Future Forum 2013 - Kurt Schmidinger

Future Food – nutrition
(almost) without livestock?

The consequences of the worldwide production of 65
billion farm animals per year on the environment and
climate, global nutrition, animal welfare and human health
– and possible alternatives!

Global consequences of our nutritional habits & livestock

Kurt Schmidinger – www.futurefood.org
Geophysicist & Food Scientist

Livestock / Consumption of animal products
Global consequences – the major 4:
Environment (incl. climate)
World nutrition / world hunger
Animal rights and animal welfare
Human health



World hunger / environment
Meat = lengthened
food chain =>
requires 5-15 times
more areas, plants,
water etc. to feed
humans
(Exception: Pure pasture
management of ruminants, which
on the other hand requires huge
areas, causes much of the
methane-issues, furthermore only
small share of global production).



Input / Output: 1 out of 7 calories converted to
meat, what happens with the rest?

Metabolic losses inevitable (compare humans), Bread example, livestock first of all an efficient production of
excrements, meat as „side product“, by far biggest waste of food globally, 1/3 of world harvest (cereals+soya)
converted to excrements!


Environment: Climate, water, erosion,
land consumption, ...
« The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most
significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at
every scale from local to global. The findings of this report suggest that it
should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land
degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water
pollution and loss of biodiversity.
Livestock’s contribution to environmental problems is on a massive scale and its
potential contribution to their solution is equally large. The impact is so
significant that it needs to be addressed with urgency. Major redutions in impact
could be achieved at reasonable cost »

Livestock’s Long Shadow, FAO 2006

Land consumption, water consumption, water pollution,
rainforest destruction
Climate, loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, air pollution


Environment: Climate change (1)
According to the FAO, the livestock-sector is
responsible for 18% of global greenhouse gas
emissions – more than total worldwide traffic
(aeroplanes, cars, trucks, trains, ...):

<

Methane (CH4): digestion of ruminants, …
Nitrous Oxide (N2O): fertilizer, manure, …
Carbon dioxide (CO2): fire clearing of
rainforests etc.



Environment: Climate change (2)
Interdisciplinary Study NL: Worldwide Reduction (definition see paper)
of consumption of animal products saves

20 000 000 000 000 US$ (=50%)
of climate stabilisation costs (Aim: GHG concentration levels 2050
same as today) - enough to build 130 million one-family houses at the
cost of US$ 150 000 each - new houses for whole Europe!
Reasons:
1. Saving of the CO2, N2O and CH4-emissions from
livestock,

<

2. Vastly reduced land consumption, partly regrowing
forests, bushes => huge CO2-sink due to regrowing forests
=> climate protection “almost for free”!
Link: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16573-eating-less-meat-could-cutclimate-costs.html



Environment: Rainforest destruction
Fire clearance of rainforests
Pastures for cattle
Feed monocultures (85% of global soy harvest as animal feed)
CO2-emissions due to fire clearances
or later: agricultural areas prevent that woods can function as
CO2-sink (CO2-“sponge”)



Environment: Excrements
Manure – water pollution worldwide

Enormous amounts, more than humans produce - no wonder as
farm animal population > 25 billion (> 3 times number of humans)
and “production” of 65 billion farm animals per year.



World hunger
Of 7 billion humans
800 000 000 suffer from hunger, among these are 200 000 000 children.
25 000 people die from malnutrition each day.

FAO-Report “Crop Prospects and Food Situation” 2008:
754 million tons of cereals are fed to farm animals each year (with a yield of
1:7 for calorie-conversion this is a loss of calculated 650 million tons of
cereals for human nutrition) – soy, etc. not yet included
Compare: Due to biofuel production (2nd biggest problem for loss of
calories at croplands) we lose “only” 100 million tons of cereals for human
nutrition



World hunger
FAO-Report “Crop Prospects and Food Situation” 2008:
754 million tons of cereals are fed to farm animals each year (with a yield
of 1:7 for calorie-conversion this is a loss of calculated 650 million tons of
cereals for human nutrition). Soy, etc. not yet included.
Compare: Due to biofuel production (2nd biggest problem for loss of
calories at croplands) we lose “only” 100 million tons of cereals for human
nutrition.



The biomass of all farm animals exceeds the mass of all wild
vertebrates on land by a factor of 20!! Source: V. Smil The Earth‘s Biosphere
25 billion alive at a moment
65 billion slaughtered per year



Food waste during the production of animal based food
Animal derived foods: Food chain with 3 (plant
of 2 elements (plant
human) => inefficient

animal

human) instead

> 10 plant calories for 1 calorie of beef
> 5 plant calories für 1 calorie of pork
> 3 plant calories für 1 calorie of poultry

!

!

1/3 of world harvest (soy + cereals) converted to excrements
(with an upward tendency)



Livestock and the cultivation of feed require:
= almost 80% of total global agricultural land (cropland plus pastures)
= 30% of total land surface of the earth
= 2/3 OF ALL areas used by humans globally

Source: FAO, 2006; Goodland R. et al,1999



Short food chain plant
human could release enormous
areas globally: Possibilities to use these:
Regrowing vegetation could absorb huge amounts of CO2 from
the atmosphere (see slides earlier, interdisciplinary study NL):
Massive contribution to climate stabilisation
Growing of maize for renewable plastic alternatives without
causing a global food crisis
Photovoltaics for energy production, maybe even biofuels
would make sense again
...


Health: What means ...
vegetarian: No meat, no
fish, but milk and dairy
products and eggs.
vegan: no animal products
at all, i.e. no meat, dairy,
eggs, fish, ...
further forms like raw
food, macrobiotics,
frutarism, ...



Maybe at least meat is healthy ... ?

Vegan
instead
of ears!



Maybe at least meat is healthy ... ?



Health – veggies celebrate!
And these are especially important advantages again especially for vegan
diets:
De facto all worldwide pandemics of the last decades (bird flu, swine flu,
EHEC, BSE, ...) and of the future (...,...,...) from intensive livestock farms:
Billions of animals packed together, bad housing, bad immune system, ... =>
without livestock avoidable!
Antibiotic resistance from intensive livestock farms (“factory farming”)
would be avoidable
Bacterial food poisoning (salmonellosis, E Coli, etc.) mostly a problem
with animal products => avoidable
You get far less of these “evils”: Cholesterol, arachidonic acid, purines,
saturated fatty acids, also free radicals/ox.stress, ...
You get more of these “good things”: Vitamin C+E, fibres (whole meal)
and phytochemiclas (fruits!, vegetables!, antioxidative effects etc.)


Health – “meat sicknesses” (1)
The (high) consumption of animal products is
linked to the following sicknesses:
Cardiovascular diseases (Oxford Studies, 7th Day
Adventists study, studies of the ADA, Uni Gießen,
Bundesgesundheitsamt Berlin, u.v.m.)
Colon Cancer (American Cancer Society, Univ.
Oxford, Univ. San Diego, Krebsforschungszentrum
Heidelberg), breast cancer (Harvard Medical School),
prostate cancer (PCRM, Washington DC), gastric
cancers (EPIC)


Health – “meat sicknesses” (2)
Osteoporosis (!) (UC San Francisco, USDA-ARS)
Multiple sclerosis (CHRU Grenoble)
Gallstones
Type 2 diabetes
Obesity
Allergies
Rheumatoid Arthritis (UUH Oslo)
Links to the papers

www.futurefood.org


For the world

Health


Animal welfare
Most mother sows in Europe,
China or the US live like that

… and almost all fattening pigs
like this



Animal welfare – “factory farming life”
Films / Documentaries
Documentaries 10-25 minutes:
Meet your Meat (USA, but in many aspects similar conditions in
Europe, too): http://www.meat.org/
Intensive pig farming, focus on Austria (German):
http://www.tierrechtsfilme.at/langfilme/schweinehaltung_lucie/lucie
.htm
Force feeding of ducks and geese (forbidden in many
countries, but imported almost everywhere):
http://www.vierpfoten.org/website/output.php?id=1177&idcontent=
1909&language=2



Animal welfare – “factory farming life”
Films / Documentaries
95 minutes documentary:
„Earthlings“: http://veg-tv.info/Earthlings

Awarded comic (short) – The Meatrix:
http://www.themeatrix.com/



Livestock / consumption of animal products
is the biggest ... on earth !!
land consumer
water consumer
water contaminator
contributor to rainforest
destruction
foodfood-waster
cause of billionfold suffering
of animals
risk factor for food
poisonings
risk factor for global
pandemics

one of the biggest or the biggest ... on earth!!
factor in loss of biodiversity
cause for soil erosion
risk factor for lifestyle diseases
risk factor for antibiotic resistances
is one of the biggest ... on earth!!
climate killers
air polluter



What could lead to a collapse of the
„factory farming“ practices?
Human reason / ethics ????
Top-products as alternatives to animal products ??
Food shortages (climate?) / concurrency of non-food
croplands (plastic alternatives made of maize, biofuels) ??
Antibiotic-resistances from intensive livestock facilities ???
Serious new pandemics from intensive livestock facilities ?


Success criteria?
Flavour: Taste, aroma, smell, texture, satiety
feeling, ...
Price
Marketing, target groups, advertising
Health
Shelf life / hygiene / logistic advantages



www.futurefood.org Alternatives to
animal products
“Vegetarian meat”: All raw materials to replace
meat
“Non dairy milk products”: All raw materials to
replace dairy milk, cheese, joghurt etc.
“Replace egg products”: All raw materials to
replace egg products


Vegetarian meat
Wheat: Wheat gluten (seitan)
Soy: Soya meat (TVP), tofu, tempeh, sprouted
soybeans
Sweet lupines
Fresh mushrooms
Fermented fungi, e.g. Quorn
Algae
Rice, peas


Some top brands veget. meat
Tofurky (Turtle Islands Foods):
Oregon, USA
Sausages, roasts and others, based on tofu and wheat gluten, but also tempeh.

Gardein (Garden Protein Int.):
British Columbia, Canada
"Chicken"-wings,-filets,-breasts und-stripes, skewers and more,
Based on soy protein and wheat gluten.



Some top brands veget. meat
Fry’s:
South Africa
Huge variety of vegetarian meat alternatives, based on
soy protein and wheat protein.

and many others



Plant based alternatives to dairy products
Drinks (“milk”), yoghurts, cream, sour cream made from soy,
oat, almond, rice, coco, quinoa, millet, spelt, barley, kamut.
Often fortified with B2, B12, D2, calcium, A, B6, folic acid, E
Ice cream from soy, rice, etc.
“Cheese” from soy protein, pea protein, tofu, potato starch, rice
starch, soy oil, other plant based fats and oils, nut butter,
thickening agents, yeast, but also: tapioca- u. arrowroot flour,
rapeseed oil, safflower oil, coconut oil, etc.
Desserts, confectionaries, margarine ...


Plant based alternatives to egg products
Alternatives to egg products for the industry: About 10
companies in the US, NL, UK and others. Made of gelling and
thickening agents (alginate, carrageen, guar flour, locust bean
gum, xanthan gum), soy lecithin, potato protein, potato starch, full
soy beans, wheat gluten, corn syrup, sometimes also dairy(!) or
egg(!!) ingredients
see http://www.futurefood.org/eggproducts/index_en.php



Plant based alternatives to egg products
At home: “Egg replacers” by Ener-G, Orgran or others (potato-,
tapioca starch, CMC, citric acid, calcium carbonate)
Or simply use soy flour, baking powder, mineral water, locust
bean gum, agar-agar, soaked linseeds, etc.
“Vegan fried egg”, “vegan yolk” by
“The Vegg”: Yeast flakes, alginates,
sulphur salt, β-carotene



Futuristic approaches
Biofermenter: Peter Arras / AKT, Germany, take ruminants as
model/guide
food out of straw, harvest waste, etc. (all this
would suddenly also be basis for human nutrition)
In Vitro Meat: ”Real” meat without animals, produced out of cells
in labs.
Technological basic facts: Initial cells, culture medium incl. growth
factors, bioreactors, etc. see
http://www.futurefood.org/DissertationSchmidinger.pdf, chapt.12



Futuristic approaches – in vitro meat
Some protagonists:
Henk Haagsman and Bernard Roelen (NL): Work continuously, search for basic
understanding
Mark Post (NL): Supported by Sergey Brin, presented the first in-vitro-meat burger
of the world for 250.000 € in August 2013.
Julie Gold (Sweden), US-NGO new-harvest.org and (in earlier times more active)
Stig Omholt (Norway, with 1. in-vitro-meat symposium): Networking
Gabor a. Andras Forgacs (USA): “Modern Meadow”, 3D-printer, Thiel-Foundation
Vladimir Mironov and Nick Genovese (USA): PeTA, 3-D-printer, networking,
mastermind
Oron Catts & Ionat Zurr (AUS): Artists from Australia
Willem van Eelen (NL): Pioneer, cultured meat patent


Tips:
This Presentation:
http://www.futurefood.org/basic_english.ppt

Tips for canteen kitchens:
Canteen kitchen project: www.gv-nachhaltig.de/

Regional veggie-gastronomy:
Udine on www.happycow.net: “La Libellula”, Via
Marsala 92



We just have this one world …



Dr. Kurt Schmidinger
Graduate in Geophysics & Doctor in Food Science
Project Leader www.futurefood.org
Tel. +43 / 676 / 33 22 107
Kurt.schmidinger@futurefood.org



Future Forum 2013 - Kurt Schmidinger

Recomendados

Recomendados

Más contenido relacionado

La actualidad más candente

La actualidad más candente (19)

Destacado

Destacado (16)

Similar a Future Forum 2013 - Kurt Schmidinger

Similar a Future Forum 2013 - Kurt Schmidinger (20)

Más de Friuli Future Forum

Más de Friuli Future Forum (20)

Último

Último (20)

Future Forum 2013 - Kurt Schmidinger