This Special Issue of Animal Frontiers was written by a stellar interdisciplinary consortium of experts, to summarize the evidence on the societal impact of #meat. We hope that it may serve as a reference for future discussions on this vital topic.
As stated in our editorial (with co-guest editor @ederer_peer) "our request of the authors was not to reflect on the most granular levels of current scientific argumentation [but] to derive what can be robustly learned & has most societal significance" 2/n academic.oup.com/af/article/13/…
The publication is a formalized scientific follow-up of the International Summit on the Societal Role of Meat, hosted by @teagasc in 2022, featuring various authors of the Special Issue. The Dublin presentations can be viewed here: teagasc.ie/food/research-… 3/n
The Summit also led to the #DublinDeclaration, now already getting close to a 1000 signatures, to "give voice to the many scientists around the world who research diligently, honestly & successfully" in the various domains of livestock systems. 4/n dublin-declaration.org
The #DublinDeclaration also features in the Special Issue, and now comes with its own DOI number, so that it can more easily be cited in scientific literature🙌doi.org/10.1093/af/vfa… 5/n
Here's where you can browse the various articles according to your own specific interests (health, environment, economics, ethics), but have in mind that an important aim of this Issue is to facilitate a broader conversation across domains: academic.oup.com/af/issue/13/2 6/n
Except for being a guest editor (& co-authoring the editorial), my personal contributions are in the nutritional section. This thread gives the key Implications of the first article on meat's role in evolution and nutrient supply: 7/n
Aspects of human anatomy, digestion, & metabolism diverged from other primates, indicating evolutionary reliance on, & compatibility with, substantial meat intake. Implications of a disconnect from evolutionary dietary patterns may contribute to today’s burden of disease.
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Meat supplies high-quality protein & various nutrients, some of which are not always easily obtained with meat-free diets & are often already suboptimal or deficient in global populations.
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"Non-communicable disease risk associated with red and processed meat consumption—magnitude, certainty, and contextuality of risk?"
🧵1/n academic.oup.com/af/article/13/…
Mean global intakes per person of red and processed meats are 51 & 17 g/day respectively. Consumption is lowest in South Asia (7 & 3 g/d), and highest in Central Europe/Asia (114 & 54 g/d).
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While some researchers claim that red & processed meat consumption is intrinsically harmful, the evidence does not support this being the case where intakes are below 75 & 20 g/d, respectively.
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Essentially, @WEF strategy is to use buzzwords in an attempt "to put a 'progressive' gloss on the neoliberal world of austerity, exploitation, dispossession, and destruction imposed by the globalized capitalist class on the people and ecologies of our planet"
The end game of @WEF-style neoliberal corporate globalization? To operate through global management institutions [that] "have created a new world system where [..] sovereignty [has] been severely weakened [&] transferred to investors[,] corporations[,] international bodies [..]"
They want "the state to expand the domestic investment market through the commodification, financialization, & privatization of everything possible, including people & ecologies, converting once public assets & spaces [into] their private realm, infusing market logic everywhere"
"Regen ag may open the doors to greenwashing", says one of the exponents of today's corporate greenwashing: the @FOLUCoalition, a platform launched by the @WBCSD, Yara, Unilever, and endorsed by the @WEF.