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[♪ INTRO]
Switching as little as 20% of our global beef consumption to a substitute protein
could cut deforestation and CO2 emissions from farming cattle in half by 2050,
according to a study out this week in Nature.
From the huge amount of land, food, and fresh water they require,
to the impact on their immediate environment, all the way to their methane burps,
farming beef cattle has a substantial environmental impact.
Beef is also responsible for about a quarter of all food production-related
greenhouse gas emissions.
Cows, I know it’s not your fault, but you are a huge problem.
Now this means if we want to lower humanity’s overall carbon footprint,
beef is also a potentially high-impact area to target.
The new study took a look at how we might do things differently.
Specifically, they investigated what our emissions could look like
if we substituted a percentage of worldwide beef consumption
with something called fermentation-derived microbial protein, or just MP.
MP is derived from fungus grown using sugar in heated reactors.
That’s different from plant-based meat substitutes that rely on agricultural crops
like soybeans, or lab-grown meat which requires…like, you know, like, a lab.
MP is comparable to meat in nutritional content, has a similar texture, and since it’s
grown in a reactor, its production is relatively resistant to local changes in climate.
This might all sound like a sci-fi experiment on a plate,
but these days, it’s kind of not.
MP is already widely available in supermarkets;
you might have heard of brands like Quorn.
In their study, the research team modeled three different scenarios.
In them, 0%, 20%, 50%, or 80% of beef consumption
was replaced with MP by the year 2050.
The team then compared what the projected environmental impacts
of those moves could be.
They took into account economic factors, as well as population expansion
and increases in income, which would all alter demand for food.
According to their calculations, replacing 20% of the beef consumed per person
with MP by 2050 would cut the emissions associated with beef globally
by more than half.
Not only that, but compared to the 0% scenario, the 20% scenario would see
global annual deforestation rates decrease by roughly half as well.
Replacing more than 20% would, of course, offer even greater benefits.
According to their model, replacing 50% or 80% of beef with MP would result
in 82% and 93% reductions in deforestation, as well as 83% and 87% reductions
in net carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, respectively.
The 50% and 80% scenarios, however, may offer diminishing returns.
Now, further research is needed to look at the exact energy
and land use requirements of implementing this strategy.
But this study already shows us how we can make a relatively small step
in the right direction and reap huge benefits.
This week we also learned that scientists have discovered a new way to treat
multidrug-resistant infections in people with compromised immune systems.
In a study in Nature Communications, researchers in the US
have figured out how to harness the power of bacteriophages,
a type of virus that specifically infects bacteria,
to basically fight infection with infection.
Bacteria can become resistant to traditional antibiotic treatment
if they’re exposed to them without being fully killed off.
They develop resistance mechanisms against those treatments,
rendering them useless, which means that the bacteria can continue
to flourish even if it’s being inundated with antibiotics.
Treating with bacteriophages, though, avoids this issue entirely.
When a bacteriophage infects a bacterium,
it takes over the functions of that cell to replicate itself.
That not only interrupts the bacterium’s replication,
but eventually it kills it all together.
In their study, the researchers isolated bacteriophages
that could infect a treatment resistant bacterium called Mycobacterium chelonae,
which is commonly associated with skin and soft tissue infections,
generally in people with weaker immune systems.
While this isn’t the first time that bacteriophage therapy has been used,
having another way to target and treat this particular infection
would be super useful, since immunocompromised patients
have a lot of trouble fighting it off by themselves.
The team intravenously administered the bacteriophage treatment twice daily
to a 56-year old patient with a persistent, treatment-resistant M. chelonae infection,
in addition to continued antibiotic therapy and surgical procedures
that removed infected tissue.
Before treatment, this patient had intermittent symptoms caused by
an infection from the bacteria, including lesions on the skin
of his left arm, lower belly, and right leg.
But once the bacteriophage therapy was administered, they gradually began to
improve, with their skin lesions becoming less inflamed and reducing in size.
Even better than that, it seemed like the treatment was pretty tolerable
and the patient had minimal side effects
These infections are very persistent, though, and even with this type of therapy,
it might take time to clear them completely.
While this is a super exciting development, it’s going to take a hot minute
before you can go to your doctor and ask for a round of bacteriophage therapy.
In the months and years to come, scientists will have to study
how safe this treatment is, as well as get a better understanding
of how it might interact with our immune systems, which is no small task.
But with a little luck, we could be adding this treatment
to our arsenal in the near-ish future.
Maybe you watched this episode and though:
I’d like to get into the habit of eating less beef to reduce my climate impact.
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They’ve even added new features, like short-term challenge programs
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You can start building your ideal daily routine today.
The first 100 people who click on the link in the description
will get 25% off a Fabulous subscription!
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