Saving the World From Bad Ideas

Are ultra-processed foods really the enemy? 
In this conversation, Mark Lynas sits down with Nesli Sözer, research professor at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and founder of NAPKIN (Nordic Alternative Protein Knowledge and Innovation Network—yes, the best food acronym ever). Sözer dismantles the myth that processing itself makes food unhealthy, revealing why the NOVA classification system is scientifically flawed and how it threatens the future of sustainable protein.
The UPF panic labels whole grain bread, cheese, and plant-based burgers as "ultra-processed" while ignoring what actually matters: nutritional composition.
The irony? UPF fear-mongering pushes consumers toward "natural" meat—more expensive, less sustainable, fiber-free, and genuinely linked to cancer and disease. We over-consume protein and under-consume fiber. Processing can fix both problems. The real bad idea isn't ultra-processing—it's letting pseudoscience derail the food system transformation we urgently need.
🧠 Topics Discussed:
🔬 NOVA classification: divides foods by processing degree, not nutritional quality
🍞 Absurd UPF examples: whole grain bread, cheese, canned foods labeled "ultra-processed"
🫘 Why processing matters: removes anti-nutritional factors, improves protein digestibility
🦠 Fermentation power: generates umami, probiotics, reduces salt/sugar needs (miso effect)
📊 Fiber crisis: Western diets over-consume protein, critically under-consume fiber
🧬 Precision fermentation: genetically modified microbes produce identical egg/dairy proteins (no GMO in final product)
🏷️ EU labeling ban: MEP Celine Imart pushing to ban "burger," "sausage" for plant foods
🌏 Singapore vs Europe: pragmatic approval vs regulatory paralysis
💰 Price paradox: plant burgers cost 2x meat despite cheaper inputs (pea/fava proteins expensive, soy/wheat cheap but stigmatized)
🌾 Gluten myth: "gluten belly" caused by sugar/fat in baked goods, not protein itself (celiacs are tiny minority)
🔄 Diversification imperative: reduce monoculture dependence (wheat/corn/soy/rice), build resilience
🧪 Finnish innovations: Solar Foods (gas fermentation), enegaVTT spin-outs), cell-cultured avocados
👨‍🏫 Guest Bio:
Nesli Sözer is a research professor at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, specializing in plant-based foods, microbial proteins, and hybrid food systems. She founded NAPKIN (Nordic Alternative Protein Knowledge and Innovation Network) and leads multiple EU-funded food innovation projects.
📚 Recommended Reading:
● VTT spin-out companies: Solar Foods, Enifer, ineVolar, Onego Bio, Happy Plant Protein 
● EIT Food policy papers on protein diversification 
● Research on extrusion processing and fermentation technologies 
● Studies on dietary fiber deficiency and health outcomes
💬 Quote Highlights:
(03:31) "NOVA classification divides foods into four categories depending on degree of processing. Whole grain bread that is industrially produced is ultra-processed food and not recommended. It's so wrong." — Nesli Sözer
(06:50) "It's not really the processing, it's how you formulate the food product that becomes important. All those examples given by UPF advocates focus on nutritional quality, not how foods are made or processed." — Nesli Sözer
(15:56) "Think of the extruder like a cow, basically. Instead of feeding grass, you feed ingredients and it's processed into a meat-like structure." — Nesli Sözer
(23:37) "We over-consume proteins. We take too much protein than we need. We are consuming very little dietary fiber, which has direct connection to certain cancer types." — Nesli Sözer
🌐 About WePlanet:
WePlanet is a global citizen and science movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and human progress. Learn more at weplanet.org
📥 Join the Conversation
💬 Email: [email protected] 
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Should we be fishing for krill in the Antarctic? 
In this extraordinary episode, Mark Lynas connects via satellite with three researchers aboard a Sea Shepherd vessel in the Southern Ocean near the South Orkney Islands—one of the most remote and important whale feeding grounds on Earth.
Matt Savoca (Stanford/California Marine Sanctuary Foundation), Ted Cheeseman (UC Santa Cruz/Happy Whale), and Lucia Morillo (Sea Shepherd science coordinator) are conducting the first truly independent survey of this region. Their mission: understand the overlap between recovering whale populations and an expanding industrial krill fishery that takes 620,000 tons annually—the same amount of food consumed by hundreds of thousands of whales, seals, and penguins.
This conversation exposes the krill paradox (why krill didn't explode after whales were removed), whale poop's critical role as ocean fertilizer, climate change shrinking krill habitat southward, and why the Marine Stewardship Council's sustainability certification is now facing objections from WWF and other major conservation groups.
🧠 Topics Discussed:
🐋 Fin whale recovery: from 500,000 to <10,000, now rebounding in South Orkneys
🦐 Krill fishery: 12 vessels from 5 countries, 11 months/year industrial operation
📊 Misleading 1% claim: catch calculated across Europe-sized ocean, concentrated in wildlife hotspots
🔬 First independent survey: Sea Shepherd enabling fishery-independent research
🌡️ Climate crisis: sea ice loss collapsing krill breeding in northern regions
💩 Krill paradox: whale poop fertilizes phytoplankton that feeds krill—ecosystem engineering
🎯 Fishing overlap: whales concentrate where vessels fish; empty water elsewhere
🧬 Genetic sampling: pregnancy rates, body condition, sex determination via crossbow biopsy
📡 Echo sounding: mapping krill concentrations at ecologically relevant scales for predators
🐟 Salmon farming connection: most krill feeds farmed Atlantic salmon in coastal pollution zones
🏷️ MSC certification under fire: WWF, ASOC, WePlanet object to sustainability claim
👨‍🏫 Guest Bios:
Matt Savoca is a marine biologist at Stanford University and California Marine Sanctuary Foundation studying whale ecology and ocean conservation.
Ted Cheeseman is a research fellow at UC Santa Cruz and co-founder of Happy Whale, a citizen science platform that has identified nearly every living humpback whale globally.
Lucia Murillo is science coordinator for Sea Shepherd, leading campaigns exposing industrial fishing in Antarctica and other protected waters.
📚 Recommended Reading:
● Sea Shepherd Antarctic web series on YouTube 
● Happy Whale platform for whale identification 
● ASOC (Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition) MPA proposals 
● Studies on krill paradox and whale fertilization
💬 Quote Highlights:
"Fin whales were reduced by about 95% in 70 years—approximately the lifespan of one single fin whale. The scale of destruction is remarkable." — Matt Savoca
"In Antarctica, everything eats krill or eats something that eats krill. The food chains are really, really short." — Lucia Murillo
"Each krill fishing vessel takes as much food daily as 100-500 whales. It's structured for conflict." — Ted Cheeseman
"The 1% claim uses a denominator the size of Europe. But if all fishing happens in Paris and London, is that appropriate?" — Matt Savoca
"This is arguably the place with the highest density of great whales anywhere on the planet. A crown jewel in the world of recovering oceans." — Ted Cheeseman
🌐 About WePlanet:
WePlanet is a global citizen and science movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and human progress. Learn more at weplanet.org
📥 Support their work and connect with us
💰 Support Sea Shepherd: seashepherd.org 
🐋 Learn more: happywhale.com 
💬 Email us: [email protected] 
📩 Subscribe: weplanet.org/podcast 
👁️ Follow: @weplanetint

Is there really not enough land for renewables? 
In this conversation, Mark Lynas sits down with Tom Heap—BBC Countryfile presenter, Radio 4's Rare Earth co-host, and author of Land Smart: How to Give People and Nature the Space to Thrive—to tackle one of the most important yet least discussed environmental issues: land use.
Heap makes the case that there's plenty of space for solar (and wind has minimal footprint), especially since solar excels at multifunctional use—combining with housing, car parks, farming, and floating on water bodies. The real land crisis? Livestock occupies a third of Earth's land and over half of agricultural land, delivering 6-16 times less protein per acre than crops. Meanwhile, biofuels require 50-100 times more land than solar for the same energy output, making aviation's biofuel dreams a land use nightmare.
But the conversation goes deeper: rewilding's evolution from absolutist vision to pragmatic spectrum, why regenerative farming must avoid yield penalties, and the troubling vibe shift in climate politics. Despite renewables now being cheaper than fossil fuels and China's coal use peaking, environmental issues have dropped down the political agenda. Heap argues we're in a trough, not permanent decline—but only if we keep talking about it and bust the myths that disempowers action.
🧠 Topics Discussed:
⚡ Land requirements for solar vs nuclear vs wind (solar is tiny, shareable)
🌾 Livestock's massive footprint: 1/3 of Earth's land, half of agricultural land
🌱 Biofuels disaster: 50-100x less efficient than solar per area
✈️ Aviation biofuels would require America's entire land area just for domestic flights
🐑 Sheep-wrecked hills: green deserts masquerading as countryside
🌿 Rewilding evolution: from absolutist to spectrum, avoiding food footprint export
🥩 Regenerative farming challenge: needs yield parity or risks overseas displacement
🧬 Gene editing progress: crops partnering with fungus for nitrogen, holy grail of nitrogen-fixing cereals
🇨🇳 Pakistan's grid death spiral: behind-the-meter solar boom crashing legacy infrastructure
🌍 Climate vibe shift: why environmental issues dropped off the agenda despite tech wins
📊 Pluralistic ignorance: 66% support climate action but think they're a minority (actually believe it's 40%)
🚗 Myth busting: rich countries driving less since 2005, renewables now cheaper, others ARE acting
⚖️ Slavery analogy: decades-long progressive fights face backlash during insecurity (French Revolution parallel to Ukraine war)
👨‍🏫 Guest Bio:
Tom Heap is a regular presenter on BBC One's Countryfile and co-presenter of Radio 4's Rare Earth. He's author of Land Smart: How to Give People and Nature the Space to Thrive and co-creator of the 39 Ways to Save the Planet podcast and book.
📚 Recommended Reading:
● Land Smart: How to Give People and Nature the Space to Thrive — Tom Heap ● 39 Ways to Save the Planet — Tom Heap & Dr. Tamsin Edwards ● Research on land use efficiency per energy type ● Studies on pluralistic ignorance in climate action
💬 Quote Highlights:
"We're moving to a world for the first time in human history where we can have more energy while burning less stuff." — Tom Heap
"To power inland flights of America on biofuels, you need the entire land area of America." — Tom Heap
"66% of people globally support climate action and would give 1% of income—but they believe they're a minority at 40%. This pluralistic ignorance is profoundly disempowering." — Tom Heap
"The fact that cleaner energy is now cheaper is a huge deal. That penny is just beginning to drop." — Tom Heap
🌐 About WePlanet:
WePlanet is a global citizen and science movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and human progress. Learn more at weplanet.org
📥 Join the Conversation
💬 Email: [email protected]
📩 Subscribe: weplanet.org/podcast
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Is nature really as fragile as we've been led to believe? 
In this conversation, Mark Lynas sits down with veteran environmental journalist Fred Pearce, author of Despite It All: A Handbook for Environmental Hopefuls, to challenge one of environmentalism's core assumptions.
Pearce argues that nature isn't fragile—it's resilient, adaptive, and constantly evolving. The evidence shows ecosystems have survived for hundreds of millions of years through asteroid strikes and ice ages, constantly adapting through species turnover and change. Conservation's obsession with protecting "pristine" ecosystems in aspic misses the point: nature needs room to evolve, not to be frozen in time. Novel ecosystems mixing native and invasive species aren't failures—they're nature adapting.
This conversation covers the defused population bomb (global fertility now at replacement level), peak stuff (material consumption declining in rich countries), successful technofixes (renewables now cheaper than fossil fuels), and the critical role of indigenous communities in protecting ecosystems. Pearce makes the case for pragmatic optimism: the worst could still happen, but pessimism is for defeatists. From rewilding Europe's wolves to China's authoritarian eco-modernism, the evidence suggests humanity can rise to the challenge—if we embrace innovation over nostalgia.

🧠 Topics Discussed:
🌿 Why nature is resilient and adaptive, not fragile
🦎 Species turnover and novel ecosystems as signs of health
👶 The defused population bomb (fertility at 2.3 children globally)
📦 Peak stuff: declining material consumption in rich countries
🔧 Technofixes that worked: acid rain, ozone layer, renewables
🇨🇳 China as authoritarian eco-modernist pioneer
🐺 Rewilding success: wolves returning across Europe
🌍 Indigenous land management vs. fortress conservation
♻️ Circular economy and mining rare metals from waste
🚗 Why rich countries are driving less since 2005

👨‍🏫 Guest Bio:
Fred Pearce is a veteran environmental journalist and author who has covered global environmental issues for over 40 years, primarily for New Scientist. His latest book is Despite It All: A Handbook for Environmental Hopefuls.

📚 Recommended Reading:
● Despite It All: A Handbook for Environmental Hopefuls — Fred Pearce 
● The New Wild — Fred Pearce
● Eleanor Ostrom on managing the commons 
● Ecomodernist Manifesto

💬 Quote Highlights:
"The evidence is that nature is resilient, it's adaptive, it evolves. Nature's been going for hundreds of millions of years, whereas we've not." — Fred Pearce 
"Change isn't bad. Change is actually an example of ecosystems that are functioning well, are doing what they should do, are adapting, are changing, evolving and moving on." — Fred Pearce 
"The population bomb has been defused. By the second half of this century, we're going to have a stable population." — Fred Pearce
"Since about 2005, almost all rich world countries, people have been driving, including the US, which is the car economy on stilts really. Even there, they're driving less." — Fred Pearce 
"Pessimism is destructive and it narrows your horizons. Optimism allows you to look for potential, look for things that will work, push at the open doors." — Fred Pearce 

🌐 About WePlanet:
WePlanet is a global citizen and science movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and human progress. Learn more at weplanet.org

📥 Join the Conversation
💬 Email: [email protected] 
📩 Subscribe: weplanet.org/podcast 
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Is industrial food actually the villain — or one of humanity's greatest achievements?
In this provocative episode, Mark Lynas sits down with Jan Dutkiewicz, assistant professor at the Pratt Institute and contributing editor at the New Republic, co-author of Feed the People: Why Industrial Food is Good and How to Make it Even Better.
Dutkiewicz challenges the consensus that "the food system is broken" — arguing that industrial production has created unprecedented abundance and eliminated diseases of malnutrition. The real problems aren't industrialization itself, but specific fixable issues: worker exploitation, factory farming's animal welfare crisis, and agricultural lobbies' outsized power.
🧠 Topics Discussed:
🏭 Defining industrial food: scale, standards, regulation creating abundance (not just "ultra-processed")
🍽️ Why "the food system is broken" is the wrong diagnosis (it's a complex system, not a broken appliance)
📚 The food writing industry: Michael Pollan, Wendell Berry, and agrarian romanticism
🌾 Wendell Berry as anti-Norman Borlaug: romanticizing pre-industrial famine and malnutrition
👶 Child labor realities: agriculture has most injuries and deaths, minimum age exemptions persist
🏛️ Agricultural exceptionalism: carve-outs from labor laws, environmental regulations, animal welfare
🐖 Manure lagoons, gestation crates, and why artificial insemination gets bestiality exemptions
🍖 Factory farming inefficiency: 80%+ calorie loss converting feed to meat (not actually "efficient")
🌍 Environmental impact: livestock causes the biggest footprint by far (emissions, land, water, biodiversity)
🧬 "Grass-fed" as marketing: labels like "humane" and "free-range" are unregulated buzzwords
🧪 Plant-based alternatives and cellular agriculture: the real path forward (not small farms)
🚫 Europe banning "burger" and "sausage" labels: livestock lobby blocking competition
👨‍🏫 Guest Bio:
Jan Dutkiewicz is assistant professor at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and contributing editor at the New Republic. He co-authored Feed the People: Why Industrial Food is Good and How to Make it Even Better with Gabriel Rosenberg, offering a data-driven defense of industrial food systems while demanding better labor rights, animal welfare, and environmental regulation.
📚 Recommended Reading:
● Feed the People: Why Industrial Food is Good and How to Make it Even Better — Jan Dutkiewicz & Gabriel Rosenberg
● Michael Pollan — The Omnivore's Dilemma
● Wendell Berry — Essays on agrarianism
● Bruce Friedrich — Meat (Good Food Institute)
● Studies on agricultural exceptionalism and labor laws
● Research on livestock environmental impacts
💬 Quote Highlights:
"Industrial food means food produced using principles of scale, standards, and regulation to create abundance. On balance, that has made the world a better, healthier, more abundant place." — Jan Dutkiewicz
"Saying the food system is broken is like saying your house is broken when the air conditioner fails. Identify specific problems and seek specific solutions." — Jan Dutkiewicz
"The Dust Bowl — perhaps America's greatest ecological disaster — was caused by poor land management by small-scale family farmers before agriculture was industrialized." — Jan Dutkiewicz
"Every call to produce everything from scratch is implicitly a call for more unpaid labor by women in the household." — Jan Dutkiewicz
"If we abolished factory farms: 99% less chicken, 97% less pork, 67% less beef. We'd all be vegetarian overnight." — Jan Dutkiewicz
"8 out of 10 worst-paid jobs in America are in food. The people getting results aren't food writers — they're food workers themselves." — Jan Dutkiewicz
🌐 About WePlanet:
WePlanet is a global citizen and science movement challenging bad ideas and championing evidence-based solutions for climate, nature, and human progress. Learn more at weplanet.org
📥 Join the Conversation
💬 Email: [email protected] 
📩 Subscribe: weplanet.org/podcast 
👁️ Follow: @weplanetint