小泉環境大臣 串田議員
Challenge to Make Lifestyle Sustainable

The committee members discussed a bill to revise the current act on climate change at the Environment Committee on April 27th 2021. In the committee, Mr. Kushida from Kanagawa commented that not only do we need stipulations about greenhouse gas emission, but we also need a measure for absorption. He also pointed out Japan’s impact on gas emission and destruction, not just domestically but also on a global scale.  This is quite an important viewpoint when we discuss our goal to become carbon neutral. And yet, our legislation fails to present this angle. The government presented the goal based on the elimination of CO2 emission from our production activity, which…

What are “efficient” sources of protein?

There was a sign like this at MaxValu supermarket: This probably makes many consumers feel like they should eat more chicken and eggs. However, when speaking of taking in protein efficiently, it would make more sense to compare the amount of protein per unit calorie, rather than “per 100g”. This is because while it doesn’t really matter how many grams of food we eat per day, how many calories we should take in per day is roughly determined. For example, how about per 200kcal. According to Japan food standard composition table 2015 (1) as referred to in the above sign, the composition (protein, fat, cholesterol) per 200kcal is: Per 200kcal…

【Petition】Fast Food Companies! Please shift from chicken to alternative meats!

We’ve launched a petition to reduce the suffering of (broiler) chickens who are made into “Japanese chicken”. https://www.change.org/savechickens As a result of severe selective breeding for weight gain, 1/4 of the broilers are said to live under chronic pain 1/3 of their lives. Because they grow so fast, even if they aren’t slaughtered for meat, they are said to not live long. The chickens, who get killed only 40-50 days after birth, spend their entire lives inside. With their growing weights, the poultry shack becomes increasingly crowded, and their bodies get dirtier without being able to sandbathe. Like human children, young chickens love new interesting things. If they were to…

Effects of the Novel Coronavirus on World’s Animal Agriculture: Part 1

The world is panicking about the novel coronavirus, but what effects is it having on animal agriculture? In many places eateries have closed due to restrictions on going out, and food is being bought out at supermarkets.  A problem is, because agricultural products for eateries and for markets differ in forms like packaging, the system is not equipped to simply redirect what used to go to restaurants to supermarkets.  Not just eateries, but the situation is the same with cafeterias at schools and workplaces that are now closed. Milk: sold out at stores, but being dumped at dairy farms All agricultural products are affected, but the most perishable of livestock…

Clean meat & (plant-based) alternative meat — Toward the age of “meat” without animal sacrifice

Why “cultured meat” and “alternative meat” — animal sacrifice The graph below shows the estimated number of animals sacrificed around the world for meat, eggs, and dairy from 1961 to 2017. Source: FAOSTAT* Laying Eggs hen and Meat chicken use the left-most 1000Head axis, while Meat pig, Meat cattle, and Milk whole fresh cow use the inner axis. Here are the numbers of animals sacrificed in 2017.  They amount to over 10 times the world population. Egg-laying hens   7.838 billion birds Broiler chickens 66.567 billion birds Pigs    1.486 billion heads Beef cattle                344.149 million heads Dairy cows        …

The dangers of drug-resistant bacteria: antibiotics-resistant bacteria found in more than half of chicken meat

In August 2018, 8 people at Kagoshima University Hospital *1 and 2 people at Shizuoka City Hospital *2 were reported to have been infected with multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter (MDRA) and died.  The number of deaths due to the effects of drug-resistant bacteria for which many antibiotics have become ineffective is expected to reach 10 million by 2050, and reports like this one make it more real. Animal agriculture and drug-resistant bacteria In Japan, the livestock sector accounts for about two-thirds of the amount of antibiotics (antibacterial agents) used, and so efforts in the livestock sector are urgent. Animal Rights Center Japan claims that animal welfare for farmed animals is necessary to…