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Progressive groups are “fed up” with Biden’s infrastructure playbook

The honeymoon period between President Joe Biden and progressives is ending.
Progressive groups, who cheered Biden passing his $1.9 trillion Covid-19 stimulus bill through Congress with only Democratic support early on, are growing increasingly frustrated over Biden’s prolonged infrastructure negotiations with Senate Republicans.
A tentative deadline to strike a bipartisan deal by Memorial Day has come and gone. And on Friday, Biden once again spoke to lead Republican negotiator Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, with their conversation yielding no deal, according to Capito’s spokesperson. Progressives are frustrated by the pace, and by the White House’s choice to lower the price tag of their $2.25 trillion infrastructure package to try to get GOP support.
“We’re fed up and we want our voices to be heard,” said Evan Weber, the political director for the progressive climate group Sunrise Movement, which staged a protest blocking an entrance outside the White House on Friday afternoon — with dozens of 20-something protesters risking arrest. “Since the election, we’re starting to feel he’s ignoring the very people who put him in office and spending more time talking to the party of insurrectionists who don’t feel he’s president.”
Biden <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/03/business/economy/biden-infrastructure-senate-republicans.html">has now proposed</a> shaving over $1 trillion off of his initial price tag on a physical infrastructure package, and proposing a 15 percent minimum tax on corporations in an attempt to placate GOP concerns about raising the corporate tax rate to 28 percent. Both are signs that the White House is serious about negotiating with Republicans to find common ground — a vow Biden made repeatedly throughout this campaign.
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<figcaption>President Biden speaks to reporters on May 27. Many progressives are frustrated by Biden’s willingness to lower the overall cost of his infrastructure plan as he seeks a bipartisan deal with Republicans.</figcaption>
<cite>Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images</cite></figure>
“The President is engaged in good faith with both parties in Congress to deliver historic infrastructure investments that will drive economic growth, produce the clean technologies of the future and create good-paying jobs,” a White House official told Vox.
But to progressives, the events of the past few weeks are a sign that Republicans are trying to stall while Democrats have a unified majority in Congress, to hurt Democrats electorally in the 2022 midterms. And many are worried that Biden is prioritizing working with Republicans over another campaign promise to get bold things done for the country, including tackling the climate crisis and improving racial equity.
With Republicans signaling they’re unhappy with any new taxation proposals, progressives are still holding out a shred of hope that Democrats will ultimately pass an infrastructure bill via budget reconciliation — a process where they can use only Democratic votes in the Senate.
Progressives have an ear in Biden’s inner circle, especially with White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, and they have had some early successes on policy and personnel. But getting Biden to promise something and getting him to actually deliver it are two different things — and it presents their greatest challenge in Biden’s tenure so far.
“Republicans are never going to agree to a deal,” Jamal Raad, co-founder of the progressive climate group Evergreen Action and a former top staffer to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, told Vox. “This is bad-faith negotiating only done to run out the clock on the Biden agenda.”
On a sweltering June day, a group of about 60 Sunrise youth activists spread out in front of a White House entrance, blocking cars from going in and out.
Sitting on the hot blacktop pavement, the protesters sang, chanted, and shared stories about how they have been personally impacted by the climate crisis. They yelled into a megaphone, asking Biden to listen to them. There was one problem, though: The president actually happened to be out of town when the Sunrise blockade began.
And Biden, specifically, is whose ear progressives need the most. Unlike his swift legislating with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, the president seems more comfortable taking his time on an infrastructure package — even if that makes lawmakers and left-wing groups uncomfortable.
“We’re using this action today to make our demands really clear,” Sunrise advocacy director Lauren Maunus told Vox. “If [Biden] does not respond to those demands, then we’ll be back at the end of June with a lot more people.”
Specifically, Sunrise was demanding a sit-down between Biden and their co-founder Varshini Prakash, who was a member of a climate task force created by the Biden and Bernie Sanders campaigns after Biden won the Democratic primary. The task forces were meant to unite the left and more center wings of the party and create Biden’s agenda in the process.
Prakash and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) were Sanders’s picks for Biden’s climate task force, which also included the president’s top climate officials: US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and White House National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy. Together, the group came up with an extremely ambitious climate plan, proposing to spend $2 trillion over four years to intertwine climate action with clean energy jobs, and drastically cut America’s greenhouse gas emissions.
“On climate, I think we actually made far more progress than I think I even anticipated,” Prakash told me in an interview last summer, after the task forces had wrapped up. “In large part, that was because many of the advisers on climate on Biden’s side were also equally amenable to ambitious action as people on the Bernie side.”
Biden married his infrastructure and jobs agenda to his climate agenda before he was inaugurated, noting the potential for job growth in the clean energy sector during the presidential campaign. “When I think about climate change, the word I think of is ‘jobs,’” Biden said in a July campaign speech announcing his $2 trillion plan.
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<figcaption>A group of Sunrise climate activists block a vehicle entrance at the White House on June 4.</figcaption>
<cite>Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images</cite></figure>
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<figcaption>Climate groups once allied with then-presidential candidate Biden are growing frustrated with his prolonged infrastructure negotiations with Republicans.</figcaption>
<cite>Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images</cite></figure>
Indeed, the reason progressive groups are getting anxious about infrastructure negotiations is that Biden’s infrastructure plan is also his climate plan; it would invest billions in new tax credits for clean energy, contains a clean electricity standard, and has $174 billion in funding to collectively speed up production of electric vehicles (EV), user rebates to help purchase them, and money to install 500,000 EV charging stations around the nation’s roadways. Democrats and climate groups are keenly aware that time is running out to take action; the climate prognosis for the planet is looking increasingly dire if countries keep emitting carbon at their current pace.
“When Miami is going underwater or California catches fire again, no one is going to be thinking, ‘Well, at least we got some Republican votes on that infrastructure package,’” said Jamie Henn, director of Fossil Free Media and a co-founder of the climate group <a href="http://350.org/">350.org</a>. “Biden’s legacy depends on his ability to go big on climate, not dither around the edges.”
The flip-side dynamic that progressive groups are frustrated by now is that infrastructure was always going to be the area the Biden administration saw as having the most potential for bipartisan compromise with Republicans. Infrastructure has for years been the subject on which Republicans and Democrats believed they could come to an agreement, because it traditionally encompasses boring but essential needs like roads and bridges.
The White House is obviously aware, as well, of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/29/politics/cnn-poll-bipartisanship/index.html">numerous</a> <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/5/12/22421064/mcconnell-poll-bipartisanship">polls</a> showing that voters favor bipartisanship in Congress, and want both parties to have input into a bill. A <a href="https://assets.morningconsult.com/wp-uploads/2021/06/01103557/210582_crosstabs_MC_WASHINGTON_RVs_v1_SH.pdf">recent Morning Consult poll</a> found 85 percent of voters saying it was very or somewhat important for legislation to have bipartisan support, and 62 percent saying they disagreed with the idea that politicians seeking bipartisan support was a waste of time.
The very fact that Biden added so much of his climate agenda into his infrastructure plan, plus a proposed $400 billion to bring down long-term care costs and raise wages for home health aides, who are largely women, including women of color, greatly expanded the definition of infrastructure. Progressive groups are now warning Biden that he can’t abandon the coalitions of youth voters and people of color who helped get him elected — and also deliver visible, noticeable results through a big bill.
“Going small on climate is a political trap because it means you sacrifice some of the most visible, popular parts of the clean energy transition: more charging stations, solar panels on rooftops, a Civilian Climate Corps that puts tens of thousands of people to work,” Henn said. “We know the GOP and fossil fuel companies are going to blame Democrats for the inevitable collapse of the fossil fuel economy. The best way to combat that narrative is to have a big, visible clean energy program.”
Biden and a group of Senate Republicans led by Capito have been trading infrastructure counteroffers for weeks. Yet another talk between Biden and Capito on Friday afternoon saw no final deal; instead, they agreed to essentially check back in on Monday. But if talks flounder or yield a smaller bill, some Democrats on Capitol Hill are itching to go it alone.
“We move as quickly as we can on going big, we move as quickly as we can on negotiations,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) told Vox recently. “At some point, if they won’t go where we believe the country needs to go and where the country seems to want to go, then we take off.”
The White House has already cut its initial $2.25 trillion infrastructure proposal by more than $1 trillion, and proposed significant changes to the taxation plan to pay for the infrastructure plan.
The GOP group, meanwhile, has added less than $100 billion in new spending to its initial proposal. The latest Republican plan <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/05/27/1000717244/senate-republicans-release-928-billion-infrastructure-counteroffer">totals $928 billion</a> but is proposing just $257 billion in new spending, and repurposing the rest of the infrastructure money from unused American Rescue Plan funds. On Friday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden wants to see Republicans propose more money specifically for electric vehicles and rebuilding veterans hospitals.
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<figcaption>Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) is the lead GOP negotiator on Biden’s infrastructure bill.</figcaption>
<cite>Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images</cite></figure>
“There are areas where the president has priorities where he’d like to see more,” Psaki said. She said that even though Biden is continuing to talk to both Democrats and Republicans in Congress, “there are some realities of timelines” being driven by certain congressional committees. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is expected to mark up a five-year surface transportation infrastructure bill this coming week, which contains elements of Biden’s American Jobs Plan.
Still, progressive groups are telegraphing their disappointment, especially after the Senate GOP filibustered a bill for a commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill — a violent event led by supporters of President Donald Trump targeting lawmakers of both parties.
“It’s hard to argue Republicans are good faith negotiations when they couldn’t pass that.” Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party, told Vox of the commission bill. “Democrats are attempting to govern, and Republicans have their eyes on 2022 and 2024 and are seeking to get back into power.”
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/6/5/22517344/progressive-groups-biden-infrastructure-climate-sunrise">https://www.vox.com/2021/6/5/22517344/progressive-groups-biden-infrastructure-climate-sunrise</a>

vox Progressive groups are “fed up” with Biden’s infrastructure playbook

The honeymoon period between President Joe Biden and progressives is ending. Progressive groups, who cheered Biden passing his $1.9 trillio...

Where’s the “Impossible Burger” of cheese?

Two years ago, Beyond Meat became the first plant-based food startup to go public. Its shares surged <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/02/beyond-meat-ipo.html">163 percent on its first day</a> and today it’s valued at $9 billion, with shares now worth about five times their original value.
Since then, analysts have wondered which major plant-based food company would go public next. Late last month, they found out: Oatly, the Swedish maker of oat-based milk, yogurt, and ice cream.
Oatly’s stock didn’t quite skyrocket like Beyond’s, but by the end of the company’s first day of trading, it was valued at about <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-19/oatly-is-said-to-price-ipo-at-top-of-range-with-markets-slumping">$12 billion</a>. Now, Oatly is valued at $14 billion, over 50 percent more than Beyond’s valuation of $9 billion. Though Beyond and other high-tech vegan meat producers get much more attention than companies that make plant-based milks, Oatly’s valuation says a lot about the state of the plant-based food industry — namely, that plant-based milk has reached a point of maturation in the market that’s even more advanced than plant-based meat.
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According to a <a href="https://www.plantbasedfoods.org/retail-sales-data/">report</a> recently published by the Plant-Based Foods Association and the Good Food Institute, two organizations that advocate for plant-based foods, plant-based milk alone accounts for <a href="https://www.plantbasedfoods.org/retail-sales-data/">35 percent of the total plant-based foods market, worth $2.5 billion to plant-based meat’s $1.4 billion</a>. Plant-based milks don’t just dominate the plant-based food sector, they also take up a sizable portion of retail milk sales — 15 percent overall, and 45 percent in natural food stores.
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<figcaption>Plant-based milk is the largest segment of the overall plant-based food industry.</figcaption>
<cite>SPINS, The Plant Based Foods Association, The Good Food Institute</cite></figure>
Oatly’s sudden rise since it came on the US market in 2016 has helped drive this growth. Almond milk sits at the top of the plant-based milk category, but <a href="https://www.fooddive.com/news/oat-milk-surges-to-second-most-popular-in-plant-based-dairy/586010/">oat milk recently pushed soy milk out of second place</a>, thanks to Oatly and big brands like Silk (owned by Danone) and Chobani <a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-lifestyle-health-business-f5bf285bf70e1bf73d050656d110aa7e">following Oatly’s lead</a> with a range of oat-based dairy products.
In fact, Starbucks, which started using Oatly products last year in select US stores and rolled it out nationwide earlier this year, says its share of orders that use plant-based milk jumped from <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-18/oatly-s-about-to-go-public-in-an-increasingly-crowded-milk-aisle">17 to 25 percent after it introduced Oatly</a>.
These shifts from traditional to plant-based dairy are important in the fight against climate change, as traditional dairy is an especially resource-intensive sector. According to a 2018 University of Oxford study, any way you slice it, <a href="https://theconversation.com/which-milk-is-best-for-the-environment-we-compared-dairy-nut-soy-hemp-and-grain-milks-147660">cow’s milk uses much more land and water and emits far more greenhouse gases than any plant-based milk</a>. For example, almond milk gets a bad rap for being water-intensive, but cow’s milk requires about 70 percent more water to produce, emits more than twice as much Co2, and requires more than 15 times as much land. Compared to almond milk, oat milk uses much less water but a little more land.
On top of the environmental impact of traditional dairy, most dairy cows, at least in the US, are <a href="https://www.sentienceinstitute.org/us-factory-farming-estimates">raised in factory farms</a>.
Yet despite the popularity of plant-based milks, they haven’t quite made a dent in taking the cow out of dairy, their raison d’être. Some farmers do say <a href="https://civileats.com/2018/11/05/whats-behind-the-crippling-dairy-crisis-family-farmers-speak-out/">plant-based milk is affecting their bottom line</a>, and a <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2020/december/plant-based-products-replacing-cow-s-milk-but-the-impact-is-small/">late 2020 report</a> that was funded by the United States Department of Agriculture found that “increased sales of plant-based alternatives are negatively affecting households’ purchases of cow’s milk” but that it’s “not a primary driver.”
There are a lot of factors that affect dairy production and consumption, and adoption of alternatives is just one of them. But in order for plant-based startups to become a primary driver in displacing conventional dairy, stealing market share from the milk shelves of the supermarket isn’t enough. Oatly and its competitors need to figure out how to make a great alternative for another dairy product: cheese.
Some vegan advocates say that “<a href="https://vegannews.press/2020/06/11/dairy-is-dying-sales-fell-1-1-billion-dollars-according-to-dairy-farmers-of-america/">dairy is dying</a>” (or <a href="https://www.livekindly.co/the-dairy-industry-is-dead/">already dead</a>), in part because of the United States’ <a href="https://www.statista.com/chart/2387/american-milk-consumption-has-plummeted/">decades-long decline in milk consumption</a> coinciding with the rise of plant-based milk.
Many dairy farmers are indeed hurting, but plant-based milks aren’t the biggest culprit — it’s Big Dairy, which has been <a href="https://thecounterorg.wpengine.com/how-rural-america-got-milked/">consolidating and squeezing out small farmers</a>, one of several factors that caused <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/6/18/21295834/why-american-farmers-are-throwing-out-milk-coronavirus">11,000 dairy farms</a> to shutter between 2014 and 2019. The pandemic only hastened this trend, as major dairy customers — schools and restaurants — closed down, resulting in farmers across the country dumping millions of gallons of milk. <a href="https://www.lancasterfarming.com/farming/dairy/7-of-u-s-dairies-shuttered-in-2020/article_b5f755dc-5639-5b61-aef9-1c0763849f95.html">Seven percent of US dairies closed in 2020.</a>
But dairy is far from dead: The number of dairy cows in production has <a href="https://www.nass.usda.gov/Charts_and_Maps/Milk_Production_and_Milk_Cows/milkcows.php">increased slightly in the past decade</a>, and they’re producing <a href="https://www.nass.usda.gov/Charts_and_Maps/Milk_Production_and_Milk_Cows/milkprod.php">more milk</a> — <a href="https://www.nass.usda.gov/Charts_and_Maps/Milk_Production_and_Milk_Cows/cowrates.php">more efficiently</a> — than ever.
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334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="" data-upload-width="1860" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-VUuwJSPbGYy79BYUQXrsv17QiA=/0x0:1860x1260/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1260):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22636832/0DAIp_american_consumption_of_milk_br_and_other_dairy_products.png" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xenrbe-w0A4dUcNHFDU2EagDgiY=/0x0:1860x1260/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1260):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22636832/0DAIp_american_consumption_of_milk_br_and_other_dairy_products.png 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/JzbsW3VdsVsbLFYq4ELIw8KIx-U=/0x0:1860x1260/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1260):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22636832/0DAIp_american_consumption_of_milk_br_and_other_dairy_products.png 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/o8BVWzaUQ_PVxQn2_11tQP4_Bd4=/0x0:1860x1260/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1260):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22636832/0DAIp_american_consumption_of_milk_br_and_other_dairy_products.png 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nr_3_ThWyUPIJNNIsgSmaVmu97s=/0x0:1860x1260/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1260):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22636832/0DAIp_american_consumption_of_milk_br_and_other_dairy_products.png 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/kEPfMiJH8B-L3f_KXGm7sKwbei4=/0x0:1860x1260/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1260):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22636832/0DAIp_american_consumption_of_milk_br_and_other_dairy_products.png 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/MJue5qgDu9v4QDFe6dMvGBw2-CU=/0x0:1860x1260/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1260):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22636832/0DAIp_american_consumption_of_milk_br_and_other_dairy_products.png 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9gPsk6lEGbDrwkyCZHBAn-R5IKU=/0x0:1860x1260/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1260):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22636832/0DAIp_american_consumption_of_milk_br_and_other_dairy_products.png 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nbffKS1V1ISVFTDnUgdRqDg_kFc=/0x0:1860x1260/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1260):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22636832/0DAIp_american_consumption_of_milk_br_and_other_dairy_products.png 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/H5mEzMuttWRLmA98O6ba9y2f9wo=/0x0:1860x1260/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1860x1260):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22636832/0DAIp_american_consumption_of_milk_br_and_other_dairy_products.png 1920w" /></picture> <cite>Tim Ryan Williams/Vox</cite></figure>
This can be explained, in part, by Americans’ love for cheese; per capita cheese consumption has risen <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/183785/per-capita-consumption-of-cheese-in-the-us-since-2000/">25 percent</a> since the early 2000s, which is one factor that has kept milk production high, since it takes nearly <a href="https://www.progressivedairy.com/topics/management/how-much-cheese-is-there-in-a-hundred-pounds-of-milk">10 pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese</a>. (Butter consumption is rising even faster, and it takes more than <a href="https://dairy-cattle.extension.org/how-many-pounds-of-whole-milk-does-it-take-to-make-a-pound-of-butter/">21 pounds of milk</a> to make one pound of butter.)
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There are plant-based cheese alternatives on the market, and they generally fall into two categories. The first are the pricey, fermented wheels or tubs of spreadable cheese, often made of nuts, seasonings, and cultures (and sometimes oils, gums, and starches), which have managed to impress the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/16/dining/vegan-cheese.html">taste buds of omnivorous food critics</a>. Bigger brands like Miyoko’s Creamery, Kite Hill, and Treeline Cheese dominate this first category, but there are <a href="https://www.eater.com/22315684/vegan-cheese-history-ingredients-process-grocery-brands">dozens of smaller, artisanal outfits</a> like the Herbivorous Butcher in Minneapolis and Rebel Cheese in Austin.
The second category consists of the bags of shredded or sliced mozzarella or cheddar, often made with oil and potato starch or cornstarch, which don’t melt and stretch (or taste) the way cheese from cow’s milk does. The problem is best summed up by the joke about how a vegan’s house burned down and the only thing that didn’t melt was their cheese.
But Americans eat a lot of shredded and sliced cheese, and the vegan versions haven’t improved much since I last heard that joke some years ago (though if you’re curious, I suggest giving Violife, Field Roast, and Follow Your Heart products a try). And even though the plant-based food industry has grown rapidly in the past few years, its startups loaded with billions in investment, no company has come close to making a “breakthrough” shredded or sliced cheese product akin to the Beyond or Impossible burger — or a carton of Oatly — that can bring in curious omnivores.
Not yet, anyway.
The absence of great shredded and sliced plant-based cheese could be a problem of demand or innovation, or both.
Meat gets much more attention for its ecological and animal welfare harms than cheese, to the point where nearly a <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/282779/nearly-one-four-cut-back-eating-meat.aspx">quarter of Americans</a> say they are trying to cut back. But you don’t hear much about people trying to reduce their cheese intake, even though globally, the dairy sector <a href="http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/197623">emits more greenhouse gases than all meat sectors</a> (except beef), and most dairy cows, at least in the US, are factory-farmed.
On the innovation side, it’s simply much harder to replicate stretchy, melty cheese made from cow’s milk than the soft, spreadable varieties.
“Achieving the stretchy quality and texture consumers expect from harder cheeses upon melting has proven challenging to date, which is why soft plant-based cheese may be more prominent,” Dr. Priera Panescu, a senior scientist at the Good Food Institute, told me over email.
Ryan Pandya, the CEO and co-founder of Perfect Day — a food technology startup based in Berkeley, California — shared a similar sentiment with <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/dairy-free-cheese">Wired</a>, explaining, “The melty, stretchy thing is absolutely the most challenging holy grail thing to do. Because there’s only one protein known to man that does this, and it’s casein.”
Through precision fermentation, which is used to make specific proteins, enzymes, or vitamins, Perfect Day has developed a microflora (fungi) that converts sugar into whey, another protein in milk, for its ice cream products. The company says it’s also <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90607741/this-animal-free-dairy-isnt-plant-based-its-grown-from-real-cow-protein-with-no-cows-involved">working on cheese</a> but doesn’t have plans for the shredded or sliced varieties in the near future.
<a href="https://www.realvegancheese.org/">Real Vegan Cheese</a>, a nonprofit, open-science research project — quite rare in a field of venture capital-backed startups — is going for the “holy grail” of cheese by adding the genes for casein to yeast and other microflora, and then adding plant-based fats and sugars. New Culture, based in San Francisco, is also working to replicate casein, using microbial fermentation, similar to Perfect Day’s approach, to make shredded cheese. The company plans to launch its first product in late 2023.
When asked about the lack of stretchy plant-based cheese, Panescu said that “academic researchers are working to address these challenges by using biological interventions, optimizing more flexible, well-assembled plant-based proteins, and applying mechanical texturization processes.”
One of those researchers is Alejandro Marangoni at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. According to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665927120300113?via%3Dihub">Marangoni’s research</a>, zein — a protein found in corn — is an overlooked tool in the search to make plant-based alternatives to animal products. Most companies making shredded and sliced plant-based cheese use starches and gums for the melt and stretch effects, but zein could be a better route. When hydrated and heated above a certain temperature, it forms a “flexible, bendable mass which may be pulled, stretched, and sculpted,” sharing “melting characteristics with cheddar cheese.”
Motif FoodWorks, a food tech startup based in Boston that has received investment from the major dairy company Fonterra, recently <a href="https://www.dairyreporter.com/Article/2021/05/17/Motif-FoodWorks-accesses-transformative-plant-based-technologies">signed an exclusive licensing deal</a> to use a unique food processing technology Marangoni developed using zein.
Motif’s CEO, Jonathan McIntyre, told me their newly acquired tech will enable them to make a stretchy, gooey vegan cheese that’s better than what’s currently on the market. “This technology doesn’t solve all problems in plant-based cheese,” he said, and that “there are other aspects, like mouthfeel and creaminess” that they’re using other tools to address.
McIntyre isn’t yet sure whether Motif will develop its own products, work with a dairy company to make a plant-based product, or partner with an existing plant-based cheese company to upgrade its own, but he does envision it being used on nachos and, of course, pizza. You can see it in action below or <a href="https://madewithmotif.com/2021/05/13/bringing-meltiness-and-marbleization-to-plant-based-cheese-and-meat/">here</a>.
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<div><video controls="" preload="none">Your browser does not support HTML5 video.<source src="https://madewithmotif.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Motif-CheesePull-FINAL.mp4" type="video/mp4" /></video></div>
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Given all the hype around plant-based food, it may come as no surprise that there are <a href="https://newprotein.org/evolution">dozens more startups</a> racing to make convincing cheese alternatives — but Impossible Foods isn’t one of them. While it is developing Impossible Milk, a spokesperson told me the company won’t be selling Impossible Cheese anytime soon.
Then there’s Oatly, which recently <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-20/newly-public-oatly-eyes-plant-based-cheese-as-the-next-frontier?sref=taxRtTxi">told Bloomberg</a> it’s making “good progress” on developing oat-based cheese products, though its CEO didn’t specify what kinds. Given the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/19/oatly-1point4-billion-ipo-priced-84point4-million-shares-at-17-each.html">$1.4 billion</a> the company raised from last month’s IPO, it seems like it should have the resources to raise the bar on plant-based cheese, and a devoted customer base who will likely be curious enough to give it a try.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/22456572/plant-based-vegan-cheese-motif-perfect-day">https://www.vox.com/22456572/plant-based-vegan-cheese-motif-perfect-day</a>

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Video: Minneapolis Rioter Can’t Even Remember the Name of the Person He’s Rioting For

Summer 2021 is shaping up to be “abnormally violent” according to one expert, as data shows murders continue to rise in major American cities and the threat of more riots looms large.
According to John Roman, a senior fellow at the economics, justice and society group at NORC at the University of Chicago, the disruption of routine activities thanks to COVID lockdowns and the further loss of faith in the police will lead to more violent disorder.
“Summer 2021 is going to be abnormally violent. And summer 2022 as well. It is the new normal,” writes Roman.
He sees 2021 being a continuation of 2020, which in addition to endless riots saw a continued rise in homicides in numerous cities across the country.
“A sample of 37 cities with data available for the first three months of 2021 collected by the crime analyst Jeff Asher indicates murders are up 18% over the same period in 2020,” reports <a href="https://www.axios.com/murder-rates-rise-2021-coronavirus-pandemic-0b9855ad-4b54-4639-ad1f-871e8aa03063.html">Axios</a>.
“The continued increase comes after a year in which major U.S. cities experienced a 33% rise in homicides, and 63 of the 66 largest police jurisdictions saw an increase in at least one category of violent crime, according to a report from the Major Cities Chiefs Association.”
One of the main reasons homicides are soaring is due to what used to be called ‘The Ferguson Effect’ and what is now euphemistically called “resourcing issues.”
In other words, cops are loathe to go into high crime areas and get engaged in violent confrontations with criminals because they know that if they resort to violence, no matter how justified, their lives could be ruined after the fact by social media mobs and rigged jury trials.
Data shows that murders had sunk to a modern-day low in 2014 but began to rise again in the years following the Michael Brown riots in Ferguson and other cities.
“Criminologists still haven’t settled on a single explanation for why violent crime dropped drastically from the 1990s, and they’re even less certain why it’s risen so dramatically over the past 16 months,” reports Axios.
However, the reason for why violent crime dropped drastically in the 90’s is acknowledged later in the article, specifically – “mass incarcerations.”
In the post-George Floyd era, police are not only reluctant to arrest violent criminals, they’re questioning why they should even risk getting near them in the first place.
“A violent summer on America’s streets appears likely, given that homicide already appears to be trending above last year’s spike,” concludes Axios.
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source <a href="https://summit.news/2021/06/04/video-minneapolis-rioter-cant-even-remember-the-name-of-the-person-hes-rioting-for/">https://summit.news/2021/06/04/video-minneapolis-rioter-cant-even-remember-the-name-of-the-person-hes-rioting-for/</a>

revolution summit Video: Minneapolis Rioter Can’t Even Remember the Name of the Person He’s Rioting For

Summer 2021 is shaping up to be “abnormally violent” according to one expert, as data shows murders continue to rise in major American citie...

Cricket Star Canceled For Teenage Tweets

A 50-year-old mother in Scotland has been charged with a ‘transphobic hate crime’ and faces up to two years in prison after she retweeted an image of a suffragette ribbon.
Yes, really.
Unhinged transgender activists targeted Marion Millar after ludicrously claiming that the ribbon represented a noose. The Scottish feminist drew their ire after campaigning to protect biological women’s spaces and right to express themselves.
“The messages investigated by officers are understood to include a retweeted photograph of a bow of ribbons in the green, white and purple colours of the Suffragettes, tied around a tree outside the Glasgow studio where a BBC soap opera is shot,” <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/activist-marion-millar-charged-with-sending-homophobic-and-transphobic-tweets-5293jhg6v">reports the Times</a>.
Millar was forced to attend a 2 hour police interview and was subsequently charged under the Malicious Communications Act.
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A woman faces two years in prison for tweets.
One was a photo of a suffragette ribbon that was deemed threatening because it supposedly resembled a noose.
So how do we go about repealing these laws that criminalise free expression?<a href="https://t.co/O0zc1ZH98d">https://t.co/O0zc1ZH98d</a>
— Andrew Doyle (@andrewdoyle_com) <a href="https://twitter.com/andrewdoyle_com/status/1400738150889275392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 4, 2021</a>
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After the interview, Millar quoted Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie: “Nobody has the right to not be offended. That right doesn’t exist in any declaration I have ever read.”
“Police and politicians seem to have lost sight of this,” she added.
Millar opposes gender self-identification because she asserts that it makes it easier for male sex predators to hide their intentions.
“Gender identity is a belief. Not a fact. Sex is a fact. Not a belief. The law has no business in transforming facts into beliefs and beliefs into facts,” stated a sign carried by one of Millar’s supporters.
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<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeAreAllMarionMillar?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeAreAllMarionMillar</a>
Show of support for <a href="https://twitter.com/millar_marion?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@millar_marion</a> this morning! <a href="https://t.co/3zUX36DBEp">pic.twitter.com/3zUX36DBEp</a>
— forwomen.scot (@ForwomenScot) <a href="https://twitter.com/ForwomenScot/status/1400373652009492482?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2021</a>
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“Women won’t wheesht (shut up),” Calder said. “These charges are a fundamental attack on our human rights. We still have the right to free thought and the ability to speak our minds.”
One extremist trans activist responded to Millar being charged by tweeting a picture of a gun with the words, “Making a nice list of terfs tweeting @WomenWontWheesht because she needs target practice” (because they’re such nice people and all).
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While Marion Millar is being questioned by the police for refusing to accept gender ideology…
…this profile fantasises about killing women, complete with gun imagery & then jokes about how scared they feel & laughs about being reported to the police.
Who is oppressed again? <a href="https://t.co/gmojMSp37o">pic.twitter.com/gmojMSp37o</a>
— gender is harmful (@genderisharmful) <a href="https://twitter.com/genderisharmful/status/1400411374895906817?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2021</a>
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The United Kingdom, where legally protected free speech is now virtually non-existent, is notorious for arresting people for tweets simply on the basis that some offended idiot who identifies as ‘LGBT’ complained about it.
After contacting his employers, Humberside Police <a href="https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hull-east-yorkshire-news/humberside-police-twitter-transgender-limerick-2468385">interrogated a man</a> and told him to “check his thinking” after he posted a limerick that offended a transgender person.
Harry Miller told police he did not write the limerick and merely retweeted it, but was told by an officer, “Ah. But you liked it and promoted it. It’s not a crime, but it will be recorded as a hate incident.”
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source <a href="https://summit.news/2021/06/04/cricket-star-canceled-for-teenage-tweets/">https://summit.news/2021/06/04/cricket-star-canceled-for-teenage-tweets/</a>

revolution summit Cricket Star Canceled For Teenage Tweets

A 50-year-old mother in Scotland has been charged with a ‘transphobic hate crime’ and faces up to two years in prison after she retweeted an...

Bing CENSORS Images of “Tank Man” on 32nd Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre

Photos of the Tiananmen Square protest’s Tank Man were censored by Microsoft-owned search engine Bing on the 32nd anniversary of the event.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-78660" sizes="(max-width: 976px) 100vw, 976px" src="https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/06/108796127_2aa3304b-5ad5-41a0-8603-8dcb3c26456d.jpeg" srcset="https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/06/108796127_2aa3304b-5ad5-41a0-8603-8dcb3c26456d-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/06/108796127_2aa3304b-5ad5-41a0-8603-8dcb3c26456d-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/06/108796127_2aa3304b-5ad5-41a0-8603-8dcb3c26456d.jpeg 976w" /></figure>
On Friday, social media users noticed Bing’s image search function yielded zero results for the iconic image of the lone man who confronted a line of tanks as the full force of the Chinese military was used to quell student protests.
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Microsoft's Bing appears to be censoring image searches for the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. A search for "tank man" yields zero results in the images.
Regular searches do pull up the Wikipedia page and related stories, however. <a href="https://t.co/TLdwjrkZXw">pic.twitter.com/TLdwjrkZXw</a>
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) <a href="https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1400894232815050755?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 4, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Results were similar on Yahoo! and DuckDuckGo search engines, both of which are said to rely on Bing.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-78621" sizes="(max-width: 926px) 100vw, 926px" src="https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-04-at-4.52.08-PM.png" srcset="https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-04-at-4.52.08-PM-300x206.png 300w, https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-04-at-4.52.08-PM-768x527.png 768w, https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-04-at-4.52.08-PM.png 926w" /></figure>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-78624" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" src="https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/06/yahoo-tank-1024x408.jpg" srcset="https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/06/yahoo-tank-300x119.jpg 300w, https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/06/yahoo-tank-768x306.jpg 768w, https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/06/yahoo-tank-1024x408.jpg 1024w" /></figure>
In a <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/qj8v9m/bing-censors-tank-man" target="_blank">statement</a> to Vice, a Microsoft rep claimed the issue was due to an “accidental human error,” however the issue has not yet been rectified as of writing.
Reuters notes the same results were replicated outside the US.
“Queries in Germany, Singapore and other countries also provided no results. China is known to require search engines operating in its jurisdiction to censor results, but those restrictions are rarely applied elsewhere,” Reuters <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/microsoft-bing-raises-concerns-over-lack-of-image-results-for-tiananmen-tank-man/ar-AAKIBvh?ocid=uxbndlbing">reported</a> Friday.
On the other hand, Tank man image search results were available on Google.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" readability="3.72">
In contrast, here's Google. <a href="https://t.co/0tdC8DAzya">pic.twitter.com/0tdC8DAzya</a>
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) <a href="https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1400894593013481472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 4, 2021</a></blockquote>
News of the missing images comes on the 32nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre that took place on June 4, 1989, where the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://hongkongfp.com/2017/12/21/declassified-chinese-official-said-least-10000-civilians-died-1989-tiananmen-massacre-documents-show/" target="_blank">Chinese military is believed to have killed over 10,000 civilians</a> during violent crackdowns on student-led protests.
<a href="https://www.infowarsstore.com/infowars-tank-man?__cf_chl_captcha_tk__=f36c59a0859cf5d5a83cd93dc557d6b9f7956f9d-1622845159-0-AbDzjMqpyUHEl56KQgWptcIsmOA1JwzOyQutiD7JX0_HT_pSRAxkitW9v1ZM0PX3v8AoiPWmTWKKY5J5dGLQe85ch0jKGKlWPt5AjVN5sgsQRlqy77PoYz1ZI0l7HzPU9qlBcMBwdiR6kkzzOB304Q8kM1inKgiZC095OWi6de_nY_xgKXFJrbhtnf51gKlFdmSiTs1GfuPD05k0QCQOCkS_eptGEJqrPmrmQCikccGA-v7Bl0-ReQoHInR-1_NHMZX_1ufrWdqhhPXHUyhFkTLrJPIuqm6OQN3n9SiUhhfCNdUHPt-lylfBV61zJgquasjnYfqXI7WgAdoOgnf2KbwVpo2A8ihoqqGh1d9ZkL9U3haSkhlNtYXE2CWTpNa-fsR2VUputlyehyF22_JeuHNt2BDDi0WKtKoxu4AXN7r-D__rlyuAvbICYBhb335NZ0j4PSH5783SCp1AsJvgyNumY-lwX7rR-tq-Cju5ZUs5MT4xailx1uaFlD3BlcVMM2Prv0wOeXb_sWecvHykB8luuVIu5WJSTRKTge1TfHjwu3lCaN1L94O2FaEpo_c-0oB05SEPxEYTMSr7m29hGKoJIen-vy1r_fwbqJu6zaRSZGWd0D1vdRUyzX2A1dX8bvfqTubgQ95VC4OLRzMuq6nqlfJ0JeDByuBcU8pgWNvS90lEonUawAZ_Ib2IOEF6Yg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Check out Infowars’ Tank Man t-shirt at the Infowars Store!</a>
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<a href="https://banthis.tv/watch?id=60b8057ea93da363250177fc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">China Buys Hollywood and Threatens War with US if Wuhan Lab Investigated</a>
 
 
source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/bing-search-engine-censors-images-of-tank-man-on-32nd-anniversary-of-event-at-tiananmen-square">https://www.infowars.com/posts/bing-search-engine-censors-images-of-tank-man-on-32nd-anniversary-of-event-at-tiananmen-square</a>

news Bing CENSORS Images of “Tank Man” on 32nd Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Massacre

Photos of the Tiananmen Square protest’s Tank Man were censored by Microsoft-owned search engine Bing on the 32nd anniversary of the event. ...

Trump Warns Zuckerberg: “Next Time I’m In The White House” It Will Be All Business

<div><img class="ff-og-image-inserted" src="https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/06/6-4-21-potus.jpg" /></div>
A new message put out by Donald Trump on Friday hinted towards another run for the presidency, telling Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg the next time they meet will not be as friendly as the last time.
Hours after Facebook announced a two-year ban of Trump’s account, he released a message aimed at Zuck.
“Next time I’m in the White House there will be no more dinners, at his request, with Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. It will be all business!” Trump stated.
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Have been hesitant to tweet many statements since he left office, but making an exception for this one following his two-year suspension:
"Next time I’m in the White House there will be no more dinners, at his request, with Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. It will be all business!" <a href="https://t.co/g9InqMuvFJ">pic.twitter.com/g9InqMuvFJ</a>
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) <a href="https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1400884751402258437?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 4, 2021</a></blockquote>
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The message comes just days after New York Times writer Maggie Haberman claimed Donald Trump has been telling people close to him that he expects to get reinstated as president by August.
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Trump has been telling a number of people he’s in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated by August (no that isn’t how it works but simply sharing the information). <a href="https://t.co/kaXSXKnpF0">https://t.co/kaXSXKnpF0</a>
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) <a href="https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1399707794375426051?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Nobody has confirmed Haberman’s claims so far, but former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis responded by writing, “No, President Trump is not going to be ‘reinstated.'”
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The best thing we can do as constitutionalists moving forward is to ensure this utter disregard for states’ election laws never happens again.
That’s why election integrity is the number one issue facing America today.
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) <a href="https://twitter.com/JennaEllisEsq/status/1399098764724473857?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 30, 2021</a></blockquote>
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source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/trump-warns-zuckerberg-next-time-im-in-the-white-house-it-will-be-all-business">https://www.infowars.com/posts/trump-warns-zuckerberg-next-time-im-in-the-white-house-it-will-be-all-business</a>

news Trump Warns Zuckerberg: “Next Time I’m In The White House” It Will Be All Business

A new message put out by Donald Trump on Friday hinted towards another run for the presidency, telling Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg the nex...