more) owned chickens. Chickens were ownedon 4.3 percent of single-family homes on 1 acre or more. Excluding single-family homes on 1 acre or more, the percentage of households with chickens ranged from 0.1 percent in New York City to 1.3 percent in Miami.
While less than 1 percent of households had chickens, nearly 4 percent of households without chickens planned to have chickens within the next 5 years, illustrating the growing acceptance of urban farming (range: 2.0 percent of households in New York City to 7.4 percent in Denver).
Overall, about 4 of 10 respondents were in favor of allowing chickens in their communities and would not mind if their neighbors owned chickens (44.4 and 39.3 percent, respectively). These percentages were inversely related to the age of the respondent. Denver had the highest percentage of respondents in favor of allowing chickens in the community (62.5 percent).
Although over half of respondents (55.6 percent) believed that chickens in urban areas will lead to more illnesses in humans, about two-thirds of respondents in Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City and three-fourths of respondents in Denver believed that eggs from home-raised chickens are better for you than eggs purchased at a grocery store. Denver respondents were the least likely to believe that chickens in urban areas will lead to more illnesses in humans.