In 2006, the FAO published a report stating that the livestock sector was one of the top 2-3 contributors to the most serious environmental problems. The new report Livestock's Lengthening Shadow reviews how this has only worsened over the last 20 years. Despite some meat production systems improving in impact efficiency per animal produced, these improvements are dramatically offset by the number of farmed animals rising by over 50% in the 20 years since publication (from ~62B to 95B). This has resulted in: 🏭 Emissions from farmed animals increasing by 22%. 🌏 A 27% increase in the global use of cropland dedicated to animal feed, equivalent to 40% of global arable land. 🌽 A 63% increase in the annual use of grain for animal feed, totaling over 1B tons annually. 💧 A 100% increase in freshwater withdrawals to irrigate animal feed crops. This translates to more deforestation, soil degradation, pesticide use, and eutrophication from fertilizers. With meat consumption expected to increase by another 50% by 2050, business-as-usual isn't an option.

Be one of the first to try cultivated salmon: US startup @wildtypefoods launches kickstarter for its direct-to-consumer cultivated lox product & new skincare product line, joining several other CM startups to pursue cosmetics Back the project: kickstarter.com/projects/jko…

🐟 New LCA study finds that cultivated seafood could have beneficial environmental impacts compared to wild-caught and farmed fish 🐠 The study uses primary pilot-scale data from the startup Forsea to model the impacts of a scaled production facility based in Japan, finding that cultivated products had a lower carbon footprint, lower land use than aquaculture, lower energy demand, and similar or higher water use (figure is mine, based on data reported). Why? The study is one of the first to actually model cultivated products as we expect them to come to market — as hybrid products. Cultivated cells make up 30% of the product, with the remaining inputs being plant-based ingredients. The cultivated cells are only 15% dry matter, consistent with products that have already been approved. These two factors not only dilute the expected cost of the final product but also the overall environmental impacts. Lower energy demand can be explained, in part, by aquatic cell culture at lower temperatures, requiring less energy to heat bioreactors. The higher water use can be explained, in part, by the assumption that water was not being recycled in the facility. While this is still a model and data gaps persist, the use of primary data from a startup company (rated generally as medium-high quality by the authors) is encouraging. Nice to see LCA studies becoming more realistic/sophisticated as the industry matures.