This episode is sponsored by  Fabulous, an app that helps you start building your ideal daily routine.

The first 100 people who click  on the link in the description will get 25% off a Fabulous subscription. [♪ INTRO] Switching as little as 20% of our global  beef consumption to a substitute protein could cut deforestation and CO2 emissions  from farming cattle in half by 2050, according to a study out this week in Nature. From the huge amount of land,  food, and fresh water they require, to the impact on their immediate environment,  all the way to their methane burps, farming beef cattle has a  substantial environmental impact.

Beef is also responsible for about a  quarter of all food production-related greenhouse gas emissions. Cows, I know it’s not your fault,  but you are a huge problem. Now this means if we want to lower  humanity’s overall carbon footprint, beef is also a potentially  high-impact area to target.

The new study took a look at how  we might do things differently. Specifically, they investigated  what our emissions could look like if we substituted a percentage  of worldwide beef consumption with something called fermentation-derived  microbial protein, or just MP. MP is derived from fungus grown  using sugar in heated reactors.

That’s different from plant-based meat  substitutes that rely on agricultural crops like soybeans, or lab-grown meat which  requires…like, you know, like, a lab. MP is comparable to meat in nutritional  content, has a similar texture, and since it’s grown in a reactor, its production is relatively  resistant to local changes in climate. This might all sound like a  sci-fi experiment on a plate, but these days, it’s kind of not.

MP is already widely available in supermarkets; you might have heard of brands like Quorn. In their study, the research team  modeled three different scenarios. In them, 0%, 20%, 50%, or 80% of beef consumption was replaced with MP by the year 2050.

The team then compared what the  projected environmental impacts of those moves could be. They took into account economic  factors, as well as population expansion and increases in income, which  would all alter demand for food. According to their calculations, replacing  20% of the beef consumed per person with MP by 2050 would cut the  emissions associated with beef globally by more than half.

Not only that, but compared to the 0%  scenario, the 20% scenario would see global annual deforestation rates  decrease by roughly half as well. Replacing more than 20% would, of  course, offer even greater benefits. According to their model, replacing  50% or 80% of beef with MP would result in 82% and 93% reductions in deforestation,  as well as 83% and 87% reductions in net carbon dioxide emissions  by 2050, respectively.

The 50% and 80% scenarios, however,  may offer diminishing returns. Now, further research is needed  to look at the exact energy and land use requirements of  implementing this strategy. But this study already shows us how  we can make a relatively small step in the right direction and reap huge benefits.

This week we also learned that scientists  have discovered a new way to treat multidrug-resistant infections in  people with compromised immune systems. In a study in Nature Communications,  researchers in the US have figured out how to harness  the power of bacteriophages, a type of virus that  specifically infects bacteria, to basically fight infection with infection. Bacteria can become resistant to  traditional antibiotic treatment if they’re exposed to them  without being fully killed off.

They develop resistance mechanisms  against those treatments, rendering them useless, which means  that the bacteria can continue to flourish even if it’s being  inundated with antibiotics. Treating with bacteriophages,  though, avoids this issue entirely. When a bacteriophage infects a bacterium, it takes over the functions of  that cell to replicate itself.

That not only interrupts  the bacterium’s replication, but eventually it kills it all together. In their study, the researchers  isolated bacteriophages that could infect a treatment resistant  bacterium called Mycobacterium chelonae, which is commonly associated with  skin and soft tissue infections, generally in people with weaker immune systems. While this isn’t the first time that  bacteriophage therapy has been used, having another way to target and  treat this particular infection would be super useful, since  immunocompromised patients have a lot of trouble  fighting it off by themselves.

The team intravenously administered  the bacteriophage treatment twice daily to a 56-year old patient with a persistent,  treatment-resistant M. chelonae infection, in addition to continued antibiotic  therapy and surgical procedures that removed infected tissue. Before treatment, this patient had  intermittent symptoms caused by an infection from the bacteria,  including lesions on the skin of his left arm, lower belly, and right leg. But once the bacteriophage therapy was  administered, they gradually began to improve, with their skin lesions becoming  less inflamed and reducing in size.

Even better than that, it seemed like  the treatment was pretty tolerable and the patient had minimal side effects These infections are very persistent,  though, and even with this type of therapy, it might take time to clear them completely. While this is a super exciting development,  it’s going to take a hot minute before you can go to your doctor and ask  for a round of bacteriophage therapy. In the months and years to come,  scientists will have to study how safe this treatment is, as  well as get a better understanding of how it might interact with our  immune systems, which is no small task.

But with a little luck, we  could be adding this treatment to our arsenal in the near-ish future. Maybe you watched this episode and though: I’d like to get into the habit of eating  less beef to reduce my climate impact. Well, whatever habits you want to set,  today’s sponsor Fabulous is there for you.

Their approach is gentle, supportive, and fun. So whether you want to stop  smoking, focus on deep work, or create structure in your daily  routine, their app can help make it stick. They’ve even added new features,  like short-term challenge programs where you challenge yourself to meet a  specific goal over a short period of time.

You’ll be able to meet a community  of people that are focusing on the same goal as you too, by joining circles. You can start building your  ideal daily routine today. The first 100 people who click  on the link in the description will get 25% off a Fabulous subscription! [♪ OUTRO]