Meat versus meat alternatives: which is better for the environment and health? A nutritional and environmental analysis of animal-based products compared with their plant-based alternatives.

BACKGROUND: Poor diets lead to negative health outcomes, including increased risk of noncommunicable diseases. Food systems, most notably agriculture, contribute to greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) that lead to climate change. Meat consumption plays a role in both health and environmental burden. Consumption of meat alternatives may reduce these harms. The aim was to compare meat products and their plant-based alternatives on nutritional parameters, GHGE and price to examine if it is feasible and beneficial for policymakers and health professionals to recommend meat alternatives. METHODS: Data on nutritional information and cost for 99 selected products were collected from five UK supermarkets. Estimates for GHGEs for 97 of these products were found through secondary articles. Median values for nutritional value, GHGE (kgCO2 e) and price per 100 g were calculated to allow comparisons between meat products and their alternatives. Mann-Whitney U tests were used to look for significant differences for each nutrient, emissions and price. RESULTS: Meat alternatives contained significantly more fibre and sugar and were significantly higher in price compared to the equivalent meat products. Meat alternatives had a significantly lower number of calories, saturated fat, protein and kgCO2 e than meat products. There was no significant difference in the amount of salt between meat and meat alternatives. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, this paper found that meat alternatives are likely to be better for health according to most parameters, while also being more environmentally friendly, with lower GHGEs. However, the higher price of these products may be a barrier to switching to meat alternatives for the poorest in society

The performance of the EU-Rotate_N model in predicting the growth and nitrogen uptake of rotations of field vegetable crops in a Mediterranean environment

The EU-Rotate_N model was developed as a tool to estimate the growth and nitrogen (N) uptake of vegetable crop rotations across a wide range of European climatic conditions and to assess the economic and environmental consequences of alternative management strategies. The model has been evaluated under field conditions in Germany and Norway and under greenhouse conditions in China. The present work evaluated the model using Italian data to evaluate its performance in a warm and dry environment. Data were collected from four 2-year field rotations, which included lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.), spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.), broccoli (Brassica oleracea L. var. italica Plenck) and white cabbage (B. oleracea convar. capitata var. alba L.); each rotation used three different rates of N fertilizer (average recommended N1, assumed farmer's practice N2=N1+0·3×N1 and a zero control N0). Although the model was not calibrated prior to running the simulations, results for above-ground dry matter biomass, crop residue biomass, crop N concentration and crop N uptake were promising. However, soil mineral N predictions to 0·6 m depth were poor. The main problem with the prediction of the test variables was the poor ability to capture N mineralization in some autumn periods and an inappropriate parameterization of fennel. In conclusion, the model performed well, giving results comparable with other bio-physical process simulation models, but for more complex crop rotations. The model has the potential for application in Mediterranean environments for field vegetable production

Drinking by sea snakes from oceanic freshwater lenses at first rainfall ending seasonal drought

Acquisition of fresh water (FW) is problematic for FW-dependent animals living in marine environments that are distant from sources of FW associated with land. Knowledge of how marine vertebrates respond to oceanic rainfall, and indeed the drinking responses of vertebrates generally following drought, is extremely scant. The Yellow-bellied Sea Snake (Hydrophis platurus) is the only pelagic species of squamate reptile and ranges across the Indo-Pacific oceans, having one of the largest geographic distributions of any vertebrate species. It requires FW and dehydrates at sea during periods of drought. Here we report drinking behaviors of sea snakes precisely at the transition from dry to wet season when rainfall first impacted the ocean following 6 months of seasonal drought. We show that the percentage of sea snakes that voluntarily drank FW in the laboratory when captured over eight successive days decreased from 80% to 13% before and after rainfall commenced, respectively. The percentage of snakes that drank immediately following capture exhibited a significant linear decline as the earliest rains of the wet season continued. Drinking by snakes indicates thirst related to dehydration, and thus thirsty snakes must have dehydrated during the previous six months of drought. Hence, the progressive decline in percentage of thirsty snakes indicates they were drinking from FW lenses associated with the first rainfall events of the wet season. These data reinforce the importance of accessing oceanic FW from precipitation, with implications for survival and distribution of pelagic populations that might be subjected to intensifying drought related to climate change

An initial assessment of the environmental impact of grocery products

This report presents a series of analyses with the common purpose of establishing which grocery products are likely to contribute most to the environmental impacts (carbon footprint or embodied carbon, embodied energy, water, materials use and waste) associated with UK household consumption. Understanding and prioritising these has enabled reduction actions, interventions and further research to be directed more effectively at those products with the greatest potential to influence overall consumption impacts.The report includes a systematic review of 1,900 grocery carbon footprint data points for 191 products; believed to be the largest assessment of its kind at the time of publication

Meat, fruit and vegetable consumption in sub-Saharan Africa : a systematic review and meta-regression analysis

Context: The dietary choices people make affect personal health and have consequences for the environment, both of which have serious implications for the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. In global reviews, the literature on meat, fruit, and vegetable consumption in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is limited. Objective: This systematic review set out to quantify meat, fruit, and vegetable consumption in sub-Saharan African populations and to answer the question: How much meat, fruit and/or vegetables are being consumed daily by which individuals in SSA over the years? Data Sources: Following the PRISMA guidelines, the authors systematically searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, ASSIA CINAHL, Web of Science, POPLINE and Google Scholar to identify 47 (out of 5922 search results) studies reporting meat, fruit and/or vegetable consumption in sub-Saharan African populations. Data Extraction: Three independent investigators extracted data on year of data collection, study country, study population and geographical context, and population intake of meat, fruit and/or vegetables. Data Analysis: Using STATA SE version 15, random effects meta-regression analyses were used to test the effect of year of data collection and method of data collection on population meat, fruit, and vegetable consumption. The analyses also tested any association between age, sex, urban/rural residence or a country’s economic development, and population intake of meat, fruits and/or vegetables. The review was started in 2017 and completed in 2019. Results: Richer SSA countries were likely to consume more meat (ß =36.76, p=0.04) and vegetables (ß =43.49, p=0.00) than poorer countries. Vegetable intake has increased dramatically over the last three decades from ≈10g to ≈110g (ß=4.43, p=0.00). Vegetable (ß=-25.48, p=0.00) consumption was higher in rural than urban residents. Although the trend of meat consumption has gone up (≈25g to ≈75g), the trend is non-significant (ß=0.63, N.S.). Daily average per capita meat consumption was 98g, above 70g recommendation, while fruit and vegetable intake (268g) remain below WHO’s recommendation (400g). Conclusions: Given the low intake of plant-based foods it is likely that SSA populations may be deficient in high quality protein and micronutrients as suggested by the EAT-lancet commission. There is the need for promoting both the adequate supply and demand of plant-based protein and micronutrients including fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and legumes in SSA countries. While dietary changes in SSA may offer large absolute benefits, consideration of the magnitude of dietary change, particularly increasing or reducing meat consumption, will need to occur in a way that ensures that policy and interventions support the reduction of under-nutrition and micronutrient deficiencies without worsening NCD prevalence and environmental impacts. There is also the need for preventive action that ensures that SSA populations do not increase their meat consumption as disposable incomes increase and countries’ economic development rise as seen in most countries undergoing economic transformation

Effect of clay and organic matter amendments on water and nutrient retention of sandy soils: column leaching experiment

Two types of clay and an organic matter was used to investigate the potential of combined application of clay and organic matter (OM) to improve water and nutrient retention of sandy soils. Sandy soils are generally known to be problematic because of poor water and nutrient retention resulting in economic losses and environmental pollution. A laboratory column leaching experiment was conducted using a pure sand (PS) and a sandy loam (SL). Soils were amended with Kaolin (K) and bentonite (B) at 0, 2.5 and 5% (w/w) and peat (Pt) at 0, 10, 20, and 30% (v/v). Water and nutrient retention was simulated using ammonium nitrate at 150 kg N /ha in RO water. Water retention increased with the rate of each amendment applied, except for the SL amended with 2.5%K. Pt-clay combinations were more effective than either Pt or clay alone at the same rate. Combined application retained more water than the additive effect of Pt and clay for corresponding treatment except for 2.5%B in PS soil. For nutrient retention, all the clay amendments reduced nitrate and ammonium nitrogen losses in PS. Application of Pt, 2.5%K with or without Pt and 5%B with >20%Pt reduced nitrate leaching in SL. The results demonstrate that amending sandy soils with both clay and organic matter has potential to improve their water and nutrient retentio

Why Amphibians Are More Sensitive than Mammals to Xenobiotics

Dramatic declines in amphibian populations have been described all over the world since the 1980s. The evidence that the sensitivity to environmental threats is greater in amphibians than in mammals has been generally linked to the observation that amphibians are characterized by a rather permeable skin. Nevertheless, a numerical comparison of data of percutaneous (through the skin) passage between amphibians and mammals is lacking. Therefore, in this investigation we have measured the percutaneous passage of two test molecules (mannitol and antipyrine) and three heavily used herbicides (atrazine, paraquat and glyphosate) in the skin of the frog Rana esculenta (amphibians) and of the pig ear (mammals), by using the same experimental protocol and a simple apparatus which minimizes the edge effect, occurring when the tissue is clamped in the usually used experimental device

Consequences of converting graded to action potentials upon neural information coding and energy efficiency

Information is encoded in neural circuits using both graded and action potentials, converting between them within single neurons and successive processing layers. This conversion is accompanied by information loss and a drop in energy efficiency. We investigate the biophysical causes of this loss of information and efficiency by comparing spiking neuron models, containing stochastic voltage-gated Na+ and K+ channels, with generator potential and graded potential models lacking voltage-gated Na+ channels. We identify three causes of information loss in the generator potential that are the by-product of action potential generation: (1) the voltage-gated Na+ channels necessary for action potential generation increase intrinsic noise and (2) introduce non-linearities, and (3) the finite duration of the action potential creates a ‘footprint’ in the generator potential that obscures incoming signals. These three processes reduce information rates by ~50% in generator potentials, to ~3 times that of spike trains. Both generator potentials and graded potentials consume almost an order of magnitude less energy per second than spike trains. Because of the lower information rates of generator potentials they are substantially less energy efficient than graded potentials. However, both are an order of magnitude more efficient than spike trains due to the higher energy costs and low information content of spikes, emphasizing that there is a two-fold cost of converting analogue to digital; information loss and cost inflation

Is Aquatic Life Correlated with an Increased Hematocrit in Snakes?

Background: Physiological adaptations that allow air-breathing vertebrates to remain underwater for long periods mainly involve modifications of the respiratory system, essentially through increased oxygen reserves. Physiological constraints on dive duration tend to be less critical for ectotherms than for endotherms because the former have lower mass-specific metabolic rates. Moreover, comparative studies between marine and terrestrial ectotherms have yet to show overall distinct physiological differences specifically associated with oxygen reserves. Methodology/Principal Findings: We used phylogenetically informed statistical models to test if habitat affects hematocrit (an indicator of blood oxygen stores) in snakes, a lineage that varies widely in habitat use. Our results indicate that both phylogenetic position (clade) and especially habitat are significant predictors of hematocrit. Our analysis also confirms the peculiar respiratory physiology of the marine Acrochordus granulatus. Conclusion/Significance: Contrary to previous findings, marine snakes have significantly–albeit slightly–elevated hematocrit, which should facilitate increased aerobic dive times. Longer dives could have consequences for foraging, mate searching, and predation risks. Alternatively, but not exclusively, increased Hct in marine species might also help t