Thread by @IPESfood

Here's the story of our POLITICS OF PROTEIN report out today. A thread 🧵

For decades, governments & corporations expanded factory farming - claiming more protein was needed for #foodsecurity.

Now they're confronted with the consequences... /1

https://twitter.com/IPESfood/status/1511962226244083721

Devastating deforestation, immense land use, pollution, impacts on health, climate & animals from intensive factory farming are clear for all to see.

Thankfully momentum for change is growing. /2

But those same actors (and some new philanthropists & venture capital) are now pushing a number of techno-fix solutions. These are many of the same firms that already dominate sales of conventional (factory-farmed) products. /3

Big meat, dairy & fish companies, 🇺🇸🇪🇺🇨🇳 governments, and 🤓Bill Gates are ramping up investments in fake/#plantbased substitutes and lab-grown meat. Alongside high-tech precision livestock and fish-farming. Even regenerative meat. Claiming to be the solution to #ClimateCrisis /4

But are these technologies really that sustainable?

In reality, the evidence for them is limited & speculative, and they may cause more harm than good:
-more giant agri-business firms,
-standardized westernised diets
- & harmful industrial supply chains /5

The hype & polarisation around #meat & #protein debates.
The narrow focus on CO2 excluding wider sustainability.
The failure to account for differences between production systems & Global South experiences.
All are helping bolster these silver-bullets /6

https://twitter.com/i/status/1511989322584670209

So what DO we need?

➡️ We need to change the system, not the product.

➡️ Stop focusing on ‘protein’, and start focusing on sustainable #foodsystems - encompassing all aspects of sustainability, starting at the regional level. /6

➡️ Reclaim public resources from 'big protein'. And invest in creating food systems that deliver diverse, ecological, nutritious foods, and support decent livelihoods.

What do you think?

👉ipes-food.org/pages/politics…
/END