In labs around the world, proteins are being created in bioreactors. And these proteins are grown to mimic dairy proteins. What for, you ask? To make cheese and milk without a single cow or goat ever being present.
The basis of this manufacturer is called “precision fermentation.” There are hundreds of millions of dollars being invested here. Why? To quote a spokesman for one of the companies, “Once the obvious outcry against so-called fake food dies down, in years to come all the milk and dairy product will come from bioreactors making the proteins. This is better for the planet because cows won’t be making methane and there will be less CO2 emissions from the dairy industry.”
People are buying into the myth of animal agriculture being bad for the planet at an alarming rate.
Vegans spout nonsense that more protein and calories can be grown from pastures and that this reduction of cattle will also reduce emissions of methane and CO2, yet those very same vegans choose to overlook the fact that a pasture devoid of fertilizer becomes unproductive within two to three years — so they happily buy chemicals from the petroleum industry to revitalize crop fields.
A staggering $19 billion of oil-derived fertilizers was sold last year in the USA to grow corn, soybean and other vegan crops; not to mention trucks belching fumes transporting sacks of the stuff.
And anyone claiming organic fertilizers are just as good should compare the organic fertilizer market last year at under $152 million or less than 1% of oil-based fertilizers.
Already, these new factory-produced proteins form the basis for 65% of all rennet made for the cheese-making industry worldwide. Did you know that, except for non-pasteurized and artisanal cheese, all the cheese made today starts with rennet made in these bioreactors?
The baseline problem is the hubris of these agribusinesses, which think they can improve on natural food production systems all in the guise of securing investors and the potential of making money.
In essence they seek to further disconnect food production from nature.
The better way would to be to spend those funds to find out how to work better in harmony with nature.
On much of the land around the world, you cannot grow crop after crop. The soils are fragile in many cases and the excessive rainfall in some areas (think Ireland or Washington State) does not allow for good crop growth. Much of the land around the world has also been destroyed (floods, war, fire damage) or degraded by logging and over-farming.
The only effective way of using that land for food production is to put ruminant animals back on it because they alone can turn the grass and forage plants into food we can eat, at the same time fertilizing the land and rebuilding the carbon stocks into the soil, to rehab the land. The notion that we can fix the world food shortage with tech is not only silly, but counter-productive.
Peter Riva, a former resident of Amenia Union, now resides in New Mexico.
Meg Sher, executive director of the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.L. Tomaino 
