The Month in a Minute: September 2024

This month marks the end of the hottest summer on record, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service. Big meat giant Tyson is being sued over ‘Net-Zero’ and ‘Climate-Smart’ beef claims, which omit sources of emissions like grazing and the production of animal feed.

Plus: 

A judge in Brazil orders two beef slaughterhouses to pay for Amazon reforestation after the companies bought cattle from a protected area of the former rainforest.

Kevin Hart’s vegan restaurant chain Hart House closed all locations after a two-year run.

Key targets to cut the use of antibiotics on factory farms were dropped from a UN political declaration after lobbying by ag and veterinary industry groups.

Here are more headlines that caught our attention this month:

Agriculture

A report by the Good Food Institute and Highland Economics found that a 50 percent shift towards alternative proteins requires 47 million fewer acres of cropland to produce the same amount of protein.

Federal lawmakers introduced the Industrial Agriculture Conversion Act to support farmers transition to more humane methods of farming. 

A new book from journalist Alice Driver reports on the lives of undocumented and incarcerated workers exploited by the meatpacking industry.

Climate

The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, argues the agency is not legally required to regulate PFAS (“forever chemicals”) found in sewage sludge that is often spread on farmland across the U.S. 

As Namibia faces its worst drought in 100 years, over 700 wild animals, including elephants and hippos, are being killed to feed the country’s starving population.

Health

A study based on self-reported data by pet guardians on the health effects of vegan versus meat-based dog food found that dogs with a vegan diet had better health outcomes.

The CDC has confirmed the first case of a human getting bird flu without any known occupational exposure in Missouri. 

Boar’s Head deli meats are responsible for a 10th death in New York state following a listeria outbreak that has led to 59 hospitalizations.

Law & Justice

The Transfarmation project is an initiative by Mercy For Animals to help factory farmers transition to growing crops. 

The European Commission issued a report that Europeans eat too much meat that included input from environmental and farm lobby groups.

World Animal Protection has released a list of obituaries for animals who have died in captivity

Future of Food

The New York Times reports on the role cultivated meat might play in the future as traditional livestock practices have decimated the environment and led to virus outbreaks. 

Scientists have found a way to make carbon dioxide, oxygen and hydrogen into yeast, which can then be used to make alternative proteins without the need for farmland. 

Vox’s Future Perfect released a package of stories on how factory farming ends and the moral questions it leaves us with.

From Sentient

In a small Black community in Georgia, Chris Eubanks and other community organizers helped shut down a backyard slaughterhouse. 

The false claim made by former President Trump that immigrants are eating pets has a long racist and speciesist history. 

Community supported agriculture, or CSAs, are a local food production initiative that connects farmers with the community, but the approach often isn’t accessible to low-income populations.