In March, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) asked 2,203 US adults how strongly they would consider eating a plant-based diet to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). Sixteen percent of those surveyed said that they would “strongly” consider it, while an additional 30 percent said that they would “somewhat” consider it.

The current food system is deeply inefficient and animal agriculture is a key driver of emissions. Estimates for how much it contributes to global heating vary, but it’s generally understood to be responsible for at least 16.5 percent of total emissions. A study published earlier this year found that farming animals was the leading cause of the climate crisis, responsible for around 53 percent of global average temperature rise between 1750 and 2020.

PCRM noted that 54 percent of those surveyed were unaware of which foods contribute the most emissions. However, when prompted to rank foods based on their output of emissions, 54 percent correctly said that beef was the highest-emitting. Beef creates 70kg of GHGs per 1kg of protein, and is linked with deforestation, land disputes, and human rights violations.

Read more: Meat Industry Drove Backlash To Landmark EAT-Lancet Food Study, Report Finds

‘People should eat a plant-based diet’

PCRM’s survey found that 40 percent of respondents agreed or somewhat agreed that the US government should tax the meat and dairy industry for its excess GHG emissions. Fifty-nine percent also strongly or somewhat agreed that the government should incentivize farmers moving away from animal farming and towards environmentally beneficial crops.

PCRM published the new survey results ahead of Earth Day on April 22, and described adopting a plant-based diet as a “win-win” for both personal and planetary health. PCRM-affiliated medical doctor Roxanne Becker said, “This Earth Day – and every day – people should eat a plant-based diet to keep themselves and the planet healthy.”

Earlier this month, a new scientific journal entry by two UK-based plant-based healthcare professionals highlighted the potential for plant-based diets to tackle the “intertwined crises” of poor health, biodiversity loss, social injustice, and the climate crisis.

Read more: Animal Ag, Not Fossil Fuels, Is The Leading Cause Of Climate Change, Says New Study

This article was written by Liam Pritchett on the PBN Website.

The authors reviewed existing studies and found that “the environmental impact of owned dogs is far greater, more insidious, and more concerning than is generally recognised.”

Pacific Conservation Biology published “Bad Dog? The environmental effects of owned dogs” on Wednesday. Philip W. Bateman, an associate professor at Curtin University’s School of Molecular & Life Sciences, and Lauren N. Gilson, an academic researcher, ecologist, and conservationist, also of Curtin University, Australia, authored the research.

According to the research article, domesticated dogs kill and disturb “multiple species” directly, but their “mere presence” – even while leashed – also disturbs birds and mammals. Furthermore, their scent and excreta continue to disturb wildlife after the dog has moved on.

This excreta can also transfer zoonoses to wildlife, pollute waterways, and negatively impact plant growth. Dogs that physically enter rivers and streams may also pollute waterways directly due to the chemicals found in wash-off flea and parasite treatments.

Finally, the sheer number of “owned” dogs worldwide – approximately 900 million animals – contributes to the pet food industry’s extensive resource consumption and carbon emissions. The authors highlight the need for increased education around responsible owner behavior.

Read more: Plant-Based Diets For Dogs And Cats – What Does The Research Say?

The pet food industry, meat, and cultivated protein

As more people become aware of the significant negative impact the meat industry has on the environment, the pet food sector has also come under increased scrutiny. Producing animal-based food for dogs and cats makes up 30 percent of the meat industry’s environmental impact and releases millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).

“The dog food industry should be included in any nation’s sustainability action due to its considerable environmental footprint,” write Bateman and Gilson in their research.

However, alternatives to traditional, animal-based pet food are increasingly competitive and available. The vegan pet food market could nearly double in value over the next decade, while cultivated pet food gained EU approval earlier this month. In February, a “world first” dog food featuring both plant-based ingredients and cultivated meat went on sale in the UK.

Read more: Is 2025 The Year Of Ethical Dog Food?

This article was written by Liam Pritchett on the PBN Website.

An audience question read out by Maher was directed to guest Jon Tester, the former Democratic Senator for Montana and a crop and beef farmer. The question was: “Are you concerned about bird flu and the Trump administration’s ability to respond to another pandemic?”

Tester said that “we should learn something from COVID and we should treat these things seriously.” In response, Maher said: “All the diseases come from animals, and it’s because of the way we treat them… badly.”

Tester agreed there “there’s no doubt” that the current bird flu situation is due to the “concentration of livestock in small areas, in this case, chickens.” Bird flu has become a global catastrophe for both wild and farmed animals, spreading rapidly through poultry farms until mutations allowed it to jump to a growing number of species.

Read more: Bird Flu Jumps To Sheep For First Time

Maher said that the cruel conditions that chickens are kept in are to blame for bird flu. “When you torture animals, it winds up coming [back on us],” he said. Maher has been a PETA board member since 1997, though he continues to eat meat.

‘We should deal with it’

Maher asked whether Tester, in his capacity as a Senator, had ever done anything about the way chickens are farmed. do anything about that?

“Look, we have a hard enough time getting a farm bill passed in Congress, for Christ’s sakes, much less dealing with those kind of issues in our food system,” said Tester. The farm bill is a legislative package that expires and is updated every five years in the US. It covers matters such as financial support for farmers and nutrition programs to help low-income families.

“Does that mean we shouldn’t deal with it?” Tester went on. “No, we absolutely should deal with it in common sense ways.” But he said instead, the political conversation ends up fixating on issues like which bathrooms trans people should be able to use.

Currently, the global response to bird flu is focused on containment through killing infected animals and implementing biosecurity measures on individual farms. However, intensive animal farms continue to proliferate across the globe. Experts have warned that countries must start preparing for a potential bird flu pandemic among humans, including developing vaccines and public communication programs.

Read more: First Human Case Of Bird Flu Confirmed In Nevada As New Strain Circulates

This article was written by Claire Hamlett on the PBN Website.

Burning fossil fuels for energy is widely accepted as the leading cause of global warming. But in a peer-reviewed paper published in Environmental Research Letters, Gerard Wedderburn-Bisshop argues that animal agriculture is actually the primary driver of climate change, responsible for 53 percent of global average temperature rise between 1750 and 2020. That equates to 0.64ºC of warming. In contrast, he claims that fossil fuels are responsible for 19 percent of warming, equating to 0.21°C.

Read more: Scientists Observe Factory Farm Pollution From Space

Wedderburn-Bisshop, a former Australian government environmental scientist who is now Executive Director of World Preservation Foundation, contends that the way emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) are calculated, devised in the 1990s, are out of date. Applying advances in understanding of emissions gives a more accurate picture of global warming’s causes, he argues. This method reveals land use change, driven mainly by animal agriculture, to be a far bigger contributor of emissions than previously thought.

Consistent accounting

There are three advances in climate science that Wedderburn-Bisshop applies to arrive at his conclusion. First is the use of consistent carbon accounting. His paper explains that emissions accounting rules of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have meant that full emissions are counted for fossil fuels and all other sources, with the exception of deforestation.

When vegetation and trees regrow, they draw down carbon. This has led to emissions from human activities causing deforestation being counted partially as net emissions rather than gross emissions. Meanwhile, gross emissions are counted for burning fossil fuels. But all emissions, no matter the source, get drawn down by growing vegetation, which means they should be counted the same way, and that deforestation-causing sectors shouldn’t be credited with the free work nature is doing to absorb their emissions, says the study.

Consistent use of gross emissions accounting across sectors reveals animal agriculture, the biggest cause of land use change and deforestation, to be responsible for 19 percent more carbon than fossil fuels since 1750, according to the paper. Another paper published by Wedderburn-Bisshop in October 2024 covers this topic in more depth.

Effective Radiative Forcing and inclusive accounting

How to account for the warming potentials of different greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide and methane, has been the subject of much debate. Global Warming Potential over a 100 year period (GWP100) has been the IPCC standard metric, but recently there have been efforts, pushed particularly by high-methane emitting sectors like animal agriculture, to use others such as GWP*, which accounts for the shorter lifespan of methane compared to CO2.

Instead of GWP, Wedderburn-Bisshop argues that Effective Radiative Forcing (ERF) should be used. “ERFs are the best science available on warming caused by each gas. They are calculated in very complex atmospheric and spatial models, and are fitted to observations, so they are the most accurate metric we have,” he said. Using ERF to measure the climate impact of different gases reveals that methane’s impact, understood cumulatively, has been vastly underestimated.

Read more: UK Facing Broccoli Shortage Due To Changing Climate

The third advance that changes understanding of the main sources of climate change is for all emissions, both warming and cooling, to be counted. While animal agriculture emits mostly warming gases, fossil fuels emit gases that have both warming and cooling effects. The cooling gases have masked the warming impact of CO2 emissions from fossil fuels. This inclusive accounting reveals that while fossil fuel warming accounts for 0.79°C, there is 0.59°C cooling from co-emissions. By contrast, agriculture as a whole has caused 0.86°C warming but only 0.13°C cooling.

Policy implications

“Ignoring cooling from fossil fuel burning strongly distorts the true picture of what human activities have caused global warming,” Wedderburn-Bisshop told Plant Based News. “If we account for cooling, we have a far greater understanding of what is actually happening, so we are in a far better position to develop a more effective policy response.”

Applying inclusive and consistent accounting along with ERF would mean a shift in climate policy. “Normalizing and adopting gross deforestation emissions accounting would support policies aimed at reducing deforestation and preserving forests,” writes Wedderburn-Bisshop. “Knowing that clearing and re-clearing re-release an increasing proportion of fossil carbon informs policy that destruction of forest of any age could be seen in the same way as burning coal.”

However, the break down of cooling aerosols will result in future warming from fossil fuels. For this reason, Wedderburn-Bisshop stresses the necessity of an urgent shift away from fossil fuels.

Choices to be made

Wedderburn-Bisshop’s approach disputes the long-held view that fossil fuels are the leading cause of climate change. According to the IPCC, anthropogenic carbon dioxide has contributed the most to global warming, followed by methane. The official figure from the United Nations states that animal agriculture is responsible for 14.5 percent of emissions, which is a figure still supported by many climate scientists. Another study published in 2021 put the “minimum figure” at 16.5 percent.

However, Wedderburn-Bisshop’s paper is part of an ongoing debate about how best to measure emissions and their warming impacts. The IPCC has discussed the choices that need to be made when it comes to which emissions metrics to use. In 2018, it wrote: “Some of the choices involved in metrics are scientific (e.g., type of model, and how processes are included or parameterized in the models). Choices of time frames and climate impact are policy-related and cannot be based on science alone, but can be used to analyse different approaches and policy choices.”

Read more: Over 130 Organizations Call For ‘EU Action Plan’ On Plant-Based Foods

This article was written by Claire Hamlett on the PBN Website.

Read more: Plant-Based Meat Cuts Environmental Impact by 89%, Study Finds

The film, titled WILD HOPE: Mission Impossible, follows Brown and scientist Michael Eisen as they investigate how to convert former cattle ranches into biodiverse, carbon-capturing forests on a thousand-acre property in Arkansas they name “The Carbon Ranch.”

Brown is a pioneering biochemist and former Stanford professor who shifted his focus to the production of plant-based foods over a decade ago. Brown founded Impossible in 2011 after trying to figure out what “the most important” way to improve the world would be.

After noting the huge negative impact of animal agriculture on the climate crisis, biodiversity, and the planet, he created the Impossible Burger as a sustainable alternative to meat. Having successfully helped to reduce meat consumption, Brown explores the reclamation of former farm land.

WILD HOPE: Mission Impossible is based on Andrew Balmford’s book Wild Hope. It was produced by HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and released as an episode of the Wild Hope TV series about “heroic stories of biodiversity.” It is available via the PBS app and is streaming for free on PBS.org, the PBS/Nature YouTube channel, and WildHope.TV

“My purpose in participating in the documentary was to make people aware that it’s essential to eliminate the use of animals [and] technology for producing meat, fish, and dairy foods,” Brown told Plant Based News. “And then to restore native ecosystems on the vast land area currently used for animal agriculture in order to put the brakes on global heating and halt and reverse the catastrophic global collapse of biodiverse ecosystems.”

Read more: New Study Latest To Find Men Favor High-Impact, Meat-Heavy Diets

American consumers swap meat for Impossible Foods

Brown’s Impossible products are high in protein and have a hyper-realistic taste and texture. This makes those products particularly popular with meat-eaters and flexitarians, the brand’s core demographic and the primary drivers of the modern plant-based food market.

A 2021 analysis by BVA Nudge Consulting suggested that Impossible Foods had converted 33 million Americans to plant-based meat at the time of writing. Around 72 percent of the brand’s sales replace would-be meat purchases, significantly reducing overall consumption.

Thirty percent of all purchasers of meat alternatives in the US buy Impossible products. Since October, Impossible has launched several new products, gained new health certification for its “Lite” plant-based beef, and is moving closer to EU approval.

“I decided 15 years ago to devote the remainder of my scientific career to replacing humanity’s most destructive invention (the use of animals as a food technology),” said Brown. “I believed then that eliminating the use of animals in the global food system and repairing the damage it’s done was the most important thing I could do with my life and I’m just as optimistic and determined and excited about the project today.”

Read more: ‘Fake News About Fake Meat’: New Guide On Alternative Proteins

This article was written by Liam Pritchett on the PBN Website.

Vegan chef, influencer, and author of the vegan cookbook Cooking With Nonna Giuseppe Federici (known online by his social media handle @sepps) began the interview by asking them what foods they’d eat for the rest of their lives.

To this, Rogen responded: “I would eat cheeseburgers for the rest of my life. I love cheeseburgers.” Eichner chose “New York Pizza.”

Upon learning that Federici is a chef, Rogen asked him what his favorite dish to cook is. The vegan chef said “My walnut and sunflower seed lasagna” is his favorite, with both interviewees responding with enthusiasm. “Oh wow, that sounds really good,” Rogen said, and the actor seemed intrigued by the cashew-based cheese.

Read more: Animal Agriculture Responsible For Exceeding 4 Planetary Boundaries, Says Oxford Professor

‘What have you done?’

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A post shared by Giuseppe Federici (@sepps)

Federici’s last question of the brief interview was a hard-hitting one: “In the film, animals can talk; in real life, they can’t. Given the state of the environment and the huge impact animal agriculture has on our planet, like rainforest destruction — if animals could talk, what do you think they’d say about the state of the world right now?”

Rogen replied to the question “What have you done?” He repeated this for dramatic effect, before adding “They would scream in agony at our faces.” He then lightened the conversation with “And then they would break into song,” referring to the fact that Musfasa is a musical.

Eichner did not reply to the question directly, instead adding to Rogen’s joke: “God, I hope Lin-Manuel (Miranda, the film’s songwriter) would write them a few good songs though.” 

Read more: Shift Funding From Animal Agriculture, Says EU Science Board

As Federici states in the interview, animal agriculture is having a huge impact on the planet. Multiple studies have shown that plant-based is the diet with the lowest climate impact, and many experts have stated that a significant reduction in meat is vital to combat the climate crisis.

Read more: This High Protein Vegan Lasagna Is Perfect For Meal-Prep

This article was written by Adam Protz on the PBN Website.

Read more: Why People In The UK Are Pouring Milk Down The Toilet

The report, titled The Hidden Harms of Factory Farms, finds that the high cost of factory farming undermines food security rather than aiding it.

The Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation (CAWF) – a Tory-linked animal welfare lobbying group founded by two Conservative voters – produced the report. CAWF used public government data and an original Bryant Research survey of 1,000 UK residents.

The report estimates that 85 percent of farming subsidies for chicken and pig farmers are absorbed by factory farms, which is around £269 million per year.

Factory farming is linked to extensive environmental pollution and related public health issues. The report estimates the cost of water and air pollution from factory farms to be £518 million, while the cost of increased respiratory deaths is around £92 million.

“This report challenges the most basic justifications for factory farming,” said Zac Goldsmith, a Conservative politician and former Environment Minister. “While these industrial farms claim to provide cheap meat and improved food security, the reality is far more complex.”

Read more: Huge Increase In Agribusiness Lobbyists At UN Biodiversity Summit

New report challenges ‘the most basic justifications’ for factory farming

The new CAWF report recommends halting the expansion of new megafarm facilities and the restructuring of farming subsidies to favor smaller-scale farms growing more nutritious, environmentally-friendly foods. It also calls for increased transparency around subsidies.

Animal agriculture and factory farming absorb a disproportionate amount of subsidization throughout Europe and the US, as well as in the UK. This makes animal products “artificially cheap,” further undermining both environmental goals and independent farmers.

The UK is becoming more intensively farmed than ever. About 85 percent of all farmed animals in Britain are raised on factory farms, and the number of US-style “megafarms” is rising. Moving money away from animal agriculture and towards plant foods could help countries meet national and international climate, environmental, and health commitments.

Read more: Plant-Based Meat Cuts Environmental Impact by 89%, Study Finds

This article was written by Liam Pritchett on the PBN Website.

Read more: Academics Call Out FAO For Leaving Meat Reduction From Food Emissions Plan

In a presentation at the Oxford Martin School, Professor Paul Behrens explained how the food system is driving us “far beyond the limit of a sustainable planet” for different boundaries. There are nine boundaries, and as of 2023, we have exceeded six of them: novel entities, climate change, biosphere integrity, land system change, freshwater change, and biogeochemical flows.

Fossil fuels are the main cause for exceeding the climate limit. Substances such as microplastics lead for breaching the safe limit of novel entities in the environment. But the food system, and farming animals in particular, is the main driver for the other four breaches, said Behrens.

“Mostly all of this across this entire board is driven by animal agriculture,” he said.

An inefficient system

Behrens goes on to explain that it’s “in large part” the inefficiency of turning animals into food that makes farming animals so environmentally damaging.

“If you look across different animal products, you’re throwing away between 80 odd percent to 97 percent of the calories that are in those products,” he said.

Read more: Denmark Agrees Deal On Agriculture Emissions Tax

Farming animals takes up 80 percent of land used for agriculture, both for grazing animals and growing animal feed. To produce a single kilo of beef, the most inefficient food, a cow has to eat 25kg of animal feed. A sheep needs 15kg, and a pig 6.4kg. A chicken will need around 3.3kg of feed, which is more than they weigh at slaughter. Farmed animals consume over a third of the world’s calories from crops, but only provide 18 percent of calories that humans consume.

Plant rich diets ‘the biggest opportunity’

In the presentation, Behrens reiterated findings from studies led by Oxford scientists that show plant-based diets are a highly effective solution to climate and environmental problems.

“Shifting to a plant-rich diet, especially in high income nations, is the biggest opportunity that we have for meeting climate targets,” said Behrens. This shift in high income countries “would save vast amounts of land.” Focusing specifically on the UK, he said that “we would save an area almost the size of Scotland.” Globally, it would save an area “roughly the size of the EU.”

Behrens also explained the “double dividend” of freeing up agricultural land. “If you were able to save that land and return it to natural vegetation, you’d draw down about 14 years of global agricultural emissions,” he said. “It’s as a double dividend. So if you think about moving from meat consumption to say legume consumption you get that reduction, but you get the same reduction again if you’re able to save that land that the animals were on and then draw down onto that land.”

Read more: Elon Musk Falsely Claims Animals ‘Don’t Make A Difference’ To Global Warming 

This article was written by Claire Hamlett on the PBN Website.

Billed as the Green Tripartite agreement, the scheme also aims to increase Denmark’s biodiversity. The Copenhagen Post has written that 140,000 hectares of peatlands that are currently being cultivated will be restored to nature. In addition, 250,000 new forest hectares are being planted.

Read more: Billie Eilish Calls Out ‘Horrendous’ Animal Agriculture

Kicking in from 2030, farmers in Denmark will be taxed 300 kroner per tonne of methane emissions from cows, pigs, and other animals kept on agricultural land. The US/UK equivalent is $43/£34 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent methane emissions.

‘Danish nature will change’

Jeppe Bruus, Green Tripartite minister, said the undertaking is a “huge, huge task that is now underway: to transform large parts of our land from agricultural production to forestry, to natural spaces, to ensure that we can bring life back to our fjords.” He added that the government would “do what it takes to reach our climate goals”. 

Read more: Denmark Unveils ‘Groundbreaking’ Roadmap Towards Plant-Based Food

The agreement also seeks to reduce nitrogen pollution to reduce its threat to Denmark’s fjords and coasts. 

On these efforts and the cultivation of land, Bruus said that “Danish nature will change in a way we have not seen since the wetlands were drained in 1864.”

Lars Aagaard, the Danish minister for climate, energy and utilities, said that the levy is something “we could all benefit from if the rest of the world could foster such cooperation in the climate fight” and that it showed Denmark’s “willingness to act.”

Animal agriculture is having a huge impact on the planet. Multiple studies have found that plant-based diets have the lowest climate impact, and experts have long stated that a huge reduction in meat is essential to combat the climate crisis.

Read more: Ecotricity Founder Dale Vince Slams Animal Agriculture In Nature March Speech

This article was written by Adam Protz on the PBN Website.

Read more: Jane Goodall And Other Guests Served Vegan Lunch At New York Times Climate Event

This year’s NYC Climate Week ran from September 22 to 29 and included a side event titled “Pastures of Plenty: Sustainable Livestock Solutions for Climate, Nature, and People.” A summary of the event describes animal farming as an “essential” part of the food system.

During a Q&A session after the first portion of the event, Plant Based Treaty campaigner and scientific advisor Kimmy Cushman said: “I’d just like to call this out as greenwashing.”

She noted that the panelists were “paid by multinational corporations” to raise profits rather than mitigate the climate crisis, and explained that most reputable science rejects the industry’s “so-called solutions” in favor of reducing meat and dairy production.

“Unsurprisingly, the panelists perpetuated the idea that economic development around the world necessitates an increase in meat and dairy consumption, ignoring the fact that the meat and dairy industry itself spends billions of dollars on advertising and facilitating the expansion of these new markets of their own creation,” Cushman told Plant Based News (PBN). After the event, several audience members thanked her for speaking out on the subject.

Read more: Global Methane Levels Show ‘No Hint Of Decline’ According To New Research

Meat industry increasing profits at expense of the ‘environment, traditions, and health’

The panel for the event included two dairy industry executives and was followed by a reception with primarily meat and dairy-based refreshments. Solutions suggested by the panel included breeding cows to produce less methane and creating “methane vaccines.” 

“With plans to increase meat and dairy consumption worldwide, this is like a car company producing more fuel-efficient cars while increasing the number of cars on the road; it might look like a solution, but they are just making the problem worse,” said Cushman.

The panel also discussed how “regenerative” animal farming is beneficial for the soil and environment, and suggested a significant expansion of the dairy industry throughout Africa. A 2017 University of Oxford study titled Grazed and Confused looked at the claims made by regenerative animal farming advocates. It found that, while certain management systems on farms can boost carbon sequestration, this was only 20-60 percent of the emissions that the animals produce themselves. The effect is also time-limited and reversible. Animal farming is responsible for at least 16.5 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, and it’s also a leading driver of deforestation, biodiversity loss, and species extinction.

“We raised our voices because we cannot let their plans to expand meat and dairy go unchecked,” Cushman told PBN. “Their plans would result in increased greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, and land degradation in regions of the world that are already suffering from desertification. These industries are trying to increase their profits through neocolonialism at the expense of the local environment, traditions, and health of communities who often have high levels of lactose intolerance.”

Read more: Brazilian Judge Fines Slaughterhouses And Ranchers For Illegal Amazon Deforestation

This article was written by Liam Pritchett on the PBN Website.

Read more: AI Technology And Fermentation Could Replace Sugar With Healthy ‘Sweet Proteins’

That’s what Sam Tucker, founder of charity Open Paws, believes. The meat industry is working on harnessing AI to make it easier and more profitable to confine and kill animals in their billions every year. But animal advocates could use it to further the cause of animal rights, including by boosting their resources and increasing the reach of their messages.

“The future of AI is at a crossroads—a tug-of-war between being used to harm animals through intensified factory farming or to help them through powerful advocacy,” Tucker told Plant Based News. “With AI rapidly becoming superhuman at persuasion, now is the pivotal time to ensure it’s directed towards compassionate purposes that promote animal well-being.”

Tucker’s goal with Open Paws is to make it hard for AI to be used in factory farming contexts. At the same time, he wants to help animal advocacy organizations access and effectively use AI in their work.

AI creeps into farming

AI is already being used on farms to help locate grazing animals, monitor health conditions, and control environmental conditions such as temperature. The argument in favor of it is that it can help improve animal welfare, alerting farmers to illness and pain, and minimizing the need for handling animals, which they can find stressful.

But relying on AI to monitor animal health and welfare could also make the worst forms of animal farming seem better than they are, as ethicists have warned. Keeping track of chicken welfare with AI, for example, is likely to be easier if the chickens are kept in cages. “High-tech” cages that use AI are already being marketed to farmers.

Read more: Bill Gates-Backed Company Makes Butter From CO2

AI could make animal slaughter more efficient, increasing the profitability of the meat industry and further entrenching its power. The industry is also using AI to make itself appear more sustainable. One company, Atarraya, makes AI-powered “shrimpbox farms” which it says are a solution to the environmental harms of conventional shrimp farming. Another company, Meyn, is using AI to automate the slaughter of chickens.

For proponents of AI in farming, it might be too optimistic to expect the industry to use the technology to the benefit of animals rather than itself. As Open Philanthropy’s farm animal welfare officer Lewis Bollard has pointed out, meat companies have been quick to adopt tech which enhances efficiency. But it has invested far less in animal welfare improvements. “Will an industry too stingy to install air conditioning or fire sprinklers really spring for AI sensors to help its animals?” Bollard writes.

AI in animal advocacy

According to Tucker, animal advocates can use AI to their own advantage. They can learn to use it for tasks such as securing funding, improve and expand research and communications to reach more people, and conduct corporate campaigns. AI is also being used by alternative protein companies to optimize ingredient choices and product formulations. This could lower the industry’s costs, making alternative proteins cheaper to buy than meat from animals.

Open Paws helps animal charities to use AI in their advocacy and builds free tools to help them. Once such tool built by Tucker is VEG3, a vegan version of ChatGPT.

“By automating routine tasks and utilizing AI’s predictive capabilities, we can exponentially increase the efficiency of animal advocacy—freeing up valuable time and resources to focus on strategic actions that drive change,” Tucker said. “AI can help us identify the most effective campaigns, prevent advocate burnout, and even forecast legislative success. Now is the time to embrace AI as a force multiplier for compassion, ensuring it serves to liberate rather than oppress.”

Another thing advocates can do is influence AI models to make them more animal-friendly. Speciesism is rife in AI, as efforts to eliminate it have been lacking. Researchers including Peter Singer have warned that this risks AI systems “normalizing” or increasing violence that humans inflict on animals, particularly in farming contexts. Tucker is working on solutions to this; Open Paws is currently seeking volunteers to give feedback on AI responses. This will help to train an AI model that is more useful to animal advocates.

Weakening the meat industry’s grip

At the same time as strengthening their advocacy with AI, Tucker wants advocates to help push for restrictions on the use of AI in animal farming. Banning the use of AI on factory farms is the big political ask, but there are smaller ones that can be pursued too. These include putting legislation in place to stop companies from using AI to increase animal stocking densities, and forcing companies to be transparent about AI-detected welfare problems and how they’re being addressed.

Though the meat industry is hugely more powerful than animal charities, advocates have some advantages on their side in this fight, Tucker believes. AI developers want data, but the meat industry is notoriously secretive, whereas advocates can choose to share their data openly. They can also make the case the anti-speciesist AI is safer, since speciesism is linked to other forms of bias against humans.

Read more: What Is Precision Fermentation, And Could It Replace Animal Farming?

“We must act now to prevent the widespread adoption of AI in factory farming, which threatens to scale animal suffering to unimaginable levels,” Tucker said. “By building unlikely coalitions—with labor unions worried about job losses due to automation, environmental groups concerned about intensified farming’s ecological impact, and small farmers facing obsolescence—we can unite diverse forces to oppose the use of AI in animal agriculture. Together, we can redirect technological progress towards creating a more compassionate and sustainable food system.”

This article was written by Claire Hamlett on the PBN Website.

Read more: US To Test Ice Cream And Butter For H5N1 Bird Flu Virus

As with the previous three, this fourth case is a dairy worker who came into contact with infected cows while carrying out their job. The worker was initially monitored due to their exposure and later reported symptoms to state officials.

The Colorado worker received antiviral medication and has since recovered, while the CDC is currently analyzing a sample of the virus to see if it has developed any new mutations.

As the virus spreads among mammals, it could mutate to make human-to-human infection more likely. However, the CDC’s overall health risk assessment of the bird flu outbreak remains “low,” despite its continued spread and the additional risk of mutation that each new human “spillover” case brings.

This latest is the first case in Colorado, preceded by one in Michigan and two in Texas. According to the USDA, Colorado has the highest total number of infected cattle herds. The mountain state was also home to a separate human case of H5N1 back in 2022.

Read more: More US Bird Flu Cases ‘Likely’ After Second Human Infected By Cows

The next human pandemic is just a ‘question of when’

Last month, former CDC director Robert Redfield – who headed the agency during the COVID-19 pandemic – warned that bird flu is “very likely” to be the next human pandemic. Speaking to News Nation, he said “It’s not a question of if, it’s more of a question of when.”

In April, the first-ever human case of H5N2, a separate strain of bird flu, killed a man in Mexico. As with H5N1, it’s likely he caught the virus from an infected animal. Other strains of bird flu have previously killed humans, including 18 deaths from H5N6 in China in 2021.

While the US government maintains that the current risk to humans from H5N1 bird flu remains low, officials say they are taking the possibility of further transmission seriously. Two potential vaccines in millions of doses are ready for immediate rollout, if necessary.

Read more: Bird Flu In Dairy Cows: How Worried Should We Be?

This article was written by Liam Pritchett on the PBN Website.

Read more: Climate Crisis Makes UK’s Heavy Rain And Storms 10 Times More Likely, Study Finds

According to a statement sent to Plant Based News (PBN) by Plant Based Treaty, Mills led the gathered protestors in several chants within the dining area, including “If you care about the climate, eat vegan for your lunch,” and “Food system change now, sign the Plant Based Treaty.”

The Bonn Climate Conference takes place at the halfway point to COP29 (the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference), and delegates from 198 countries – around 6,000 people – are meeting in Bonn, Germany, this week to discuss climate policies, pressing environmental issues, and lay the groundwork for the next COP.

‘Everyone can make a massive difference’

Mills is part of a delegation of environmental campaigners who came to the Bonn Climate Conference to call for a combination of individual, citywide, nationwide, and international action to transition away from animal agriculture and toward plant-based foods, including at climate summits themselves.

She plans to meet with COP29 organizers to discuss “a pathway” to 100 percent plant-based catering at future climate conferences, something that 18,000 petitioners support. Lia Phillips, a UK city campaigner for the Plant Based Treaty, previously described serving meat and dairy at climate conventions as “akin to serving cigarettes” at health conferences.

“Everyone can make a massive difference right now, just by choosing to eat vegan. It’s proven to be better for the planet, for the animals and it’s better for our health,” said Mills. “Climate Conferences like Bonn and the upcoming COP29 can do better, by serving only plant-based food. They should be showcasing the very best in sustainability.”

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Food system transformation or ‘climate catastrophe’

While there is an increasing public acknowledgment of the significant impact of animal-derived foods on the environment, human health, and animals – including from prominent figures like the World Health Organization’s Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus – an overhaul of the global food system has been notably absent from the last 30 years of COP events.

“Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General gave a great speech yesterday but why is he not talking about the real issue,” said Mills, in direct response to Guterres’ special address for World Environment Day. “Production of meat, fish and dairy which like fossil fuels is a huge contributor of CO2, it’s bigger than the whole transport sector.”

The Plant Based Treaty launched in 2021 at COP26 in Glasgow. It’s an international treaty that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) from animal agriculture. Thirty cities endorse the treaty, including Amsterdam, Edinburgh, and Belfast, and around 150,000 individual endorsers, Nobel laureates, and IPCC scientists also support it.

“Plant Based Treaty has presented a pathway that world leaders could attach to the Paris Agreement,” said Phillips. “The science says that even if we ended fossil fuels we are destined for a climate catastrophe if we don’t transform the food system.”

An analysis of various UK diets published in Nature Food last year linked animal-based foods with environmental degradation via excessive GHG emissions, land use, water use, eutrophication (which causes algae blooms), and harm to biodiversity. In contrast, transitioning from meat and dairy to plant-based foods minimizes these harms.

“We need to do this now,” added Phillips, noting that a plant-based food system could address food insecurity, biodiversity loss, food-related disease, and the risk of pandemics.

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This article was written by Liam Pritchett on the PBN Website.

Read more: Bird Flu In Dairy Cows: How Worried Should We Be?

The new patient – an agricultural worker on a Michigan dairy farm – experienced only mild symptoms and has now fully recovered. According to the CDC, a second infection does not change its current risk assessment for the general public, which remains low.

However, the CDC did take this opportunity to highlight its previously published list of recommended precautions for people who work with or are otherwise exposed to infected animals, whether cattle, birds, or other species, to mitigate the risk of transmission.

The CDC says that people should avoid “close, long, or unprotected exposures” to sick, dead, or symptomatic animals, including both wild and domesticated varieties. It notes that people should also avoid exposure to feces, bedding, and unpasteurized milk, which is now thought to be the primary vector for the bird flu outbreak amongst cattle.

According to the CDC, “similar additional human cases could be identified” in farm workers. Dr Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore, Maryland, told the Guardian: “It’s likely that there will be several cases that emanate from exposure to infected cows and their milk amongst farm workers.

“The key thing is to make sure that testing is wide enough to capture them,” he added.

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Is bird flu in dairy cows a cause for concern?

The ongoing outbreak is the first time bird flu has been found in cattle, ever.

According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the H5N1 virus has now been detected in 52 dairy herds across nine states, with 15 herds in Michigan – the source of the latest infection – alone. While unpasteurized milk is the most likely vector for transmission, the FDA maintains that infection via pasteurized milk is “no concern.”

Some researchers and veterinarians have noted the government is taking too long to share hard data on viral changes and milk safety. While the CDC has been monitoring agricultural workers since the first reported human case, the agency has only tested around 40 people so far, according to the New York Times.

The latest human case is just the third-ever recorded H5N1 infection in the US, but due to bird flu’s high mortality rate and the likelihood of another zoonotic pandemic in the coming years, officials maintain that they are taking the possibility of further transmission seriously.

Two potential bird flu vaccines could be made available to the public quickly if required, and the US government has said it would be possible to ship out hundreds of thousands of doses within a few weeks. Officials also note that there are still no signs of mutation in the virus that would indicate it was becoming more transmissible between animals and humans.

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This article was written by Liam Pritchett on the PBN Website.

This is, notably, the first time HPAI A(H5N1), a strain of avian influenza – or bird flu – has been found in cattle. Furthermore, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed one human infection, an agricultural worker in Texas.

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The CDC is now monitoring over 100 people (mostly other agricultural workers) for signs of infection. While human cases of avian influenza A viruses do occur occasionally, they are extremely rare, and this marks the second-ever recorded H5N1 infection in the US.

The CDC’s risk assessment for the general public remains low, but due to a high mortality rate of around 50 percent and the strong likelihood of another zoonotic pandemic, global health officials are still preparing for a scenario in which the flu spreads to more humans.

“We’ve been investing in a library of antigens to move out as quickly as possible should we begin to see a highly transmissible flu strain circulate,” Dawn O’Connell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, told NBC.

Two possible bird flu vaccines could be made available very quickly, if necessary, and the government says it could hypothetically ship out “hundreds of thousands” of doses in just a few weeks. However, officials also said that there are still no signs of mutation in the virus that would indicate it was becoming more transmissible.

Read more: People Fail To Recognize Factory Farming’s Link To Zoonotic Diseases – Despite Overwhelming Evidence

The spread of bird flu among cows

A global outbreak of H5N1 amongst birds began in 2020 and is now widespread, and experts believe that the infection of cattle likely began with a single wild bird interaction.

Avian flu impacted over 50 million European birds (both wild and farmed) between 2021 and 2022 alone. Its presence in cattle was first reported on March 25, 2024, though experts now believe the jump from birds to cows may have begun as early as December 2023.

Milk is believed to be the primary vector for transmission between cows rather than the respiratory infection associated with typical flu. Some experts have said that it may be spreading via milking machines or rodents and people moving between equipment, though we don’t know for sure. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned against human consumption of unpasteurized milk.

The federal government has also officially ordered that farmers moving dairy cows between states must now test all cattle, not just those with symptoms. The update comes shortly after the testing of pasteurized milk from supermarkets found genetic traces of the virus. (Note: this does not necessarily indicate the presence of live virus in pasteurized milk.)

The FDA has repeatedly said that infection via pasteurized milk is of “no concern.” Still, researchers and veterinarians on the front lines of the outbreak say the government has taken too long to share hard data on viral changes and milk safety in general.

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Why it matters that bird flu has spread to mammals

Cows are not the only non-avian animals to catch the virus. Half of a Texas dairy farm’s resident cats died after consuming unpasteurized dairy milk from infected cows, and experts have also detected H5N1 in wild animals such as bobcats, raccoons, foxes, and skunks. (Previously, the virus has been known to spread to farmed mink, sea lions, and dolphins.)

This transmission from birds to mammals is significant as it increases the risk that the virus could adapt further to spread more easily between animals and humans, or from human to human via those people working closely with farm animals.

However, the spread of H5N1 to hog farms would be of particular concern, as pigs have cellular similarities to humans which them particularly susceptible to human viruses. If infected, the bird flu virus could potentially mutate in pigs to become more easily transmissible to humans.

There is also some confusion over exactly how the virus is spreading. For example, whether some cattle are infected but asymptomatic, or even whether cows have spread the flu back to poultry. One possible factor is the lack of biosecurity surrounding animal waste on farms.

American cattle are frequently fed something known as “poultry litter,” the leftover feathers, feces, dropped food, and anything else pulled off the floors in industrial poultry farms. The practice has been illegal in the EU and UK since the BSE (“mad cow disease”) outbreak in the 1990s, but continues across the US, something that experts note could be a factor for H5N1.

USDA is focused on ‘protecting’ the meat and dairy industry

Speaking to Bovine Vet Online late last month, cattle veterinarian Dr Barb Petersen said “Every dairy that I’ve worked with has – with the exception of one – had sick human beings at the same time they had sick cows,” including people who do not interact with cows directly.

While any mandatory testing is a step in the right direction, cows are still only tested before transportation, and often reluctantly. Furthermore, some people believe that sickness amongst both cows and workers is going underreported, both by workers themselves and farm owners. Officials are currently unaware if beef cattle have also been infected by the virus.

Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, told the Telegraph: “The USDA is primarily focused on protecting the animal production industry, and I think that’s a short-term goal, but a long-term mistake.”

In addition to the use of animal waste as feed for other farm animals, industrialized agriculture plays a role in the spread of zoonotic disease in a variety of other ways. For example, it overuses antibiotics preventively to keep overcrowded and sickly animals alive.

Three-quarters of the world’s antibiotics are used for this purpose, and a 2023 study from World Animal Protection UK estimates that this is responsible for 2,000 human deaths per year.

“Appetite for meat can be a stumbling block for considering the role of animal agriculture in the spread of zoonotic disease,” said the study’s lead researcher Dr Kristof Dhont in a statement sent to Plant Based News (PBN) last year. “Solutions to this problem will require policy changes and personal sacrifices, akin to dealing with the looming climate emergency.”

This article was written by Liam Pritchett on the PBN Website.