Episode 24 - Wine

The wine market isn’t as concentrated as the beer market. The largest wine producer in the world, E&J Gallo, only has 2.7% of global production. Wine is made in at least fifty countries worldwide. The top five wine exporting countries are France (30% of wine exports), Italy (20%), Spain (9%), Australia (6%), and Chile (5%). All Canadian wine is produced by “small wineries” (wineries that sold less than 200,000 litres of wine)

Human Rights and the Wine Industry

South African Wine and Apartheid

A 2011 Human Rights Watch (HRW) Report, “Ripe with Abuse”, drew attention to human rights condition at South African wineries. A documentary called Bitter Grapes also examined this issue. South Africa’s legacy of apartheid has “continued to haunt the wine sector”.

Farm workers often live in substandard on-farm housing. In one case documented by HRW, a family was living in a converted pig stall with no electricity and water. The structure didn’t even provide shelter from weather. They had been living there for ten years. On-farm housing puts workers in really precarious positions, because when they are fired they lose not only their income but also their home. An estimated 930,000 workers were evicted from housing South African farms between 1994 and 2004. Although there are legal requirements around evicting farm workers, land owners frequently break those rules.

The work is usually seasonal and the pay is very low, especially for female farmworkers. At its extreme, some vineyards in South Africa were paying workers in alcohol rather than wages. Vineyard owners have been documented paying under South Africa’s minimum wages.

Working conditions are generally poor on these farms. Workers often don’t receive contracts or copies of their contracts. Part of the problem is the lack of labour inspectors: there are just over 100 labour inspectors for 6,000 farms and workplaces in the Western Cape. And labour inspectors give farms prior notice when they do inspect.

Farm workers face obstacles in unionizing, especially the fear of discrimination or being fired. For that reason, union density in the Western Cape agricultural sector is 3%, compared with 30% in South Africa’s formal sector as a whole. 2012 South Africa’s Wine Industry Ethical Trade Association launched an ethical seal for unfair labour practices.

Human Rights and Wine Elsewhere 

Although South Africa is most famous for human rights abuses on vineyards, it would be a mistake to assume that it is the only place where these problems persist. Agricultural work is among the most exploited industries.

Fairtrade Wine

One option if workers’ rights are a concern for you is to go for Fairtrade wine, if you’re buying from somewhere like South Africa, where labour protections might not be very strong. If you are looking for wine from South Africa, Argentina, Chile, or Lebanon, there are Fairtrade options available. In Canada, there are at least four wine brands that you can get with the Fairtrade seal. The United Kingdom appears to have a wider range of Fairtrade wine available.

Migrant Labour and Wineries

Canadian wineries rely on migrant labour (seasonal agricultural workers) to do a lot of the work on grape farms. That is common for wine produced in other wealthy countries.

So, the story of labour on Canadian wineries is in a very real sense the story of how we treat seasonal agricultural workers. On that metric, you might want to check out wine from Saskatchewan: it is the province that has done the best job of protecting the human rights of temporary foreign workers, according to a 2018 report by the Canadian Council for Refugees. TFWs there have access to healthcare with no waiting period – which isn’t the case for many provinces – and does a good job of legislating and enforcing worker protections. The federal government and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador fared the worst on this scorecard, with a C or D rating in every category except one (access to permanent residence was a B for Newfoundland, while enforcement of rules and regulations was a B for the federal government). Of the four major wine-producing provinces – Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, and Nova Scotia – British Columbia has the best protections according to the report (although it wasn’t great either, and there are barriers to accessing healthcare for seasonal agricultural workers). 

COVID-19 and Grape Farms

Farm owners are receiving $1,500 per worker to cover the costs of the required two-week quarantine. In BC, fruit farms rely heavily on backpackers to work during the harvest. They aren’t part of the temporary workers’ program, and it’s expected that this labour source won’t be available. The hope is to train a domestic workforce for the June harvest.

Environment and Wine

Pesticide Use on Vineyards

Grapes are disease- and pest-prone crops, so conventional grape farming uses large quantities of pesticides. Vineyards represent 3% of agricultural land in France, but 20% of phytosanitary volumes and 80% of fungicide use.

Some of those pesticides, including glyphosphate, have been identified as toxic or otherwise linked to adverse health consequences. In France, Valérie Murat launched a lawsuit in 2015 on behalf of her father, James-Bernard Murat, a vine grower who died from cancer. His death was officially recognized as being linked to his profession by the agricultural mutual society (MSA, la Mutuelle sociale agricole). Murat had sprayed three different pesticides containing the chemical sodium ar nite, which is now banned as a cancer-causing poison. Valérie wants his death recognized as manslaughter.

23 schoolchildren were hospitalized in Bordeaux in 2014 after a nearby vineyard sprayed a fungicide.Public attention to the issue of pesticide use in France has prompted some government actions. Glyphosphate is set to be banned by 2021. And the government is set to create no-spray zones to separate sprayed crops from people living and working nearby. One problem is that some winegrowers compensate for pesticide use with mechanization, which increases the carbon footprint of the operation.

Organic Wine

One option is to buy organic-certified wine. Organic agriculture doesn’t use pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. Organic production doesn’t guarantee that an operation is environmentally-friendly on all metrics. For instance, organics rules may not govern water management. And it doesn’t take into account carbon footprints.

The LCBO is actually featuring organic wines right now.

Biodynamic Certification

Vineyards can also be certified as biodynamic farms. Biodynamic farming uses organic methods, but the standards are stricter and have things like biodiversity requirements. Biodynamic agriculture is similar to organic farming, but it also emphasizes some spiritual and mystical elements. It was created in the 1920s by Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian “philosopher, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant.” The oldest biodynamic accreditation is the Demeter label. Kristen’s personal view: a little kooky, but mostly harmless.

Salmon-Safe Vineyard Certification

If you are buying wine from Oregon, Washington, or British Columbia, you can buy wine that is certified as Salmon-Safe. Basically, it means that the grapes were farmed according to standards that reduce vineyard run-off, protect water quality, and enhance biodiversity. As far as I could tell, it’s basically an add-on to organic or biodynamic certification

Climate Change

It has become an increasing point of discussion that organic =/= low-carbon. Some wineries are making commitments to reduce their carbon footprints. If climate change is the most important metric for you, you can look for wine with the Carbonzero certification.

Carbonzero is a carbon neutrality standard that requires emissions measurements and offsets (although carbon offsets are imperfect).

You can also get wine that is LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified. LEED is a certification operated by the Canada Green Building Council. It looks at things like water usage, energy efficiency, and sustainable site development. Stratus Vineyards was the first Canadian winery to obtain this standard, which it did in 2005.

Boxed versus Bottled

The most environmentally-friendly way to consume wine is to have it filled somewhere (en vrac method), but that option isn’t available most places – especially right now.

Bag-in-box wine is lighter than glass, so on carbon footprint you might be better off, especially if the wine has to travel a long way. Both glass and cardboard are recyclable, but the plastic bag and spout probably aren’t.

Tetra-paks have the carbon savings advantage of bag-in-box wine, but the drawback is that it’s made of a fusion of polyethylene, paper and aluminum. So you need special equipment to recycle them. As a result, the global recycling rate of Tetra Paks is 26%. And the recycling is actually downcycling, as compared with glass – where you pretty much get the same output from recycling.

Animal Welfare

We covered this in the vegetarianism episode, but you can go to Barnivore to find vegan alcohol options, including wine. Again, many wines aren’t vegan because they are clarified using fining agents that are made of casein (milk protein), albumin (egg whites), gelatine (animal protein), or isinglass (fish bladder protein). Fining agents can be vegan though, for instance activated charcoal and bentonite (clay). Many organic wines aren’t vegan, but some are.

Major Brands and Ethical Consumer’s Wine Guide

Barefoot Wines, the biggest selling wine in the world, is made by E&J Gallo Winery, scored relatively well on Ethical Consumer’s company rating. They scored an 11.5 out of 20, which is the top of the “amber” category (out of green, amber, and red).

E&J Gallo doesn’t report on environmental performance, doesn’t independently verify, and doesn’t have targets for improvement. So Ethical Consumer gave it their worst rating for environmental reporting. E&J Gallo also got a worst rating for supply chain management. This is because “It was considered to have a reasonable approach to discrimination, and forced and child labour, but did not mention freedom of association, living wages, or working hours. The company was considered to have a poor supply chain policy.”

On the other hand, Ethical Consumer recommends avoiding Constellation Brands products.

Episode 09 - Veganuary

Veganism as a Set of Ideas and a Movement

History of veganism

The term veganism was coined in 1944 by a British guy named Donald Watson and a small group of non-dairy vegetarians. When they were creating the word vegan, they also suggested: dairyban, vitan, benevore, neo-vegetarian, sanivores, and beaumangeur.

And that is how the Vegan Society came to be founded. Veganism is, as self-described, “A philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals, and the environment.” Veganism is still a bit more of a fringe lifestyle, which is why it is so much harder – whereas almost every restaurant today will have a vegetarian option that is not always true for vegans.

History of Veganuary

Veganuary is a campaign started by a British charity with the same name that was founded in 2014. In 2019, the nonprofit says that 250,000 people took the pledge to try a vegan diet. Veganuary also draws participation from 500 companies, and it has become a hub for launching plant-based products and menus. Veganuary is also supported by Joaquin Phoenix, who lobbied for the all-vegan menu at this year’s Golden Globes. The campaign also aims to raise awareness and to mobilize people into a mainstream vegan movement.

Why veganism?

Although there is a wide spectrum of vegans that have different justifications for their lifestyle choice, most vegans view animal welfare as one of the main reasons behind their choice. From an animal welfare perspective, vegans argue that vegetarianism just doesn’t cut it: dairy and egg family can be just as bad or worse for animal welfare.

The strongest version of the argument says that we shouldn’t use animals as an end at all – so some vegans view it as wrong to even, say, shear a very happy sheep for wool. But most vegans focus on the very real contemporary horrors of our modern food, clothing, and cosmetics industries. The famous historian Yuval Noah Harari (author of Sapiens and Homo Deus), called animal farming “the worst crime in history”.[1]

And many vegans explicitly take aim at the idea that humane meat is possible. Many of today’s “humane” standards, like cage-free eggs, still leave animals in cruel conditions.  

What about wild game? A lot of vegans have ethical issues with killing animals at all, but many will grant that this is a lesser harm than factory farming. However, from an environmental perspective, vegans will often point out that it would be impossible to feed the planet if everyone was consuming this kind of ‘humane’ meat (at least, in anywhere near the quantities that we do today). So, in some sense buying wild game or humane meat from local organic farms is a kind of modern indulgence for privileged aspects of society.

Veganism and whiteness

But the vegan movement has run into some issues of its own when it comes to race and inclusivity. 

For Indigenous people, hunting is a traditional way of life. Especially given the trauma that has been inflicted upon these populations continually since colonization, the ability to connect to traditions is an important part of cultural healing and resilience. Indigenous peoples will also point out that environmental stewardship and respect for the land and animals is embedded in their cultural traditions. So, from their perspective hunting is a morally justifiable part of their way of life. It’s also a crucial component of food sovereignty for Indigenous communities.

This is where vegan activists have sometimes come into conflict with Indigenous people. From an Indigenous perspective, some vegan activists have a White Animal Savior complex, which is inherently anti-indigenous. For example, in 2017 animal activists targeted a new Indigenous-owned and -operated restaurant in Toronto because it had seal on the menu. This was despite the fact that the restaurant (Kū-Kum Kitchen) made a point of vetting the hunters from whom they sourced their seal meat. For more on this issue, check out the documentary Angry Inuk.

More generally, vegan activism has also been criticized for racism against other communities. In 2003 PETA released an ad that related the poultry industry to the Holocaust. Animal activists have made similar associations between animal farming and slavery. 

We also need to talk about the connection between veganism and white nationalism, because Nazis ruin everything. Evidently, a sizable portion of white nationalists are vegan. This has something to do with the concept of “blood and soil” that is a bedrock of white nationalism. Apparently, Hitler was famously vegetarian, which I just learned. But if you recall the uncomfortable association between early vegetarianism and eugenics, it’s not all that surprising.

Finally, until recently been a lack of BIPOC representation in animal rights organizations. As this is starting to change, animal rights activists are becoming attuned to the need to become more intersectional. That means thinking seriously about oppression and developing strategies that are more inclusive.

If you want to be a woke vegan, Gloria Oladipo offers a few tips in an article she wrote for Afropunk. First, non’t culturally appropriate – vegan versions of cultural dishes should come from members of that culture. Next, support initiatives that make plants more accessible – food deserts are often in racialized communities, and solving that problem should be a first focus. Third, feature more BIPOC vegans. (Actually, polling has found that Black and Latinx Americans are vegetarian in roughly the same proportions as white Americans.[2] BIPOC individuals should be represented and should have leadership roles in the movement). And finally, show up for BIPOC causes – acknowledge that BIPOC go through a lot and be an ally.

A friendlier, more inclusive animal-free movement?

That new inclusivity focus has already benefited the movement immensely by underscoring the need to focus on institutional change, rather than individual lifestyle choices. This is one of the core points that Jacy Reese makes in his book, The End of Animal Farming. So, rather than shaming individuals for eating meat, the animal-free movement is now focusing on shaming factory farms and pushing for institutional change.[3] Reese argues that this is actually more efficient because it helps people to overcome status quo bias and mobilizes a wider base of support.  

This is helpful from a strategic perspective because most people already think factory farming is bad; they just feel overwhelmed by the problem and powerless to change things. 32% of Americans believe “animals deserve the same rights as people to be free from harm and exploitation” and another 62% believe they deserve “some rights”, according to a 2015 Gallup poll.[4] The increase in pro-animal rights attitudes over the 1990s and early 2000s is generally attributed to: urban pet ownership, cosmopolitanism, feminism, and religious trends (secularization and the increasing popularity of pro-vegetarian religions like Buddhism). In California, Proposition 2 (a ballot initiative to ban animal confinement in small spaces) drew the highest positive turnout for a citizen initiative in the state’s history.[5]

Tactics like animal farm investigations have also helped, by exposing the conditions in factory farms. The first modern animal farm investigation was carried out in 1992 on a foie gras farm, exposing force-feeding. In the late 1990s and early 2000s these investigations became increasingly popular. “A 1998 PETA investigation of a pig-breeding farm led to the first felony indictments ever for cruelty to farmed animals”.[6] The Humane Society of the US “released a ground-breaking undercover investigation of a California slaughterhouse” in 2008.[7] As these investigations gained prominence, the meat, dairy, and egg industries started to lobby for “ag-gag” laws to limit the ability of activists to document animal farm operations.[8]

Veganism as a Dietary Choice

Vegans don’t eat animals or animal-derived products. This obviously includes meat, fish, poultry, dairy, and eggs. But one of the most difficult things about going vegan is navigating all of the secret animal products in our food.

Animal-derived ingredients

PETA has a comprehensive list of animal-derived ingredients. Dummies.com also has a list. Theirs doesn’t include everything on the PETA list. But it has an easy-to-use layout.

Some of the most common animal-derived ingredients include:

o   Beeswax and honey;

o   Casein (a milk protein derived from animal’s milk), calcium caseinate, sodium caseinate;

o   Confectioner’s glaze, resinous glaze, shellac, natural glaze, pure food glaze (comes from a hardened resinous material secreted by the lac insect);

o   Gelatin (a gelling agent derived from animal collagen);

o   Isinglass (a clarifying agent used in making wine and brewing beer, derived from fish bladders);

o   L. cysteine (a dough conditioner in some pre-packaged breads and baked goods, often sourced from feathers or human hair);

o   Whey (the liquid that remains once milk has been curdled or churned and strained);

o   Carmine (used as a red dye, this is from ground cochineal scale insects);

o   Lactose, saccharum lactin, d-lactose (I found this in chips a lot; it’s essentially a milk sugar);

o   Vitamin D3 (not all, but most Vitamin D3 is derived from fish oil or the lanolin in sheep’s wool) and omega-3 fatty acids (similarly, mostly derived from fish but vegan alternatives are available); and

o   Additives beginning with E (e.g. E904) are often animal-derived.

Veganism tips and tricks

To find out if packaged food is vegan, first look for vegan labelling (“Suitable for Vegans”, “Certified Vegan”). Then you can look for allergen information (e.g.: “Contains milk, eggs, shellfish”). Allergen information won’t generally tell you about meat-containing ingredients, so you should also read the ingredients list. There are some items that can be vegan but typically won’t be (e.g. bread, candy, chips, and beer/wine).

Fruits and vegetables are weirdly not always vegan. That is because they are often coated with either beeswax or a resin called shellac. These make the fruit look prettier, and also can reduce moisture loss and delay rotting. Synthetic polyethylene wax (a petroleum by-product) and carnauba wax (a palm derivative) are common, though problematic vegan substitutes.

If you are looking for a book with practical advice on how to go vegan, check out How To Live Vegan by a pair Youtubers that call themselves Bosh!

Meat substitutes

The first reference to plant-based food that mimicked animal flesh was about tofu in 965 AD. The Magistrate of Qing Yang (China) “encouraged tofu consumption as a more frugal alternative to animal flesh, referring to it as “mock lamb chops” and “the vice mayor’s mutton.””[9]

The first reference to vegetarian meat in Western civilization wasn’t until 1852, referring to a sausage-like mixture made by squeezing chopped turnips and beets.[10] The first recorded veggie burger was created in 1939,[11] and Tofurky was introduced in 1995.[12]

Beyond Meat and the Impossible Burger are two plant-based burgers that are designed to mimic the culinary characteristics of beef burgers. They were both released around the same time. Impossible Burger released its burger in trendy restaurants, whereas Beyond Meat went straight to households by retailing at Whole Foods.[13] The plant-based food industry is now big enough to have an industry association (the Plant Based Foods Association).[14] Major food corporations are now investing in plant-based start-ups or creating their own plant-based food items: Unilever has released its own eggless mayonnaise;[15] General Mills invested in a nut based cheese and yogurt company called Kite Hill;[16] and Tyson Foods invested in a 5% share in Beyond Meat.[17]

Cultured meat

Cultured meat is also called cell-cultured meat, cell-based meat, in-vitro meat, lab-grown meat, and clean meat.[18] In 1998 NASA-funded engineers successfully grew goldfish meat in vitro, but the first cultured meat that people admit to eating was an art exhibition of cultured frog meat created by Australian artist Oron Catts in 2003.[19] There are now four main cultured meat companies racing to the market: MosaMeat, Memphis Meats, Hampton Creek, and SuperMeat.[20]

Endnotes

[1] Reese, Jacy. (2018). The End of Animal Farming. Boston, MA: Beacon Press Books at p.x.

[2] Reese, The End of Animal Farming.

[3] Reese, The End of Animal Farming.

[4] Reese, The End of Animal Farming at p.4.

[5] Reese, The End of Animal Farming.

[6] Reese, The End of Animal Farming at p.24.

[7] Reese, The End of Animal Farming at p.27.

[8] Reese, The End of Animal Farming.

[9] Reese, The End of Animal Farming at p.46.

[10] Reese, The End of Animal Farming.

[11] Reese, The End of Animal Farming.

[12] Reese, The End of Animal Farming.

[13] Reese, The End of Animal Farming.

[14] Reese, The End of Animal Farming.

[15] Reese, The End of Animal Farming.

[16] Reese, The End of Animal Farming.

[17] Reese, The End of Animal Farming.

[18] Reese, The End of Animal Farming.

[19] Reese, The End of Animal Farming.

[20] Reese, The End of Animal Farming.