Sustainable Dietary Protein

The following is a short briefing paper I created in (successful) application for an internship at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST). This office produces (amongst other things) POST notes which provide parliamentarians with concise, timely information on various topics. Sustainable production of necessary dietary components is something I find fascinating and I chose to explore protein a bit further. I hope you enjoy it!

On 13 May 2013 the FAO released a new book: "Edible Insects: future prospects for feed and food security". There is growing concern regarding sustainable protein production for a growing population. This document addresses the role of protein in our diet, and the UK’s ability to produce it in the future.

Background

Protein is required in the human diet for growth and replacement of all cells in the body. Proteins are made from amino acids, which are present in all living things. There are 24 amino acids in the human body, 16 of which can be synthesised by healthy adult cells. The remaining 8 must be supplied from the diet, and are termed 'indispensable'.

Red and white meats, eggs, cheese, fish, nuts and beans are considered to be the 'high quality' proteins as they contain all 8 indispensable amino acids. 'Poor quality' proteins are those lacking at least 1 amino acid including wheat, rice, and maize. Their incomplete protein profile can be overcome by eating complementary proteins e.g. a meal of beans (pulse) on toast (cereal) gives protein of equal quality to meat, meaning a vegetarian diet can supply an adequate profile of indispensable amino acids (1).

Recommended Protein Consumption

The recommended daily allowance of protein is 55 g for an average adult (2). The National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) (3) found that the average adult consumption of protein was actually above this, with men consuming an average of 85.1 g day^-1 and women 64.4 g day^-1 (Table 1).

Table 1. Dietary protein intake for UK population

	Boys (4-18)	Men (19-64)	Men (65+)	Girls (4-18)	Women (19-64)	Women (65+)
Median daily protein intake (g) (3)	63.0	85.1	77.0	55.9	64.4	63.3

Consumption of up to 2-3 times the recommended guideline of protein is considered harmless; however once the body's protein needs are met excess protein is simply used for its calorific value, and surplus to requirements will be stored as fat. 

UK Protein Requirement and Production

Based on results from the NDNS and population estimates (4) it can be estimated that each year the UK requires almost 1.5 million tonnes of red meat, 700,000 tonnes of white meat, 500,000 tonnes of fish, and 300,000 tonnes of pulses. Currently the UK imports around 90% of meat consumed, but its self-sufficiency in producing beef stands at 80%, sheep at 65%, pork at 60-70% and poultry 88% (5). These figures are however in steady decline.

A food security analysis found that the UK is able to produce sufficient calories from arable, horticulture and livestock farming to provide the population with a healthy (if restricted) diet in a crisis situation (6). In reality it is unlikely the UK would act in isolation from the global market, and consumers are likely to demand a greater supply of high quality products over time, so the demand for meat is unlikely to fall.

Sustainability of meat production

The concerns surrounding future meat production include: production of cereals for animals that could instead be used for human consumption, environmental degradation from agricultural practices (POSTnote 418) greenhouse gas emissions, and concerns for animal welfare in more efficient 'intensive' systems (POSTnote 404). There are also serious concerns regarding the sustainability of fish stocks (6).

Table 2. Efficiency of animal-sourced protein production (7)

	Cricket	Poultry	Pork	Beef
Feed conversion ratio (kg feed: kg live weight)	1.7	2.5	5	10
% edible weight	80-100	55	55	40
g protein per kg edible weight	154-205	200	150	190

Production of meat is very inefficient in energy terms. The argument for the incorporation of insects into our diets centres on this inefficiency. For example, 5 kg feed is required to produce 1 kg pork (see Table 2), whereas crickets require only 1.7 kg feed per kg live weight. In addition more of the organism is edible (having no bones) and they provide protein equal to red or white meat. In all they are a much more efficient source of protein. While pulses are an even more efficient and lower-cost form of protein production, in the UK their consumption is 5 times lower than that of red meat. Considering this preference for red meat as a protein source it seems unlikely insects would be accepted as a protein alternative. 

Between January 2007 and December 2008 the cost of beef rose 21 %, lamb 16 %, poultry 23 % and fish 15% (6). As the cost of animal feed is linked to the price of nitrogen fertiliser – which is in turn linked to oil prices – it is likely that the price of meat to the consumer will continue to rise in coming years.

Conclusions

Owing to consumer preference it is unlikely that insects will form part of our diets in the near future. Sustainable production of protein is still a concern, and it is likely that pressure from rising food costs may yet force a reduction in the consumption of meat. Farming of insects for the global market may however provide another source of income for UK farmers.

---

References

1. G. Wiseman, Nutrition and Health (Taylor and Francis, 2002).
2. FSA, Manual of Nutrition (The Stationery Office, ed. 11, 2008).
3. Department of Health, National Diet and Nutrition Survey: Headline Results from Years 1, 2 and 3 (combined) of the Rolling Programme 2008/09 – 2010/11 (2012) (available at http://transparency.dh.gov.uk/2012/07/25/ndns-3-years-report/).
4. Dataset: Estimates of resident population: number, by age group, annual 2011, MFPHealth and Social Care Information Centre (2012) (available at https://indicators.ic.nhs.uk/webview/).
5. T. Garnett, Meat and Dairy Production & Consumption (2007; http://www.fcrn.org.uk/sites/default/files/TGlivestock_env_sci_pol_paper.pdf).
6. Defra, UK Food Security Assessment: Detailed Analysis (2010; http://archive.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/food/pdf/food-assess100105.pdf).
7. A. van Huis, Potential of insects as food and feed in assuring food security, Annual review of entomology 58, 563–83 (2013).

Passive housing

Whilst driving to a conference a few weeks back, I caught the beginning of an episode of Costing the Earth on Radio 4. The subject: self-heating homes.

It was definitely worth the wait in inspiration terms - and I recommend a listen here. I have long dreamed of building my own house, and with rising heating bills, the prospect of a house that requires minimal energy input is very tempting.

For me, the most shocking statistic in the programme was that 27% of our carbon emissions in the UK come from heating our homes. This is the result of poorly insulated housing - and you only have to look at 1960s prefab homes to understand why. Much of UK housing is cheap and cheerful - we tend to see our homes more as investments, as a step on the property ladder, so we tend to settle for the housing that is made for us, rather than investing the effort and hours to really make them our own.

The problem here is that building developers have absolutely no long-term interest in the houses they produce; as long as they look nice and sell well it's a job well done. Never mind the long-term heating costs (or future flood risk for that matter). When you design and build a house yourself you are more likely to invest in its insulation as it is you that will reap the rewards in the long run.

The dream is 'passive housing': the house that heats itself, requiring no (or minimal) input. Surprise, surprise, it's the Germans who are developing it. Some stereotypes exist for a reason (sometimes I seriously wonder if I should emigrate). The question remains: how to incorporate these ideas into existing UK housing. I for one will be keeping an ear to the ground.

'Tis the season to be collecting molehills!

Following my general disgust with the state of peat-free compost available from garden centres, Jon and I have determined to make our own seedling compost this year.

The key to seedling compost is a fine texture that allows seedlings to push down their roots, good water holding capacity so they don't dry out, and a good amount of potassium (i.e. potash - i.e. ash) to give the roots the oomph they need to get going. Seedlings really don't need much else.

So we are attempting something new: combining coir, worm compost, ash and molehills.

Molehills? I hear you say.

Well yes. A friend recommended this to me as molehills are composed of lovingly excavated soil from a depth at which the soil is pretty clean - i.e. free of weed seeds. The result is crumbly soil containing lots of lovely bacteria and nutrients which will bulk out your seedling mix.

The worm compost was from the first batch of 'black gold' from the bottom level of our wormery. Man those little guys have been hard at work. It's beautiful stuff.

The coir we get from Oxfam - it comes in a solid package about the size of a standard brick, costing £2.50. You soak it in water and the result is a builder's bucket of lovely coir compost whose transport has required a whole lot less fossil fuels than a hydrated sack from the garden centre. I imagine this would be a brilliant job for kids to do - it's like those expanding travel flannels on a massive scale.

As for the ash? Well, that comes from me burning our old bank statements, car insurance documents etc. Waste not, want not.

So far, no unexpected fungi. DO try this at home!

Dry skin, acne, carrots and Vitamin A

As alluded to in my olive oil posts from earlier this year, I used to have horrendous skin. Bad acne, greasy T-zone, the lot. Since then, my skin seems to have swung the full width of the scale and is now incredibly dry - so much so that I can put hand cream on my face in the morning, and still have dried-out skin by midday. Unfortunately the acne hasn't completely gone away, and at the age of 29 I am still tied to using medicated face washes. In short, since about the age of 11 I have had fairly rubbish skin, as I just haven't known how to deal with it. And I am fed up with it.

A while ago I bought a book about adult acne, which told me that the three chemicals I need to look for in products are retinol (vitamin A), salicylic acid and benzoyl peroxide. Since learning that without one of these chemicals it's unlikely that there will be much improvement in my skin, I was amazed at how few of the marketed products actually contain ANY of them! I have succeeded in locating a few that contain salicylic acid (and only 1 at a significant percentage), none that contain benzoyl peroxide, and a couple of very expensive beauty creams that contain retinol.

The latter of these I find extremely interesting, as it seems retinol also has a widely mentioned effect on wrinkles and other skin imperfections. Excellent! But I'm not spending £12 on a teeny bottle of moisturiser.

So having done some more research I discovered that there are a few vegetables that have high levels of vitamin A: carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli and butternut squash. So while I can't afford expensive creams I do normally have a carrot or two knocking around in the fridge which I can add to face masks. Other good sources are dairy products and meat - especially liver.

While I'm not up to a Victoria Beckham-style meat mask, I can very easily combine some grated carrot and yoghurt. I often use yoghurt on its own as a face mask as it really makes my dry skin soft, but the addition of vitamin A should help not only my spots but my encroaching wrinkles too. I've been using the recipe below every other day, and my skin seems to be responding well. Hopefully this increase in skin care will mean I can cut down on the money I spend on cosmetics too!

----

Super face mask for dry, acne prone skin:

1 tsp grated carrot/ sweet potato/ squash
1 tsp natural yoghurt
1/2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp oatmeal

Leave on for 10 minutes, then rinse off with water and moisturise.

No 'poo #2

Earlier this year I attempted to go without shampoo for a month, instead using bicarb and vinegar.

It did not work.

I don't know if it's because of the hard water where I was living, the way I was doing it, or my hair itself that was the problem. Either way, after a couple of weeks the crown of my head was permanently greasy and more than a bit gross. I may be a bit of a hippy, but I do care about my appearance. So out came the bottle of shampoo...

In an attempt to save my growing hair I also cut back how often I wash my hair to twice a week, and try not to use elasticated hair ties so much. But my hair remains unhappy, so it's time for me to try something different again.

Using the experience I gained I will be doing things a bit different this time. I think a more appropriate name for this experiment may be "no detergent" - I intend to try out a variety of 'traditional' shampoos, and report back on how they have worked for me.

My hair is now quite long and remains very thick, very fine (as per a chinchilla) and a bit greasy - I can go 3 days without a wash, but the fourth always requires dry shampoo (for which I use cornflour and a lot of brushing). I long ago stopped using chemical dyes, and rarely blow dry my hair. But because it is so fine it quickly gets very knotty, and because it grows so slowly it also tends to get ratty at the ends.

The first experiment showed me a few things that really did help with these last two things:

1) vinegar and lemon juice make excellent conditioners. I now keep an old washing up liquid bottle containing 1 part cider vinegar, 1 part lemon juice, 10 parts water and a cinnamon stick in the shower to rinse my hair after washing. It really softens my hair and makes it feel much less dry.

2) olive oil is also an excellent conditioner and detangler. I run a tiny amount through the ends of my hair by hand or by rubbing this small amount of oil onto my hairbrush. My ends seem much healthier, and less knotty as a result.

3) henna is amazing! I have more than a few grey hairs now, and it also helps with this. At about £7 for a block of Caca Rouge from Lush, it works out at just over £2 per dying session - much cheaper than chemical dyes, and much better for my hair. Obviously only useful if you have dark hair!

My main priorities with finding an alternative to standard shampoos is that it should be cheap, easy and not reliant on fossil fuels for its production; I am reluctant to use the words 'sustainable', 'green' or 'ecological', but these would also be relevant. If I can find it in my kitchen cupboard, so much the better.

Let the experiments commence!

Boring vegetarian food

I often get annoyed when people say vegetarian food is boring: that taking meat out makes the meal less interesting, or that it 'just isn't the same' without some animal protein in the dish. I've known a number of friends struggle with structuring a meal that doesn't have meat as the centre (them: "what's a lamb casserole without the lamb?" me: "why try to make a lamb casserole without the lamb?").

Now Jon and I aren't vegetarian. We do eat meat from time to time. But only if it's local, and only if it's good quality. I'd say 95% of our meals do not contain any meat. Quite frankly, around Christmas time, with the roast beef, pork pie, gammon, pigs in blankets and sausage rolls (no turkey in our house!), I generally feel sick - and tired. My body really struggles with breaking down meat. It makes me feel sluggish and slow, and I feel a million times better (and much less bloated) when I eat less meat.

I get really, really annoyed when people say tofu is bland. Yes, it's bland, but so is chicken if you boil it and eat it. If it tastes bland, you're not cooking it right! Fry it in some oil and soy sauce then eat it with sweet chilli sauce, and then say it's bland. It's like chicken, except it isn't tough and doesn't get stuck in my teeth.

To back my point up, here a some pictures of recent meals of ours. I seem to have developed a habit of going "hang on, I need to take a picture of my dinner!" before we tuck in.

Favourite meal #1 Salad! On this occasion made with home grown lettuce, pepper and herbs, cashews, eggs, artichoke hearts and cous cous. Salads vary completely depending on what's available at the market/ in the garden/ on the allotment. My personal favourites for this year include violet leaves, columbine leaves, watercress and rose petals.

Favourite meal #2 affectionally referred to as 'Japanese noodle soupy thing' as I'm not really sure what it is. I cook udon noodles in water with some soy sauce, chilli and other interesting cupboard ingredients. Fresh veg is chopped up and added for the final minute of noodle cooking time, then miso is stirred in at the end. I LOVE fried tofu, so this always goes in too, along with some home made kimchi, cashews and sesame seeds.

Lunch time! Cheese and coleslaw roll with marigold petals. Jon makes the most amazing coleslaw from cabbage, carrot, apple, walnut and yoghurt, alongside some magical seasoning that I can never replicate.

 Pasta and pesto, our style. This one was actually vegan, as we made the pesto ourselves from wild garlic and hazelnuts (a completely free product if you ignore the gallons of olive oil required). All mixed up with homegrown heritage mange tout, broad beans and spinach - and a bit of red cabbage too. This looked so much better than the picture gives it credit for!

Stir fry with udon noodles. A bit like the soup, only without the soupy bit. Loads of fresh veg and tasty seasoning. Granted this isn't actually vegetarian owing to the pork balls on top which we had because we had a bunch of sausages to use up after a BBQ - but while they were nice, I really didn't think they added much to the meal. I much prefer the kimchi dumplings we get from the Korean shop occasionally, but to be honest it didn't need anything added. When you have that many fresh vegetables, and the right balance of seasoning, meat just seems crude and stodgy in comparison!

So, that's my compulsive obsession with photographing my dinner sated, I thank you for indulging me. As a final point I will add one more picture - of an amazing meal Jon and I had when we visited his mum last weekend.

Yes, just look at that steak! It was delicious, don't get me wrong: it was all local and fresh. Unfortunately for me, it just didn't stay down - I was up half the night as my body tried to rid itself of whatever had offended it. My best guess is that my body just couldn't handle the richness of the food. And the salad would have been delicious even without all that meat...

I am wondering if I should become a full-time veggie and part-time vegan for my own wellbeing. Whenever I eat too much meat - or cheese - or processed food - I can feel my energy levels slump, and my waistband expand. The joy of the moment is always replaced by sluggishness, tiredness and general lardiness. Could I give it up though? I'll keep you posted...

Waste not, want not...

I hate sending stuff to landfill. I don't know if I'm normal in considering where my rubbish goes every time I put something in the bin, but I do. All I can see is it sitting there, taking up what used to be a nice piece of greenfield land.

So whilst contemplating our hayfever sufferer's bins in recent weeks (i.e. containing mountains of tissues), Jon and I decided that it didn't make much sense to send a bin-load of waste containing 99% tissues and a few crisp packets to landfill. So in in recent weeks have trialled a new system whereby only the kitchen bin contains landfill waste. The other bins (bedroom, bathroom etc.) are biodegradable only, and go to the allotment compost mountain. The tissues provide a lot of the 'brown' (i.e. high carbon) matter to balance out the 'green' (high nitrogen) from vegetable waste and grass clippings. Our kitchen bin now goes out once every 2-3 weeks (normally when something in there starts smelling a bit iffy) in the bin bags the council have given us, which are normally only 1/3 full because they're HUGE!

One of our main culprits for bin stinkification is orange peel. I've always thought that worms aren't great fans of it as it's acidic, so it's one of the things that doesn't go in the compost all the time. But, as I've said, I hate chucking stuff in the bin. So whilst reading Michelle Magorian's "A little Love Song" this week (such a lovely book) I had a lightbulb moment when the main character saves orange peel to make marmalade. "Duh - I could do that" I thought.

So today I chopped up our breakfast orange peel and popped it into a tub with some sugar as I figure that will keep the aromatic oils in shape. Each time we have an orange the same will be repeated. This may in time require a larger container!

Having done this I thought I'd have a gander online, to see if I could find anyone else as mad as me, and (as I often find) moneysavingexpert.com came to my aid. To my relief I'm not the first person to do this (let's not forget oranges were a luxury item until fairly recently), and they even had a recipe by Shirley Goode for 'Miser's Marmalade'...

Save peel from 2 large oranges for marmalade. Chop finely and soak overnight in 2pt (1.1ltr) of water. Simmer for 1.5 hours. Make up to 1.5pt (925ml). Stir in 2.25lb (1kg) sugar plus the juice and pulp of a large lemon. Boil rapidly to setting point. Pot in hot sterile jars. 

...and someone suggesting saving the peel in sugar to preserve the oils. Bazinga! So I will continue saving my orange peel, and make it up into marmalade as per the recipe, detracting the sugar used for preserving the peel.

Brilliant. One less thing to go to landfill. Now to find some alternative for plastic food bags... :-/

Weekly recycling - about time too!

Today I returned home to find a leaflet: "Your new recycling and waste collection service explained" (why the need for italics I'm not quite sure).

"Uh-oh" I thought.

But it turns out they're making our recycling service weekly in order to encourage people to recycle more (currently it's fortnightly). I suspect weekly collection of landfill waste will cease at some point soon...

About bloody time I say!

At the moment, by the time it's recycling week, the box is overflowing. Meanwhile the landfill waste goes out about once a month. If we had a wood burning stove for all the tissues and cotton buds to go in, I reckon we could get away with a bi-yearly waste collection (of plastic packaging)

If I can get up on my soap box for a minute, I get so irate at the stink people cause over the possible move to fortnightly waste collections. For a start, I don't even understand how people can produce that much waste - especially as the council provides an everything-in-one-box (i.e. idiot proof) recycling collection service. All you have to do is put things in a different bin! People complain about landfill and council tax, but don't seem to realise that waste has to go somewhere, and we have to pay for that luxury. Ok, rant over.

In short -

Go Wokingham Borough Council, I approve!

Vinegar

If you're interested in sustainable living, you need at least one German friend.

Why? You ask

Because in Germany people still do things like pickling and jarring and making your own. In England, we just don't cut it - you can't walk into a supermarket and pick up some sourdough starter, a large contraption to sterilise your bottled preserves, or a vinegar mother.

Yes, a vinegar mother. My friend Sabine very kindly offered me one after I mentioned we had a ton of white wine left over after the wedding. I'd always assumed vinegar happened from the oxidation of alcohol. Alcohol --> aldehyde --> carboxylic acid, right? I remember that from A-level chemistry. But apparently vinegar comes via my best friends, bacteria.

So how does one go about making vinegar?

First, take one vinegar mother proffered by German friend.

If you do not have either of these resources, proceed to step two...

Take leftover gone-off wine (fairly traded, of course), and pour into large, wide-necked container.

 Next, add vinegar mother... schlop!

...then cover with a clean cloth, and leave in a cool place for several weeks/months (I am unclear on the exact duration of this - more later)

If you do not have a starter, apparently it will do the work itself. Like with all things in nature, bacteria come as a bonus, whether we like it or not.

In this case I imagine the necessary bacteria (Mycoderma aceti) will predominate as the natural oxidation proceeds and the vinegar becomes more acidic. We use vinegar to preserve food as it stops the growth of 'bad' bacteria and fungi - from my experience very few of these are particularly fond of acidic conditions. I just never knew that there could be good bacteria in vinegar. Maybe that's why so many health books say it's good for you...

The hobbit house

So I have spent most of this week writing my transfer-to-PhD report - a necessary evil if you want a doctorate degree. In all fairness, it's proving to be a very helpful process, and I'm eternally grateful I'm registered with the agriculture department who have a very practical and hands-on approach to such things.

However, sitting in front of a computer all day, while something I've spent far too much of my adult life doing, is not my idea of fun. This evening I've spent some time dreaming (granted, this began in front of a computer...).

In case you have not come across this picture of the 'hobbit house' before, it is the craftmanship of Simon Dale (www.simondale.net). The house was built using natural materials, and I think it's just plain beautiful. While I'm all in favour of the sustainable, chemical-free aspect of this kind of housing, it's actually the aesthetics that really sell it for me. No straight lines, no mdf, no crappy plastic fittings. I think I'd prefer to have the beamed stripped (bark-off, rather than bark-on) though, so I could keep them dust and cobweb free - I imagine gunk would accumulate fairly quickly on that ceiling!

Jon and I made a pinky promise to do this when we have some land of our own. I suspect it may come in the form of guest housing on the farm.