Meat, eggs, and whole dairy. FAO now supports my conclusions from 2021. That's great!

In 2018 I was recruited to the University of Helsingfors in Finland to explore the future of Finnish agriculture from a perspective of entrepreneurial thinking. I used a mix of approaches. My conclusion was that meat, eggs, and whole dairy are crucial to sustain physical and mental health, and therefore agriculture should focus on those produce. Now UNs FAO makes the same conclusion. 5 pages.

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In 2018 I was recruited to the University of Helsingfors in Finland to explore the future of Finnish agriculture from a perspective of entrepreneurial thinking. I used a mix of approaches: chronostratigraphy, social neuropsychology, nutrition, and paleoanthropology to establish an understanding about who we are as a species, how we interact with the environment, and why we produce and eat various food items. Climate seem to explain a significant part of the variance.

Due to changes in the climate ~538 million years before the present (Mya), Earth entered a new eon – Phanerozoic. Visible life started to emerge during what is known as the Cambrian explosion. The conditions was the following:

• Carbon dioxide (CO2): 5000 – 7000 ppm.
  
  
• Oxygen (0): 4-10%.
  
  
• Temperature: It was ~50% warmer compared to the present.

~470 million years later, when an asteroid hit the Earth, the so-called Chicxulub impactor, a new era was introduced – Cenozoic, or the age of the mammals (Cohen et al. 2023). Because many predators was wiped out, mammals could thrive and grow, generation by generation.

Another ~57 million years forward in time, two super volcanic eruptions occurred in what is now Wyoming (Knott et al. 2020). That event probably wiped out many species. Our lineage is estimated to go at least six million years before the present, and one theory place them – Orrorin man – in the Tugen hills (Pickford, 2006; Reynolds Gallagher, 2012; Senut, Pickford, Gommery Mein Cheboi and Coppens, 2001).

“Living around 6 million years ago, Orrorin tugenensis is the one of the oldest early humans on our family tree. Individuals of this species were approximately the size of a chimpanzee and had small teeth with thick enamel, similar to modern humans. The most important fossil of this species is an upper femur, showing evidence of bone buildup typical of a biped - so Orrorin tugenensis individuals climbed trees but also probably walked upright with two legs on the ground” (Smithsonian Institute).

And not long after that, the Messinian salinity crisis (6-5.33 Mya) occurred; the Mediterranean Sea was nearly completely dried-up and refilled during the Zanclean flood. Soon after, a new species - Australopithecus afarensis (3.85-2.95 Mya) - emerged. After 250 000 - 350 000 years, they added bone marrow tog their diet (McPherron et al. 2010; Mann, 2018; Thompson et al. 2019). Later, meat was added (Pobiner, 2016).

This new diet started a transformation, a reduction of their guts and an expansion of their brains – from the occipital lobe and forward (Aiello och Dunbar, 1993; Aiello och Wheeler, 1995; Coolidge and Wynn, 2018; Hublin et al. 2015).

2.8 million years before the present, our genus - Homo – det with a 50% larger brain existed (Kimbel och Villmoare, 2016; Villmoare, 2018; Villmoare et al. 2015). With a larger prefrontal cortex mental faculties kept evolving:

• a cultural language (Aiello and Dunbar, 1993; Everett, 2017)
  
  
• social cognition, executive functions including prospection – the ability to model scenarios forward in time (Ardila, 2008, Ardila et al. 2018; Adornetti, 2016; Barkley, 2001; Coolidge and Wynn, 2018; Diamond, 2013; Gilbert and Wilson, 2007; Kaku, 2014; Pluck, Cerone and Villagomez-Pacheco, 2023; Suddendorf, Bulley, and Miloyan, 2018; Tomasello et al. 2005).
  
  
• After the emergence of our species, Homo Sapiens (320 000 years befor the present; Hublin et al. 2017), and yet two other super-volcanic eruptions dating ~74 – 70 000 years before the present, constructive memory emerged, introducing combinatory thinking, or creativity (Ambrose, 2010; Pringle, 2016).

It's fair to say that modern humans', that is Homo Sapiens Sapiens, with our ability to model scenarios forward in time, including combinatory thinking, emerged as a result of:

1. changes in the climate,
   
   
2. because our ancestors changed their diet – added animal source food (Österberg, 2022).

The first sign of agriculture was seen during the Epipaleolithic (~25 000 ~11 600 years before the present; Hodder, 2018), that is, the very last part of Pleistocene (2.58 Mya – 11 600 years before the present), when the weather became warmer and more stable.

The Epipaleolithic was the time when the first bread was baked and the first beer was brewed. Putting bread and beer on “the table” wasn't the staple diet, but rather something that was served for special occasions. One reason was the effort-to-nutrition-ratio; the energy and time used to bake bread and to brew beer gave less nutrients and energy compared to hunting for marrow and meat. Still, it seems that they put effort into producing these products (Arranz-Otaegui et al. 2018; Liu et al. 2018).

The Epipaleolithic was also the time of great upheavals; in parallell to the introduction of bread, huge melt pulses occurred, causing sea levels to rise significantly. 1500 years later, the Younger Dryas (YD) impact occurred, throwing Earth back into a significant colder climate. YD lasted for ~1200 years.

Between 14 400 to 7000 before the present, a total of four melt pulses occurred, causing sea levels to rise more than 100 meters.

When the climate changed, again, from Pleistocene/The Epipaleolithic/Younger Dryas to Holocene (11 600 years before the present),

• the weather again became warmer and more stable and practice of producing grains could expand.
  
  
• the first agricultural revolution occurred. It was a game changer, but not a positive one, as it caused conflicts and malnutrition (Kohler et al. 2017; Mummert et al. 2011).
  
  
• our ancestors also started to consume dairy (Curry, 2021).
  
  

Animal source diet, including dairy, is associated with physical and mental health (Adesogan et al. 2020; Allen, 2003; Balehegn et al 2019; Dehghan et al. 2018; Ede, 2019; Itkonen et al. 2020; Tong et al. 2020; Ylilauri et al 2019).

Studies also revealed that the small amount of people (~2%) who for various reasons decide to abstain from animal source food, the food that gave us a large prefrontal cortex, also report mental issues: anxiety, depression, and neuroticism (Dobersek et al. 2023). Notice that neuroticism is the precursor to anxiety, depression (Zinbarg et al. 2016).

Therefore, I concluded that meat, eggs, and whole dairy are crucial to sustain physical and mental health, and that politicians should support that kind of agriculture (Österberg, 2021 (in Swedish)).

A few month ago, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concluded the same (EFA, 2023).

A longer version: “Perception versus facts”: What is the future for sustainable food? The case for prospective thinking (UH)

Also: Finnish consumers still prefer healthy meat over plant-based alternatives, but Finnish researchers and journalists report the opposite

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