by Daisy Luther, The Organic Prepper:
COP28 is wrapping up, and I’m never going to eat a chicken nugget again. Why? Because of the relentless drive toward getting “novel protein” (insects and cultured meat) into the food supply.
This year’s climate summit was the first to extensively address food production. There was a Food Systems Pavilion with eight thematic days, and one of those days was exclusively about how to “Advance Protein Diversification.”
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In other words, how to get people to eat stuff they don’t want to.
The publishing industry is getting into this, too. You can find dozens of books that have been recently brought to market, earnestly promoting insects as food to save the planet. These are not to be outdone by books swearing that lab-grown meat will revolutionize food.
They discussed how to “push” consumers toward novel protein.
Discussions highlighted innovations in Israel, Brazil, Singapore, Denmark, and the Netherlands, all countries that have pioneered research in either insect farming or cultured meat. The folks at the climate summit discussed “how we can push others toward the tipping point in protein diversification.”
One discussion focused on circular agrifood and biomass. “Circular agrifood” sounds high-tech but really boils down to waste processing. For example, a farm may be perfectly circular if livestock exclusively consumes vegetation on the farm, their poop is spread around the pastures, they get processed on-farm, and the waste materials are buried, fed to dogs, or otherwise kept on the property. Two hundred years ago, most farms were “circular agrifood systems.”
So, are they promoting the traditional closed-loop, locally-owned, independently operated farms?
Not quite. This discussion was chaired by an expert in waste management and a representative of an innovative food processing company, not managers of closed-loop farms.
In fact, if you live in a wealthy country, these people may see your local farmer as the problem, not the solution. Speakers at COP28 summits blame overconsumption in wealthy countries for food instability in poorer ones.
This is a gross simplification of an incredibly complex set of problems.
Overconsumption of food isn’t just a “rich people problem.” It’s the opposite.
For starters, overconsumption of food is not necessarily related to overall wealth. You don’t see overweight people walking around elite enclaves like Malibu or Aspen. They’re in the poorer parts of major cities, and throughout rural America.
I spent much of my childhood in a low-income household. People at the bottom of the socioeconomic food chain are not overconsuming pastured steaks and Kerrygold butter. They’re overconsuming the stuff their SNAP benefits pay for at Dollar Tree, foods like Doritos and Mountain Dew. These foods are artificially cheap because they are made of processed corn, which is heavily subsidized by the government.
US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is aware of this. He was less militant about eliminating meat from American diets than his European counterparts. His talks during “Food Day” emphasized less food wastage rather than eliminating meat and dairy. However, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) insists that affluent Westerners need to reduce meat and dairy consumption by 35-50% to achieve climate goals.
Climate change is being blamed for food shortages in developing countries. However, you cannot ignore the role distribution problems play. These might be related to war or to internal problems such as corruption. They are not necessarily affected by the actions of wealthier countries.
Solving the problem of low-income, overweight Americans would involve massive cultural changes. It would involve fixing the subsidy system that makes junk food so cheap. It would involve a huge push to re-introduce home economics classes, empowering people to prepare their own food. And it would involve a change in cultural expectations. When working multiple part-time jobs is the norm, it’s really hard to find time to prepare healthy meals.
Food scarcity in developing countries isn’t because of “rich Westerners,” either.
Solving the problem of food scarcity in less developed countries is no small feat either. It would involve better infrastructure, such as roads and refrigeration facilities. It would also require accountability at the local level in terms of ensuring corrupt officials do not keep donated goods for themselves.
All of these solutions involve increasing local control and self-empowerment for individuals to make better decisions for themselves.
So, is that what the food giants and the attendees of summits like COP28 are working toward?
These summits promote consolidation and processed foods.
No, they’re going to keep moving toward consolidating food companies and putting more highly processed junk food on the market.
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