5@5: Tyson Foods mandates COVID-19 vaccines for US employees | The immense human cost of Thai palm oil industry
Each day at 5 p.m. we collect the five top food and supplement headlines of the day, making it easy for you to catch up on today's most important natural products industry news.
August 4, 2021
Tyson Foods mandates COVID-19 vaccines for all US employees
Tyson Foods will require its U.S. employees to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, the company said this week. The move makes Tyson Foods the largest U.S. food company—with 139,000 team members—to require vaccinations among all of its employees. Exceptions to the vaccination mandate will granted to employees seeking medical or religious accommodation, the company added. Axios reports.
Can Thailand's peasant farmers survive the thirst for palm oil?
Peasant farmers of the Southern Peasants’ Federation in Thailand have been locked in brutal land disputes with oil palm plantations for more than a decade. Many palm oil companies have been occupying state-owned land illegally, but ousting them is no small feat: These farmers have reported instances of attempted murder as a result of their push to own land, and some have even taken their would-be assassinators to court. Within the country, at least 70 land rights lawyers and community activists have vanished or been confirmed dead over the past few decades. Eater has the details.
Vegetables aren't always vegan
The idea behind this Modern Farmer article is that commercial fertilizers contain blood meal, fish meal, feather meal and bone meal—which would render these products, if not non-vegan, then perhaps less vegan than vegans might like. Enter veganic farming, in which farmers use techniques that marry organic farming with a vegan ethos. They either rid the whole process of animal-derived ingredients or, at the very least, come from their own, cared-for animals.
Economists weigh in on the merits of net-zero climate goals
Reuters writes that a growing number of climate economists say the world should take “immediate and drastic action” to tackle climate change. Three-quarters of respondents in this most recent survey strongly agreed that drastic action should be taken immediately, compared with just half of economists polled by the same institute in 2015. And not a moment too soon, either: The world saw more than 7,300 major natural disasters between 2000 and 2019, which killed some 1.2 million and cost $3 trillion in damages, according to the U.N. Office on Disaster Risk Reduction.
Plant-based cheesemaker Miyoko's Creamery raises $52M Series C
The plant-based cheese and butter mavericks over at Miyoko’s Creamery have now raised $52 million in Series C funding; PowerPlant Partners led the round. In its funding announcement the company stated that this year it will launch a liquid mozzarella intended for pizza that pours out like sauce and bakes up into stretchy cheese. More startups including Nobell Foods, Stockeld Dreamery and Grounded Foods are finding similar success in the growing plant-based dairy market by producing realistic-seeming and better-for-you plant-based cheese options for picky flexitarian customers. Learn more at The Spoon
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