Author: lamsridominic

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Can vegans eat this stuff ?

Now that there may be lab-grown meat, the question is whether or not Vegans will feel compelled to eat such a product . The lab-grown meat would still be as if one were actually eating real animal meat.

https://www.livekindly.co/meat-company-bill-gates-lab-grown-meat-investors/

Co-Founder, Co-Editor & Journalist – LIVEKINDLY
Memphis Meats, an alternative meat startup, has recently finished a round of fundraising and they gained support from some big names. Major meat packer, Cargill was one of the contributors to the $17 million that the company obtained. Alongside Cargill, Bill Gates and Richard Branson also chose to invest in the company.
Memphis Meats are currently working on lab grown meats. This meat is grown in tanks from the cells of the animals that the meat traditionally comes from. These cells are then fed nutrients in order to grow muscle tissue which will then be consumed as meat. Although their product isn’t available on the market yet, they have successfully produced chicken, beef and duck.

Startups like Memphis Meats aim to solve the world’s protein problem. Currently, the earth’s population are consuming more meat than is sustainable. Animal agriculture is devastating to the environment. As the earth’s population is set to increase until 2050, and the world’s appetite for meat continues to grow, this is presenting a huge problem.
Many people have turned to a plant-based diet to tackle the issue, but for people who love the taste of meat, they can’t see this being an option. Companies Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat have both created burgers out of plants that are supposed to replicate ‘the real thing’. However, for some people Memphis Meats’ creations might be one step closer to the real thing as it is grown out of the same cells that can be found in the meat they currently buy.

Cargill’s decision to invest in Memphis Meats, and ‘expand[ing]’ their consumers ‘protein choices’, mirrors Tyson’s move to invest in Beyond Meat. This suggests that meat companies are experiencing the effects of the public’s changing opinion on meat.
Although some animal rights activists are still concerned about the ethics of lab grown meat, it could be seen as a stepping stone to reducing the harm caused to animals. If lab grown meat became popular, as big investors appear to believe it will, it could dramatically reduce the number of farms which would have a positive ethical and environmental impact.

Image credit: Flickr | Gizmodo | Impossible Foods

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Paper Cups are really bad for the environment, Really?

 

 Image result for coffee cup

The following is a transcript of a speech given to Toastmaster’s International.  Company names have been omitted.

Doesn’t our company spend money on the stupidest things?!  Below is a press release from May 2017.
 “Following Sustainability Week and a pilot conducted in 2016, “blank-co” replaced paper cups in our 787, Jersey City, CBS and Time-Life office locations with “blank-co”-branded ceramic mugs for each employee.  This is part of the Bank’s regional commitment to reduce its environmental footprint, which is one of the four pillars of the Group’s CSR strategy, and in line with the Group’s recent announcement regarding Carbon Neutrality.”  (How’s that for a run-on sentence?)
With that bit of corporate news, I would like to have a unilateral conversation with you on the debate of using paper cups.
Love for coffee has a bigger price tag than meets the eye.  The paper cups that are used when we ‘take away’ coffee are slowly building up and polluting our environment.  Let not the word ‘paper’ fool you that it’s not as harmful as its plastic & foam counterparts.  Most paper cups are coated with a petroleum based plastic resin which makes them more durable and prevents coffee from leaking.  Further, the ink that’s printed on custom coffee cups does not bode well for our environment.
According to “BLANK CO”, “Our 4,500 U.S. “BLANK CO” staff use more than 2 million paper cups per year.”  I was astounded of that number (2 million) that we were using as an organization.  If you consider that the average employee has 10 U.S. holidays and another 5 weeks paid vacation days, then it turns out that we consume 2 paper cups/day.  I’m not sure about you, but that seems high to me.  For example, I was using about 4 cups/week or about 0.8cups/day.
Over the years, “BLANK CO” actually had a 2-part solution.  In the past (part I), “BLANK CO” had replaced paper cups with bioplastic cups.  Does everyone know what a bioplastic is?  Bioplastics are plastics made from renewable resources such as vegetable oil and corn starch.  But bioplastics too have side effects:
·     The cups got old, cracked (Earthquake), and dangerous to your health
·     And just because the cup was made of corn-based plastics, doesn’t mean that it was fully biodegradable.  Sometimes little plastics pellets remain after they’ve finished decomposing.
·     When they do degrade in a landfill, they produce Methane which is 20x more potent than carbon dioxide.  And they produce carbon dioxide too.
·     Also, think of all of the natural biodiverse forests that were destroyed to plant more corn to supply the raw materials.  This goes against the spirit of “BLANK CO”’s CSR policy on Palm Oil.
Part II.  The present-day solution, as you know, is replacing the paper cups with ceramic cups.  They’re pretty and interesting to look at.  I have one with a tree and I’m looking to add to my collection. There’re some problems and secondary effects with using ceramic cups:
·     First of all, they require a significant amount of energy to produce.  It takes 70x as much energy to produce compared to foam cups.
·     It takes significantly more energy to ship ceramic cups (as they’re so much heavier) and require more packing.
·     There is much energy (from the hot water) and use of liquid detergents each time your ceramic cup is cleaned in the sink
·     A ceramic cup must be used 118x before it breaks-even with its disposable counterpart.  Some articles say that this number could be as high as 1000x, meaning you would have to clean your cup 4 years just to break even (in terms of energy efficiency).  However, the average person works at a company less than 5.
My solution is, well, I don’t have a particular one.  What I do have are ideas.
I think it would have been better if “BLANK CO” sought ideas throughout the company in a sort of fun contest.  My solutions would have been to:
·     Simply ask people to drink less coffee (think of the hotels you go to with their towel policies)
·     Purchase paper cups that have a biodegradable lining.  Yes, they’re more expensive, but not that much more (about 20-30% more).
·     Ask employees to bring a spare ceramic cup from home
In conclusion, “BLANK CO” is honestly trying to reduce our environmental footprint.  It tried by introducing bioplastic cups years ago, and more recently, by replacing paper cups with ceramic cups.
I think the science is all over the place.  What is clear is that we live in a decadent and spoiled society and asking us to use fewer cups (of ANY kind) would be a quick win.
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Why I became a Vegetarian

The probability of a SRI investor being a vegetarian is higher than for non-SRI investors.  How much higher, I don’t know.  But it seems logical that SRI investors that are more aware of the bigger society and negative derivative effects from large farm factories, etc. would be inclined to abstain from eating animals.

Below is a transcript from a speech I gave at a local Toastmaster’s club:

Good evening fellow Toastmasters’ and guests.  Tonight, I’m going to talk to you, perhaps convinceyou, or even better, inspire you to become a vegetarian. 
In my personal experience, people are extremely sensitive about what they eat so I wasn’t sure about speaking about this.  I’d add “eating habits” to the list of taboo topics to bring up at a dinner party, like politics, religion and money.
But wait a minute…..EVERYONE lately seems to be talking about Trump, so then maybe I can talk about my eating habits.
Introduction:
As a background, let me give you a brief definition of a vegetarian and derivations of that:
·      Vegans:  don’t eat ANY animal products including dairy products
·      Pescetarian:  eat fish but no other meat
·      Ovo-Lacto:  don’t eat meat but eat eggs & dairy (that’s me)
·      Fruitarians: only eat fruits and nuts.  These are the hippies of the world
·      Also, some vegetarians don’t use animal byproducts (e.g., leather)
I started being aware of vegetarianism when I was dating a girl who was one.  For me, vegetarians were like other-worldly religions.  I knew that they were out there, but I never had to think about it.  My girlfriend was kind of preachy about it and her anti-American antics. 
One time we were on vacation in Poitou-Charentes, which is a beautiful region on the west coast of France that’s known for its oysters and mussels.  So while restauranting, I did my proper duty and ordered a plate of oysters.  As I was enjoying my freshly shucked oysters my girlfriend critically noted how if I looked closely I could still see them wiggling.  Needless to say, it was years later until I became a full fledged vegetarian (2010).  (Reminder:  Nobody likes being preached too!)
The process of becoming a vegetarian was easier than I expected.  What’s helped me become disciplined in many aspects of life is not becoming hung-up or guilty if I had wanted to eat meat on some days. 
Here is a list of pros/cons of why I am a vegetarian.
Positives:
·      You are saving countless lives of animals
o  When I first realized, as a young boy, that my dinner was once a living breathing animal, like our family cat.   I rationalized that they lived tranquil lives on pastoral farms, but in fact they lived in prisons called factory-farms.
o  I will not show you any gruesome photos.  That, my friends, is only a Google search away.
·      Your energy footprint declines substantially.  Here are some key facts from vegetarian.procon.org:
o  Over 10 pounds of plant protein are used to produce 1 pound of beef protein
o  It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef and it takes only 220 gallons of water to make a pound of tofu.
o  Did you know that the livestock industry produces 18% of all greenhouse gases?  That’s more than all forms of transportation COMBINED.
·      You are more accepting and empathetic of others’ dietary restrictions
·      May prevent certain diseases
·       Helps keep down your body weight
·      Your skin even starts to look more “glowy”.  I’m starting to sound like a TV commercial…
·      TMI Alert:   Pooping becomes a lot easier and an overall smoother process
·      You give up fast-food almost instantly.  Few fast-food restaurants have veggie options.
Some drawbacks:
·      Everyone and their mother asks why you don’t eat meat
·      You come across as thinking that you are better than everyone else
·      Vegetarian restaurants can be pricey
·      There are some detrimental health effects if you don’t get enough B12 or protein
·      Choosing what to buy is a lot of work, but this burden is what it’s all about
o  When I good food shopping I have to read the labels carefully.  The same thing goes when dining.  I can’t simply order a French Onion soup because after doing some research I discovered it’s not just Onion and cheese.  It has a beef broth base.
·      People may view you as “not normal”
o  Definition of normal:  conforming to a standard, or the common type (“commoner”)
o  Noun: the average or mean
o  In Mathematics:  being at a right angle
Some of you may remember my first speech, the icebreaker, in which I described growing up in a “parochial” “small town” in the Bronx.  There, parochial wasn’t just the name of the catholic school I attended but a way of thinking.
I rarely questioned anything and was taught to be highly obedient to authority.  But then something magical happened when I became a vegetarian…  I starting thinking because I had to !
The process of identifying vegetarian ingredients in cookbooks, reading labels etc.., grew into questioning every page of my life.  It was like Peeling an onion to find the truth.  Since then, I’ve never looked back.  When I delve into an issue, I don’t just look at it from a right angle.  Instead, I look at it from all sides including secondary and tertiary affects.
Hmm…maybe I should have changed the title of this speech from Why I became a vegetarian to How becoming a vegetarian changed my life.
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The Mexican Peso (“MXN”): arriba, arriba, ARRIBA !

 

Buenos Noches readers.  This article’s purpose is to convince you why the Mexican peso (“MXN”) is going to rise against the almighty U.S. dollar.
Introduction:
As a background, we all know who won the U.S. Election.  The victory of Donald Trump was a seismic event in history.
  • Stocks are rising
  • Commodities and precious metals are stumbling 
  • Bonds are falling                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
  • The smell of inflation is back in the air
  • And the U.S. dollar is within arms-reach of parity with the Euro
Together these changes in Capital Markets are called the “Trump Trade.”  One victim not just in the markets but in geopolitics, has been Mexico.  Mexico has been the “poster child” for everything that has gone wrong with the United States.  According to Trump, the NAFTA trade agreement has taken jobs away from hardworking Americans, resulting in a lower standard of living.  Did you know that 9 out of 10 cars produced in Mexico get shipped to the U.S. (data sourced from UBS)? And then there’s the issue of immigration.  Trump wants to keep Mexicans out.  How’s he gonna do that?  Well I think we are know that answer!
Despite haven’t become President yet, there has been a real fallout on the Mexican economy and the MXN currency.  With every tweet, the Peso keeps declining.  It is now conventional wisdom that the MXN will continue to weaken over the next year.
I don’t believe that to be the case.  While there’s the Trump Trade, and that’s powerful.  There’s also something called the “Madness of Crowds.”  This is when every one of us agrees on something whether or not it’s based on logic.  There have been examples of Manias in the past, of which some were based on faulty-logic.  They include:
·      Tulip mania (1637)
·      Roaring Twenties (1922-1929)
·      Dot-Com Bubble (1995-2000)
·      Real-Estate bubbles (2006-2009)
·      Bitcoin (present day)
Bubbles usually end badly.  The Trump Rally too, will bust. If this happens, it will be the end for the almighty dollar.  I would like to give you five reasons why the Mexican peso will reverse course and RISE against the U.S. dollar.
1.     First, is something called “selling on the news.”  This is a reversal of a market price which goes in complete opposite of what was expected.  One often sees this when a company’s share price declines after reporting excellent earnings.  This is due to the news already being factored into the share price.  Once Trump becomes President, I expect the Peso to reverse its downtrend if rise in earnest by First Half 2017 (think Cinco de Mayo).
2.     The U.S. economy won’t move from 2% GDP growth to 4% just because there’s a different guy in the White House. Running the U.S. government is not the same as running the Trump business empire.  You don’t just give marching orders and have your plan executed.  There’s a whole process to the process, with pushback from Congress, lobbyists, etc.  In fact, according to a WSJ survey of economists, 2018 GDP was upwardly revised by just one-quarter of a percent (to 2.4%).
3.     Differences in real interest rates affect currencies.  The currency with the higher interest rates attracts more investments of which causes an increase in demand for investments denominated in that higher yielding currency. Mexico’s funding rate, for example is nearly double that of U.S 30YR rates.  It is true that a proportion of the higher rate is attributed to inflation, though the Bank of Mexico has aggressively raised rates (in each of its last three meetings) to nip it in the bud.  One can determine whether or not the difference in interest rates is affecting the currency by looking at forward currency rates.  Presently forward currency rates are slightly higher than present rates indicating traders expect to decline slowly.
4.     Oil prices are rising:  After plunging in 2015, oil prices rose 45% in 2016.  Oil prices are expected to remain elevated due to the Nov’16 OPEC agreement.  Mexico’s budget is highly dependent on taxes it receives from PEMEX, the national oil company. PEMEX provides nearly 20% of Mexico’s budget and 5% of exports (mostly to the U.S.). Oil is priced in USD so the net effect could be substantial.
5.     Purchasing Power Parity:  This is an economic theory that determines what the exchange rate should be based on a basket of goods of one country divided by a basket of goods from another country.  The Economist magazine popularized using the price of a Big Macin one country over that of another country to determine the exchange rate.  Its index shows that the Mexican Peso is over 50% undervalued compared to the USD (and its data was before the U.S. election).
Factors working against a stronger Peso are the continuing Drug Warin Mexico and risk to the Current Account surplus with the U.S.  According to the New York Times, in the first 10 months of 2016, there were 17,063 homicide cases in Mexico, already more than 2015’s total and the highest 10-month tally since 2012.  The Drug War has become an almost civil war on the country resulting not only in lost innocent lives but in lower potential economic growth.
Mexican’s trade surplusor Current Account could also hamper a strengthening Peso if Trump initiates trade tariffs onto Mexican imports.  Exports are typically good for the local peso as U.S. importers would have to convert their dollars in order to pay for the Mexican exports, hence more demand for pesos.  However, I believe import tariffs are doubtful as this could lead to a trade war with Mexico.
Conclusion:
The currency market is complex and not every factor I have stated to you will affect the Peso.  In summary, I believe the peso will rise due to changing investor expectations, slower U.S. economic growth compared to Mexico, higher interest rates in Mexico, a stronger economy in Mexico due to greater oil exports, and due to Purchasing Power Parity which shows that Big Macs cost just 50% of what they cost here in the U.S.  The peso will reverse its downtrend by 1H’17 – think Cinco de Mayo!
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