WHO to report on alt proteins as NYC moves to end horse carriages
The World Health Organization's Asia-Pacific centre signed on with GFI APAC to publish its first report on plant-based and cultivated meat in food systems.
4 top stories37 sources read146 articles scanned6 sides of vegan life
The World Health Organization's Asia-Pacific centre signed on with GFI APAC to publish its first report on plant-based and cultivated meat in food systems. [74]
02
New York's mayor and Council speaker agreed to end Central Park horse carriages by June 2028, with a Council vote on Oct. 22. [41]
03
Beyond Meat won a contaminant-testing award for its new protein powder while its share price keeps sliding. [73]
04
EFSA named cultivated meat and precision fermentation as areas where it must build expertise before the applications arrive. [124]
05
Eating a high-fiber diet, volunteers absorbed about 116 fewer calories a day than on a typical Western diet, without feeling hungrier. [1]
06
A Delaware court dismissed Onego Bio's suit against EVERY and left the egg-protein patent question unanswered. [80]
The Stories: the day’s biggest developments, in the sources’ own words
01▲Law & PolicyStory
WHO and GFI APAC sign partnership for first WHO report on alternative proteins
Photo: green queen
The World Health Organization's Asia-Pacific centre for environment and health and GFI APAC signed a multi-year partnership in Seoul, announced at the World Food Forum in Rome [74]. WHO will publish a first-of-its-kind report on the role of alternative proteins in food systems, and the deal funds two WHO technical staff and an academic researcher based in South Korea [74]. GFI APAC is an advocacy group for these foods, so the report's conclusions are still unwritten [72].
“In the WHO Western Pacific region, nine out of 10 deaths are now caused by non-communicable diseases, and many of these are diet-related”
Sandro Demaio, director and head of WHO's Asia-Pacific Centre for Environment and Health · [74]
By the numbers
45%of global agrifood emissions come from Asia-Pacific [74]
50%of the region's protein supply would need to be plant-based, fermentation-derived or cell-cultured by 2060 to decarbonise, according to experts cited by Green Queen [74]
10 milliondeaths a year by 2050 from antibiotic-resistant superbugs, a UN estimate GFI APAC cites for why it wants fewer farm animals [72]
FromGreen QueenGFI APAC
02▲Activism & AnimalsStory
Mamdani and Council speaker strike deal to end Central Park horse carriages by 2028
Photo: vegnews
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Council Speaker Julie Menin agreed to phase out Central Park's horse-drawn carriages by June 2028 under Romanch's Law, VegNews reports [41]. The Council votes Oct. 22, and Menin expects a veto-proof majority [41]. The bill funds a worker transition program and bars selling the horses for slaughter or to other carriage businesses, though the Transport Workers Union says it lacks guaranteed financial relief [41].
“My administration will make sure workers and owners are protected and the horses are safe”
Beyond Meat wins purity award for protein powder as shares fall more than 46%
Photo: green queen
Beyond Meat's Starmatter protein powder won a Clean Label Project Purity Award, placing it in the top third of its category on independent contaminant testing [73]. The company is still in a hole: Green Queen counts six consecutive quarters of revenue decline and a share price down more than 46% in the two months since a move meant to prop it up [73]. Founder Ethan Brown told the Wall Street Journal that confusion over the brand's positioning has "denigrated" it [73].
“We’ll get through it.”
Ethan Brown, Beyond Meat founder and CEO, to the Wall Street Journal · [73]
EFSA says it must build cultivated meat and fermentation expertise before applications arrive
Photo: cultivated meat news
EFSA's strategy paper names cultivated meat and precision fermentation as priority areas needing "faster and fit-for-purpose" risk assessments, and says it must build in-house expertise rather than react to each application [124]. Vegconomist reports that EU novel food approvals average more than three years against a 17-month legal deadline [58]. GFI Europe, which campaigns for regulatory sandboxes, wants the Commission's exclusion of novel foods from the Biotech Act's sandbox scheme reversed [124].
“EFSA’s food safety assessment processes are among the most robust in the world, and it’s positive to see the agency acknowledge the need to keep pace with innovation and develop a more proactive system that avoids unnecessary delays.”
Cook this: a creamy cashew miso barley stew with mushrooms and thyme from The Plant-Forward Solution, which goes gluten-free by swapping the barley for buckwheat groats. [47]
A coalition of 28 food organisations including Beyond Meat, Quorn and Redefine Meat warned EU negotiators against widening the meat-name ban, citing a YouGov survey in which 92% of UK respondents had never bought a plant-based sausage or burger thinking it was meat. [51]
Activism & Animals
A report for the Animal Welfare Evidence Centre estimates 1 million to 4.6 million animals are illegally harmed in Great Britain each year, and only about 3% of recorded offenses led to a charge. [98]
Researchers reviewing National Cattlemen's Association documents from 1986 to 1996 found a campaign to downplay beef's climate role, built on a "less than 0.5%" methane claim the authors could not reproduce. [101]
Research & Nutrition
Plastic tea bags released 555 to 2,498 microplastic particles per cup against 0.3 to 2.4 for bulk tea, and bagged tea's BPA reached 21.7% of the EFSA tolerable daily intake. [33]
Wins & Culture
Galicia announced €805 million for biotechnology through 2030, with cultivated meat and other alternative proteins among the targets. [127]
One Good Thing
Two years ago Alisha Adibe opened a ghost kitchen in Baltimore. Now she runs Oleum, a vegan restaurant with more than 40 staff, and is building Dahlia Cocinita, a vegan Mexican spot in Canton due in 2027, in a city she says has none. Her house rule for winning over the unconvinced: "We never preach. We just take care of people and let the food speak for itself." [43]
Potatoes Dauphinoise (a French dish of sliced potatoes baked in milk or cream) are the ultimate comfort food. This version incorporates a smoky, spicy Central American kick.
6 servings17 ingredients
See the ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large red onion, finely sliced
½ teaspoon salt
4 garlic cloves, crushed
3 medium to large sweet potatoes, washed and sliced into ⅛-inch rounds
2⅔ cups red potatoes, washed and sliced into ⅛-inch rounds
4 cups water, divided
1¼ cups cashews, soaked for 1 hour in hot water and rinsed
GFI APAC
