Carbon monoxide converted to feed

China is using carbon monoxide to produce protein to be incorporated in livestock and poultry rations.

The technology will reduce China’s reliance on soybean imports. It is the world’s largest importer of soybeans, buying about 100 million tonnes per year.

The Feed Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) says it has worked with Beijing Shoulang Biological Technology to speed up a gas fermentation process to create a single cell protein that could be fed to animals, according to a report on Sunday on a website run by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

The team has started operating a facility in northern Hebei province to turn steel-making tail gas into 5,000 tonnes of protein a year, according to state media People’s Daily.

The protein produced has been approved by the agriculture ministry for feeding to animals, the report said. No details were provided on the cost of production.

At least 10 other start-ups around the world are also using synthetic biology to create animal feed, using waste gases as a feedstock for bacteria or other protein-rich microorganmisms.

In Britain, Deep Branch plans to use carbon dioxide from a power station to make protein for fish and poultry.

Calysta in United States is a partner with Cargill for a 200,000-tonne single cell protein plant in Tennessee.

Milk price hike sparks outrage

The Canadian Dairy Commission’s announced increases for milk and dairy products has sparked outrage from leaders of anti-poverty groups and the Canadian restaurant industry.

Milk prices are due to increase by 8.4 per cent next month and butter prices by 12.4 per cent on Feb. 1.

The Canadian Dairy Commission cited rising production costs as the reason for the steep price increases. Usually annual adjustments have been about two per cent.

Leila Sarangi of Campaign 2000 to end child poverty said the increase will be difficult for low-income families. She said the dairy commission should take family situations into consideration, not just production costs.

Olivier Bourdeau, vice-president of Restaurants Canada, said “restaurants will close because of this. This will be a knockout blow.”

He said about 12,000 restaurants have closed since the Covid-19 pandemic spread across Canada.

The Canadian Dairy Commission influences markets by setting a target price for milk and then offering to buy butter and skim milk powder to support that milk price target.

Provincial marketing boards have more direct control over milk pricing.

The provinces have sole jurisdiction over fluid milk pricing; the Canadian Dairy Commission’s role is limited to milk for processing into dairy products such as cheese and butter.

The provincial marketing boards have almost always taken their lead from the Canadian Dairy Commission in setting prices for milk used for processing.

ProPublica critical of Salmonella response

ProPublica, on on-line news organization, has issued a report highly critical of the meat industry and government regulators over the spread of a form of Salmonella bacteria that causes food poisoning.

It dug into the increased incidence of multi-drug resistant infantis strain of Salmonella.

"An eight-month ProPublica investigation into this once rare, but now pervasive form of Salmonella, found that its unchecked spread through the U.S. food supply was all but inevitable, the byproduct of a baffling and largely toothless food safety system that is ill-equipped to protect consumers or rebuff industry influence," the report said.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service of the United States Department of Agriculture recently said it is going to try new approaches to control Salmonella.

While it said the incidence in poultry has declined, that has not resulted in a decline in the number of Salmonella food-poisoning cases in the public.

ProPublica said the European Union has had better success reducing Salmonella in the meat industry and said farmers there are involved in control measures.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service said "a key component of this (new)approach is encouraging controls to reduce Salmonella contamination in birds as they come into the slaughterhouse. We will also be focusing on Salmonella strains in poultry that pose the greatest public health risk and exploring how to better prevent emerging strains, such as Salmonella  Infantis, from widely spreading in flocks and, ultimately, sickening consumers."

            

                           

 

 

Pro-meat campaign plans outlined

Protein Pact (People, Animals and Climate of Tomorrow) is set to launch in January to put up a spirited defence of the meat industry.

The aim is to make sure consumers feel as good and justified in choosing to eat meat as non-meat-eaters feel about their dietary choices. 

"They're under a lot of pressure socially from their friends, family, all the [social media] outlets that they're looking at, and we've got to make them feel better about their 

choices," said Aly Mahaffy, co-chief executive officer of Signal Theory, a consumer behavior research consultancy based in Kansas City, Mo.

Mahaffy and Melissa San Miguel, head of Americas for the Red Flag communications strategy firm, outlined the basics of the plan:

Building awareness of Protein PACT, primarily through social media, and initially with the phrase, "It's your plate." 

Consumers, facing a myriad of choices and plenty of pressure over which they'll pick, are looking for that permission to order the conventional meat products they really crave and to feel good about it, Mahaffy and San Miguel said. One proposed variation is, "It's your plate. It's our [the meat industry's] priority."

The next step would be to provide consumers with more information about Protein PACT, its five pillars of successful sustainability, and how companies' and the industry's activities line up with consumers shifting values, particularly related to the environment and climate change.

The main target for the messaging will be millennials, who not only represent a huge demographic cohort that has felt strongly about these issues for years in surveys, but also are raising their own kids, the so-called Generation Alpha. The conventional meat industry wants to get on their kids' plates, as well.

Later iterations of the campaign are expected to emphasize the familial and ethnic ties consumers feel to their food, the sensory properties of meat products such as bacon, while driving interested shoppers to TheProteinPACT.org for more specific information.

Also, the communications plan is to work with micro-influencers — social media personalities who may have around 5,000 to 10,000 followers, but who are popular within certain niche topics, such as types of cuisine. Social media influencers are trusted by a majority of millennial-age consumers and provide a much-needed third-party source of trust and recommendation for conventional meat. Later, as awareness grows, the campaign may reach out to influencers with larger, more general audiences.

Finally, the program has a series of marketing initiatives aimed at retailers, such as tip cards and shelf dividers, to help encourage them to spread the "It's your plate" idea to shoppers at the point of purchase.

"This is Year One. We know we can build from here," Mahaffy said.

Frankly, I think this plan is doomed to fail. It might make stakeholders in the meat industry feel good, but I doubt it will change many consumers' opinions.

Beach town files another appeal

The Town of South Beach, which includes Sauble Beach in Bruce County, has filed another appeal against its conviction for destroying Pipe Plover bird habitat when it performed beach combing and raking maintenance work. 

Both environmental groups and property owners, including farmers, have a stake what the court will rule when it hears the case next Feb. 22. 

Environmental groups want to win so property owners will have to protect the habitat of endangered species. 

This case is the first time the provision protecting the habitats of endangered species under Ontario's Endangered Species Act will be scrutinized in Ontario’s top appeals court. 

Ecojustice, acting on behalf of Environmental Defence and Ontario Nature, will argue for a scientifically accurate interpretation of the habitat protection provision in section 10 of the province’s Endangered Species Act (ESA), which makes it an offence to damage or destroy an endangered or threatened species’ habitat. 

“There are only a handful of nesting sites for piping plovers in all of Ontario, including annual breeding on the shores of Sauble Beach. Beach conservation and tourism can co-exist. 

The reckless destruction of critical plover habitat is indefensible,” said Ecojustice. Piping plovers are a migratory shorebird designated as endangered. 

After a nearly 30-year absence, they returned to Ontario in 2007, including to Sauble Beach. The town of South Bruce Peninsula undertakes annual beach maintenance at the site which can compromise the plover’s habitat. 

In 2019, the Town was convicted of damaging piping plover habitat, an offence under section 10 of the Endangered Species Act. 

The conviction was upheld by the Ontario Court of Justice and the town was ordered to pay $100,000 to Birds Canada to support piping plover recovery efforts.

Deere and union have new tentative deal

Deere & Co. reached a new tentative agreement with the United Auto Workers Union that could end a strike by about 10,100 employees across 12 facilities in Iowa, Illinois and Kansas.

The union members went on strike in early October after voting 90 per cent against a previous tentative agreement. This one is for six years.

"The negotiators focused on improving the areas of concern identified by our members during our last ratification process," said Chuck Browning, UAW vice [resident and director of the Agricultural Implement Department.

UAW said it will not release details of the tentative agreement until members at Deere locations meet and review terms of their proposed contract.

The strike is the first against Deere by the UAW in more than 30 years.

Turtletree said ersatz milk coming soon

TurtleTree logo

TurtleTree of West Sacramento, California, said it is close to launching milk ingredients produced by cell culture.

Leveraging its proprietary cellular technology, TurtleTree is currently able to create highly functional components naturally found in milk, including lactoferrin, human oligosaccharides (HMOs), and alpha-lactalbumin, all of which have been deemed natural according to the latest ISO standards in Asia.

TurtleTree said it differs from other companies developing cell-based milk because it is able to produce naturally-occurring ingredients found in human breast milk, including HMOs Lactoferrin, and Alpha-Lactalbumin; source a variety of mammalian cells; and its unique “B2B2C” business model that will allow it to scale faster than competitors in the same space.

“We start off the process by obtaining mammary gland cells from various sources, then multiply these cells, after which we put them in our in-house special lactation media — a liquid of various components that is naturally present in living mammals,” said Max Rye, TurtleTree’s cofounder and chief strategist. “The cells then convert this lactation media into milk.”

Rye noted how their upcoming B2B (business-to-business) collaborations using its key ingredients and functional blends will span across infant formulas, sports performance, and nutraceuticals, and these product launches will be enabled by TurtleTree’s in-house microbial expression system.

It recently raised $30 million to continue its pursuit of commercialization.