vegan science area 📖

Report: https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/9106

Significance

Many meat and milk alternatives have been assessed from nutritional, environmental, and cost perspectives, but the analyses are rarely consistently combined, which limits the ability to identify cobenefits and trade-offs across domains. Our study advances each analysis and provides a comprehensive multicriteria assessment of meat and milk alternatives from nutritional, health, environmental, and cost perspectives. For a full contextualization, we compared the meat and milk alternatives to the animal products they intend to replace as well as to the unprocessed plant-based foods they are made from; we considered comparisons along multiple and complementary units of measurement, including per serving and per calorie; and we included comparisons per product as well as per overall diets in dedicated replacement analyses.

Abstract

Reducing meat and dairy intake has been identified as a necessary strategy for mitigating the high environmental impacts food systems are currently having on climate change, biodiversity loss associated with land-use changes, and freshwater use. Having a choice of dedicated meat and milk replacements available to consumers can help in the transition toward more plant-based diets, but concerns about nutritional and health impacts and high costs can impede uptake. Here, we conduct a multicriteria assessment of 24 meat and milk alternatives that integrates nutritional, health, environmental, and cost analyses with a focus on high-income countries. Unprocessed plant-based foods such as peas, soybeans, and beans performed best in our assessment across all domains. In comparison, processed plant-based products such as veggie burgers, traditional meat replacements such as tempeh, and plant milks were associated with less climate benefits and greater costs than unprocessed foods but still offered substantial environmental, health, and nutritional benefits compared to animal products. Our findings suggest that a range of food products exist that when replacing meat and dairy in current diets would have multiple benefits, including reductions in nutritional imbalances, dietary risks and mortality, environmental resource use and pollution, and when choosing unprocessed foods over processed ones also diet costs. The findings provide support for public policies and business initiatives aimed at increasing their uptake.

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2024/dec/beans-and-peas-are-best-meat-alternative

The production and consumption of food is one of the main drivers of environmental change globally. Meanwhile, many populations remain malnourished due to insufficient or unhealthy diets. Increasingly, dietary shifts are proposed as a means to address both environmental and health concerns. We have a limited understanding of how dietary shifts could alter where food is produced and consumed and how these changes would affect the distribution of environmental pressures both globally and across different groups of people. Here we combine new food flow data linking producing to consuming country with environmental pressures to estimate how a global shift to each of four diets (Indian, EAT-Lancet, Mediterranean, and mean Food Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDGs)) could affect environmental pressures at the global, country income group, and country level. Globally, cumulative pressures decrease under the Indian, EAT-Lancet, and Mediterranean scenarios and increase under FBDGs. On average, low income countries increase their cumulative consumption and production pressures while high income countries decrease their consumption pressures, and typically decrease their production pressures. Increases in low income countries are likely due to the nutritional inadequacy of current diets and the corresponding increases in consumption quantities with a shift to our diet scenarios. Despite these increases, we believe that three out four of our simulated dietary shifts can be seen as a net benefit by decreasing global pressures while low income countries increase pressures to adequately feed their populations. Additionally, considering principles of fairness applied, some nations are more responsible for causing historical environmental pressures and should shoulder more of the change. To facilitate more equitable shifts in global diets, resources, capacity, and knowledge sharing of sustainable agricultural practices are critical to minimize the increases in pressures that low income countries would incur to adequately feed their populations.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.vg/post/984284

Yet it's politically difficult to reverse practices that have been in place for many decades. Much of that drained peatland is now owned by farmers who are using it as pasture or hay fields. Most of them want to keep that land dry.

CW: images from fur farms

Put simply, if SARS-CoV-2 came about by frequent recombination through contact with common virus-carrying animals in the wild, we would expect it to display a mix of genome segments shared between it and several of their close cousins. However, if SARS-CoV-2 came about through manipulation in a lab, such as through gain-of-function research, we would expect a close match to one and only one “initial” strain, with the remainder of the genome failing to match any other wild strains. The discovery that SARS-CoV-2 does indeed have what biologists call a mosaic genome makes it abundantly clear that it could not have arisen through laboratory manipulation of an initial, single strain, through gain-of-function research or otherwise.

Iron-(Fe3+)-Dependent Reactivation of Telomerase Drives Colorectal Cancers | Cancer Discovery | American Association for Cancer Research

Over-consumption of iron-rich red meat and hereditary or genetic iron overload are associated with an increased risk of colorectal carcinogenesis, yet the mechanistic basis of how metal-mediated signaling leads to oncogenesis remains enigmatic. Using fresh colorectal cancer samples we identify Pirin, an iron sensor, that overcomes a rate-limiting step in oncogenesis, by reactivating the dormant human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) subunit of the telomerase holoenzyme in an iron-(Fe3+)-dependent manner and thereby drives colorectal cancers. Chemical genetic screens combined with isothermal dose-response fingerprinting and mass spectrometry identified a small molecule SP2509 that specifically inhibits Pirin-mediated hTERT reactivation in colorectal cancers by competing with iron-(Fe3+) binding. Our findings, first to document how metal ions reactivate telomerase, provide a molecular mechanism for the well-known association between red meat and increased incidence of colorectal cancers. Small molecules like SP2509 represent a novel modality to target telomerase that acts as a driver of 90% of human cancers and is yet to be targeted in clinic.

Significance: We show how iron-(Fe3+) in collusion with genetic factors reactivates telomerase, providing a molecular mechanism for the association between iron overload and increased incidence of colorectal cancers. Although no enzymatic inhibitors of telomerase have entered the clinic, we identify SP2509, a small molecule that targets telomerase reactivation and function in colorectal cancers.

People who are prejudiced against one social group also tend to be prejudiced against other social groups, that is, they show generalized prejudice. Many scholars have noted parallels between the devaluation and exploitation of certain human groups (e.g., racism, sexism, and other forms of prejudice) and the treatment of non-human animals (often referred to as speciesism), suggesting that generalized prejudice may even extend across species lines. I tested this hypothesis using panel data with large and demographically diverse participant samples and different operationalizations of the devaluation of humans and animals. Study 1 (56,759 participants from 46 European countries) revealed a positive association between human-directed prejudice and human supremacy beliefs and this association was still observed when controlling for various socio-demographic factors (e.g., gender, educational attainment, religiosity, political orientation). Study 2 (1,566 Dutch participants) revealed positive associations between human-directed prejudice and a host of attitudes, beliefs, emotional responses, and behaviors related to meat consumption. For the majority of tests, this positive association was still observed when controlling for socio-demographic factors. Thus, both studies suggest that people who devalue human groups also tend to devalue the welfare and interests of animals. The current findings support recent theorizing on the common psychological roots of human-directed and animal-directed prejudice and attest to the generality of generalized prejudice.

Article about this paper: https://faunalytics.org/devaluation-of-animals-is-linked-to-devaluation-of-humans/

Seed oils like canola give you "Oil Brain" and we would be dumb without fish according to What I've Learned. Let's see if the claims add up.

The "how I failed to learn" YouTube channel is at it again.

Most monitoring programs next to large per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) sources focus on drinking water contamination near source zones. However, less is understood about how these sources affect downgradient hydrological systems and food webs. Here, we report paired PFAS measurements in water, sediment, and aquatic biota along a hydrological gradient away from source zones contaminated by the use of legacy aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) manufactured using electrochemical fluorination. Clustering analysis indicates that the PFAS composition characteristic of AFFF is detectable in water and fishes >8 km from the source. Concentrations of 38 targeted PFAS and extractable organofluorine (EOF) decreased in fishes downgradient of the AFFF-contaminated source zones. However, PFAS concentrations remained above consumption limits at all locations within the affected watershed. Perfluoroalkyl sulfonamide precursors accounted for approximately half of targeted PFAS in fish tissues, which explain >90% of EOF across all sampling locations. Suspect screening analyses revealed the presence of a polyfluoroketone pharmaceutical in fish species, and a fluorinated agrochemical in water that likely does not accumulate in biological tissues, suggesting the presence of diffuse sources such as septic system and agrochemical inputs throughout the watershed in addition to AFFF contamination. Based on these results, monitoring programs that consider all hydrologically connected regions within watersheds affected by large PFAS sources would help ensure public health protection.

Weeds are currently present in a wide range of ecosystems worldwide. Although the beginning of their evolution is largely unknown, researchers assumed that they developed in tandem with cultivation since the appearance of agricultural habitats some 12,000 years ago. These rapidly-evolving plants invaded the human disturbed areas and thrived in the new habitat. Here we present unprecedented new findings of the presence of “proto-weeds” and small-scale trial cultivation in Ohalo II, a 23,000-year-old hunter-gatherers' sedentary camp on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Israel. We examined the plant remains retrieved from the site (ca. 150,000 specimens), placing particular emphasis on the search for evidence of plant cultivation by Ohalo II people and the presence of weed species. The archaeobotanically-rich plant assemblage demonstrates extensive human gathering of over 140 plant species and food preparation by grinding wild wheat and barley. Among these, we identified 13 well-known current weeds mixed with numerous seeds of wild emmer, barley, and oat. This collection provides the earliest evidence of a human-disturbed environment—at least 11 millennia before the onset of agriculture—that provided the conditions for the development of "proto-weeds", a prerequisite for weed evolution. Finally, we suggest that their presence indicates the earliest, small-scale attempt to cultivate wild cereals seen in the archaeological record.

A survey is used to test a stepping stone model for meat reduction and farm animal suffering elimination. People’s preferences to eat conventional meat, animal-welfare-certified meat and plant-based meat substitutes are measured in hypothetical situations where everyone else eats certified meat or plant-based meat substitutes. These preferences reflect social norms about food. When everyone else follows a harmful social norm, such as eating conventional meat, violating this norm by following a different diet becomes costly due to social sanctions. Either the survey method has a low sensitivity to detect real stepping stones, or the survey evidence suggests that animal-welfare-labelled meat is not a stepping stone towards the reduction and elimination of animal-based meat. If people transition to eating welfare-labelled meat, they may become less likely to eliminate meat from their diet. Everyone eating welfare-labelled meat is an absorbing state, which prevents a further transition to animal-free meat substitutes. The survey shows very weak and mixed evidence that the introduction of an animal welfare label could be counterproductive for animal welfare. In the long run it could result in a locked-in equilibrium with a less harmful social norm, i.e. a suboptimal state of animal farming that still contains animal suffering.

• 0:00 The Virta Health approach
• 1:30 The Salud en tu Plato approach
• 3:58 Patient results
• 8:11 Salud's medical director
• 9:16 Salud's diet
• 12:17 A truck driver story
• 15:35 The Hispanic diabetes epidemic
• 18:12 The practical side
• 21:03 Funding the program
• 23:14 Virta Health & ketosis don't work

There's a list of references in the video description. I'm not going to paste them because they're YouTube redirection links which are personalized with tracking.

This is a letter/comment on its own. Read it.

How much and what we eat and where it is produced can create huge differences in GHG emissions. On the basis of detailed household-expenditure data, we evaluate the unequal distribution of dietary emissions from 140 food products in 139 countries or areas and further model changes in emissions of global diet shifts. Within countries, consumer groups with higher expenditures generally cause more dietary emissions due to higher red meat and dairy intake. Such inequality is more pronounced in low-income countries. The present global annual dietary emissions would fall by 17% with the worldwide adoption of the EAT-Lancet planetary health diet, primarily attributed to shifts from red meat to legumes and nuts as principal protein sources. More than half (56.9%) of the global population, which is presently overconsuming, would save 32.4% of global emissions through diet shifts, offsetting the 15.4% increase in global emissions from presently underconsuming populations moving towards healthier diets.

News explainer: Changing food consumers' choices may help cut greenhouse gases | ScienceDaily

Highlights

• •

  More than one-third of chondrichthyan fish species are threatened by overfishing

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  Disproportionate threat in tropics risk loss of ecosystem functions and services

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  Three species not seen in >80 years are Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct)

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  The depletion of these species has been driven by continuing demand for human food

Summary

The scale and drivers of marine biodiversity loss are being revealed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assessment process. We present the first global reassessment of 1,199 species in Class Chondrichthyes—sharks, rays, and chimeras. The first global assessment (in 2014) concluded that one-quarter (24%) of species were threatened. Now, 391 (32.6%) species are threatened with extinction. When this percentage of threat is applied to Data Deficient species, more than one-third (37.5%) of chondrichthyans are estimated to be threatened, with much of this change resulting from new information. Three species are Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct), representing possibly the first global marine fish extinctions due to overfishing. Consequently, the chondrichthyan extinction rate is potentially 25 extinctions per million species years, comparable to that of terrestrial vertebrates. Overfishing is the universal threat affecting all 391 threatened species and is the sole threat for 67.3% of species and interacts with three other threats for the remaining third: loss and degradation of habitat (31.2% of threatened species), climate change (10.2%), and pollution (6.9%). Species are disproportionately threatened in tropical and subtropical coastal waters. Science-based limits on fishing, effective marine protected areas, and approaches that reduce or eliminate fishing mortality are urgently needed to minimize mortality of threatened species and ensure sustainable catch and trade of others. Immediate action is essential to prevent further extinctions and protect the potential for food security and ecosystem functions provided by this iconic lineage of predators.

Editor’s summary

Over the past decade, the plight of the world’s sharks has received much attention, resulting in increased regulation and finning bans. However, whether this increased attention has translated into improved outcomes for sharks is unclear. Worm et al. estimated fishing-induced mortality globally and found that, overall, it has continued to increase over the past 10 years. Finning bans had little impact, but fishing regulations did reduce mortality. —Sacha Vignieri

Abstract

Over the past two decades, sharks have been increasingly recognized among the world’s most threatened wildlife and hence have received heightened scientific and regulatory scrutiny. Yet, the effect of protective regulations on shark fishing mortality has not been evaluated at a global scale. Here we estimate that total fishing mortality increased from at least 76 to 80 million sharks between 2012 and 2019, ~25 million of which were threatened species. Mortality increased by 4% in coastal waters but decreased by 7% in pelagic fisheries, especially across the Atlantic and Western Pacific. By linking fishing mortality data to the global regulatory landscape, we show that widespread legislation designed to prevent shark finning did not reduce mortality but that regional shark fishing or retention bans had some success. These analyses, combined with expert interviews, highlight evidence-based solutions to reverse the continued overexploitation of sharks.

https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/shark-fin-consumption-wanes-in-thailand-yet-demand-persists-report-shows/

Significance

A standardized network of wildlife surveys across 166 Amazonian hunted and nonhunted forests, combined with basin-wide spatial modeling of central-place hunting pressure, reveal the degree to which arboreal frugivores have been extirpated by hunters and the spatial extent of overhunting for harvest-sensitive frugivore species across the Brazilian Amazon. Simulations based on data from 2,345 1-ha tree plots inventoried throughout Brazilian Amazonia then show widespread erosion of forest carbon stocks in the world’s largest tropical forest region.

Abstract

Tropical forests are the global cornerstone of biological diversity, and store 55% of the forest carbon stock globally, yet sustained provisioning of these forest ecosystem services may be threatened by hunting-induced extinctions of plant–animal mutualisms that maintain long-term forest dynamics. Large-bodied Atelinae primates and tapirs in particular offer nonredundant seed-dispersal services for many large-seeded Neotropical tree species, which on average have higher wood density than smaller-seeded and wind-dispersed trees. We used field data and models to project the spatial impact of hunting on large primates by ∼1 million rural households throughout the Brazilian Amazon. We then used a unique baseline dataset on 2,345 1-ha tree plots arrayed across the Brazilian Amazon to model changes in aboveground forest biomass under different scenarios of hunting-induced large-bodied frugivore extirpation. We project that defaunation of the most harvest-sensitive species will lead to losses in aboveground biomass of between 2.5–5.8% on average, with some losses as high as 26.5–37.8%. These findings highlight an urgent need to manage the sustainability of game hunting in both protected and unprotected tropical forests, and place full biodiversity integrity, including populations of large frugivorous vertebrates, firmly in the agenda of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) programs.

Nice letters on the UPF and NOVA theories and applications.

As millions of taxpayer dollars flow to livestock companies claiming to raise “low carbon” beef, watchdog groups scrutinize the government’s oversight.

For context: https://tabledebates.org/publication/grazed-and-confused

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07380-6.epdf?sharing_token=WXrCjzPDaw3J1c1ZITMMA9RgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0MeMi5ieSwUgJ_3FW8C16mSVT02VUT451M6u5_-COiT8T6_nnVYS3WzEHTZzGOkfKbmM5iDuADuMrpbEmz3g5H3JUl0Jr4Z0c2mWX2K4pct71T81wiSS-JleVzGnHab91fPCbBRZsm2dOdQGwR8AkK4f_Jvv-1whcaIfuw9-PP66bbLrUAROTK4AKFsN6PKhQpWUHh_OMyiCMxvZ5MbIZdwlgos3_Gw-MNttYUJUfk-XdoEws18RpXvTjiqSGtJ9Dx_5ctzO5lJXf5C8623fXWAKEFiI8Lgqy6G1MwURXaANaT8aY7ttKWjCY2AN3m_SsGvoKTUlt6g_arsRu0Hj-hs&tracking_referrer=www.theguardian.com

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07380-6

The marker approach is taken as best practice for answering the distribution question: Which animals are conscious? However, the methodology can be used to increase confidence in animals many presume to be unconscious, including C. elegans, leading to a trilemma: accept the worms as conscious; reject the specific markers; or reject the marker methodology for answering the distribution question. I defend the third option and argue that answering the distribution question requires a secure theory of consciousness. Accepting the hypothesis all animals are conscious will promote research leading to secure theory, which is needed to create reliable consciousness tests for animals and AIs. Rather than asking the distribution question, we should shift to the dimensions question: How are animals conscious?

The article critiques the marker approach used to determine which animals are conscious, suggesting it may lead to a trilemma regarding consciousness in unexpected species like C. elegans (invertebrate, tiny worm used in experiments). The author argues for the need of a secure theory of consciousness to reliably test for animal and AI consciousness, rather than relying solely on markers. Assume that all animals are conscious to promote scientific discovery and better understand the dimensions of consciousness.

The Framingham Study and the Mediterranean Diet vs Anthony Chaffee and the Carnivore Diet.

Cardiovascular Disease (10-year risk) | Framingham Heart Study

0:00 Carnivore diet fiction

1:50 Plants are trying to kill us

4:28 The story of John Scharffenberg

5:57 Dr. Daniel Levy interview

7:26 The story of Ed Freis

12:12 Roosevelt’s death

15:26 Epidemiology and patience

17:51 Social media vs science

20:09 Statins

21:12 Mendelian randomization

22:32 HDL cholesterol

25:57 Triglycerides to HDL ratio

27:23 Framingham fight for survival

34:54 The volunteers

37:00 Salt

40:25 Saturated fat

42:30 William Castelli

43:52 Healthiest diet

47:49 PFAS forever chemicals

48:45 Red meat

50:58 Framingham data for sale

52:25 Genetic studies

53.32 Anthony Chaffee Harvard approved

Ames Agrees With Mom's Advice: Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables | JAMA | JAMA Network

Endogenous oxidative DNA damage, aging, and cancer - PubMed

Misconceptions About Environmental Pollution, Pesticides and the Causes of Cancer 1998

more papers in the video description