beef

Saturday August 10, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday August 10, 2019

To reduce global warming, people need to eat less meat: UN report

Global meat consumption must fall to curb global warming, reduce growing strains on land and water and improve food security, health and biodiversity, a United Nations report on the effects of climate change concluded.

Although the report stopped short of explicitly advocating going meat free, it called for big changes to farming and eating habits to limit the impact of population growth and changing consumption patterns on stretched land and water resources.

Plant-based foods and sustainable animal-sourced food could free up several million square kilometres of land by 2050 and cut 0.7-8.0 gigatonnes a year of carbon dioxide equivalent, the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said.

“There are certain kinds of diets that have a lower carbon footprint and put less pressure on land,” Jim Skea, professor at London’s Imperial College, said on Thursday.

The IPCC met this week in Geneva, Switzerland to finalize its report which should help to guide governments meeting this year in Chile on ways to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement.

“The IPCC does not recommend people’s diets … Dietary choices are very often shaped or influenced by local production practices and cultural habits,” Skea, who is one of the report’s authors, told reporters in Geneva. (National Post) 

 

Wednesday May 22, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday May 22, 2019

Alberta beef producers carefully watch Beyond Meat veggie burger complaint

Beef producers in Alberta are carefully watching an ongoing complaint from their Quebec counterparts.

The complaint’s target? American veggie burger company Beyond Meat.

March 15, 2001

The company has swept into Canadian headlines, advertising a plant-based, meatless burger that mimics beef. It hit the news, to great fanfare, when sold at A&W fast food restaurants, and is now available at various grocery chains.

The vegan company hopes to tap into the meat-eater market because the burger more closely tastes like beef than standard veggie patties.

The Quebec Cattle Producers Federation filed a formal complaint with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency last week, arguing Beyond Meat has no right to advertise their product as “plant-based meat.”

Alberta Beef Producers and Canadian Cattleman’s Association, which is based in Calgary, have announced their support for the complaint.

“If they’re saying, ‘We’re selling plant-based protein,’ we don’t have any issue with that at all. That’s not misleading at all. That’s very clear what consumers are getting,” Alberta Beef Producers executive director Rich Smith told the Calgary Eyeopener.

January 16, 2019

“When they start introducing terms that they’re using in a comparative way and sometimes in a negative way in their advertising, then that’s where we think it’s unfair and misleading to to our industry and to consumers.”

Beef producers in Alberta are carefully watching an ongoing complaint from their Quebec counterparts.

The complaint’s target? American veggie burger company Beyond Meat.

The company has swept into Canadian headlines, advertising a plant-based, meatless burger that mimics beef. It hit the news, to great fanfare, when sold at A&W fast food restaurants, and is now available at various grocery chains.

The vegan company hopes to tap into the meat-eater market because the burger more closely tastes like beef than standard veggie patties.

The Quebec Cattle Producers Federation filed a formal complaint with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency last week, arguing Beyond Meat has no right to advertise their product as “plant-based meat.”

Alberta Beef Producers and Canadian Cattleman’s Association, which is based in Calgary, have announced their support for the complaint.

“If they’re saying, ‘We’re selling plant-based protein,’ we don’t have any issue with that at all. That’s not misleading at all. That’s very clear what consumers are getting,” Alberta Beef Producers executive director Rich Smith told the Calgary Eyeopener.

“When they start introducing terms that they’re using in a comparative way and sometimes in a negative way in their advertising, then that’s where we think it’s unfair and misleading to to our industry and to consumers.” (CBC) 

 

Saturday January 19, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday January 19, 2019

Less beef, more beans. Experts say world needs a new diet

A hamburger a week, but no more — that’s about as much red meat people should eat to do what’s best for their health and the planet, according to a report seeking to overhaul the world’s diet.

Eggs should be limited to fewer than about four a week, the report says. Dairy foods should be about a serving a day, or less.

March 15, 2001

The report from a panel of nutrition, agriculture and environmental experts recommends a plant-based diet, based on previously published studies that have linked red meat to increased risk of health problems. It also comes amid recent studies of how eating habits affect the environment. Producing red meat takes up land and feed to raise cattle, which also emit the greenhouse gas methane.

attention to how diets affect the environment, but that the report’s recommendations do not reflect the level of scientific uncertainties around nutrition and health.

“The evidence is not as strong as it seems to be,” Ioannidis said.

The report was organized by EAT, a Stockholm-based non-profit seeking to improve the food system, and published Wednesday by the medical journal Lancet. The panel of experts who wrote it says a “Great Food Transformation” is urgently needed by 2050, and that the optimal diet they outline is flexible enough to accommodate food cultures around the world.

Overall, the diet encourages whole grains, beans, fruits and most vegetables, and says to limit added sugars, refined grains such as white rice and starches like potatoes and cassava. It says red meat consumption on average needs to be slashed by half globally, though the necessary changes vary by region and reductions would need to be more dramatic in richer countries like the United States. (Source: CBC) 

 

Thursday March 15, 2001

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 15, 2001

Canada bans animal product imports from EU

The federal government has expanded its ban on imports of meat products from the European Union in a bid to protect Canada from an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease threatening to devastate Europe’s livestock industry.The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced yesterday that it will not allow imports of pigs, uncooked pork products, some unpasteurized cheeses and dairy products, and semen and embryos from certain animals.

Canada already bans imports of beef and lamb from Europe due to concerns about mad-cow disease.

Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief said, “It’s the very same as we’ve been treating the United Kingdom for a couple of weeks.”

The government will also block imports of used farm equipment, which could carry the foot-and-mouth virus.

Britain has been devastated by an outbreak of foot-and-mouth, which attacks cattle, sheep, hogs and other animals with cloven hoofs.

The virus, which causes blisters on the tongue, gums, nostrils and upper part of the foot, is usually not fatal to animals but it can cause great weight loss since animals can’t eat. There is no risk to humans. (Source)