Animal rights/Plant rights

This article sketches the rise of the concept of animal rights, especially in the late 20th century, mainly due to the work of Peter Singer. Considering the increase in evidence of plant intelligence, the question is discussed of whether plants might also be entitled to the same rights as animals. This question is answered in the affirmative. This would mean that humans would no longer be allowed to eat their fellow creatures. It is demonstrated that the concept of rights for non-human entities is a fundamental negation of rights as something exclusively human. Humans, like all other organisms cannot do anything else than obey the natural law of eating and being eaten. The position of plants and animals in farming is discussed from the perspective of domestication of plants and animals, and the responsibilities that this situation imposes on humans. Although a certain reduction of consumption of animal products is desirable, this has nothing to do with animal rights, but with ecological necessities only. Some recommendation for food service practice are given. Keywords: animal rights, food service, plant rights, speciesism, vegan, vegetaria

The cheeseboard in Dutch fine dining restaurants, III: Using the FSC model in finding good cheese-wine combinations: A pilot study with red bacteria cheeses

The authors selected four wines that, according to their restaurant experience, matched well with red bacteria cheeses. Subsequently, an expert panel created flavour profiles of these four wines and of four red bacteria cheeses, using the FSC model by Klosse (2004, 2014). The cheeses and the wines demonstrated great similarities in flavour profile: high flavour richness, a more coating than contracting mouthfeel and a dominance of ripe flavour tones over fresh tones. These results give further support to Klosse’s rules about matching food and beverages.Keywords: flavour profiles, flavour styl

Game consumption and attitudes to hunting in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, per capita game consumption is low, but during autumn and Christmas, many consumers eat game, once or twice. Restaurants supply a big share of this game. Anti-hunting activism is a potential threat for the supply of game and therefore, to this part of restaurant business. The Dutch Organisation for Animal Protection (Dierenbescherming) claims that 97% of the Dutch population is opposed to hunting. This seems contradictory to the modest but widespread game consumption. The present paper explores this contradiction. By conducting street interviews, 276 usable questionnaires were obtained. 52% of the respondents consumed game, 48% didn’t. Roughly a third of the respondents were opposed to hunting, another third were pro and the other third were neutral. Opponents of hunting were more numerous among respondents not eating game. Reasons for not eating game were the perceived complexity of preparation, cost and difficulty in buying game, not liking the taste and vegetarianism. Restaurants were the dominant places for game consumption, indicating that the perceived complexity of game preparation limits home consumption. Possible explanations for the contradiction between the present research and the report ordered by Dierenbescherming are explored. Differences in methodology and lack of information about hunting possibly play an important role. The paper concludes with recommendations for the restaurant industry.Keywords: animal protection, restaurant offerings, meat eating, anti-hunting activism, consumer opinion surve

The cheeseboard in Dutch fine dining restaurants, II: Integration of the cheese course into the menu

In Dutch fine dining restaurants, the customer who orders a cheeseboard as part of the dessert is served an assortment of cheeses without regard to the dishes that preceded the cheese. The present paper tries to contribute to a more logical order of main dish and cheeseboard. A panel of 12 tasters judged the order of 6 cheeses with three dishes: vegetarian, beef, fish. The most appreciated cheeses were different for each dish. A good match in flavour profile between the dish and the best follow-up cheese was found.Keywords: Fine dining restaurants, menu structure, flavour profiles, flavour style

Meeting global land restoration and protection targets:What would the world look like in 2050?

Land restoration has received increased attention recently as a tool to counteract negative externalities of unsustainable land management on human well-being. This is reflected in targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the United Nations Framework of the Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). However, the implications of these targets for land use, especially considering their potential conflict with growing food production demands, are largely unexplored. We study the potential and aggregated consequences of meeting these targets on land cover and land system change. We do so by analyzing targets originating from these global commitments towards land restoration and protection and implement them in a global land system change model. We compare this Restoration and Protection scenario with simulation results of two plausible pathways of socio-economic development in the absence of these targets, following the Shared Socio-Economic Pathway (SSP) storylines. We find that meeting global land restoration and protection targets would increase global tree cover by 4 million km², increasing forest carbon stocks by 50 Gt and protecting 28% of the terrestrial area with the highest value of both biodiversity and carbon storage. Gains in tree cover and natural land systems would cause a contraction of crop, pasture- and bare land. This results in further cropland intensification and the expansion of land systems that are combining land use demands in mosaics of forest and agriculture. Without these targets, land system architecture tends to become more specialized, while many carbon and biodiversity hotspots, such as in the Americas, India, and Indonesia would be lost. Grassland-agriculture mosaics were threatened by land use change under all scenarios, requiring greater consideration in research and environmental policy. Our results emphasize the need for targeted land management in line with the analyzed policy targets if global restoration and protection targets are to be achieved

The cheeseboard in Dutch fine dining restaurants, I: Practices and opinions of restaurant professionals

The difficulties in serving a cheeseboard are explored in this paper. From literature 1940–2010, for accompanying cheeses, a shift was found from red to white wines and from dry to sweeter wines. There is also a tendency to more and sweeter garnishes with the cheese. Interviews with professionals from nine Dutch restaurants largely confirmed these tendencies. In most restaurants, a varied cheeseboard was offered with sweet breads and garnishes. Many customers only finished the wine from the main dish with the cheeseboard. When a new wine was ordered, it was most of the time a sweet wine that did not match with all the cheeses of the cheeseboard. Recommendations for improving this situation are given.Keywords: fine dining restaurants, wine-food combinations, flavour profiles, flavour styl

Three-dimensional dental microwear in type-Maastrichtian mosasaur teeth (Reptilia, Squamata)

Mosasaurs (Squamata, Mosasauridae) were large aquatic reptiles from the Late Cretaceous that filled a range of ecological niches within marine ecosystems. The type-Maastrichtian strata (68–66 Ma) of the Netherlands and Belgium preserve remains of five species that seemed to have performed different ecological roles (carnivores, piscivores, durophages). However, many interpretations of mosasaur diet and niche partitioning are based on qualitative types of evidence that are difficult to test explicitly. Here, we apply three-dimensional dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) to provide quantitative dietary constraints for type-Maastrichtian mosasaurs, and to assess levels of niche partitioning between taxa. DMTA indicates that these mosasaurs did not exhibit neatly defined diets or strict dietary partitioning. Instead, we identify three broad groups: (i) mosasaurs Carinodens belgicus and Plioplatecarpus marshi plotting in the space of modern reptiles that are predominantly piscivorous and/or consume harder invertebrate prey, (ii) Prognathodon saturator and Prognathodon sectorius overlapping with extant reptiles that consume larger amounts of softer invertebrate prey items, and (iii) Mosasaurus hoffmanni spanning a larger plot area in terms of dietary constraints. The clear divide between the aforementioned first two groups in texture-dietary space indicates that, despite our small sample sizes, this method shows the potential of DMTA to test hypotheses and provide quantitative constraints on mosasaur diets and ecological roles

A new Oligocene site with terrestrial mammals and a selachian fauna from Minqar Tibaghbagh, the western Desert of Egypt

A new fossil site at Minqar Tibaghbagh, east of Siwa, in the Egyptian Western Desert is described. This represents the first place in Egypt outside the Fayum Depression yielding Paleogene, terrestrial mammals. Initial studies indicate the presence of palaeomastodonts, hyracoids, and anthracotheres, presumably early Oligocene in age. As only surface prospecting has been performed, more taxa will almost certainly be discovered in future investigations here and probably also elsewhere in the surroundings. A comparison is made with the most important contemporaneous sites in Libya and Egypt that yield terrestrial mammal remains. The selachian fauna from a higher level in the section confirms the Paleogene age of the subjacent strata. It is compared with selachians faunas from the early Oligocene Eastern Tethys Ocean at other places (the Fayum Depression in Egypt, and sites in Oman and Pakistan), and differs from these sites in being fully marine. Contrary to earlier studies, the open marine mudstones of the Daba’a Formation at Minqar Tibaghbagh are overlain by Paleogene marine sediments of most probably early Oligocene age and not early Miocene marine sediments as previously reported. These strata represent not only a new site with great potential for future finds, but also allows for biostratigraphic correlation

Three-dimensional dental microwear in type-Maastrichtian mosasaur teeth (Reptilia, Squamata)

Mosasaurs (Squamata, Mosasauridae) were large aquatic reptiles from the Late Cretaceous that filled a range of ecological niches within marine ecosystems. The type-Maastrichtian strata (68–66 Ma) of the Netherlands and Belgium preserve remains of five species that seemed to have performed different ecological roles (carnivores, piscivores, durophages). However, many interpretations of mosasaur diet and niche partitioning are based on qualitative types of evidence that are difficult to test explicitly. Here, we apply three-dimensional dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) to provide quantitative dietary constraints for type-Maastrichtian mosasaurs, and to assess levels of niche partitioning between taxa. DMTA indicates that these mosasaurs did not exhibit neatly defined diets or strict dietary partitioning. Instead, we identify three broad groups: (i) mosasaurs Carinodens belgicus and Plioplatecarpus marshi plotting in the space of modern reptiles that are predominantly piscivorous and/or consume harder invertebrate prey, (ii) Prognathodon saturator and Prognathodon sectorius overlapping with extant reptiles that consume larger amounts of softer invertebrate prey items, and (iii) Mosasaurus hoffmanni spanning a larger plot area in terms of dietary constraints. The clear divide between the aforementioned first two groups in texture-dietary space indicates that, despite our small sample sizes, this method shows the potential of DMTA to test hypotheses and provide quantitative constraints on mosasaur diets and ecological roles

Synchrotron imaging of dentition provides insights into the biology of Hesperornis and Ichthyornis, the "last" toothed birds.

BACKGROUND: The dentitions of extinct organisms can provide pivotal information regarding their phylogenetic position, as well as paleobiology, diet, development, and growth. Extant birds are edentulous (toothless), but their closest relatives among stem birds, the Cretaceous Hesperornithiformes and Ichthyornithiformes, retained teeth. Despite their significant phylogenetic position immediately outside the avian crown group, the dentitions of these taxa have never been studied in detail. To obtain new insight into the biology of these 'last' toothed birds, we use cutting-edge visualisation techniques to describe their dentitions at unprecedented levels of detail, in particular propagation phase contrast x-ray synchrotron microtomography at high-resolution. RESULTS: Among other characteristics of tooth shape, growth, attachment, implantation, replacement, and dental tissue microstructures, revealed by these analyses, we find that tooth morphology and ornamentation differ greatly between the Hesperornithiformes and Ichthyornithiformes. We also highlight the first Old World, and youngest record of the major Mesozoic clade Ichthyornithiformes. Both taxa exhibit extremely thin and simple enamel. The extension rate of Hesperornis tooth dentine appears relatively high compared to non-avian dinosaurs. Root attachment is found for the first time to be fully thecodont via gomphosis in both taxa, but in Hesperornis secondary evolution led to teeth implantation in a groove, at least locally without a periodontal ligament. Dental replacement is shown to be lingual via a resorption pit in the root, in both taxa. CONCLUSIONS: Our results allow comparison with other archosaurs and also mammals, with implications regarding dental character evolution across amniotes. Some dental features of the 'last' toothed birds can be interpreted as functional adaptations related to diet and mode of predation, while others appear to be products of their peculiar phylogenetic heritage. The autapomorphic Hesperornis groove might have favoured firmer root attachment. These observations highlight complexity in the evolutionary history of tooth reduction in the avian lineage and also clarify alleged avian dental characteristics in the frame of a long-standing debate on bird origins. Finally, new hypotheses emerge that will possibly be tested by further analyses of avian teeth, for instance regarding dental replacement rates, or simplification and thinning of enamel throughout the course of early avian evolution