Cost of living crisis could stall campaign to phase out the modern genetically selected fast-growing broiler

The Ross 308 is one of the most successful products in consumer history, with many tens of billions sold around the world over the last decade.

With its own 15-page performance manual, low production costs and a bargain price for shoppers, it is marketed as the world’s most popular meat chicken.

Owned by the global breeding firm Aviagen, the Ross 308 has been bred to reach its kill weight in just 35 days, growing more than three times faster than the conventional breeds of the 1950s.

While families across the country gather this weekend, the Ross 308 will be an affordable option for the Easter Sunday roast. A whole chicken can be bought for as little as £2.46.

Animal welfare campaigners claim the cost of such low-priced meat is being paid for by the chickens, which grow so fast their hearts and bone structures can struggle to cope. They want retailers to stop selling the Ross 308 and the Cobb 500, the Uk’s other main fast-growing breed, citing research showing these chickens had higher mortality, lameness and muscle disease than slower-growing breeds.

But the poultry industry warned this weekend that adopting slower-growing breeds could increase the price of a standard chicken by more than 30% at a time when consumers face a cost of living crisis. This puts meat chickens – known in the industry as broilers – at the centre of one of the biggest animal welfare battles since the 2012 ban on barren battery cages for hens.

There are now 325 retailers and firms in the UK and Europe, including Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, KFC and Premier Foods, that have signed up to the Better Chicken Commitment, the international initiative to phase out the use of fast-growing breeds, which campaigners call “Frankenchickens”.

The commitment requires companies to adopt slower-growing breeds by 2026, including some produced by Aviagen, with higher welfare outcomes and reduced stocking density.

All the major food supermarkets in France have signed up to the commitment. The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs said in February that one of its welfare priorities was to implement the commitment.

However, most of the major supermarkets in the UK, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda, are yet to sign up to the pledge and there is concern among campaigners that the cost of living crisis may be used to stall the campaign.

The environment secretary, George Eustice, warned last month that the price of chicken could rise significantly because of higher energy costs and feed prices affected by war in Ukraine.

Campaigners say poultry has been produced too cheaply and farmers need to be paid more to ensure better conditions for the meat chickens.

On the modern food plate, the chicken can be cheaper than chips. A 1.4kg Willow Farm whole chicken in Tesco costs just £2.89 (£2.07 per kg), compared to a 1.6kg bag of McCain home chips costing £3.50 (£2.19 per kg).

Connor Jackson, chief executive of the animal welfare group Open Cages, which has conducted covert investigations into broiler farms, said: “It’s very sad that these animals’ lives have become worth so little. We call them Frankenchickens. The science is clear that fast-growing chickens like the Ross 308 are doomed by their genetics. These have been engineered to grow so incredibly fast, and their bodies just cannot handle it.”

Jackson said secret filming at broiler farms supplying big supermarkets has shown birds struggling to walk or collapsing under their own weight, or dying from heart failure, and dead birds were filmed lying among the flocks. Chicken producers say they are committed to animal welfare and the overwhelming majority of birds are clean and healthy.

The modern broiler industry expanded in the US and Britain after the second world war. Large-scale breeding firms used genetic selection to produce birds with faster growth rates, efficient conversion of feed to muscle growth and a higher yield of breast meat.

More than 1.1 billion broilers are produced each year in the UK, with the Ross 308 the most popular brand. Millions are reared on farms which can house more than 200,000 birds.

A 2019 study by Aarhus University in Denmark and Wageningen University in the Netherlands found a Ross 308 took 32 days to reach 1.8kg compared to a broiler developed from 1957 commercial meat chicken, which took more than 100 days to reach the same weight.

The fast-growing breeds are helping to provide a cheap and plentiful supply of meat, but in recent years research has highlighted animal welfare concerns. A report by the RSPCA in March 2020 found the fast-growing broilers had significantly higher mortality (including culls), a greater risk of being lame and were more affected by the breast muscle diseases wooden breast and white striping.

The report said: “Although current genetic selection programmes may be justified by some on the basis they result in an animal that provides a cheap, efficient source of meat and protein, there is no acceptable justification when such programmes have serious inherent flaws and are associated with poor health and welfare.”

Andrew Knight, a professor of animal welfare and ethics at the University of Winchester, said: “With these really rapid growth rates, it can be difficult for the heart and circulatory system to keep up with the expanding body mass. A proportion of these animals suffer from heart failure. It’s also difficult for the bones, ligaments and tendons to keep up with the rapidly increasing body mass, meaning that a proportion of these birds become severely lame.”

The animal welfare charity the Humane League UK unsuccessfully sought a judicial review against the government over the production of fast-growing chickens, which it considers is in breach of the 2007 welfare of farmed animals regulations, which state animals can only be farmed if they can be kept “without any detrimental effect on their health or welfare”. The charity said last week it intends to appeal.

Richard Griffiths, chief executive at the British Poultry Council, said farmers needed healthy chicken, but considered fast-growing breeds like the Ross 308 could be reared with good animal welfare. He said there were concerns about the pace of growth, but improved farming technology and breeding were making a difference and the adoption by the industry of slower growing breeds and reduced stocking density would have a significant environmental impact, because this woud require more feed and more space. But it could also increase the price of fresh chicken by more than 30%.

“We are a dynamic industry and we respond to consumer demand, but there are several factors involved including a cost of living crisis.”

Rob Morton, 49, of Morton’s Family Farm in Norfolk, rears the slower-growing Hubbard JA787 chicken for the Christmas market and hopes to expand production year round. “It makes a better-tasting bird because they have time to mature.”

A British Retail Consortium spokesperson said supermarkets offered customers affordable choices at high standards, including those in the Better Chicken Commitment: “All major UK supermarkets take their responsibilities to animal welfare very seriously.”

A spokesperson for Aviagen, which has its headquarters in Alabama, in the US, said: “Our first priority is and has always been the welfare of our birds. Welfare characteristics are a major part of modern broiler breeding, and are among the absolutely top selection priorities for all of our breeds we supply.” The spokesperson said the company bred a range of birds to suit different requirements including the Better Chicken Commitment.

Dr Tracey Jones, director of food business at Compassion in World Farming, said last week it was possible to implement the Better Chicken Commitment despite rising food prices. “It is going to be difficult, but we need to be eating less meat. We could then perhaps afford to pay for better-quality chicken.”

‘Frankenchicken’ at the centre of fight for animal welfare | Animal welfare | The Guardian

Further info:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4742712/Why-chickens-washed-chlorine.html

Regards Mark

So…

The alternative protein sector – including cell-based meats – is gaining momentum across the globe

Cultured Beef Burgers Arrive In Africa For The First Time – Plant Based News

Africa’s first-ever cultivated beef burger has been unveiled.

Mzansi Meat Co debuted the new burger this week at an event in Cape Town, South Africa. It’s the first cellular agriculture startup on the African continent.

Founded by Brett Thompson and Tasneem Karodia, the company is on a mission to feed Africa’s growing population with sustainably produced protein.

Like most cellular meat companies, Mzansi Meat Co’s food scientists cultivated the burger in a lab, after collecting cells from a living animal (in this case, a cow from a local animal sanctuary). 

The cells were isolated and grown in a culture medium. Then, they were placed on an edible structure and combined with spices and flavoring to produce the end product.

Why produce cultured meat?

Conventional animal agriculture is destructive to the environment and contributes 14.5 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. This has motivated innovators to think of new ways to produce the foods we love, in more sustainable ways.

While many brands are making meat-like products out of plants, the cell-based meat market is growing too.

Mzansi Meat Co is the first to produce a cultured meat burger in Africa, but in Singapore, cell-based meat has already appeared on restaurant menus.

The Singapore Food Authority became the first in the world to approve the sale of cultured meat in 2020. And last year, California brand Eat Just debuted cultured chicken at 1880, one of the country’s top restaurants.

‘Our burger is only the beginning’

Mzansi Meat hopes to follow closely in Africa.

“Cellular agriculture wasn’t an industry in Africa until Mzansi was born,” said Thompson. “Our burger is only the beginning, we now know it’s possible and the next step is scaling up. It starts with one small beef burger and we aim to be producing tons of cultivated meat every month in the future.”

According to Karodia, the brand will now focus on cultivated sausages. After that, it’ll tackle meat that can be substituted in traditional cuisines across Africa. “Everything we make will be braai-friendly and ready for the fire,” she said.

The cultivated meat market has significant potential when it comes to removing animals from the food system. According to McKinsey, a management consulting firm, by 2030, the sector could make up “billions of pounds of the world’s meat supply.”

Regards Mark

Enjoy !

Regards Mark

With thanks as always to Stacey at ‘Our Compass’.

https://our-compass.org/author/ourcompasses/

Make The Connection 2022: New TV Advert

by Stacey

I always find it revealing how videos demonstrating the violent death required of ALL exploited animals, are typically restricted, labeled graphic, and warning of disturbing images, completely opposite to what the agriculture adverts and propaganda deceptively promote, but you’ll NEVER get an agriculture industry employee, supporter, representative, or apologist (ie, all who comprise >90% of the human population) provide the truth of the suffering and violence necessary of animals, who are denied all opportunity to defend their bodies, their children, their lives. Conversely, nobody-in-the-history-of-ever has restricted footage or images of crop harvesting or apple picking.

Don’t let the explicit content that you so effortlessly inflict on vulnerable, defenseless animals prevent your education and hypocritically challenge your ethics.

And for all the radical cat-and-dog extremists who vilify the cat-and-dog-meat trades and relentlessly share the graphic footage of dogs being butchered alive and cats being boiled while conscious: why are you so happy to participate in the same torture, torment, and cruelties inflicted on other animals?

The USA routinely boils chickens alive, as well as other animals including lobsters and crabs and pigs, whose flesh and body parts you piously pass around on your nice dinnerware; I think people spend so much time picking out china patterns because pretty plates and other weapons of destruction deflect from the required violence and suffering of those on them.

And before you virtuously scream about “quick, ethical killing”: killing is inherently unethical, regardless of method or place, you don’t kill animals because you actually believe NOT killing animals is UNETHICAL, there is NO form of killing that is more humane than NOT killing. All killing causes suffering and destroys life, which can NEVER be “ethical”. Why you think that your transient taste preference validates the END OF LIFE is the epitome of privilege, arrogance, hubris, and selfishness. It’s not like you have to literally hold yourself back from eating your dog or cat or rabbit or whatever-animal-you-claim-to-like, if you can prevent killing your dog as “food”, you can prevent killing pigs.

There are those who ask, “Why should I listen to vegans?” … Which makes me wonder if you also ask, “Why should I listen to people opposed to child exploitation?” Really? This SHOULD be a no-brainer: Less harm is ALWAYS better. But for the GOP-ers and apologists who simultaneously cause and dismiss the suffering of others (I have no room to unpack the screaming hypocrisy of leftists who also ignore the suffering of others), you’d perhaps be more interested in the financial aspect: Me? I make NO money advocating on behalf of animals, I actually spend money on this blog. But, for the people who relentlessly oppose using gas “euthanasia” on cats and dogs, but who consume pigs who are predominantly slaughtered using gas, the former CEO and president of Smithfield Foods (that kills and profits from the suffering of pigs, in case you missed the association, because nonvegans are often naive and willfully ignorant about the animals they inflict with pain and fear and the entities they pay to cause such), which is actually owned by a Hong Kong, China-based company (the irony), earned $14,000,000.00 in approximately 5 years ……………………………

Who’s fooling whom? Why do you listen to the ones who depend on your complacency and conformity to take your money to kill? (Not to mention the subsidies used to prop up the death industry, if it wasn’t subsidized, a pound of “ground beef” would be about $35.) This also should be a no-brainer.

We are ALL animals who have the capacity to experience emotions and pain, if you enjoy “bacon” but condemn cat and dog flesh, guess what? You enable others to consume cats and dogs by your very support of animal exploitation of other animals: it’s all related, you just define the suffering of some animals in ways that provides you comfort causing it. To care for one species requires you reject the exploitation of all.

Don’t like facts? Too bad, you must not actually like cats or dogs either, then. Was that offensive? Too bad again, the violent torment forcibly endured by animals is what is ACTUALLY “offensive”. Have you ever seen the morally outraged masses absolutely verbally eviscerate and threaten with actual harm, others who kill cats and dogs? If your immediate reaction to my words is, “iF VEgaNs wERe mOrE NiCE I’d Be vEgAn…”: Cry more, who do you normally blame for your inability to be a decent human animal since you either don’t actually know any vegans, or you ignore the super nice ones? I posted a video just last week of nice, respectful Ed Winters encouraging veganism while destroying carnist arguments, if you won’t be vegan for the actual animals, be vegan for Ed.

And, too, what other social justice issues do you require personal benefit and niceties to support? Veganism is for animals, not your ego, you ignore the trillions of “nice” animals whose throats are stabbed and are therefore incapable of respectfully asking for your support, so don’t pretend reading a 5-minute vegan plea or watching a 30-second video had such a negative influence on you that you feel forced to continue greedily supporting the death industry, which includes dogs and cats. SL

Source Plant Based News YouTube

Find out how to Make The Connection HERE

A controversial vegan advertisement debuted on UK television channels over the weekend. Tom Bursnall, director of plant-based food company Miami Burger and producer of the advert, expects it will spark conversation and backlash. Bursnall created the 30-second ad in collaboration with the charity Vegan Friendly

Make The Connection: http://maketheconnection.io

Download Your FREE Vegan PDF HERE

Order a FREE vegan kit HERE

Dairy-Free Info HERE

Take the Dairy-Free Challenge HERE

Click HERE for more Dairy-Free

Fish alternatives can be found HERE

Learn about eggs HERE

Find bacon alternatives HERE and HERE

Take PETA’s Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide along with you next time you head to the store! The handy guide will help you find humane products at a glance. Order a FREE copy HERE

Searching for Cruelty-Free Cosmetics, Personal-Care Products, Vegan Products, or more?
Click HERE to search.

Free PDF of Vegan & Cruelty-Free Products/Companies HERE

Click HERE to find out How to Wear Vegan!

Want to do more than go vegan? Help others to do so! Click below for nominal, or no, fees to vegan literature that you can use to convince others that veganism is the only compassionate route to being an animal friend:

PETA HERE

Vegan Outreach HERE

Get your FREE Activist Kit from PETA, including stickers, leaflets, and guide HERE

Have questions? Click HERE

Regards Mark

Cultivated meat is real meat but more beneficial for public health

24 February 2022

In a series of 5 videos, we will address and debunk the most important myths surrounding cultivated meat. In today’s video we explain why cultivated meat is real meat and why it is beneficial for public health.

Yes, cultivated meat is real meat. 

As long as cultivated meat has the same characteristics and nutritional value as conventional meat it is real meat.

The name ‘meat’ is culturally and individually determined. In the past, meat used to be rather a general term for simply food. And, even today, asking consumers living in the same region whether certain products are meat or not, would provide a variety of answers. A steak is definitely meat, but nuggets and hybrid products could be a matter of debate. Some people do not even consider chicken meat as true meat.

On the question about cultivated meat, the American Meat Science Association (AMSA) came to the following conclusion:

Ultimately to be considered meat, in vitro meat must be originally sourced from an animal cell, be inspected and considered safe for consumption, and be comparable in composition and sensory characteristics to meat derived naturally from animals. In particular, the essential amino and fatty acid composition, macro- and micronutrient content and processing functionality should meet or exceed those of conventional meat.’

Yes, cultivated meat is beneficial for public health.

The cultivated meat production process has a great advantage over livestock: it is performed under sterile and closed conditions, so the risk of pathogens is far less. This is important because of the concerns about antibiotic resistance and infectious diseases.

After all, current meat production is by far the largest consumer of antimicrobial agents. 

Moreover, industrial farming is a breeding ground for pathogens and COVID-19 has made very clear to the wide world that zoonoses pose an existential risk.

Studies in other sectors show that in sterile and closed conditions, the incidence of contaminations via bacteria and fungi is very low. This aspect is also important considering foodborne illness. Due to the lack of enteric food pathogens, the risk for foodborne diseases is much lower and it potentially increases shelf lives and reduces spoilage (which means less food wasting).

A final advantage of cultivated meat concerning public health is the absence of trace chemicals. Pesticides, antibiotics, veterinary drugs, heavy metals, among others, are a matter of concern for conventional meat.

These residues are unlikely to appear in cultivated meat. 

Regards Mark