Ontario reinstates ag gag as EU makes €11.6B case for plant menus

Ontario's Court of Appeal overturned a 2024 Ontario Superior Court decision and reinstated core provisions of the Security from Trespass and Protecting Food Safety Act, originally passed by the Ontario government in 2020 [41]. The law makes it an offense to access agricultural property under false pretences, which in practice targets the undercover investigations that have produced nearly all public footage of Canadian factory farming. Farm and slaughterhouse employees who witness animal abuse, document it, and choose to expose it also face significant penalties under the reinstated provisions. Animal Justice, which challenged the law alongside journalist Jessica Scott-Reid and animal advocate Louise Jorgensen of Toronto Cow Save, reports that the Superior Court had found the law violated Charter protections for free expression; the Court of Appeal has now reversed that finding. Animal Justice says it is seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. Ontario is not alone: Alberta passed a similar law in 2019, and Manitoba and Prince Edward Island have comparable statutes. Canada slaughtered 863 million land animals for food in 2024, according to Animal Justice, the vast majority in factory farm conditions with no government oversight of their welfare [41].

A review published in Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism (Cell Press) in January 2026 by researchers at the University of Barcelona's CIBER Area for Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Diseases examined the contrasting cellular effects of two common dietary fatty acids on type 2 diabetes risk [14][15]. Palmitic acid, a saturated fat abundant in meat, dairy, butter, and palm oil, promotes the accumulation of toxic bioactive lipids, triggers low-grade chronic inflammation, and disrupts function in the endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria, processes the authors link directly to impaired insulin signaling and metabolic disease progression. Oleic acid, the dominant monounsaturated fat in olive oil and present in avocados and most tree nuts, encourages fat storage in metabolically inert forms, preserves insulin sensitivity in the liver, muscle, and adipose tissue, and may counter several of palmitic acid's harmful cellular effects. The paper, led by first author Xavier Palomer and senior author Manuel Vázquez-Carrera, synthesizes existing mechanistic and observational evidence. It is a narrative review, not a randomized controlled trial, and it cannot establish how large a reduction in diabetes incidence a specific dietary substitution would produce in human populations [14].

Bryant Research, commissioned by ProVeg International, modeled three scenarios for shifting EU public food procurement across schools, hospitals, universities, military, and other public institutions toward plant-based menus: 65%, 75%, and 85% plant-based spending [32]. The 85% scenario, informed by the EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet, would generate an estimated €11.6B in annual savings across three streams: €3.16B in direct food budget reductions from lower ingredient costs, €4.37B in avoided environmental externalities, and €4.08B in reduced healthcare and cardiovascular disease costs. The model projects a reduction of 8.9 million tonnes of CO2e per year, equivalent to removing 4.44 million cars from European roads, and the prevention of nearly 400,000 cases of long-term obesity. Schools are the largest driver of potential impact, accounting for 39% of institutional animal product consumption across the EU-27. Germany and France would each see an estimated €2.53B in combined annual returns. The analysis arrives as the European Commission prepares a revision of the EU Public Procurement Directive, expected later in 2026, and as the Commission has committed to creating a protein diversification strategy [32].

The Good Food Institute's 2025 US plant-based foodservice report, drawing on Circana broadline distributor data, found that plant-based milk dollar sales rose 16% in 2025, lifting its pound sales share of the total milk market to 13% [33]. Plant-based creamer reached 28% of total creamer pound sales and is now priced about 41% below its conventional counterpart, a price inversion GFI linked in part to coffee chains dropping plant-based dairy surcharges. Plant-based protein fell 7% in dollar sales and 5% in pound sales for the full category. Within that decline, some formats grew: plant-based pork rose 3% in pound sales, and chorizo crumbles, chicken nuggets, and pork crumbles all posted double-digit pound sales gains. Plant-based cheese fell 15% in both pound and dollar sales. A structural finding: only 8% of the top 250 US restaurant chains by revenue offer plant-based meat analog dishes, and another 7% offer non-analog plant protein only; 85% have nothing. Consumer research in the report found that over a third of plant-based meat-interested consumers had not ordered it recently because it was not on the menu, and 64% of plant-based meat diners at restaurant chains purchased it only once during 2025 [33].

A study conducted by Leaps by Bayer, Boston Consulting Group, and Ipsos UK, building on a 2025 survey of more than 13,000 people across 13 countries, used in-depth interviews with consumers in China, the United States, and Germany to examine why different people respond to cultivated meat the way they do [30]. The 2025 baseline found 39% of global respondents held positive views of cultivated meat, 19% negative, and 40% undecided, the highest proportion of undecided responses of any technology examined. Gen Z expressed willingness to try it at 46%, compared with 35% of Gen Xers and 27% of baby boomers. The new research identifies three consumer types: optimists (who see cultivated meat as an animal welfare and climate solution), rationalists (who require verified safety data, taste parity, and robust life cycle assessment results before forming a view), and sceptics (who view it as unnatural and too distant from traditional food). Gen Z concentrates at the optimist end but with conditions that go beyond optimism: they want transparent labeling and independently verified environmental claims. A recent industrial-scale LCA cited in the report estimated cultivated meat's carbon footprint at 3.3 to 6.6 kg CO2e per kg of product, which at renewable energy-powered production rates would represent a 95% reduction against conventional beef and a 55% reduction against pork; the LCA evidence base for commercial-scale production remains limited and the footprint advantage over beef narrows significantly under conventional energy mixes [30].