Alt protein is the way forward and China is already well ahead of the rest who are infested with destructive neoliberal ideology

With the Rhine drying up and grass turning brown all over Europe (including the UK), even conservative bodies such as the ECB are starting to take notice and comment. On July 2, 2026, a member of the Executive Board, Frank Elderson gave a speech to the 7th World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists – The green transition – benefits and barriers. In that speech, he directly tied the mounting climate chaos with inflation volatility and emphasised the need to transition as quickly as possible to a net zero carbon economy. I am continuing to draft material for an upcoming book on degrowth and decolonialisation from an Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) perspective. The current area I am researching concerns the evolution of new uses of fermentation to provide food security and allow humanity to transition away from reliance on animal and fish products. The evidence demonstrates that the Chinese are now using its traditional expertise in fermentation to fast track production of Alt protein. As we know, the production of protein via livestock is highly inefficient (protein per hectare) and environmentally unsustainable. Using biomass and converting lignocellulose into food protein is a way around that situation and the Chinese are already way ahead of the rest of us. As long as we hang on to neoliberal ideologies that prevent wide scale state support of emerging industries and starve researchers of state provided R&D funding, the greater will the gulf be between China and the rest of the world on these future technologies and products. We are now seeing this in the production of EVs, for example. Alt protein is the solution for humanity to eliminate livestock dependence. We should be following the processes that China has put in place.

Read more

Can capitalism survive? Not if we want to solve the climate and poverty crisis

The opening line of Part II of Joseph Schumpeter’s 1942 book – Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy – was “Can capitalism survive? No, I do not think it can”. His thesis was not that capitalism would perform badly, quite the opposite. Rather the considered that “its very success undermines the social institutions which protect it, and inevitably creates conditions in which it will not be able to live and which strongly points to socialism as the heir apparent.” The climate crisis facing the world is combining with the other outcomes of neoliberalism to create what is now called a poly crisis. Recently, a group associated with the United Nations Human Rights Council has released a – Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth (published June 10, 2026) – which proposes a series of policy shifts designed to address aspects of the poly crisis. While it recognises that we must “escape the trap of growthism”, it fails to articulate that the fundamental logic of capitalism is capital accumulation that requires growth. To escape the trap, we must move beyond that mode of production. Merely tweaking policy structures within capitalism will not solve the problem.

Read more

The achievement of a degrowth future requires system change not green new deals

When I was just coming into adulthood (1972), the – Club of Rome – published its famous – The Limits to Growth – which focused on the consequences of “exponential economic and population growth with a finite supply of resources”. It was a very influential research document generally, but also very important in shaping the way I would think about the world. The critics were many and the fossil fuel industry lobbying powerful and while the ideas did move policy makers somewhat and motivated new movements or gave impetus to existing bodies, such as the – Zero population growth – organisation, the vital message was largely ignored. Even the more recent green-oriented activism has not seen fit to focus on population growth as the primary problem that has to be addressed, if all the other problems of excessive energy use are to be dealt with effectively. Marxists were also very critical of the Club of Rome report for reasons that always escaped me. They criticised the Club’s focus on overpopulation, claiming it distracted us from the real problem, which was the voracious logic of the Capitalism system of production and accumulation. I always thought those attacks were unhelpful and allowed the progressive (Left) response to climate change to be fractured and, hence, weakened.

Read more

How to break out of the commodification of everything

Regular readers will know that I run a bit, like lots. Last week, while I was in Europe, I decided to stay on Australian time, given the brevity of the mission, so I found myself running at midnight or just after awaking at 22:00 or 23:00 (after going to sleep around 14:00). It turned out to be a good strategy because the abnormally (scary) high temperatures during the day last week in Europe gave way to warm nights with just a hint of crispness in the air – perfect running conditions. Yesterday morning, though, I was in Melbourne, Australia and set off on my early run (around 7:00 being Sunday) and I was a bit tired from yesterday’s Parkrun in Newcastle. Yes, I move around a bit. This morning though, I saw more than the usual numbers out and about on the familiar running areas in the park lands of Melbourne and soon came across Run Melbourne, a large event with screaming speakers, ridiculous geeing-up announcers on microphones, and thousands of people blocking the usual serene early morning paths along the Yarra River. I had earlier been re-reading Chapter 13 of Harry Braverman’s colossal book from 1974 (which everyone should read) – Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century – which was published by Monthly Review Press. The words of – Harry Braverman – came back to me as I tried to work out a way around yesterday morning’s mayhem down by the river.

Read more
Back To Top