Keeping up with plant-based meat alternatives

I’ve been trying to keep up with the news on plant-based meat alternatives.   This isn’t easy.  There’s a lot going on.

Plant-based meat politics

Plant-based science news

Plant-based business news

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This is a big industry with many questions about quality, degree of processing, and effects on the environment still to be settled.  And these are just the plant-based products.  Next week, I’ll post a collection of articles on the cell-based meat alternatives.  These are not yet on the market (except in Singapore) but also look like big business.  Stay tuned.

Mink farms a continuing Covid risk to humans and wildlife, warn EU experts

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Health experts call for regular testing of staff and animals after coronavirus found at 400 breeding units across Europe

All mink farms are at risk of becoming infected with Covid-19 and spreading the virus, and staff and animals should be regularly tested, EU disease and food safety experts said on Thursday.

Mink are highly susceptible to coronavirus, which spreads rapidly in intensive farms that often breed thousands of animals in open housing caged systems (outdoor wire cages covered with a roof). Humans are the most likely initial source of infection.

Denmark, the world’s largest exporter of mink fur, announced that it would cull up to 15 million mink in November, after discovering a mutated variant of the virus that scientists feared might have jeopardised the effectiveness of future vaccines.

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Texas leaders failed to heed warnings that left the state’s power grid vulnerable to winter extremes, experts say

Powerline infrastructure in San Marcos on Feb. 16, 2021.

Energy and policy experts said Texas’ decision not to require equipment upgrades to better withstand extreme winter temperatures, and choice to operate mostly isolated from other grids in the U.S. left power system unprepared for the winter crisis.

Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune

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Millions of Texans have gone days without power or heat in subfreezing temperatures brought on by snow and ice storms. Limited regulations on companies that generate power and a history of isolating Texas from federal oversight help explain the crisis, energy and policy experts told The Texas Tribune.

While Texas Republicans were quick to pounce on renewable energy and to blame frozen wind turbines, the natural gas, nuclear and coal plants that provide most of the state’s energy also struggled to operate during the storm. Officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the energy grid operator for most of the state, said that the state’s power system was simply no match for the deep freeze.

“Nuclear units, gas units, wind turbines, even solar, in different ways — the very cold weather and snow has impacted every type of generator,” said Dan Woodfin, a senior director at ERCOT.

Energy and policy experts said Texas’ decision not to require equipment upgrades to better withstand extreme winter temperatures, and choice to operate mostly isolated from other grids in the U.S. left power system unprepared for the winter crisis.

Policy observers blamed the power system failure on the legislators and state agencies who they say did not properly heed the warnings of previous storms or account for more extreme weather events warned of by climate scientists. Instead, Texas prioritized the free market.

“Clearly we need to change our regulatory focus to protect the people, not profits,” said Tom “Smitty” Smith, a now-retired former director of Public Citizen, an Austin-based consumer advocacy group who advocated for changes after in 2011 when Texas faced a similar energy crisis.

“Instead of taking any regulatory action, we ended up getting guidelines that were unenforceable and largely ignored in [power companies’] rush for profits,” he said.

It is possible to “winterize” natural gas power plants, natural gas production, wind turbines and other energy infrastructure, experts said, through practices like insulating pipelines. These upgrades help prevent major interruptions in other states with regularly cold weather.

Lessons from 2011

In 2011, Texas faced a very similar storm that froze natural gas wells and affected coal plants and wind turbines, leading to power outages across the state. A decade later, Texas power generators have still not made all the investments necessary to prevent plants from tripping offline during extreme cold, experts said.

Woodfin, of ERCOT, acknowledged that there’s no requirement to prepare power infrastructure for such extremely low temperatures. “Those are not mandatory, it’s a voluntary guideline to decide to do those things,” he said. “There are financial incentives to stay online, but there is no regulation at this point.”

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation, which has some authority to regulate power generators in the U.S., is currently developing mandatory standards for “winterizing” energy infrastructure, a spokesperson said.

Texas politicians and regulators were warned after the 2011 storm that more “winterizing” of power infrastructure was necessary, a report by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation shows. The large number of units that tripped offline or couldn’t start during that storm “demonstrates that the generators did not adequately anticipate the full impact of the extended cold weather and high winds,” regulators wrote at the time. More thorough preparation for cold weather could have prevented the outages, the report said.

“This should have been addressed in 2011 by the Legislature after that market meltdown, but there was no substantial follow up,” by state politicians or regulators, said Ed Hirs, an energy fellow and economics professor at the University of Houston. “They skipped on down the road with business as usual.”

ERCOT officials said that some generators implemented new winter practices after the freeze a decade ago, and new voluntary “best practices” were adopted. Woodfin said that during subsequent storms, such as in 2018, it appeared that those efforts worked. But he said this storm was even more extreme than regulators anticipated based on models developed after the 2011 storm. He acknowledged that any changes made were “not sufficient to keep these generators online,” during this storm.

After temperatures plummeted and snow covered large parts of the state Sunday night, ERCOT warned increased demand might lead to short-term, rolling blackouts. Instead, huge portions of the largest cities in Texas went dark and have remained without heat or power for days. On Tuesday, nearly 60% of Houston households and businesses were without power. Of the total installed capacity to the electric grid, about 40% went offline during the storm, Woodfin said.

Climate wake-up call

Climate scientists in Texas agree with ERCOT leaders that this week’s storm was unprecedented in some ways. They also say it’s evidence that Texas is not prepared to handle an increasing number of more volatile and more extreme weather events.

“We cannot rely on our past to guide our future,” said Dev Niyogi, a geosciences professor at the University of Texas at Austin who previously served as the state climatologist for Indiana. He noted that previous barometers are becoming less useful as states see more intense weather covering larger areas for prolonged periods of time. He said climate scientists want infrastructure design to consider a “much larger spectrum of possibilities” rather than treating these storms as a rarity, or a so-called “100-year event.”

Katharine Hayhoe, a leading climate scientist at Texas Tech University, highlighted a 2018 study that showed how a warming Arctic is creating more severe polar vortex events. “It’s a wake up call to say, ‘What if these are getting more frequent?’” Hayhoe said. “Moving forward, that gives us even more reason to be more prepared in the future.”

Still, Hayhoe and Niyogi acknowledged there’s uncertainty about the connection between climate change and cold air outbreaks from the Arctic.

Other Texas officials looked beyond ERCOT. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins argued that the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry — a remit that includes natural gas wells and pipelines — prioritized commercial customers over residents by not requiring equipment to be better equipped for cold weather. The RRC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Other states require you to have cold weather packages on your generation equipment and require you to use, either through depth or through materials, gas piping that is less likely to freeze,” Jenkins said.

Texas’ electricity market is also deregulated, meaning that no one company owns all the power plants, transmission lines and distribution networks. Instead, several different companies generate and transmit power, which they sell on the wholesale market to yet more players. Those power companies in turn are the ones that sell to homes and businesses. Policy experts disagree on whether a different structure would have helped Texas navigate these outages. “I don’t think deregulation itself is necessarily the thing to blame here,” said Josh Rhodes, a research associate at University of Texas at Austin’s Energy Institute.

History of isolation

Texas’ grid is also mostly isolated from other areas of the country, a set up designed to avoid federal regulation. It has some connectivity to Mexico and to the Eastern U.S. grid, but those ties have limits on what they can transmit. The Eastern U.S. is also facing the same winter storm that is creating a surge in power demand. That means that Texas has been unable to get much help from other areas.

“If you’re going to say you can handle it by yourself, step up and do it,” said Hirs, the UH energy fellow, of the state’s pursuit of an independent grid with a deregulated market. “That’s the incredible failure.”

Rhodes, of UT Austin, said Texas policy makers should consider more connections to the rest of the country. That, he acknowledged, could come at a higher financial cost — and so will any improvements to the grid to prevent future disasters. There’s an open question as to whether Texas leadership will be willing to fund, or politically support, any of these options.

“We need to have a conversation about if we believe that we’re going to have more weather events like this,” Rhodes said. “On some level, it comes down to if you want a more resilient grid, we can build it, it will just cost more money. What are you willing to pay? We’re going to have to confront that.”

Texas Tech University, University of Texas at Austin and University of Houston have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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Do I need to wear a mask after getting the COVID vaccine? – Los Angeles Times

The vaccines, though safe and effective, are not at this point a license to completely abandon all infection-prevention protocols, health officials say.

Basic steps like wearing masks in public and keeping a physical distance from those outside your household will still provide an additional layer of safety, experts say, and help further drive down COVID-19 transmission — eventually allowing more parts of the economy to reopen.

Source: Do I need to wear a mask after getting the COVID vaccine? – Los Angeles Times

Savory Spicy Turmeric Granola bars

Smitha's Bake Love

I feel the Granola or Granola bar is good alternative to cookie or cake as its loaded with mostly healthy stuff. Well, the basic one atleast. You throw in oats, nuts, seeds, add in honey or maple syrup and the basic granola is done. I like Granola more like loose and easy in the form of breakfast cereal. Bars doesn’t do well in my hands for some reason.

As I have been eating my fair share of granola all the time, I have been craving more warm and spicy food these days. So, I was thinking – Why not make Granola in the savory style with a mix in of all the nuts and seeds.

These bars are nothing fancy, they call for basic stuff like oats, sesame seeds, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, maple syrup and spices like turmeric and chili powder along with salt and water.

Make…

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4 seed Honey Crunch bars (No Bake version)

Smitha's Bake Love

No Bake - Homemade Granola Bar
www.smithasbakelove.com

Heart healthy fats from the plant based is obviously the best nutrition you can get. Seeds falls in the category which are one of those tiny but mighty ones I would say.

Seeds are good source of healthy plant protein, dietery fiber, vitamins, minerals including zinc, copper and magnesium. Research shows abundant benefits of including the seeds in everyday diet. They aid in weight loss, digestive problems, prevention of certain cancers and managing blood sugar levels.

No Bake - Homemade Granola Bar
www.smithasbakelove.com

These are few reasons but strong enough to include them in your diet everyday. I love sesame seeds. You can see how I like to include them here in Sesame balls and Spicy Turmeric bars I made before. On the same note, I brought you another simple & easy recipe to make the snack more healthy and nutritious.

No Bake - Homemade Granola Bar
www.smithasbakelove.com

I used Pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds – all toasted. But they can be…

View original post 230 more words

Un appello alla natura e un messaggio di uno sciamano Yanomami

Barbara Crane Navarro

Un ragazzo Yanomami nella foresta, Alto Orinoco, Amazonas, Venezuela

« Ho pensato che se i bianchi avessero potuto sentirmi, avrebbero convinto il governo a non lasciare che la foresta venisse distrutta … Ora, i cercatori d’oro puzzano della foresta con i fumi dei loro motori e i fumi dell’oro e del mercurio che bruciano insieme. Adesso temiamo la malaria dei cercatori d’oro, che è anche molto feroce … Il soffio vitale degli abitanti della foresta è fragile di fronte a questi fumi epidemici di xawara. Se moriamo tutti, nessuno sarà in grado di compensare il valore delle nostre morti. I soldi dei bianchi e la merce non ce li riporteranno! E la foresta devastata non potrà mai essere ripristinata, sarà persa per sempre. » – portavoce e sciamano Yanomami Davi Kopenawa, La caduta del cielo

Una foresta distrutta dai cercatori d’oro

« Attualmente, aziende e governi possono distruggere la natura impunemente e…

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🇺🇸karen — 音楽好き仲間

rainy days and mondays🎵 by carpenters, I like this song🎵 songwriting- Paul williams , Roger nichols, harmonica- Tommy morgan, his harmonica makes me sad, karen, when I listen to this song, I remember your many singing voices, I wanted more pepople to have your beautiful singing voice, like this song, Far away ,back then~ 青春の輝き~ヴェリー・ベスト・オブ・カーペンターズ

🇺🇸karen — 音楽好き仲間