The livestock industry faces many challenges, including bad press from environmental and animal rights groups that want people to think that raising food animals is unethical or damaging to the planet. Many controversies surround beef cattle production, and many arguments against raising cattle or eating beef are not based on science.
To counter some of this negativity, three western Canadian beef researchers are using social media to deliver a science-based message. Tim McAllister, research scientist at the Lethbridge Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and colleagues Kim Stanford, a beef researcher at the University of Lethbridge and Kim Ominski, a beef researcher at the University of Manitoba have begun producing a series of podcasts called, Cows on the Planet. Launched in 2021, these podcasts funded by a grant from the Beef Cattle Research Council (BCRC), provide science-based information on cattle and their environmental impact.
“We’ve taken on the most controversial aspects of beef production, engaging internationally renowned scientists to address each topic area,” says McAllister, noting he was frustrated by some of the biased and incorrect information about beef production presented to the public. “With this podcast we are trying to provide science-based information on beef cattle production in Canada and beyond.”
So far, the Cows on the Planet podcast has tackled controversial beef-production topics such as:
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Are feedlots cruel to cattle? Are grazing cows harming ecosystems? How much do cattle contribute to climate change? Is antimicrobial resistance in cattle harming people? Manure versus chemical fertilizer — which is better for soil? Should cattle be replaced with native species such as bison? Do cattle have a role in regenerative agriculture? Should meat be grown in a lab? How much water does it take to make a burger? Are cattle using too much land? Livestock and global food security. More than milk and meat from cows. Grass-fed beef. Negativity to agriculture in the media. Are there harmful residues in beef? Carbon sequestration and grazing.
Experts from around the world
The podcast hosts invite experts working in a particular subject area to join the discussion. This includes people intimately involved in things such as biodiversity and beef, and their interactions with organizations such as the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
“We’ve interviewed people from all over the world,” says McAllister. “We’ve contrasted beef production in Africa versus beef production in Canada, and some of the challenges the Africans face as well. We’ve done interviews on beef production in India and the Netherlands. There is a push in Europe to get rid of livestock to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. So we looked at what would be the consequences of that.”
McAllister says they try to provide accurate and well-balanced information so the public can make better-informed decisions about protein they buy and eat.
One podcast discussed greenhouse gases and how cattle produce methane in the rumen, explaining that it is a natural process. “We compared the small emission from cows versus a jet plane,” says McAllister. “We try to put these things into context and realistic perspective. We want to develop solutions while showing that getting rid of cattle is not the answer — the small emissions from cattle won’t make much difference. We want people to be aware of the context — the contribution to emissions from the cattle industry relative to other societal activities. As we look at change, we want people to focus their efforts on human activities and practices that have the greatest impact in terms of lowering greenhouse gases.”
Nutrition topics are also covered, as experts address topics like meat and cholesterol levels, and fatty acid profiles.
“We’ve interviewed human nutritionists and are not just cherry-picking people (that might have a certain message),” says McAllister. “We invite people who are very familiar with a topic and have done true science.”
The goal is to be impartial and balanced, using better tactics than the adversaries of agriculture who pick and choose information that suits them and is often taken out of context to support their arguments presentations against beef production.
One podcast examined why the media so often presents highly negative documentaries which are not science based, and selective about who they ask to participate. How do these shows end up on Netflix while others that are more balanced don’t? Part of the reason is sensationalism, because sensationalism sells,” says McAllister.
More than 10,000 listeners
So far there have been more than 10,500 listeners. “We’ve done sessions at universities across the U.S. and Canada and online discussions in which students listen to the podcasts,” McAllister says. He and Standford have also had online meetings and discussions with students.
A discussion with urban people spawns the kind of questions that arise from folks unfamiliar with animal agriculture. This is a good way to interact with the public so they can ask questions. “We hope they will exchange some of the information with their friends. We’ve had viewers on every continent except Antarctica,” McAllister says.
Next steps
McAllister says with many important topics already covered, the question is where podcast goes from here. They are looking at ways to get more people to tune into the podcasts.
“We’re worried that if there are no more new episodes, and no more promotion, it may die off and people won’t be listening,” he says. “It costs a certain amount to maintain podcasts on the network and keep the ‘library’ there. The BCRC could store them if they wanted to, but to be actively promoted, we’d need some support and funding and have someone take care of that. We’ve promoted it on social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. This kind of activity would need to continue.”
McAllister says they have ratings on all of the 36 podcasts produced so far. “The one on greenhouse gas production is highly ranked,” he says. “We know which ones have been listened to the most, and this will be useful information going forward; these are areas in which the public has the greatest concern. More than 10,000 listeners makes a good poll from all over the world.”
There are several completed podcasts still to be aired that will carry the project to March 31, 2023, the end of its initial two-year funding.
“We will give our report to BCRC at that time and see whether they have any interest in continuing,” McAllister says.
The project is open to suggestions for topics they may have missed. “We’re starting to get some overlap in various areas, so if we were to do a whole new series, it would be good to have a way to come up with some new topics.”
To listen, search for “Cows on the Planet” on your podcast app.
About fake meat
Agriculture Canada researcher Tim McAllister says one of the best topics covered in a podcast was a discussion on artificial meat.
“We did this interview with a guy who works in a lab that makes fake meat,” says McAllister. “There is a huge amount of hype around this subject, which is not anchored in science. That’s the problem with Silicon Valley people who just want to encourage investment.
“We interviewed a scientist who is working on production of fake meat and he gave good responses to questions. We wanted some perspective in terms of how difficult this is, how much time it will take, how costly it is and what it would cost in terms of scale-up. If you want the true definition of factory farming, this would be it.”
McAllister says large-scale artificial meat production would require huge plants and infrastructure. They would require temperature control to have materials incubated at 37 C, which requires fuel. By contrast, a cow eats feed and maintains the correct temperature itself. He says the cow is the most efficient factory for producing meat, and can sustain herself in a cycle of producing the fertilizer the soil needs to produce the grass she eats, in a perfect balance and cycle of nature.
“If you just dump distillers grain into a vat with your fetal calf serum for artificial meat, you couldn’t grow artificial cells, that’s only part of the process,” says McAllister. “The fetal calf serum costs $2,000 per litre for the media you need, to make those cells grow. The person we talked with was very candid and outlined the limitations and challenges. I’d given a couple presentations on that topic myself and had come to the same conclusion. I was surprised that he identified even greater challenges than I did. Having this come from an expert was reassuring.”
