Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Today I love remembering my Irish heritage (about ? Irish on my mom’s side!). And a friendly reminder today is the day we wear green and enjoy corned BEEF and cabbage! This week in agriculture something interesting has been brought to my attention so, it begs the question, can you imagine a St. Patrick’s Day where we just eat just cabbage, no beef? A wave of food companies have “quiet quit” meat and dairy products, and today, we are going to talk about why.

This Week in Agriculture

It is no secret that a shift toward plant-based foods has been happening but now global companies are utilizing it to slash their carbon footprints. And some have already begun to quietly quit meat and dairy to catalyze the shift.?

During Berlin’s Green Week in January, Germany’s budget supermarket chain Lidl—which operates 12,000 stores in 31 countries—announced it is deprioritizing animal products to fight the climate crisis. Over in Israel, the shift has also begun at the major grocery chain Tiv Taam, which also manufactures deli meats. The company recently entered a partnership to co-manufacture its kosher pea protein-based deli products like cold cuts.

In the fast food realm, Burger King has been not-so-quietly quitting animal products in recent years with global launches of everything from plant-based Whoppers to meatless chicken nuggets—Burger King aims for 50 percent of its menu to be plant-based by 2030. It’s not just food service operators and grocery stores looking to quietly move away from animal products. The biggest packaged food companies in the world are also already heavily invested in reimagining their portfolios with plant-based products like Kraft Heinz, Bel Group, and Nestlé.

This article is a great example of just how much the agriculture industry is under attack. Are factory-processed animal proteins providing any smaller carbon footprint to these companies??

Are these large corporations falling victim to greenwashing?

Would love to hear your thoughts on this move in the comments! Read the full story here: https://vegnews.com/2023/3/food-companies-quiet-quitting-meat-dairy

Let’s Discover Ag

This week on Discover Ag, Natalie and I are covering everything you may or may not know about a new proposed rule that clarifies grocery meat labels, IKEA phasing out dairy, and health concerns rising over Oklahoma farms fertilizing with treated human waste. Tune in on YouTube or listen to the episode at the link below!

As Seen On…. Wellness Witch Podcast

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak with Samantha over at the Wellness WItch Podcast. We discussed the current global, political push towards meat and milk alternatives and I addressed some common misconceptions about animal protein production and consumption and their respective environmental and health impacts.???

Listen Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-wellness-witch-podcast/id1384009171

Advocacy Resource

All food production comes with an environmental footprint. The environmental impacts of beef cattle production and their effects on the overall sustainability of beef have become a national and international concern. There was a study done to assess the importance of the environmental impacts of beef cattle production in the United States.?

To learn more about how the beef industry is truly affecting the environment see here; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X18305675

Thank you for being here and if there’s something you’d like to hear opinions on or learn more about, you can find me on Instagram at @TaraVanderDussen or feel free to join the conversation on the Discover Ag Instagram. Have a great weekend everyone!