Crop Biotech, Aquaculture, and Animal Agriculture:Identifying Trends, Concerns, and Best Practices

Ike Sharpless

Winslow Management Company

Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009

Overarching Trends

Labeling concerns: COOL, GMs, Animal Welfare, Fair Trade, Certified Organic, etc, etc, etc…

Corporate or government leadership: shifting perspectives?

Inter- and intra-connectedness of agricultural crises

None of these issues can be discussed without understanding the role of the global food business and the agricultural supply chain

Labeling

Underlies a fundamental division in US-EU practices: consumer right-to-know vs. agency stamp of approval

Labeling is often the preferred mechanism of control for industry groups, but it does not address a core problem: that environmental concern expressed in polls and elsewhere often does not translate into behavior in terms of “willingness to pay” (WTP)

The Rise of CSR in the Food Business

Why does this matter? 10 companies produce 40%

of all the food we buy (and 40 companies produce 85%)

20-30% of product value comes from the farm – the rest is food industry-value added

General trend towards corporate-environmental alliances IKEA and Rainforest

Alliance/WWF/FSC Marriott and Conservation

International Myriad examples exist: water,

labor, health, animal welfare, …

Tragedy of the Agricultural Commons

All three of these domains contain public good problems Biotech: non-GM farmers face

the risk of genetic contamination [Starlink / Linked x]

Fisheries: like other extractive industries, commercial fishing fleets see the writing on the wall and want to get as many fish while they still can

Animal Ag: growing animal feed contributes to oceanic eutrophication and the growth of algal blooms and anoxic dead zones

The Role of the Food Supply Chain

Stages of industrialization of the food supply Retail commodity

foods (1850-1930) Packaged Foods Ready-to-eat

Foods The birth of food

science

Agricultural Biotechnology:Evaluating the two competing narratives

Fifteen years in: the first transgenic crops were planted in 1996 (1st to be developed was Calgene’s Flavr Savr tomato, developed in 1989) For better or for worse, the areas planted to transgenic crops in 2004 were:

• In the US: 46% for corn, 76% for cotton, and 85% for soybeans in 2004, up to 86% of cotton, 92% of soybeans, and 80% of corn by 2008

• Globally: 81 million hectares, grown by 8.25 million farmers in 17 countries Both ‘camps’ seem to be identifying a pure play where none exists Key lesson: barring allergenicity and the risk of antibiotic resistance, GM foods

are probably safe and healthy for human consumption; the real risk is how their use fosters the uncritical acceptance of conventional agriculture generally and large-scale monocropping in particular

the Ultimate Technofix?

Key stakeholder: BIO (Biotechnology Industry Organization). Represents over 1,100 biotech

companies, academic institutions, and related organizations in the US and 31 other nations

Notable organizations include Monsanto, DuPont, and Novartis

Arguments: improved yields lower costs lower pesticide input usage Variously “improved” foods Decreased water use

• Bt cotton has saved a great deal of water and herbicide input, for example – cotton is an especially ‘thirsty’ crop

Cover of WIRED magazine, Nov. 2008

Or Frankenfoods?

Key stakeholder: Greenpeace (among others) Arguments:

• Dangers of wild crop transference

• Creation of superweeds and insect resistance

• Excessive corporate ownership

• Continuation of unsustainable cycle of single-gene solutions to problems bred from large-scale monocropping

The Good Things

Decreased total pesticide usage Especially valuable in developing countries, where

lax or nonexistent regulation encourages pesticide companies to export their products that are banned in the US/EU.

Higher yields in easy to understand monocropped systems can (arguably) produce more food on less land

Only 10% of the world’s land surface is arable, and much of it is already overfarmed and on eroded soil

Has the potential to help with diseases and nutrition deficiencies that are systemic in much of the developing world

“Phytoremediation”, whereby plants detoxify pollutants in the soil or absorb and accumulate polluting substances out of the soil

May enable the development of more efficient grains for animal feed

Genomic mapping leads to further food safety opportunities

The genetic structure of several strains of Listeria and Campylobacter have recently been coded

The Bad Things

Agricultural biodiversity plummeting (hence the Svalbard Global Seed Vault…) From 40,000 rice strains in India to 250

Small farmers become entirely dependent upon corporate seeds (terminator technology)

Non-GMO seed producers suffer from crop contamination

Consumers lose right to choose (under US system, at least)

Works hand-in-hand with monocropping, stymieing polycultures “ecological theory predicts that as long as

transgenic crops follow closely the pesticide paradigm prevalent in modern agriculture, such biotechnological products will do nothing but reinforce the pesticide treadmill in agroecosystems”

Specific Cases

Bacillus Thuringiensis (Bt) crops

StarLink Corn

Functional and “Pharma-” Foods

“Hardier” crops (drought, soil toxicity and salinity resistant, etc.)

Bt Crops

“The Bt genes contain genetic information that the plant uses to produce a protein toxic to the larvae of certain plant pests but is safe for humans, animals and other insects” BIO website, agricultural biotech FAQ

The StarLink Debacle, circa 2000

StarLink corn approved for animal feed only (the largest US market for corn) due to potential human allergenicity, but found its way into a Taco Bell taco shells

Raised serious questions about segregation, traceability (required 660-foot buffer zone), and allergenicity Subsequent FAO/WHO standards

(2001) acknowledged the near impossibility of zero allergenicity risk due to the inability to prove a negative

Functional (and Pharma-) Foods

A functional food is technically any food with health-promoting claims or abilities (Marketing) example: yogurt

In the GM context: Golden Rice (rice with higher

carotenoid levels) Crops enriched with Vitamin E,

folate, high protein content in the form of Lysine

Hypoallergenic soy and rice exist, and wheat is being developed

“Pharma” foods are being developed that may help prevent or cure diseases such as cholera and diarrhea

Why do we need (something like) functional foods?

Almost 1 billion people suffer from Goiter due to iodine deficiency (with 50 million suffering brain damage and 16 million cretinism due to the same)

Approximately 127 million pre-school children suffer from vitamin A deficiency, with up to 500,000 going blind each year

Anemia—caused by iron deficiency—afflicts 2 billion people a year, killing 800,000

A lack of zinc contributes to frequent diarrhea

Folate—or B12—deficiency causes neural tube defects and spina bifida in newborns and cardiovascular disease in adults

Why are functional foods touted?

Staple diets (cassava, rice, maize, wheat) cannot by themselves provide an adequate range of nutrients

Distributing vitamin supplements—or ‘nutraceuticals’ is costlier than things like golden rice

Seen by some (but not by others) as the next generation of the Green Revolution

Pharm Animals

In February 2009, the FDA ruled “safe” a herd of goats containing ATryn, an intravenous anti-clotting drug extracted from their milk for a fraction of the pharmaceutical’s production price. These goats are the first such GM animal to be approved in the US. ATryn is the brand name of

‘anticoagulant antithrombin’ as manufactured by Massachusetts-based GTC Biotheraputics

Although groups like the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) oppose GM animals on principle because of their mechanistic nature, there have been no animal-welfare related harms associated with ATryn to date

What are the drawbacks

A potential contributor to increased pest resistance and the development of ‘superbugs’

Opposed on GM grounds Viewing food solely as the sum of

their micronutrients robs them of their ‘whole food’ value (=Pollan’s critique of nutritionists)

Evidence of nutrient uptake is unclear Corn/lime example in A Moveable

Feast Positive example from Dartmouth

researchers re. higher-calcium carrots

“Hardier” Crops CEO of Performance Plants

Incorporated said in 2008 that drought resistant oilseed rape and maize will be on the market “in four years”

“Snorkel rice” takes the ‘snorkel’ genes in flood-tolerant rice and introduces them to higher-yield rice

Crops able to grow with less water or in conditions of high salinity have been “in the pipeline” for the last decade, with little tangible gain Hugh Grant, Monsanto’s CEO,

acknowledged when talking to an HBS class that it was probably a PR mistake on the company’s part to focus solely on proprietary crops (Bt/RoundUp) at the expense of ‘humanitarian’ technologies

Instead, biotechnology companies to date have largely focused on emphasizing a limited range of crops that have large and secured markets.

Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA)

A collaboration of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), various sub-Saharan African governments, and Monsanto

“Monsanto has contributed significant resources to the project,” Mark Lawson, Monsanto yield and stress platform lead, said. “This includes white corn germplasm, the expertise that we have in conducting molecular breeding and a royalty-free license to our transgenic drought technology for small farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

Viewed cynically, this appears to be CSR as a form of damage control, or ‘reputational risk management’

Innovations in Crop Agriculture

New (non-soy) sources of protein synthesis Algae Grain crops In vitro meat Leaf protein extraction Mycofungi lupins

The marketability of non-transgenic but biotech ‘borderline’ methods to GM-skeptical audiences (best example: hybrid corn in the 1920s) Seed coating marker-assisted breeding Genomic selection

Other innovations: Controlled release fertilizers

• Increase fertilizer efficiency and crop yields, reduce losses through leaching, runoff, volatilization and denitrification

In Vitro Meat Pasture and feed-producing lands for livestock

account for 30% of the earth’s surface, contributing to desertification and other climate-change related events

Raises ” the possibility of creating designer ground beef with the fat profile of salmon”

First In Vitro Meat Symposium held at the Norwegian Food Research Institute in April 2008 – indicated that large-scale in vitro meat production could be price-competitive with farm-raised meat (3400 Euros/ton, with unsubsidized chicken costing 1800 and beef just over 3500).

Patent claims made; first US patent owned by Jon F. Vein for the production of tissue-engineered meat for human consumption (U.S. Patent 6,835,390)

Still clearly in the early stages – not likely to be profitable for some time, with processed meats available in a few years and unprocessed meats in a decade or more, but the most visible current players are New Harvest and the In Vitro Meat Consortium

Algae

Like in vitro meat, Algae is hampered by the “yuck” factor

While distinct from algal biofuel, food algae could be a potential co-product of fuel algae

The biggest recent player in the fuel algae game is Exxon Mobile, who partnered with Synthetic Genomics Inc. in July 2009 to invest $600 million in Algal fuels

Up with cellulosic ethanol as an in process technology rather than an existing one – seems to me like it needs much more attention. Algae has the added advantage of being able to capture fertilizer runoff, thus potentially preventing oceanic eutrophication

Has the added advantage of possibly creating food as a co-product of fuel, most likely for animal feed in the form of pellets

Seed Coating

LandecAg’s intellicoat (above) “... is an agricultural technology company

that specializes in temperature-activated seed coatings.”

PlantTech’s agristrike (below) “PlantTech is the largest Australian field

crop, canola and pasture Seed Company, with an unsurpassed product range of leading proprietary cereal, oilseed, pasture, pulse and forage varieties, plus access to a comprehensive range of public varieties.”

Other developments of note: Plant Health Care Inc.’s Myconate and Harpins technology (see ppt in notes)

Lesson: neither of these companies appear at all green, but the technology does have various potential green applications.

“It can greatly reduce insect pest, protect the environment, save the seeds (about 1/3 seeds), increase the output of crops (increase by 10-40%) and promote the development of seeds project. “

Genomic Selection

Using genomic selection for marker-assisted breeding, crop and animal breeders can select desirable alleles without actual gene splicing

"some of the most potent objection to transgenics actually has to do with the increase in market power that went along with some of the input companies. Genomic selection and marker-assisted breeding have exactly the same kind of economic power implications, if no more so, as transgenics. People who are upset about transgenics but think marker-assisted breeding is okay are just incredibly naive." Paul Thompson (U. of Michigan), in a

phone interview

Approximate position of 28 major genes mapped in different populations of apricot (blue background), peach (orange background), almond or almond × peach (yellow background), and Myrobalan plum (green background) on the framework of the Prunus reference map (5). Gene abbreviations correspond to: Y, peach flesh color; B, almond/peach petal color; sharka, plum pox virus resistance; B, flower color in almond x peach; Mi, nematode resistance from peach; D, almond shell hardness; Br, broomy plant habit; Dl, double flower; Cs, flesh color around the stone; Ag, anther color; Pcp, polycarpel; Fc, flower color; Lb, blooming date; F, flesh adherence to stone; D, non-acid fruit in peach, Sk, bitter kernel; G, fruit skin pubescence; Nl, leaf shape; Dw, dwarf plant; Ps, male sterility; Sc, fruit skin color; Gr, leaf color; S *, fruit shape; S, self-incompatibility (almond and apricot); Ma, nematode resistance from Myrobalan plum; E, leaf gland shape; Sf, resistance to powdery mildew. Genes Dl and Br are located on an unknown position of G2.

Other Trends in Global Agriculture: Land Grabs in Africa

Various Asian and other governments are buying up huge tracts of land in Africa

The most notable example: Korean company Daewoo caused Madagascar's government to collapse after a proposed deal to purchase over half of the country’s arable land

Lessons

For better or for worse, we probably can’t put this genie back in its bottle

It’s often not the technology per se, but its effects on market control, that are particularly abhorrent.

Ideally, specific applications of crop biotechnology should be integrated into an agricultural system that includes Crop rotation Polycultures Cover crops Integrated pest management

(IPM) etc.

Aquaculture and Fisheries

-Key Lesson: the barriers to international cooperation on sustainable fisheries indicates that the most short-term progress can be made in improving fish farming practices, especially in China (with many caveats…).

Why is this happening?

Because consumer preferences for fish are highly substitutable, commercial fishers flying under ‘flags of convenience’ practice “slash and burn” fishing, exploiting one species then moving on to the next

Tracking feed and fish is very difficult – generally, a piece of fish looks like a piece of fish

Global Fisheries Crisis On current course,

collapse of all major fisheries by 2050. (Science, Nov. 8)

Tragedy of the commons / collective action problem (the regulators want to support their fishermen—they don’t get elected by cutting back)

The problem of bycatch

Growing appetites• Shark Finning

example

Capture Fisheries

Divisible by fishing area, gear and the main target species North Sea herring purse seine

fishery Gulf of Mexico shrimp trawl fishery southern ocean Patagonian

toothfish longline fishery. Some gear and species are

inherently more unsustainable than others Bottom trawling Very long-lived species

Bycatch

Wild-caught shrimp catches up to 10 pounds of discarded sea life for every pound of shrimp

All major fisheries catch large amounts of bycatch, whether trawl, purse seine, or longline.

The problem is especially bad in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fisheries in developing countries

Bottom Trawling

“The above image of the Gulf of Mexico, captured by the Landsat satellite in late 1999, shows the sediment trails left behind by individual ships (the bright spots) - a testament to the utter devastation the practice exerts on vast seafloor ecosystems.”

Methods of reducing bottom trawl usage range from the ‘campaign stunt’ to consumer purchasing to national and international regulation Greenpeace-style sabotage by

dumping rocks in the North Sea to prevent bottom trawling (potentially dangerous for fishermen)

Avoid flatfish (halibut, turbot, plaice, etc…)

A case study in collapse

The North Atlantic Cod fishery has collapsed precipitously

The solution (would have been): honest assessment “maximum sustainable yield” with proper enforcement

The Insidious Role of Branding

Thanks to clever marketing, previously unpalatable fishes are becoming desirable delicacies which are fished (often illegally) using ecologically devastating bottom trawling methods.

Which sounds better: Orange roughy, or

slimefish? Chilean Sea Bass, or

Patagonian toothfish?

The Need for Intergovernmental Oversight

Fish tend not to care about 15-mile territorial waters or 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs), which makes transboundary intergovernmental oversight a must

The exclusive economic zone is an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea, subject to the specific legal regime established in this Part, under which the rights and jurisdiction of the coastal State and the rights and freedoms of other States are governed by the relevant provisions of this Convention ... In the exclusive economic zone, the coastal State has ... sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, of the waters superjacent to the seabed and of the seabed and its subsoil, and with regard to other activities for the economic exploitation and exploration of the zone, such as the production of energy from the water, currents and winds ... The exclusive economic zone shall not extend beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured. (from the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea – UNCLOS)

64% of the world’s ocean is international waters; of that, 3/4ths is unmanaged

“In 1995 there were more than 1.2 million decked fishing vessels in the world, up from just fewer than 600,000 in 1970.”

much of this growth is government subsidized, which results in excess capacity and thus low margins for industry fishermen, who then have incentives to fish more.

Marine Stewardship Council Founded in 1996 as Unilever/WWF collaboration

Founding mission: “…to work for sustainable marine fisheries by promoting responsible, environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable fisheries practices, while maintaining the biodiversity, productivity, and ecological processes of the marine environment.”

(Relative) success stories ‘Dolphin-safe” tuna “Give Swordfish a Break” Campaign pledge

• Pledge by restaurants to not buy swordfish from the North Atlantic, where the average size of a swordfish has dropped from 266 lbs in the 1960s to 90 lbs at the time of the campaign (late 1990s)

• “two hundred seventy chefs, major cruise lines, and Bon Apetit magazine had all joined the campaign. The campaign was credited by the 1998 Annual Report on the United States Seafood Industry as a reason why swordfish had dropped from the top-1o best-selling seafood list.”

Wild Alaskan salmon fisheries certification Unlike the issue-specific and tangible cases of dolphins and

swordfish, however, the MSC eco-label covers fish ranging from frozen cod in Britain to Alaskan Salmon to a range of other regulated marine capture fisheries

as of October 2008, there are nearly 2,000 seafood products with the MSC’s seal of approval

See the “MSC Principles and Criteria for Sustainable Fishing” for specifics

Other Marine Capture Success Stories

Maine Lobstermen

A complex system of informal social mechanisms have built up over time to respond to environmental feedback

New Zealand

World leader in the use of the Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ)—a method strongly endorsed by The Economist in article after article—to regulate Total Allowable Catch (TAC)

The Keys to Sustainable Wild Caught

As the MSC and other cases indicate, the problem isn’t that people don’t know how to work towards sustainable fisheries. Barring a lack of scientific knowledge about the sea (‘out of sight, out of mind…), they do. The problem, rather is a lack of political will and legal authority combined with a collective action problem relating to an exhaustible public good

That said, these are the things that work: restrictions on gear like nets so that

smaller, younger fish can escape limits on the total allowable catch closing some areas to fishing certifying fisheries as sustainable offering shares of the total allowable

catch to each person who fishes in a specified area.

Work with existing national and international legal jurisdictions to maximize utility (x: at 25 million km, the EU has the world’s largest EEZ, granting considerable importance to its (much criticized) Common Fisheries Policy

Impediments to Sustainable Wild Caught

International Trade Law Tuna-Dolphin and Shrimp-

Turtle at the WTO – the case law is evolving, but slowly

Maximum sustainable yield can be very difficult to determine: fish populations and migration patterns are, in some cases, still very poorly understood

Tragedy of the Commons

Growth of Aquaculture

Key lesson: for better or for worse, aquaculture is the only way to prevent oceanic collapse barring a decline in demand for seafood (which doesn’t look likely). The logical conclusion is to make sure fish farming is done as well as possible.

Growth of Aquaculture (2)

Given this change, the potential benefits (and harms) are enormous…far too little focus is on improving large-scale Asian freshwater fisheries. Barring greater oversight and enforceability of regulations, it will be hard to make progress on this front.

Why ‘especially in China’?

Note the big red square (see notes for uncut picture)

Why Tilapia?

Large size, rapid growth, omnivorous diet, high stocking density tolerance, no planktonic phase

GIFT Tilapia

“GIFT, or Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia, grows 60 per cent faster and has a 50 per cent higher survival rate to adulthood than the original fish. Sometimes also known as the Super Tilapia, the fish was developed through vigorous selection-breeding programs -- the first time a tropical food fish has been improved using such methods. The fish used to breed GIFT was the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus).”

HQ Sustainable Maritime Industries

Exports tilapia to US, Korea, Japan, and Mexico from its facilities in Hainan, China Mission statement

• To bring quality to every aspect of HQ's vertically integrated aquatic products business.

• To lead China in penetrating world seafood markets.

• Increase profitability through the introduction of zero-toxin products while respecting the environment and communities in which it works.

Best Aquaculture Practices Certified (potentially problematic – see next slide – but is currently the only major standards-setting organization for aquaculture

Best Aquaculture Practices Implemented by the Aquaculture Certification

Council (ACC) of the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA)

The ACC is a “process” certification currently certifies shrimp hatcheries, shrimp, tilapia and channel catfish farms and seafood processing plants to include shrimp, channel catfish and tilapia.

Although ostensibly independent, the GAA is effectively an industry consortium. According to Food and Water Watch, “Their process combines annual site inspections and effluent sampling, but allows for certain use of antibiotics and chemicals. Although GAA’s standards are more measurable than most others, they have received criticism from several organizations, including the Mangrove Action Project and Environmental Justice Foundation, for flawed standards that fail to adequately protect mangrove ecosystems.”

Aquaculture: the Bad and the Good

The Bad Harmful to mangrove ecosystems

(shrimp) and marine ecosystems (marine aquaculture)

Mangrove forests protect against tsunamis, hurricanes, and eutrophication by maintaining intact ecosystems

PCBs Standards are often ignored

A friend of mine saw firsthand massive amounts of illegal antibiotic feeding in Asian aquaculture

Serious potential for disease outbreak White Spot Disease in Shrimp Infections Salmon Anemia (ISA) in Latin

American farmed salmon Fishmeal trawling for carnivorous fish

cage-based coastal salmon farming ex: 90% of GHG result from fishmeal)

The Good Barring any precipitous change in

demand for seafood, sustainable aquaculture is vital to prevent massive fisheries collapse

Inherently more controllable than marine capture

If well managed, can provide plentiful protein at a low Food Conversion Ratio (FCR) while cycling wastes and nutrients—this is generally easier with freshwater than marine aquaculture

Examples of conflicting preferences: organic fish and ‘sustainable’ tuna

Whereas fish feed is usually 50% fishmeal (which can be made from unsold fish and fish offal, or small whole fish) and 50% grain, organic salmon must use fishmeal from sustainable fisheries intended for human consumption.

Clean Seas Tuna, Ltd. is trying to breed southern bluefin tuna, which is being massively overfished to satisfy demand for fatty tuna in sushi. They are also developing wheat pellets to feed their marine-caged tuna. This is a ‘stopgap’ measure in the sense that it is responding to market demand rather than trying to reshape demand.

Marine or Freshwater Aquaculture?

Harder to regulate generally than freshwater aquaculture

More likely to cause disease transference to wild species

However, some species can only be farmed in marine systems

Freshwater aquaculture is generally better than marine aquaculture, as most of the fish raised are herbivorous (carp, tilapia)

The Case of Farmed Shrimp

Shrimp is the most popular seafood in the US

(depending on who you believe,) has destroyed more than 30 % of the world’s coastal mangroves

Requires 2 lbs of fishmeal and squid to make 1 lb of shrimp

Various countries at severe risk for White Spot Disease

-A growing trend in Indonesia

Organic Shrimp

EcoCamaronera Bahia—the world’s first certified organic shrimp farm—practices mangrove-friendly methods in Ecuador, as does Biocentinela. Like all shrimpers in Ecuador, both

are at heavy risk for white spot disease

OceanBoy farms is an inland marine shrimp farm in Florida that has ACC organic shrimp certification and USDA organic seafood certification (the first to get it). They have a very high ration of

shrimp per foot, but they pump in extra oxygen and clean the water frequently. There is a higher risk for disease if poorly managed, but is otherwise a fruitful model

Neptune Industries

Boca Raton-based Aqua Biologics (a division of Neptune Industries) has focused on ento-proteins as well as algal waste recycling and biodiesel

Needs more research: has apparently gone through bankruptcy early in 2009 it looks like they went through bankruptcy, the fish and other things were

sold off but the patent and technology were taken by the majority shareholder. He then leased the technology back to the company with the right to buy it

The Role of GM Fish: AquAdvantage Salmon

AquAdvantage® salmon, developed by Aqua Bounty Farms

“Aqua Bounty is developing advanced-hybrid salmon, trout, and tilapia designed to grow faster than traditional fish. AquAdvantage® Salmon (AAS) reach market size twice as fast as traditional salmon. This advancement provides a compelling economic benefit to farmers (reduced growing cycle) as well as enhancing the economic viability of inland operations, thereby diminishing the need for ocean pens. AAS are also reproductively sterile, which eliminates the threat of interbreeding amongst themselves or with native populations, a major recent concern in dealing with fish escaping from salmon farms.”

The company has spent more than a decade chasing regulatory approval from the FDA, but FDA officials have reportedly said it is coming “soon”, especially in light of the recent “pharmed” goats ruling.

Solutions (Aquaculture)

Good aquaculture references (recommended by friend who works in fisheries):

http://www.enaca.org/ http://www.seafdec.org/cms/index.php

Greater independence for certification bodies The largest certification body to date, the Global Aquaculture

Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices, is probably too caught up with fishing interests to provide a neutral assessment of environmental and other impacts

Supporting feed inputs other than wild-caught fishmeal “Ento-protein” progress by Neptune Industries using

insects rather than fish to provide feed protein—the company itself, however, may be a poor investment

Algae pellets

Traditional Chinese aquaculture 4,000 years old, and from which the Chinese have

actually moved towards Western methods Rears herbivorous and carnivorous species in the same

pond using plants to serve as food (eliminates fishmeal and is ecosystem-based approach: “integrated multi-trophic aquaculture”).

This model can also use ducks/chickens in an integrated system where their poop makes algae for the fish to eat (so that you only have to feed the chickens and you get two crops) – but not done on a large scale

Solutions (Consumer)

Support: farmed herbivorous species

consumption: tilapia, bream, carp and catfish with BAP certification or (better yet) Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch approval

• Ex) the 2009 Northeast Seafood watch endorses US farmed tilapia as ‘best choices’, South American farmed tilapia as ‘good alternatives’, and Asian farmed tilapia as ‘to avoid

small marine capture species consumption: sardines, anchovies, mackerel, herring, etc.

Reputable certified wild carnivorous fish

Impediments

Tight margins are not easily amenable to large scale modification of practices, creating disincentives to change towards more sustainable programs (or, as one of my professors said, “the numbers tend to cut down your options”

The sustainable fish are often not the much-touted Omega 3-rich fish (they are, however, lower down the food chain and are thus lower in PCB and Mercury contamination levels).

The nature of global fisheries oversight is a classic case of market failure, with overfishing causing some sectors to go through a Hubbert curve not unlike that of peak oil.

In many cases, the demand for seafood is voracious and indiscriminate, particularly in the Chinese delicacy market

Why does ocean health matter, anyway?

Ocean health is vital for coral health, and coral reefs serve as nursery, farm, and home to one third of all marine fish species.

The bottom line – we really don’t know the full diversity of ecosystem services provided by sea life Example: July 30, 2009

NPR story, “Jellyfish May Help Keep Planet Cool”

Animal Agriculture

Types of Concerns Environmental Labor Practices Human Health Animal Welfare

What’s the Problem?

“As Wendell Berry has tartly observed, to take animals off farms and put them on feedlots is to take an elegant solution—animals replenishing the fertility that crops deplete—and neatly divide it into two problems: a fertility problem on the farm and a pollution problem on the feedlot. The former problem is remedied with fossil-fuel fertilizer; the latter is remedied not at all.”

• Michael Pollan, “Farmer in Chief”

A Ridiculously Short History of Conventional Agriculture

The Haber-Bosch Nitrogen fixing process quintuples the available ammonia supply for crop fertilizer in 1909 Dramatically changes the global

Nitrogen cycle, which is only beginning to be properly understood

To make a long story short: leftover munitions and biological agents (i.e., nitrogen and phosphorous) after WWII become fertilizer and pest/herbicides, which along with govt. crop subsidies make CAFOs economically viable

Earl Butz appointed Secretary of Agriculture by Nixon: “get big or get out”

Vertical integration, economies of scale, and globally provisioned supply chains (following market liberalization)

What is a CAFO, exactly?

Under EPA regulations, a Concentrated (or Confined) Animal Feeding Operation is any AFO that contains at least 300 cattle, or 600 swine or sheep, or 30,000 fowl (somewhat variable by state; these are the stats for Indiana)

Between 1967 and 1997, the number of swine farms fell from over a million to 157,000 with the top 3% producing 60% of all us hogs. By 2000, operations with 5,000 or more hogs comprised 50% of US production

The Livestock Revolution

A structural change, termed the “livestock revolution”, is taking place around the world but with particular intensity in East Asia Multinational supermarket and fast

food chain expansion creates demand for streamlined intensive meat production

The availability of cheap course grain on international markets has increased the global CAFO focus on monogastric animals like chicken and hogs

At current rates, Global meat/milk demand to double within 50 years

80% of current growth in industrial systems

Developing countries overtook developed countries in meat production in 1996

Livestock and the Environment

In addition to all of the problems already cited with crop agriculture (animal agriculture uses 33% of world grain and 66% of US grain), categories of concern include: Carbon impact Acid deposition Eutrophication Groundwater contamination Watershed disruption Increased soil erosion and lower

soil fertility

Livestock’s Carbon Impact 18% of GHGs, says LEAD Caveat: these kinds of

calculations are ridiculously complicated and situation-specific

Ruminants produce methane (mostly by burping, actually): red meat and dairy are the worst carbon offenders

Fertilizers/manure release nitrous Oxide (N20)

Acid Deposition(and Acid Rain)

Livestock contributes 64% of global ammonia (NH3) in the form of tropospheric reactive nitrogen

• Livestock also contributes to ammonia volatization—in which ammonia is nitrified in the soil after deposition

Causes oceanic acidification, which destroys coral reefs and other oceanic ecosystems

Eutrophication

Causes and effects of eutrophication Livestock Uses 33% of world grain

and 66% of US grain Manure stored in open pits

(‘lagoons’) can spill or overflow during extreme weather causing nitrogen runoff, and precipitation can carry vaporized NH3 from manure pits to nearby waterways

Nitrogen fertilizer from crops used to feed animals contributes to algal blooms and oceanic dead zones

• For one example, according to the USDA: in 1997, operations in 165 US counties resulted in 1.5 billion tons of nitrogen outputs from manure in excess of absorption capacity of adjacent lands

Groundwater Contamination

Groundwater accounts for approximately 40% of the water used in the US water supply

“Groundwater contamination can cause E. coli poisoning and blue baby syndrome. Surface water contamination can cause illness from cryptosporidium, giardia, and pfisteria.”

-stats on rural water quality…

But this stuff is all too general…

In light of the past 4 slides the following passage becomes more understandable: “Fewer policy options exist for

controlling the impact of diffuse, non-point source pollution from agricultural production. Non-point discharges are difficult to monitor because they occur over wide areas and vary from day to day depending on weather conditions and the frequency and timing of application of potential pollutants”

• Managing the Livestock Revolution, The World Bank 2005

Labor Practices and Environmental Justice

CAFO sourcing determined by land and labor price, creating disproportionate health and environmental hazards for the rural poor from ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, particulate matter, and methane

Livestock’s Long Shadow documents similar trends away from peri-urban areas towards rural areas in Thailand

Additionally, according to the FAO, the “environmental problems created by industrial production systems derive not from their large scale, nor their production intensity, but rather from their geographical location and concentration”

Human Health Concerns

WHO: 75% of recent diseases are zoonotic EPA noncompliance with CWA/CAA

Recent antibiotics ‘victory’…

Animal Welfare

I could talk for a very long time about this… Different parameters inhere for different species and

different farming systems, but animal welfare standards generally build on the “five freedoms”, which were developed and popularized by the British Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC):

1. Freedom from Hunger and Thirst - by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigor.

2. Freedom from Discomfort - by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area.

3. Freedom from Pain, Injury or Disease - by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment.

4. Freedom to Express Normal Behavior - by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal's own kind.

5. Freedom from Fear and Distress - by ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering.

Can actually conflict with the environmental: (x) grass-fed cows actually produce more methane than grain-fed ones (this ignores, however, the other problems involved in industrial corn and soy production).

Niman Ranch: a case study in the problematic economics of ‘happy meat’

The original provider of humane meat to Chipotle Market Grill

Bill Niman was forced to sell his share in Natural Food Holdings LLC, and he now boycotts Niman Ranch for their transport to slaughter and microbial use policies

The net effect: until a consumer market exists that is willing to capture the various extra costs of humane meat, it won’t be profitable in the US

Other Concerns

Genetic uniformity in large-scale livestock (comparable to crop agriculture) results in mass disease susceptibility Chickens bred for meat share 30

percent or more of their genes, while some laying hens share 90 percent.

Raises global market demand for grain, especially soya raised at the expense of the Amazonian rainforest Greenpeace documented an illegal

port Cargill built in the Brazilian Amazon to export Soya to Europe

Land conversion in Brazilian grasslands has doubled the hectares producing Soya in the past decade to 21 million ha in 2005, and is expected to grow by 40 million ha or more

Solutions

As with crop biotech, the ‘solutions’ fall into two categories: those that address Berry’s original concern (fundamental solutions), and those that work within the confines of ‘conventional’ agriculture (stopgap solutions). Both should be applauded, especially if fundamental change appears unlikely, but in the long term technofixes are unlikely to solve many of the food industry’s systemic environmental problems.

Solutions can be further subdivided into governmental (and intergovernmental) solutions, producer solutions, and consumer solutions

Stopgap solutions

Animal ag solution: Define CAFOs as point sources

under the CWA (in process – see law blog link)

Carbon solution: Changing animals’ feed or

developing transgenic animals that ‘fart/burp less or better’

• ex: adding 2% fish oil to cows’ feed may reduce methane emissions by 20%

Aquaculture solution: Breeding tuna

Eutrophication solution Controlled-release fertilizers

Biotech solution: Drought-resistant GM crops

Fundamental Solutions

Following Michael Pollan’s advice: Changing the Western diet and modern farm policy Changing our diets

• A more recent piece by Pollan, “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch”, indicates that in order to change the way we eat we need to change the way we cook (or, rather, don’t cook).

Changing farm policy• Michael Pollan’s “Farmer in

Chief” provides a good outline

National Solutions

Reform the farm bill Title I Commodity programs (“temporary”

since 1933…) incentivize farmers to “farm the programs” and eschew “specialty crops” like fruits and vegetables, which also gives CAFO operators an incentive not to switch to integrated polycultures

EPA oversight of CWA and CAA provisions should overturn a history of ‘right-to-farm’ laws protecting CAFOs The CWA requires livestock permits for

large installations, but, as of 2006, the US had issued only 2,520 of the 13,000 permits required by 2001 EPA estimates, and CAFO compliance is rarely enforced

Additionally, although the CAA is meant to regulate air pollution, every CAFO to date has negotiated an administrative consent agreement with the EPA to circumvent CAA requirements

International Attention Relevant Multilateral Environmental

Agreements (MEAs) include: the Convention on Biological Diversity

(CBD) The Convention on Long Range

Transboundary Air Pollutants (LRTAP)• The 1999 Gothenburg Protocol to Abate

Acidification, Eutrophication, and Ground Level Ozone

The Framework Convention on Climate Change

IO progress is divisible into the domains of animal welfare, environmental control, and humanitarian assistance (although the three often overlap and even conflict)

In Animal Welfare, the World Organization for Animal Health (the OIE in French) is spearheading international animal welfare guidelines

More generally, FAO/LEAD, UNEP, the World Bank (and IBRD) are all shaping the dialogue

Producer/Retailer Solutions

Whether to forestall impending regulation or as a form of ‘reputational risk management’, the following companies have all implemented programs intended to improve animal welfare McDonald’s Burger King Wolfgang Puck’s Chipotle Mexican Grill The National Council of Chain

Restaurants and the Food Marketing Institute (NCCR/FMI)

Other Critical Issues I’ve Ignored

Local Food (and when it is and isn’t green) Transportation itself accounts for only 11

percent of food’s greenhouse emissions, and “food miles” (distribution from producer to consumer) accounts for only 4 percent

Again, however, people have a panoply of reasons for their purchasing choices (might be more interested in supporting local business, just as I would sooner eat beef than pork or chicken on animal welfare grounds whereas some would do the opposite on carbon footprint grounds.

The health ramifications of the various issues I’ve discussed: I recommend Marion Nestle’s What to Eat as an excellent guide to these questions.

Corn-fed “marbling” or grass-fed beef? Farmed whitefish with ‘crowding toxins’ or

swordfish with bioaccumulated mercury? Similarly regarding the famed Omega-3s in

Salmon…just as much of which can be found in trophically lower sardines and herring.

Recap of Key Lessons

Biotech GM foods are probably here to stay, but

global agriculture still requires a paradigm shift to become truly sustainable

Fisheries/Aquaculture Aquaculture needs an independent

ecolabeling and certification organization like that of the MSC to supplement the industry-influenced GAA

A much greater emphasis on restaurant dining is required, given the high proportion of seafood eaten in restaurants

Animal Ag Beyond all of the environmental and

human health concerns, much higher levels of consumer information are required to prevent market failure

Companies and Practices to Watch

Companies GTC Biotherapeutics Performance Plants Incorporated New Harvest Plant Health Care Inc. In Vitro Meat Consortium HQ Sustainable Maritime Industries OceanBoy Farms Biocentinela Clean Seas Tuna, Ltd. Neptune Industries (Aqua Biologics) Aqua Bounty Farms Niman Ranch / CMG

Practices Crop Agriculture

• Controlled Release Fertilizer• Drought-resistant crops

Feed• In vitro meat• Algae• Insect-based fish food

Additional articles I’ve come across since writing this (see notes for links)

Economist piece on Tuna collapse (no surprise) and the possible failure of the Alaskan Pollock fishery (surprise—it’s very highly regulated)

(A rather disturbing) editorial from the New Scientist: “Pain-free animals could take suffering out of farming” (assumes that only negative preferences matter—i.e., pleasure or satisfaction is irrelevant; also ignores non-pain stresses)