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The Unexpected Villain in Plant-Based Diets

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Friday, June 14, 2024

Research from the University of São Paulo and Imperial College London indicates that plant-based ultra-processed foods may increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases, contradicting their healthy marketing claims. The study calls for updated dietary guidelines that emphasize less processed foods.A significant study reveals that plant-based ultra-processed foods are linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, suggesting a need for dietary shifts towards less processed options.New analysis of the health impacts of plant-based ultra-processed foods (UPFs) has found they may pose a higher risk for cardiovascular diseases compared to less-processed plant-based foods.The research, led by the University of São Paulo and involving Imperial College London, used data from more than 118,000 people. It suggests that while plant-based diets are linked with reduced disease risk, overall, UPFs were linked with worse health outcomes. They find that eating plant-based UPFs was linked with a 7% increase in the risk of cardiovascular diseases, compared with eating unprocessed plant-based foods. They also found that the all consumption of UPFs (animal-based and plant-based) was linked with a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases and dying from these diseases.VIDEOMarketing Versus Reality of Plant-Based UPFsAccording to the researchers, their findings – published in the journal Lancet Regional Health – indicate that while plant-based UPFs may be marketed as healthy alternatives, they may be linked to worse health outcomes. They add that dietary guidelines should be updated to encourage people to reduce their consumption of UPFs as well as to promote plant-based diets.Dr. Eszter Vamos, co-author of the study, from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, said: “Fresh plant-based foods such as fruits and vegetables, wholegrains and legumes are known to have important health and environmental benefits. While ultra-processed foods are often marketed as healthy foods, this large study shows that plant-based ultra-processed foods do not seem to have protective health effects and are linked to poor health outcomes.”Defining UPFs and Their Impact on HealthPlant-based diets are linked with a reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attacks and strokes. But many plant-based foods, including meat-free alternatives such as some sausages, burgers, and nuggets, can be classified as ultra-processed foods (UPFs), despite often being marketed as healthy options.UPFs are generally higher in salt, fat, sugar, and contain artificial additives. Previous research has linked UPFs with a range of poor health outcomes, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.Study Methodology and Detailed FindingsIn the latest study, researchers from the University of São Paulo in Brazil (USP), Imperial College London, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), investigated the potential impacts of plant-based UPFs on health.Using data from the UK Biobank study, they looked at data for more than 118,000 people England, Scotland, and Wales aged 40 to 69 years who had their diets assessed over at least two days. These data were linked to hospital and mortality records to obtain information on cardiovascular diseases.Health Outcomes Associated With UPF ConsumptionThe team looked at the contribution of food items to diet, and classified food items as UPFs, as defined by the Nova classification, and non-UPFs – unprocessed or minimally processed foods, processed culinary ingredients, and processed foods. These groups were further divided into ‘plant-based’ or ‘animal-based’. Plant-based foods composed exclusively or primarily of plant origin (e.g. fruits, vegetables, grains, bread, cakes and sweets, sweetened beverages). Animal-based foods included all meats (fish, poultry, red meats, etc.), dairy and eggs.The consumption of all plant-based foods together showed no association with any of the related diseases. Eating more plant-based non-UPFs was linked to better health outcomes, and replacing plant-based UPFs with plant-based non-UPFs was linked with a 7% lower risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and a 15% lower risk of mortality associated with these conditions. However, consumption of plant-based UPFs was associated with an increased risk of both outcomes.Analysis showed that increasing the dietary contribution of plant-based non-UPFs by 10% was also associated with a 13% reduction in mortality from all cardiovascular diseases, with a 20% reduction in mortality caused by coronary heart disease.Recommendations for Dietary GuidelinesDr. Fernanda Rauber, a researcher at USP and first author of the study said: “Despite being plant-based, these foods can contribute to risk factors such as dyslipidaemia and hypertension due to their composition and processing methods. Food additives and industrial contaminants present in these foods can cause oxidative stress and inflammation, further aggravating the risks. Therefore, our results support the shift towards plant-based food choices that consider the degree of processing to improve cardiovascular health outcomes.”Conclusion and Future ImplicationsThe researchers say that, based on the available evidence, nutritional guidelines promoting plant-based diets should focus not only on reducing the amount of meat and other animal-products people eat, but also on the importance of the level of processing involved in the food, and avoiding UPFs.Dr. Renata Levy, a professor at USP, said: “The study aimed to fill the gap in the evidence regarding the consumption of ultra-processed plant-based foods and their impacts, especially when it comes to cardiovascular diseases. Research like this is essential for guiding public policies. In this case, we have yet another strong argument to encourage the reduction of ultra-processed food consumption, regardless of whether it is of animal or plant origin.”Reference: “Implications of food ultra-processing on cardiovascular risk considering plant origin foods: an analysis of the UK Biobank cohort” by Fernanda Rauber, Maria Laura da Costa Louzada, Kiara Chang, Inge Huybrechts, Marc J. Gunter, Carlos Augusto Monteiro, Eszter P. Vamos and Renata Bertazzi Levy, 10 June 2024, The Lancet Regional Health – Europe.DOI: 10.1016/j.lanepe.2024.100948The research was funded by the World Cancer Research Fund.

A significant study reveals that plant-based ultra-processed foods are linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, suggesting a need for dietary shifts towards less...

Various Plant Based Meats

Research from the University of São Paulo and Imperial College London indicates that plant-based ultra-processed foods may increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases, contradicting their healthy marketing claims. The study calls for updated dietary guidelines that emphasize less processed foods.

A significant study reveals that plant-based ultra-processed foods are linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, suggesting a need for dietary shifts towards less processed options.

New analysis of the health impacts of plant-based ultra-processed foods (UPFs) has found they may pose a higher risk for cardiovascular diseases compared to less-processed plant-based foods.

The research, led by the University of São Paulo and involving Imperial College London, used data from more than 118,000 people. It suggests that while plant-based diets are linked with reduced disease risk, overall, UPFs were linked with worse health outcomes.

They find that eating plant-based UPFs was linked with a 7% increase in the risk of cardiovascular diseases, compared with eating unprocessed plant-based foods. They also found that the all consumption of UPFs (animal-based and plant-based) was linked with a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases and dying from these diseases.

Marketing Versus Reality of Plant-Based UPFs

According to the researchers, their findings – published in the journal Lancet Regional Health – indicate that while plant-based UPFs may be marketed as healthy alternatives, they may be linked to worse health outcomes. They add that dietary guidelines should be updated to encourage people to reduce their consumption of UPFs as well as to promote plant-based diets.

Dr. Eszter Vamos, co-author of the study, from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, said: “Fresh plant-based foods such as fruits and vegetables, wholegrains and legumes are known to have important health and environmental benefits. While ultra-processed foods are often marketed as healthy foods, this large study shows that plant-based ultra-processed foods do not seem to have protective health effects and are linked to poor health outcomes.”

Defining UPFs and Their Impact on Health

Plant-based diets are linked with a reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attacks and strokes. But many plant-based foods, including meat-free alternatives such as some sausages, burgers, and nuggets, can be classified as ultra-processed foods (UPFs), despite often being marketed as healthy options.

UPFs are generally higher in salt, fat, sugar, and contain artificial additives. Previous research has linked UPFs with a range of poor health outcomes, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.

Study Methodology and Detailed Findings

In the latest study, researchers from the University of São Paulo in Brazil (USP), Imperial College London, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), investigated the potential impacts of plant-based UPFs on health.

Using data from the UK Biobank study, they looked at data for more than 118,000 people England, Scotland, and Wales aged 40 to 69 years who had their diets assessed over at least two days. These data were linked to hospital and mortality records to obtain information on cardiovascular diseases.

Health Outcomes Associated With UPF Consumption

The team looked at the contribution of food items to diet, and classified food items as UPFs, as defined by the Nova classification, and non-UPFs – unprocessed or minimally processed foods, processed culinary ingredients, and processed foods. These groups were further divided into ‘plant-based’ or ‘animal-based’. Plant-based foods composed exclusively or primarily of plant origin (e.g. fruits, vegetables, grains, bread, cakes and sweets, sweetened beverages). Animal-based foods included all meats (fish, poultry, red meats, etc.), dairy and eggs.

The consumption of all plant-based foods together showed no association with any of the related diseases. Eating more plant-based non-UPFs was linked to better health outcomes, and replacing plant-based UPFs with plant-based non-UPFs was linked with a 7% lower risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and a 15% lower risk of mortality associated with these conditions. However, consumption of plant-based UPFs was associated with an increased risk of both outcomes.

Analysis showed that increasing the dietary contribution of plant-based non-UPFs by 10% was also associated with a 13% reduction in mortality from all cardiovascular diseases, with a 20% reduction in mortality caused by coronary heart disease.

Recommendations for Dietary Guidelines

Dr. Fernanda Rauber, a researcher at USP and first author of the study said: “Despite being plant-based, these foods can contribute to risk factors such as dyslipidaemia and hypertension due to their composition and processing methods. Food additives and industrial contaminants present in these foods can cause oxidative stress and inflammation, further aggravating the risks. Therefore, our results support the shift towards plant-based food choices that consider the degree of processing to improve cardiovascular health outcomes.”

Conclusion and Future Implications

The researchers say that, based on the available evidence, nutritional guidelines promoting plant-based diets should focus not only on reducing the amount of meat and other animal-products people eat, but also on the importance of the level of processing involved in the food, and avoiding UPFs.

Dr. Renata Levy, a professor at USP, said: “The study aimed to fill the gap in the evidence regarding the consumption of ultra-processed plant-based foods and their impacts, especially when it comes to cardiovascular diseases. Research like this is essential for guiding public policies. In this case, we have yet another strong argument to encourage the reduction of ultra-processed food consumption, regardless of whether it is of animal or plant origin.”

Reference: “Implications of food ultra-processing on cardiovascular risk considering plant origin foods: an analysis of the UK Biobank cohort” by Fernanda Rauber, Maria Laura da Costa Louzada, Kiara Chang, Inge Huybrechts, Marc J. Gunter, Carlos Augusto Monteiro, Eszter P. Vamos and Renata Bertazzi Levy, 10 June 2024, The Lancet Regional Health – Europe.
DOI: 10.1016/j.lanepe.2024.100948

The research was funded by the World Cancer Research Fund.

Read the full story here.
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National Trust members to vote on making cafe food 50% plant-based

Jacob Rees-Mogg criticises plans for 2.6m members to decide on increasing share of vegan and vegetarian optionsNational Trust members are being invited to vote on a plan to make 50% of the food in its cafes vegan and vegetarian as part of the charity’s commitment to reach net zero by 2030.Cafe menus at the trust’s 280 historic sites are already 40% plant-based. Now, the trust’s 2.6 million members will get to vote on whether the charity should gradually increase this figure to 50% over the next two years. Continue reading...

National Trust members are being invited to vote on a plan to make 50% of the food in its cafes vegan and vegetarian as part of the charity’s commitment to reach net zero by 2030.Cafe menus at the trust’s 280 historic sites are already 40% plant-based. Now, the trust’s 2.6 million members will get to vote on whether the charity should gradually increase this figure to 50% over the next two years.The resolution, which was brought by a member and is being supported by the charity, will be voted on at the trust’s annual general meeting on 2 November, with online votes due in by 25 October.However, the plan has drawn criticism, , with the former Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg calling the resolution “a silly, attention-seeking proposal that won’t have any effect unless the National Trust decides to ration meat” while the TV farmer Gareth Wyn Jones described the charity’s aspiration to provide more plant-based food choices as “absolutely ridiculous from a massive landowner with so many livestock farming families living off these farms”.The National Farmers’ Union president Tom Bradshaw suggested National Trust visitors should not have culinary decisions “imposed” on them and that there were benefits to eating meat and dairy: “What we eat is a personal choice and not something which is imposed. Decisions should be made in an informed way taking into consideration the nutritional, environmental and biodiversity benefits that eating a balanced diet including meat and dairy provide.”Earlier this year, the charity was forced to defend its vegan scone recipe after it was accused of “wokery”.The Mail on Sunday suggested the trust had “secretly” made all its scones vegan, with critics condemning the decision to use vegetable spread over butter.However, the charity said its fruit and plain scones in its cafes had actually been dairy free for years, to accommodate the different dietary needs and allergies of its customers, but they could still be enjoyed with lashings of butter, cream and jam.In response to the growing furore around its latest proposal to offer more plant-based food, a National Trust spokesperson emphasised that the charity was “keeping dairy, eggs and meat on the menu, and continuing to work closely with farmers”.She added: “We want our cafes to be more sustainable and we want to keep serving a great variety of food while meeting the changing preferences of our visitors. We estimate two-fifths of our menu is currently plant-based and we can move to half being so in the next two years.”In its AGM booklet, the trust cited David Attenborough when explaining its reasons for the proposal: “The planet can’t sustain billions of meat-eaters.skip past newsletter promotionOur morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it mattersPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotion“Moving towards a majority plant-based food system would allow more than 70% of farmland to be freed for nature restoration, a change that would capture massive amounts of carbon and increase biodiversity while still providing enough nutritious food for our growing population.”Scientists say avoiding meat and dairy products is the single biggest way to reduce your environmental impact on the planet, and a recent survey of 7,500 people in 10 European countries found that nearly half of British adults (48%) were cutting down on the amount of meat they eat.Last year students at Cambridge University voted to support a transition to a 100% vegan menu across the institution’s catering services, while students at Warwick and Newcastle have voted for their universities to provide 50% plant-based catering.Earlier this year, the founder of the world’s largest vegan charity, Viva!, said all restaurants should offer at least 50% plant-based menus by the end of next year.

Food
Nature
Sustainable

California extends its food additives ban with new bill targeting foods served in local schools

The newly passed bill will ban artificial dyes, which are linked to various behavioral issues in children

California is continuing its ban on various food additives, this time with a new bill that targets specific chemicals served in school lunches throughout the state. The California School Food Safety Act (Assembly Bill 2316) will ban artificial dyes, which California lawmakers believe are linked to behavioral issues in children.  The bill prohibits state school districts and charter schools from serving foods or drinks that contain red dye No. 40, yellow dyes Nos. 5 and 6, blue dyes Nos. 1 and 2, and green dye No. 3 to children in kindergarten through 12th grade. These dyes are commonly found in ice creams, fruit snacks, drinks (like Gatorade and SunnyD), cereals, candy and flavored chips. Although research into the neurological effects of artificial food dyes is still ongoing, such dyes have been shown to have negative impacts on children’s attention span. California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) research into the link between food dyes and child behavior found that the levels (or doses) of dyes deemed “safe” by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “do not adequately take neurobehavioral effects into account.” That’s because the animal studies that the FDA conducted to determine an acceptable exposure level “are many decades old and were not capable of detecting the types of neurobehavioral outcomes measured in later studies, or for which there is concern in children consuming synthetic dyes,” per OEHHA.   The recent School Food Safety Act comes after Governor Gavin Newsom signed the California Food Safety Act, which prohibits the sale of foods containing brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben, or red dye 3 in the state.

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Tackling food insecurity needs more than charity — governments must also act

What it means to move "beyond charity" when it comes to battling food insecurity

Researchers and food-centered organizations have had long-standing concerns that food charity alone cannot effectively respond to this growing demand. Community food groups across Canada have been advocating for a more systemic, structural approach to addressing food insecurity, rather than relying on reactive, short-term solutions like food banks. For example, Food First NL and Community Food Centres Canada are pushing for income-based solutions; the Regroupement des cuisines collectives du Québec is working on a framework bill legislating the right to food; and the Maskwacîs Education Schools Commission in Alberta has developed and implemented a Universal School Food Strategy called Nanâtohk Mîciwin. These groups draw on decades of research on food insecurity, as well as their on-the-ground observations, to develop solutions that address food insecurity more fairly and effectively. Along with colleagues, we recently organized the event Food insecurity: Let's move beyond charity!, focused on how efforts to address food insecurity can move beyond charity. Academic research and the collective efforts of non-profit organizations highlight the urgent need to move beyond short-term fixes and adopt long-term, equitable strategies that address the root causes of food insecurity.   The limits of charity Decades of research, exemplified by PROOF, the food insecurity research group at the University of Toronto, make it clear that food insecurity cannot be solved by relying on charity alone. Charity is important for helping vulnerable people. However, the root causes of food insecurity are systemic issues like inadequate income, social inequalities and insufficient social support; food donations alone fail to tackle these underlying problems. Not everyone is equally at risk of food insecurity. The latest data from Statistics Canada confirms that, as of 2022, Indigenous and Black households, lone-parent families (women-headed families, in particular) and people living with disabilities are disproportionately affected by food insecurity. Researchers argue that food charity may even reinforce the problem by giving the impression that food insecurity is being addressed, and dulling the political imperative to seek lasting solutions. Indeed, since the 1980s, governments have persistently favoured the charity model to address hunger over developing adequate social policies and welfare programs. Only a fraction of those who experience food insecurity use food banks, often due to stigma associated with poverty, the insufficient quality, quantity or appropriateness of donated food, or the absence of food banks in their communities. Meanwhile, community food programs struggle to meet the increasing demand from those who do use them. A recent Food First NL report documents the community food programs' many challenges, including limited resources (funding, food, volunteers). The report highlights the inherent limitations of a model dependent on donations and scarce resources; it is unable to effectively and sustainably meet people's specific and household needs, such as dietary restrictions.   What are the proposed alternatives? Food First NL and Community Food Centres Canada are two non-profit organizations pushing for income-based solutions. In Newfoundland and Labrador, Food First NL advocates for a basic income program to provide unconditional financial support. This is a proposed solution that has garnered significant attention in the province. At the national level, Community Food Centres Canada advocates for federal income and social policy changes, including targeted income programs with revised benefit thresholds, to ensure adequate financial assistance for those most at risk. These income-based solutions resonate with the income- and policy-based approach favoured by PROOF. Research has identified inadequate income as the key cause leading to food insecurity. The Maskwacîs Education Schools Commission showcases an inspiring model that the federal government, having recently announced a new national school food program, should pay attention to. Nanâtohk Mîciwin, the commission's Indigenous-led Universal School Food Strategy, goes beyond offering free, nutritious and culturally appropriate breakfast, lunch and snacks for all students and staff in 10 schools. The commission has created a collection and distribution system to supply traditional foods to schools, built partnerships with producers and harvesters strengthening the local food system, and enhanced connections to traditional foods and practices. Students learn about food in their Cree classes and participate in land-based food activities and harvests. The program is an approach to food provisioning that considers cultural and environmental dimensions of food security. Based on Cree values and a commitment to Indigenous food sovereignty, it provides a rich example of a systemic and structural solution to addressing food insecurity at a more local level. For its part, the Regroupement des cuisines collectives du Québec's is proposing a provincial framework bill on the right to food, based on the work of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Such efforts are vital. They drive home the point that addressing food insecurity is the government's responsibility, and food security as a fundamental human right. They also approach food insecurity as a food-systems issue as much as a social inequality one, taking into account the sustainability of food production, processing and distribution. This is all the more relevant in light of the detrimental impacts of climate change on food production and access, which predominantly affect marginalized communities.   Moving forward Systemic approaches to food insecurity must be focused on giving back agency and dignity to individuals and communities. Such initiatives develop long-term solutions informed by both research and the lived experiences of people struggling with food insecurity. Food charity may still play some role in those solutions, but it must not be the main response to the challenge of food insecurity. It's time for all levels of government to move beyond food charity, heed the advice of those working on the front lines of this crisis, and respond with fair and sustainable social policies and programs. This piece benefited from the support of UBC assistant professor Tabitha Robin, co-lead of the Food insecurity: Let's move beyond charity! research initiative, and Alannah Exelby, a research assistant on the project and health science undergraduate student at Carleton University. Myriam Durocher, Postdoctoral Researcher in Food, Health and Inequities, Carleton University; Annika Walsh, Master's Student, Research Assistant, University of British Columbia; Irena Knezevic, Associate Professor in Communication, Culture, and Health, Carleton University, and Madison Hynes, Program Assistant, Food First NL; PhD candidate in social psychology, Memorial University of Newfoundland   This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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How food banks prevented 1.8 million metric tons of carbon emissions last year

Redistributing food before it’s tossed or wasted doesn’t just fight hunger — it also fights climate change.

The latest annual impact report from the Global Foodbanking Network — a nonprofit that works with regional food banks in more than 50 countries to fight hunger — found that its member organizations provided 1.7 billion meals to more than 40 million people in 2023. According to the nonprofit, this redistribution of food, much of which was recovered from farms or wholesale produce markets, mitigated an estimated 1.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. These numbers reflect an ongoing, high demand for food banks. Last year, the Global Foodbanking Network, or GFN, served almost as many people as it did in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic sent food insecurity soaring. In order to respond to this pressing need in their communities, many of GFN’s member organizations have invested in agricultural recovery, working to rescue food from farmers before it gets thrown out.  Their efforts show how food banks can serve the dual purpose of addressing hunger and protecting the environment. By intercepting perfectly good, edible food before it winds up in the landfill, food banks help mitigate harmful greenhouse gas emissions created by food loss and waste. “There is always food that is unnecessarily wasted,” said Emily Broad Leib, the founding director of the Food Law and Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School, who has worked with GFN before but was not involved in the recent study. All that unnecessary waste means “there is ongoing need for scaling up food banks and food recovery operations,” Broad Leib added. Read Next One in 11 people went hungry last year. Climate change is a big reason why. Ayurella Horn-Muller A recent analysis from the United Nations Environment Programme estimated that 13 percent of food was lost while it was making its way from producers to retailers in 2022. Subsequently, 19 percent was wasted by retailers, restaurants, and households. The world’s households alone let 1 billion meals go to waste each day. The scope of food wasted around the world has been shockingly high for years: In 2011, the Food and Agricultural Organization, or FAO, of the United Nations released a study that suggested roughly one-third of food produced globally is never eaten.  Food waste at this scale comes with massive planetary impacts. When food goes uneaten, all of the emissions associated with growing, transporting, and processing it are rendered unnecessary. Furthermore, when food rots in landfills, it emits methane, a greenhouse gas that is roughly 80 times more potent than CO2 over a 20-year period. Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency reported that 58 percent of methane emissions from U.S. landfills come from food waste. Globally, food loss and waste have been estimated to be responsible for 8 to 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, and reducing them is essential for achieving climate targets.  Food banks can play a special role in that reduction by rescuing more food before it’s lost and redirecting it to people in need.  10 February 2024, Berlin: Vegetables at the Berliner Tafel food bank on the Berlin wholesale market site, which were collected at the Fruit Logistica trade fair. The food bank distributes the food to people affected by poverty. Photo: Christoph Soeder/dpa (Photo by Christoph Soeder/picture alliance via Getty Images) Christoph Soeder / picture alliance via Getty Images “Our members have been building out their redistribution capacity,” said Lisa Moon, the president and CEO of GFN. “I think that was our first challenge in the face of this rising need: How do we as an organization capture more supply?” In order to do this, food banks within GFN member organizations have been coordinating more closely with farmers to redirect surplus food from landfills. GFN defines surplus food as food from commercial streams that was grown for human consumption but that, for some reason or another, cannot be sold. So-called “ugly” produce — misshapen food that never makes it to the grocery store because of its looks — falls into this category. Some of this redirection actually looks like cutting out food banks as the middleman. Moon gives the example of a food bank that receives a call from a farmer with excess green beans. Instead of traveling to the farm to pick them up, traveling back to the food bank’s distribution hub, storing the green beans, and having folks wait for the next distribution day to collect them, the food bank in question might simply reach out to beneficiaries in the area (think: soup kitchens) to inform them of how many green beans are available and where so they can pick them up. GFN refers to this as “virtual food banking” because of how members are using tech platforms to match farmers with beneficiaries, rather than physically moving the produce themselves. Read Next The people who feed America are going hungry Ayurella Horn-Muller The result of this emphasis on agricultural recovery is that fruit and vegetables now make up the largest portion — 40 percent — of food redistributed by GFN members by volume. Moon says the organization is “just only scratching the surface” of possibilities for recovering fresh produce.  In order to calculate that 1.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent was mitigated by these efforts, GFN utilized the Food Loss and Waste Protocol developed by the World Resources Institute. This framework takes a number of things into account, including where recovered food would have ended up had it not been intercepted from the waste stream. These waste destinations can be landfills but also include animal feed, compost, and anaerobic digesters (a waste management technology that converts organic waste into biogas — but that can come with its own emissions problems). Moon acknowledged that GFN does not know in every case what would happen to the surplus food if it were not rescued by a food bank — but pointed out that most of the places where the network operates do not have a robust circular economy for food. Broad Leib, the Harvard Law food policy expert, described GFN’s estimate of carbon dioxide equivalent mitigated as “a good proxy for impact.” While other waste destinations are possible, “we also know that the large majority of wasted food globally goes to landfill,” she said. “I think their estimate is likely not far off from actual emissions avoided.” This story was originally published by Grist with the headline How food banks prevented 1.8 million metric tons of carbon emissions last year on Aug 14, 2024.

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Waste

Wild genes in domestic species: how we can supercharge our crops using their distant relatives

For millennia, we’ve selectively bred our crop species to make the plants stronger and better yielding. But we’ll need a different approach to help our food plants weather the changes to come.

International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Author providedFood security is shaping up as one of the biggest challenges we face globally. In some places, access to food has steadily deteriorated in recent years, due to wars, inflation and climate-driven extreme weather. The cost of basic foods such as eggs and vegetables has made news worldwide. Food price inflation is now ahead of overall inflation in over half the world’s nations. The obvious answer is to grow more crops, especially the energy-dense top six – rice, wheat, corn, potatoes, soybeans and sugarcane. Unfortunately, it’s getting harder to produce food due to conflict, more extreme weather such as flash droughts and floods and a surge in plant diseases and pests. For farmers to keep producing in an uncertain future, we need better crops. But much cutting edge agricultural research focuses on improving specific aspects of a plant – better drought resistance, or a better ability to tolerate salt in the soil. This may not be enough to cope with future shocks. Our research suggests a way to accelerate the creation of stronger crops by drawing on the full genetic strength of crop species. Crops that don’t stop Humans have greatly modified the plants which give us the lion’s share of our food, using tools such as selective breeding and genetic manipulation. But much agricultural research is done in isolation. Researchers dive deep into solving specific problems – how to make wheat resilient against a specific fungus, for example. The growing challenges to food security across many fronts means a new approach is needed. The changing climate will throw many different threats at our crops. Parts of the world might endure flash droughts while extreme rain floods others. Some pests and diseases will thrive in a hotter world. That’s why we’re looking to another approach – pangenomics, which attempts to capture every gene a species has access to. You might think a species has a unified set of genes, but this is not true. Yes, all rice plants have a set of shared genetic sequences. But individual plants and strains have distinct genetic differences too. The pangenome covers all of these. The idea of a pangenome only emerged in 2005, when microbiologist Hervé Tettelin and his collaborators were looking for a vaccine against the streptococcus bacteria. As they examined different strains, they realised how much additional genetic information was held in them. It was a breakthrough, and showed how much we missed by focusing closely on a single isolate of a species. Before their discovery, we had assumed an individual of a species carried enough information to accurately represent the genomic content of that species. But this isn’t correct. This realisation has changed how we see our crops. Rather than trying to perfect a single cultivar (cultivated variety) using only its own genetic package, the pangenome offers a way to reinfuse lost vigour from the wider gene pool. In 2019, we took the pangenome approach further by considering the entire gene pool of a crop, including its domestic cultivars – and their wild relatives. Many wild relatives of domesticated crops still exist. These plants have huge genetic diversity, and often harbour superior genes or gene variants (alleles) lost to crop plants through domestication and breeding. We dubbed this approach the “super-pangenome” to recognise the capture of domesticated and wild gene pools. How can this help shore up food supplies? For more than 10,000 years, humans have domesticated and selectively bred crops. But wild relatives have thrived over the same timeframe. There are good reasons these wild relatives have not been domesticated, from poor taste to difficulty of storage to low yields. But what they do have are desirable traits in their genetic code we can identify, isolate and infuse back into the domesticated species. Once we have genetic data from across a species and its wild relatives, we can begin looking for particularly useful genes. What we’re after are the ones responsible for adapting to or surviving environmental stresses likely to get worse in the future, such as drought, saline soils and extreme temperatures. We can identify genes responsible for disease resistance and determine why certain varieties offer other desirable traits such as better taste or higher yields. Around the world, a number of promising research projects use this approach, from American researchers using the genes of wild grapes to boost the yield of domesticated grapes to Chinese researchers doing similar work on tomatoes. How can we make crops more resilient to heat, drought and pests? KPixMining/Shutterstock We and our colleagues are focused on the humble chickpea, a highly nutritious legume of particular importance to India’s 1.4 billion people. Chickpeas, like other legume crops, take nitrogen from the air and fix it in the soil, which improves fertility and helps offset emissions of nitrous oxide, a lesser-known greenhouse gas. But chickpeas lack of genetic diversity due to several evolutionary bottlenecks, domestication and selective breeding. This is already causing problems, because low genetic diversity makes species more vulnerable to pests and disease. Chickpea farmers in Western Australia still remember the outbreak of a fungal blight which almost wiped out production in the late 1990s and left the crop unpopular – even while other states expanded exports. The solution: look to the wild relatives. In the genomes of relatives such as Cicer echinospermum, we found several promising genes which helped resist this fungus. These genes can now be incorporated into domesticated species through modern approaches – such as genomics-assisted breeding and gene editing – to develop disease-resistant and high-yielding chickpea varieties. Once we seek out and capture the full gene stock of our most important crops, both wild and domesticated, it will become easier and faster to supercharge these essential plants – and equip them with the genes they need to survive the uncertainties the future holds. Rajeev Varshney receives funding from the Grains Research & Development Corporation, Australia, for pulses research at Murdoch University. Vanika Garg receives funding from the Grains Research & Development Corporation, Australia for pulses research at Murdoch University.

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