059 | This is Literally a Factory Farm!
Listen to this week’s Discover Ag episode: This is Literally a Factory Farm! with Natalie Kovarik and Tara Vander Dussen now available on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts | iHeart Radio
On this week’s show, Nat and Tara are chatting about several trending news topics such as,
Meat is the Moment: Markus Bailey & the Global Food Justice Alliance
Industry News
Oatly is back in the headlines being accused of hypocrisy
New Science Into Fighting Food Waste
No Kill Meat Another Step Closer to Being in Stores
Now You Know: Crazy Horse Monument in South Dakota
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Meat the Moment: Markus Bailey and The Global Food Justice Alliance
This week’s Meat is the Moment is all about NFL players and their mission to promote food security and agriculture. This week we are specifically talking about the Cincinnati Bengals player, Markus Bailey on his partnership with the Global Food Justice Alliance to promote food security. This is part of a new movement in the NFL called #MyCauseMyCleats where players can pick an organization to promote by wearing a pair of custom cleats. Markus took this movement to the next level by posting and bringing attention to his cause via Instagram. You can check out his full post below.
Agriculture Industry News
Oatly is Back in the Headlines for Hypocrisy
To kick off our industry news today, we are talking about the latest news around Oatly and the claim that they are feeding the leftover oat mash to cows when their mission claims to not have anything to do with cows. For a company that stands on a soapbox of being fully vegan, they are still supporting animal agriculture. This point would be null and void if they changed their narrative to just being a drink for non-dairy drinkers but they are adamantly on the vegan train with several high profile celebrity shareholders. At the end of the day, it’s just not a good look on them and it will interesting to see where the story goes! Check out the full story here.
New Science Around Fighting Food Waste
With all of the new technology coming out, there are tons of ideas on how we can start combating food waste, but there are some concerns as well. In case you didn’t know, if food waste was its own country, it would rank the third highest greenhouse gas emitter in the world. In addition, according to ReFed, “In 2019, around 35% of the 229 million tons of food available in the U.S. — worth around $418 billion — went unsold or uneaten.” One of the biggest ways they are looking into preventing food waste is focusing on improving packaging, but the ladies believe the biggest changes we can make are right inside of our own homes. Make sure to tune in to this episode to catch their full thoughts on this topic and read the article here.
No Kill Meat Another Step Closer to Being Available in Stores
The future is here and that could include “No-Kill” meat. Essentially no-kill meat is produced through animal cells without slaughtering animals. The company behind this is called Upside Foods and they have been working on bringing no-kill meat to the market for several years and just got the go-ahead from the FDA to move forward, as they claimed it was safe to eat. Natalie and Tara have mixed feelings on this topic, Tara thinks it’s all in how you view and market the end product. At the end of the day, there are still a ton of resources that need to be used to create this cultured meat so how much will it ultimately save? Seeing the process will be interesting. According to the article from NPR, the meat is cultivated in “tanks — called cultivators in this industry — [which] "brew" meat, not beer. We saw the cell bank where the animal cell samples are stored, the pipes that pump nutrients into the tanks, and finally the raw meat as it emerged from the production facility.” We don’t know about you, but this is the real definition of a factory farm. You can catch the story here.
To wrap up today’s episode, Nat and Tara cover their last segment, which is now called “Now you Know”, and this week, Natalie highlights her latest trip to South Dakota. On that trip, she learned some fun facts about the Crazy Horse Monument that you’ll want to make sure you tune in for!
About Discover Ag
On Discover Ag, hosts Natalie Kovarik and Tara Vander Dussen share relevant and captivating conversations in Agriculture so you can better understand the food system, and connect with the hands that feed us.
Every Thursday they highlight Agriculture in a modern and fun way, giving their professional farming opinions on a mix of entertainment, facts, and trending news articles. Discover Ag has been described as a Mike Rowe/The Way I Heard It meets Claudia Oshry/Morning Toast and Natalie and Tara are very much on board with that analogy. Tune in every week, so you can Discover Ag!
