Carbon-made fats cut emissions 98%, and a vegan diet beats hunger
A third-party audit found Savor's carbon-made fats cut emissions up to 98% versus conventional dairy and palm fat, a real data check on alt-fat's climate pitch.
4 top stories30 sources read145 articles scanned6 sides of vegan life
A third-party audit found Savor's carbon-made fats cut emissions up to 98% versus conventional dairy and palm fat, a real data check on alt-fat's climate pitch [109].
02
A 16-week JAMA trial found a low-fat vegan diet cut calorie intake by 357 a day with no instruction to eat less, just lower-density food [35].
03
Hackney's mayor pledged a UK-first ban on meat and dairy ads on council-owned land, as campaigners push a wider "Gag Big Ag" campaign nationwide [144].
04
NYC's carriage-horse ban bill, renamed Romanch's Law for the teenager killed in a June crash, won its first-ever sitting Council Speaker's backing [76].
05
A new meta-analysis found vegetarians carry 13% lower cancer risk and vegans 23% lower than non-vegetarians, the strongest cancer read yet [11].
06
Israeli cultivated-meat firm Ever After Foods raised $2M and bought Belgian cultivated-seafood startup Fishway, betting its first market is pet food [103].
The movement today▲Activism & Animals▲Innovation▲Law & Policy▲Research & NutritionThe storylines →
The Stories: the day’s biggest developments, in the sources’ own words
01▲InnovationStory
Independent audit confirms Savor's carbon-made fats cut emissions up to 98%
Photo: vegconomist
“Not all models survive an encounter with real-world data; in this case, the data confirmed we'd been pointed in the right direction from the start.”
Kathleen Alexander, Savor co-founder and CEO · [109]
By the numbers
50 to 98%reduction in the greenhouse gas footprint of fats and oils versus conventional alternatives, depending on the lipid replaced and the carbon source used [109]
More than 800 timesless land and more than 10 times less water than dairy milkfat, per the audited assessment [109]
$32Mraised by Savor to scale production from a few tonnes a year toward a couple hundred [104]
Fromvegconomist the vegan business magazineGreen Queen
02▲Research & NutritionStory
Low-fat vegan diet trial cuts calorie intake without asking anyone to eat less
Photo: sciencedaily
The trial was designed to test whether a vegan diet is linked to lower dietary energy density, says Hana Kahleova, director of clinical research at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. [35]
By the numbers
357 fewer calories a dayeaten by the vegan group, with no calorie target given to either group [21]
About 30%drop in dietary energy density in the vegan group, versus no real change in the control group [21]
84 adultsages varied, followed a low-fat vegan diet or continued eating as usual for 16 weeks [35]
FromPrimary SourcesDiet and Weight Loss News -- ScienceDaily
03▲Activism & AnimalsStory
NYC Council Speaker backs carriage-horse ban renamed for teen killed in crash
Janusz Mitura (via Pexels)
“We couldn't do nothing but hold on to each other and scream. My wife fell. Romanch tried to help his mother and he, too, fell. He never moved again. I kept shouting his name, but he did not.”
26 sponsorsnow back Intro 943, renamed Romanch's Law after the 18-year-old's death in June [76]
68 horse-drawn carriagesoperate in NYC today; the bill would end the industry by June 2028[76]
71%of New York voters said in a 2022 poll they want the carriage industry gone [76]
FromOne Green Planet
04▲Law & PolicyStory
Hackney's mayor pledges UK-first ban on meat and dairy ads on council land
Photo: plant based news
“But a surround sound of big brand advertising is concealing the hard truth about how most UK meat and dairy is produced. We're calling for ads that promote factory farming to be banned: to stop misleading people, stop undermining local sustainable farmers, and stop enabling the expansion of this type of farming.”
Nicola Wilks, Adfree Cities, Gag Big Ag campaign · [144]
By the numbers
85%of animals farmed in the UK are raised in concentrated animal feeding operations, per Adfree Cities [144]
73%of UK adults oppose the factory farming of chickens, though polls show many underestimate how common it is [144]
£110 million+spent by McDonald's and KFC on UK outdoor advertising in 2024 alone [144]
FromPlant Based News
Worth Knowing
Food & Recipes
Cook this: a vegan Smoked Tofu BLT swaps bacon for maple-and-liquid-smoke-marinated tofu rashers, griddled crisp and piled onto crusty bread with vegan mayo [86].
An Argentine court ruled two goldfish rescued from a sushi restaurant tank are legally sentient beings, the first such recognition for fish there [79].
JBS-backed Pilgrim's Europe agreed to buy UK pork firm Walkers for about £141.5m, expanding its meatpacking footprint [65].
Innovation
Quorn Foods returned to UK retail growth in Q2, though foodservice sales fell 5% and its CEO says that channel will "get worse before it gets better" [88].
Nova Scotia is putting $1.2M into a Cape Breton precision-fermentation plant, adding capacity for roughly 10 more client companies a year [110].
An EU research project found that smarter placement and climate labels for plant-based options cut online grocery-basket emissions by 13 to 16% [111].
Startup Offbeast's whole-cut 50-50 beef-and-plant tips read as "indistinguishable from conventional meat" to 16 of 20 testers in confidential trials [105].
dsm-firmenich is moving its Protopia yeast protein toward industrial-scale fermentation, aiming to compete directly with fishmeal and whey [89].
Activism & Animals
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom's dolphin Chelsea died after four decades in captivity; PETA is urging the park to send survivors to seaside sanctuaries [126].
Alleged wage-fixing between JBS and Cargill is fueling the largest meatpacking strikes and lockouts in four decades, Colorado union leaders say [128].
Law & Policy
Animal Justice invoked Manitoba's new anti-SLAPP law to fight a horse exporter's defamation suit over its reporting on a 2022 slaughter shipment [129].
Montana's Supreme Court revived a food-safety whistleblower's "Food Freedom" lawsuit against the state after a lower court wrongly dismissed it with prejudice [132].
One Good Thing
Every red wolf alive today descends from just 14 animals rescued from the wild in 1980. This year the wild population produced four litters, 23 pups in total, with 12 to 16 expected to survive their first months, one of them born on private land through a program that pays landowners for letting red wolves live there instead of shooting them. Only 22 to 26 adults remain, all in five counties of one North Carolina peninsula, but fourteen animals became a hundred once before [77].
Make the best polenta fries at home! They’re perfectly golden on the outside and fluffy and tender within, using packaged polenta for a quick, easy, satisfying snack or side ready…
vegconomist the vegan business magazine
One Green Planet
