Greenpeace Urges EU to Stop Palm Oil Deforestation

A long awaited European Commission study, released late on Friday, lays out policy options for the EU to tackle the impact on global deforestation caused by the trade in crop and animal products like beef, soy and palm oil. The study also points out the EU’s high level of meat consumption, its dependence on imported animal feed, and the inadequacy of controls on finance and investments flows as drivers of deforestation.

The EU’s failure to act to reduce its forest footprint is jeopardising chances of avoiding the worst impacts of climate change, warned Greenpeace. Although the Commissionhad promised to take a decision on a deforestation action plan, it has yet to announce how it intends to follow up on this study and what action, if any, will be taken.

Greenpeace EU forest policy director Sébastien Risso said: “Europe has ignored its role in global deforestation for long enough. The EU must act swiftly to ensure that the food we eat, the energy we use and the banks we save in are no longer destroying forests, fuelling climate change and trampling on indigenous peoples’ rights. It’s time for the Commission to break its silence and come forward with strong rules and policies to curb the EU’s forest footprint and support global efforts to halt deforestation.”

European governments and the European Parliamenthave repeatedly called on the Commission to develop an action plan on deforestation and to deliver on the goal of ending deforestation by 2020. On 5 March, again, at the last Environment Council, five EU countries called on the Commission to “propose an ambitious strategy to combat imported deforestation”.

The Commission study released today recognises that “the EU is clearly part of the problem of global deforestation”, but can be part of the solution. It sets out a series of policy measures that could form the basis of an EU action plan on deforestation. In particular, these include:

• new legislative measures to ensure sustainable and deforestation-free agricultural supply chains, and oblige financial institutions to take action to eliminate the risk of deforestation resulting from financial investments;
• initiatives to encourage lower consumption of meat and dedicated actions to reduce imports of feed, such as soy, for the EU livestock sector by increasing vegetable protein production in Europe;
• a complete phase-out of crop-based biofuels by 2030 under the renewable energy directive;
• financial and technical assistance to help countries whose forests are at risk to meet their international commitments on forest protection, including by supporting sustainable agricultural production and supply chains, strengthening forest protection, securing the rights of indigenous and forest communities, and improving forest and land use planning, governance and law enforcement.

Agricultural expansion is responsible for 80 per cent of global deforestation, with devastating effects on the planet’s climate and biodiversity. Deforestation is also associated with violence and human rights abuses. Almost 40 percent of the land used to satisfy EU consumption is situated outside Europe.

Forests are essential for life on the planet. They guard against the worst effects of climate change byabsorbing and storing massive amounts of carbon dioxide, are home to a vast diversity of plants, animals and insects, and provide shelter and livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people.

The Commission also released a study on the environmental impact of palm oil consumption and on existing sustainability standards. In 2017, the EU imported over 3,410,000 tonnes of palm oil from Indonesia and over 1,781,000 tonnes from Malaysia. The oil palm and wood fibre sector is the biggest driver of deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia. In Indonesia alone around 24 million hectares of rainforest was destroyed between 1990 and 2015 – an area almost the size of the UK.

Source: Greenpeace

Asian-style Cauliflower

Ingredients

1 tablespoon expeller-pressed canola oil
2 shallots, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1-1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced
1 large head cauliflower, cut into florets
1 small onion, thinly sliced
2/3 cup vegetable stock
1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 green onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Method

1. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic and saute for 1 minute.
2. Add the soy sauce and tomatoes and cook for another 3 minutes.
3. Add the cauliflower, onion, vegetable stock, lemon juice, sugar, and green onion. Reduce the heat and cook, stirring frequently, until the cauliflower is tender but still crisp, about 10 minutes.
4. Add 2 tablespoons water as it cooks to prevent sticking, if necessary. Do not overcook.
5. Transfer the cauliflower to a bowl and sprinkle with the cilantro before serving.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Source: True Food

Video: Vegetarian Dishes that Changed America

Watch video at Thrillist (3:07 minutes) . . . . .

Mono-unsaturated Fats from Plants May Reduce Risk of Death

Diets rich in mono-unsaturated fatty acids from plants were associated with a lower risk of dying from heart disease or other causes compared to diets rich in mono-unsaturated fats from animals, which were linked to a higher risk of death from heart disease or other causes, according to preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology and Prevention | Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions 2018, a premier global exchange of the latest advances in population based cardiovascular science for researchers and clinicians.

“Our results emphasize the importance of the source and quantity of mono-unsaturated fatty acids in the diet – we should eat more mono-unsaturated fatty acids from plant sources and less mono-unsaturated fatty acids from animal sources,” said Marta Guasch-Ferré, Ph.D., a research associate and one of the lead authors of this study along with Geng Zong, Ph.D., a research fellow. Both are at the Harvard School T.H. Chan of Public Health in Boston.

Mono-unsaturated fats are usually liquid at room temperature and solidify when refrigerated. Sources of plant-based mono-unsaturated fats include olive and other vegetable oils, avocados and many nuts and seeds. Sources of animal-based mono-unsaturated fats include full-fat dairy products, eggs, poultry, red meats and fish.

To assess the impact of mono-unsaturated fatty acids consumption on death from cardiovascular disease and other causes, researchers used data from 63,412 women from the Nurses’ Health Study and 29,966 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. Both studies used detailed food-frequency questionnaires administered every four years to evaluate the composition of the participants’ diets. This type of observational study can identify a trend among the participants but cannot prove cause and effect.

During an average 22 years of follow-up, there were 20,672 deaths among participants, 4,588 of them from heart disease. Analyzing the diet information, the researchers found:

• Participants with a higher intake of mono-unsaturated fatty acids from plants had a 16 percent lower risk of death from any cause compared to those with lower intakes.
• Participants with a higher intake of mono-unsaturated fatty acids from animals had a 21 percent higher risk of death from any cause.
• Replacing saturated fats, refined carbohydrates (like simple sugars) or trans fats with an equal number of calories (2 percent – 5 percent of the total) from mono-unsaturated fatty acids from plants might lower the risk of heart disease deaths and death from any cause between 10 percent and15 percent.
• Replacing mono-unsaturated fatty acids from animals with an equal amount of calories (5 percent of the total) of mono-unsaturated fatty acids from animals might lower the risk of heart disease deaths and deaths from any cause between 24 percent to 26 percent.

In the study, the risks were adjusted to account for several known factors that could influence the risk of death, including ethnicity; smoking status; intake of alcohol, fruits and vegetables and total calories; family history of chronic diseases; physical activity; body mass index; and heart disease risk factors when participants enrolled. The results should be interpreted with caution because the study relied on the participants’ self-reporting what they ate and because participants consuming higher amounts of plant-based foods may be more health conscious in general.

Source: American Heart Association

Medicare Claims Show Long-term Prostate Cancer Prevention Benefits of the Medication Finasteride

Men who take the medication finasteride get a prostate cancer prevention benefit that can last 16 years – twice as long as previously recorded, according to SWOG clinical trial analysis published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

This finding was made possible by a new research strategy – linking Medicare claims data to clinical trial data, in this case from a landmark study run by SWOG, the federally funded cancer clinical trial network. The SWOG study, known as the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial, or PCPT, set out to see whether finasteride, a drug used to treat symptoms of prostate enlargement as well as male pattern baldness, would prevent prostate cancer in men over the age of 55. The study enrolled 18,882 men from 1993-1997. It was stopped in 2003 when investigators learned that finasteride reduced prostate cancer risk by 25 percent when compared with a placebo. SWOG leader Ian Thompson, Jr., MD, of CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital Health System, was the study chair of PCPT.

Joseph Unger, PhD, a SWOG biostatistician and health services researcher from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, has a track record of using new research methods to answer bigger, bolder questions about cancer prevention and treatment. Along with SWOG colleague Dr. Dawn Hershman, Unger has pioneered for a decade the use of secondary sources of data, such as Medicare claims, U.S. Census Bureau data, and public health statistics from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program, to examine new hypotheses.

For this study, Unger wanted to know if the protective effects of finasteride lasted longer than seven years – the amount of follow-up evaluated in the PCPT. Answering this question would typically require reopening the old study, reconnecting with patients, and conducting extensive follow-up – an expensive and time-consuming proposition. But Unger took another tack, requesting and obtaining a data use agreement from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to access to records from Medicare, the health insurance program for people over 65.

Using patient information from the PCPT, Unger linked patients enrolled in the PCPT to their Medicare claims from 1999 through 2011. The team was surprised to find they were able to successfully link 75 percent of PCPT trial participants. Unger and colleagues at Fred Hutch created an algorithm to flag a prostate cancer diagnosis in the Medicare data, and examined the diagnoses over time. The team identified 3,244 PCPT participants who were later diagnosed with prostate cancer over a median follow-up of 16 years, and found that participants on the PCPT that took finasteride had a 21 percent decreased risk of getting prostate cancer, compared to those who took a placebo drug, over the course of those 16 years.

“These findings raise the intriguing possibility that seven years of finasteride can reduce prostate cancer diagnoses over a much longer period than was previously shown,” Unger said. “It’s a low-cost generic drug, with minimal side effects, that can have a benefit that lasts long after men stop taking it.”

At the same time, Unger said, the SWOG study shows the value of using Medicare claims to extend follow-up for trial participants and answer new questions about cancer care and prevention. “These secondary data sources are emerging as a new paradigm for long-term follow up for cancer clinical trials,” he said. “It’s an exciting new avenue of research.”

Source: SWOG

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