Issue #59 | Just 9 crops feed the world (a looming biodiversity disaster?) | How Oat Milk is Made | A Delicious Ash-Tray
2022-10-10
How Just Nine Crops Controlled By Four Companies Feed The Human Race
How Oat Milk is Made
Just for fun: a delicious ash-tray
News and Resources Roundup (Now Bigger and Better!)
Food fraud incidents, updates and emerging issues
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Hello!
Welcome to Issue 59 of The Rotten Apple, a weekly newsletter that keeps you up to date on food safety, food authenticity and supply chain news. And a happy shoutout from me 👏 to all you wonderful new paying subscribers 👏 👏 👏. Your financial support helps me to keep these weekly emails focused and advert-free.
The aim of this newsletter is to save you time, reduce your inbox stress and keep you up to date with interesting content that you won’t find anywhere else.
In this issue, I share some worrying information about the lack of diversity in our global food sources. Just nine food crops provide most of our nutrition, and those crops are mostly controlled by just four multinational companies. Scary!
Also this week, have you ever wondered how oat milk is really made? I found out and made a food-techy infographic for you. Plus tasty ashtrays and mouldy oranges…
This issue ends, as always, with food fraud incidents and horizon scanning news for paying subscribers.
Enjoy,
Karen
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How Just Nine Crops Controlled By Four Companies Feed The Human Race
Our modern global food system looks significantly different to the one that fed our grandparents last century. Food supply chains have become progressively longer and more complex, while at the same time the number of basic food crops that sustain us has decreased.
Modern humans face food security risks from the complexity of our modern supply systems and from the low number of crops that provide most of our species’ calorie intake.
It’s this lack of diet biodiversity that I find the most shocking. Would you believe that just nine food crops provide three-quarters of our calories across the globe? And only 30 species are used to make 90 percent of all our foods? Compare this to traditional hunter-gatherer societies that ate up to 800 species of plants and animals across a year.
Today, just three food crops, rice, wheat and maize (corn) together provide 50% of global human calories. We now rely on fewer species, with less genetic diversity than ever before, to feed more humans than have ever been alive.
The lack of biodiversity means our food crops are more vulnerable to the damaging effects of climate change. Activists worry that our farming systems will not be able to keep up with changes to growing conditions that are progressing at pace. That means a higher risk of crop failures, lower yields and more frequent famines.
Climate change affects our food supply through more frequent extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, frosts and storms. Lower yields also result from more frequent periods of suboptimal growing conditions, which can also increase crops’ vulnerability to pests and diseases.
Monoculture cropping greatly increases the chance of catastrophic losses from plant diseases (see Issue 21 for a discussion of previous banana variety ‘extinction’ events.)
"The more uniform our [foods’] genetic pool is, the more vulnerable we are to all sorts of environmental stresses, and we know that with climate change there will be more of these stresses"
Karine Peschard, researcher into biotechnology, food and seed sovereignty at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva.
Anti-competitive seed-trading practices are contributing to our lack of food biodiversity, according to activists. More than 50 percent of the world’s seeds are controlled by just four corporations: Bayer, Corteva, ChemChina and Limagrain.
Intellectual property laws and seed trading agreements prevent the free buying and selling of food crop seeds, which prevents farmers from bypassing the big agribusiness suppliers. This increases our vulnerability to natural and man-made disasters.
Startling facts about biodiversity – or lack of diversity – in our global food system
Half of the world’s cheeses are made with cultures and enzymes produced by just one company.
Most pork production globally is from one breed of pig.
Almost all commercially traded bananas are Cavendish variety.
Many dairy cows globally are just one breed too: Holstein.
We eat just nine crops now, which together provide 75 percent of the human population’s calories. Rice, wheat and maize together provide 50 percent. The other crops are potato, barley, palm oil, soy, sugar beet and sugar cane.
Ninety percent of modern food products are derived from just 30 species of plants and animals.
Archaeologists found the seeds of 40 different plants in the stomach of a man from 2,500 years ago in a peat bog.
Traditional hunter-gatherers, the Hadza people of Africa, have 800 plant and animal species they might consume each year.
More than 50 percent of the world’s seeds are controlled by just four corporations: Bayer, Corteva, ChemChina and Limagrain.
Seed trading laws and agreements prevent the free buying and selling of food crop seeds.
Food plant extinctions have occurred on a massive scale since the industrial revolution. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 75 percent of the world's crop varieties disappeared between 1900 and 2000.
One of the earliest cultivated food crops, a variety of wheat known as Kavilca (pronounced kav-all-jah) has been grown for about 10,000 years. It is now almost extinct, with just a few plants remaining in Eastern Turkey.
In 2022, John Deere tractors collect data from farms and sell it to Monsanto(Bayer), and to financial traders of crop price futures.
Sources
https://www.theguardian.com/g2/story/0,3604,222389,00.html
https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2015.1130702
https://www.dw.com/en/one-in-four-historic-german-vegetables-extinct/a-43364085
https://doctorow.medium.com/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors-bc93f471b9c8
How Oat Milk is Made
Oat milk is gaining popularity among plant-based milk drinkers. One-third of Brits now drink plant-based milks and oat has overtaken almond in popularity.
Here’s a typical oat milk production process, as described by the Institute of Food Technologists.
1) Soaking. The oats are soaked to make a slurry. The enzyme alpha amylase is added to break down the starch and prevent it from gelatinising during later steps.
2) Blanching. Blanching inactivates unwanted enzymes and reduces microbial loads.
3) Wet Milling. The oat slurry is milled with additional water, to produce a homogeneous mix with the desired solids content.
4) Filtration. Filtration removes insoluble solids and materials that lower the quality of the beverage.
5) Homogenization. Homogenization results in a smooth mix of uniform particle sizes. It is commonly performed at pressures as high as 3,500 psi.
6) Ingredient addition. Ingredients such as sweeteners, gums, flavours, colours, and buffers are added. Chobani oatmilk, for example, contains added canola oil, cane sugar, vanilla extract, natural flavour, sea salt, nutrient extract blend, calcium carbonate, gellan gum, tricalcium phosphate, and dipotassium phosphate. Gums are used in plant-based milks to suspend the ingredients and deliver a desirable mouthfeel.
7) Homogenization. Homogenization can be performed again after the addition of ingredients.
8) UHT or HPP treatment. Ultra-high temperature (UHT) or High pressure processing (HPP) treatments deactivate microorganisms for a safe product with a long shelf life.
9) Packing. The final step is packing the oat milk into containers, using aseptic processes or filling then retorting, followed by cooling.
Sources:
https://www.newfoodmagazine.com/news/156808/plant-based-milk-growth/
News and Resources
No algorithm, just dedication… a carefully handcrafted selection from around the globe. Our news and resources section is expertly curated (by me! 😎) and free from filler, fluff and promotional junk. Click the preview box below to access all the best food safety news from around the world from the past week.
Mmm This is a Delicious-Looking Ashtray
Just for Fun
Have you ever seen a filthy sponge on a kitchen sink and thought “Yum, I’d like to eat that”? No? What about a full ashtray? Nope, me neither. But this pastry chef makes delicate desserts that look like unappealing household objects.
The process is fun to watch.
What you missed in last week’s email
Pomegranate Juice, a Food Fraud Magnet
What Happens To Greenhouse Gas Outputs During Wheat and Maize Trading Disruptions?
ESG Guidance and Checklists for Food Businesses
Just for fun: vegetarian cannibals rejoice
Below for paying subscribers: Food fraud news, incident reports, and emerging issues, plus 🎧 this email in audio 🎧 for your easy listening pleasure
📌 Food Fraud News 📌
The American Botanical Council has published a comprehensive bulletin about adulteration and fraud in
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