00:00:02 Speaker 1: From Mediators World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is Cal's weekend review, presented by Steel Steel products are available only at authorized dealers. For more, go to Steel Dealers dot com. Now here's your host, Ryan cal callahan. Would you like to get your chicken thighs and beef steaks from a giant metal meat growing vat Good Meat thinks you would. Good Meat is a company that grows meat in a lab or, in this case, a metal tube. They're working on installing the world's largest meat growing vats at their new US facility, which they hope will be able to crank out over thousand tons of meat each year by two thousand thirty. They called these meat growing vats bioreactors, and Good Meat plans to construct ten of them. Each will stand four stories tall and hold about sixty six was in gallons of what I can only assume is some kind of meat sludge, which may be unfair, but I doubt what's in the that resembles a bone in ribby full of intermuscular fat. Proponents of lab grown meat argue that the process is more humane and environmentally friendly than traditional ways of killing and butchering animals. Good Meats tagline, for example, is real meat made without tearing down a forest or taking a life. You've got to give them points for directness. Here's how good Meats top exact. Josh Tetric put it, I think our grandchildren are going to ask us about why we ate meat from slaughtered animals back in two thousand twenty two. Cultivated meat matters because it will enable us to eat meat without all the harm, without bulldozing for uts, without the need to slaughter an animal, without the need to use antibiotics, without accelerating zoonotic diseases. I do love the euphemism cultivated meat. By the way, the meat is cultivated, but that word comes from the Latin cultivat, meaning prepared for crops. That's a pretty far cry from grown in a lab, but that is part of the word cultivat, So I suppose they have that going for them anyway. That grown meat isn't yet legal to sell in the US, though that day is coming soon. Good Meat is in talks with the FDA, and Tetrick told The Guardian that the FDA has been fully engaged. You can probably deduce my stance on bagrown meat from my enthusiastic tone, but I'm curious what you think. Are you excited about eating meat from a vap or do you see the potential unintended consequences? Send me your thoughts at a s k c a L. That's asked cal at the Meat eater dot com and let me know what you think. This week we've got conservation wins, animal attacks, Stonehenge, and meat Fest. But first I'm gonna tell you about my week, and my week was and still is super fun. Loaded back into the Black Series Camper, which is where I sit recording this episode. Dogs Asleep in the Dirt and Ashville Bed. Started out doing some fishing this week, but the incessant rain has the rivers on the rise, so I pivoted to Morrell mushroom picking in a burn Now burn mushrooms aren't real hard to locate. Hunting isn't anywhere near as interesting as hunting up big shrooms and old growth, but it is still super fun. It's extremely dirty. The mushrooms are dirty. I am dirty, the dogs are, in their opinion, gloriously dirty. And I will admit, on top of this filth, I have come to really enjoy the shower in this damned camper getting soft Here folks smelling good, getting soft, which reminds me Father's Day is just around the corner. Check out Steal USA. That's Steel s t I h L USA for their Father's Day gift guide. I have with me my ms A one twenty battery powered saw. I used it to tip over two dead standing larch this weekend, bucked him into rounds and kept the home fire burning all through the wet, wet, muddy weekend. Didn't even disturb all that nature because it's clean and quiet anyway. If you have not already, you can get some great Father's Day gift ideas by following Steel USA on the Instagram. June is after all, safety month, Helmets I and ear pro. Of course, your chainsaw chaps can all be found at Steel USA. Moving on to the conservation desk. With one third of all US wildlife species imperiled or vulnerable, it's easy to get down in the mouth about the future of conservation, but hunters and anglers no better than anyone else that threatened species can be saved today. I've got a roundup of conservations success stories to get you recharged and back in the fight. Up in Maine, endangered New England cotton tail rabbits are making a comeback. The species was listed on Main's endangered list in two thousand seven after development and changing landscapes decimated the young forest habitat the rabbits need to thrive. There are only about three hundred individuals in the entire state, but thanks to the efforts of conservationists, those numbers are on an upward trajectory. Biologists are focusing on restoring the small trees and shrubs the rabbits used for cover and reintroducing captive born rabbits to those protected areas. Rabbits aren't the only species on the rise in the Pine Tree State. A native fish species called ale wives are back in central mains China Lake for the first time since the Revolutionary War. Main Rivers, a conservation organization, has been working for nearly a decade to restore this native herring species to China Lake in the southern part of the state. Ale wives are anadromus, which means they migrate from the sea to freshwater to spawn, but their path has been blocked by six dams along the Kennebec River. Main Rivers removed three of those dams and added fish ladders to the other three. Now, for the first time since George Washington cast a line into the Potomac or spit slivers out of his wooden teeth, this gulf of main keystone species can migrate unobstructed to China Lake and back, moving to the other side of the country. California condors recently flew over the state's northern Redwood Forest for the first time and over a century. Two captive bread male birds were released in Redwood National Park on May three as part of a new Pacific Northwest reintroduction program led by the Yurok Tribe with assistance from federal and local wildlife agencies. The project aims to release more birds that they hope will disperse across northern California and southern Oregon. The statewide recovery of the California condor, started in the nineteen eighties, went forward thinking biologists captured the last twenty two remaining birds in the wild from those captive individuals. The program has increased the wild population to over three hundred birds, and another first in a century event, dozens of lake sturgeon were seen last month spawning in the otter Tail River in Central Minnesota. Thanks to listener Kevin Moore for calling this to our attention. Once an abundant species in the Red River Basin, lake sturgeon were mostly extirpated from the riparian areas in western Minnesota and eastern North Dakota. The recovery efforts began in the nineteen nineties, but it wasn't until two thousand eight that Minnesota voters adopted a constitutional amendment that provided dedicated funding for clean water, wildlife and parks. Thanks to this funding, wildlife officials have been able to modify dams to allow for fish passage and engage in aggressive stocking. According to a great report in north Land Outdoors, there's still more work to be done, but this large spawning event is a great sign for lake sturgeon in the Red River basin. North of the border, in British Columbia, chinook salmon have been stocked in the Columbia River for the first time since nineteen National, state, and provincial governments in the US and Canada joined with indigenous groups in two thousand nineteen to launch the Columbia River Salmon Restoration Initiative. This initiative has released thousands of juvenile salmon into various lakes and rivers in the area, which will hopefully give the population a boost until we can figure out a real solution. Moving on to the cat desk, the German town of Waldorf has issued an order that residents must keep all cats indoors until the end of August. The order aims to protect ground nesting bird species known as the crested lark. The crested lark is not listed as a species of concern by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, but its population in Europe has declined sharply in recent decades. Cat owners risk a fine of a little more than five dollars if their cat is found wandering around outside, and a whopping fifty dollars if their cat injures or kills a crested lark. I'm not sure what kind of evidence you need to convict a cat, but I'd love to be there for the trial. You want answer, look the truth, you've cat handled it. German animal welfare organizations blasted the order as misguided. These organizations apparently are concerned about animals other than the crested lark. One group worried that these immense restrictions would cause cats stress and criticize the order for treating cats as second class citizens. Here's how their statement concludes. Defining domestic cats as culprits for the endangerment of certain bird species also means letting them take the blame for the fact that humans have destroyed habitats and food supplies for wild species over a long period of time. It's true that humans have contributed to biodiversity laws, and yes, I think it dangerous to point the finger at a singular culprit in the world of conservation, because I'll tell you right now, I have never personally seen a silver bullet. But that fact doesn't give cat owners the right to let their cats wander around unsupervised, which absolutely does contribute to more loss of biodiversity. They'll survive a few months indoors. Heck, your castle survive a few months indoors, even if the owners don't. Moving on to our last piece of good news, the Interior Department announced recently it plans to distribute thirty three million dollars to two and seventy seven projects that will clean up orphaned oil and gas wells on public land. The money is just the first installment of the two fifty million dollars total provided in the Infrastructure bill Congress pass last year. Cleaning up these old oil and gas wells will cut back on methane emissions and reduce contaminants leaked into the groundwater. Too great things to keep our public lands clean and healthy. And speaking of public lands in New Mexico, the Trust for Public Land just purchased a fifty four thousand acre ranch that is slated to become publicly accessible in the coming years. Two thirds of that parcel has already been conveyed to the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish at in addition to the adjacent fifteen thousand acre Marquees Wildlife Area. The addition of the ranch will more than quadruple the wildlife area and become the largest state owned recreation property in New Mexico. The area will protect habitat and Native American archaeological sites, but it will also give New Mexicans more opportunities to hunt, camp, and fish. It's located only about forty five miles from Albuquerque and one hundred miles from Santa Fe. The existing wildlife area is difficult to access, but the addition of these acres will improve access to the property and support elk, turkey and small game hunting. Funding for the purchase came from a variety of state, federal, and nonprofit sources and total thirty four point one million dollars. If you're trying to work out that math in your head, that's only six hundred and thirty one dollars per acre, which is a huge conservation win. Rumor has it that when this project is fully complete, it will be the third largest state wildlife management area in the country. Lots of people worked on this, and I'll tell you a lot of people thought it was impossible to get done. But where there's a will, there's a way. These folks raised thirty four million dollars in thirteen months and made it happen. Well done to the Trust for Public Lands, and got to give a good shout out to Senator Martin Heinrich who pushed this thing along. Everybody needs advocates. It helps when they're a U S. Senator. In Wyoming and Colorado, the Bureau of Land Management just purchased over thirty five thousand acres to provide access to an additional forty thousand acres of previously inaccessible public land. Using funds from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the BLM purchase thirty five thousand, six hundred seventy acres of private lands southwest of Casper, Wyoming. This land previously belonged to the Morton family, and its purchase will create a one eighteen square mile contiguous block of black land and improve public access to the North Platte River. The Conservation Fund and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation acquired the property, then transferred it to the BLM for permanent protection. The property is bordered to the north by eight point eight miles of the North Platte River, a fantastic trout fishery boasting more pounds per mile of fish than any other stream in Wyoming. The property will initially be managed under the same regulations and protections as adjoining BLM managed lands in Colorado. The BLM purchased a much smaller, one d sixty acre private parcel, but it could have big benefits for sensitive fish species. The property is located along Escalante Creek, which is home to several chubs, sucker, and trout species that only occupy fractions of their historic range, but that doesn't mean recreation won't be allowed. The BLM reports that camping, fishing, and kayaking will be permitted. The area is also important habitat for desert bighorn sheep and mule deer. Over to the east Coast, a new state natural area in North Carolina is officially open following a Thursday ribbon cutting attended by Governor Roy Cooper. The Foothills Conservancy and the State Division of Parks and Recreation made three separate purchases to acquire more than six thousand acres of land in McDowell County. These acres are now part of Bob's Creek State Natural Area. Hiking, mountain biking, wildlife viewing will be permitted on the new acres, but they will not be open to other forms of recreation. The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources believed it was important to protect terrestrial and aquatic habitats that are home to fourteen species of rare plants and animals. Now, it's disappointing that hunters and anglers aren't a big part of this one, but keep in mind that the conservation success stories we just talked about are made possible by all types of protected land. It's a myth that hiking and biking are passive outdoor activities. The game animals we love to pursue do benefit from protected habitats, even if we can't directly access that habitat. The good news here is that the vast majority of public land is open to hunters and anglers, and state and federal agencies added nearly one hundred thousand acres in three states in just the last few weeks. If that doesn't put a smile on your face and a spring in your step, I don't know what will. Moving on to the animal attack desk, it's been a busy week over at the animal attack desk. We're feeding wild animals is almost never a good idea. In North Carolina, a husband and wife were attacked by a black bear recently after it broke through a window and into their house. They had spied the bear eating from their bird feeder around eleven PM and yelled for it to go away and leave the bird feed alone. The female bear had a cub running around and apparently didn't appreciate the couple's tone. It charged the open window, broke through and attacked. The man and woman fought the bear, and at one point one of them stabbed it with a kitchen knife. The husband eventually retrieved a gun and shot the bare dead. Both occupants had numerous bites and injuries, but both were treated and released that night. Their children were asleep in their bedrooms and were unharmed. I bet that was an interesting discussion at the breakfast table the next morning. Rough night. Huh, Now, in hindsight, is it better to protect a bird feeder or not put a bird feeder out in bear country? At all? Over? In Yellowstone National Park, a year old woman from Ohio was gored by a bison and tossed ten feet into the air. According to the National Park Service. We all know that the Park Service prohibits visitors from getting within twenty five yards of any large animals, but when this woman spied a bison near the boardwalk on black sand Basin, she just couldn't resist. She got within ten feet of the giant horned animal before it decided it was tired of being on Instagram. It urged the woman and executed the aforementioned tossing. The woman sustained a puncture wound and other injuries, but was transported to a nearby hospital and is expected to survive. Here's a fun fact. Bears, wolves, and other predators aren't the biggest perpetrators of human injuries and Yellowstone. The Park Service report that bison have injured more Yellowstone visitors than any other animal. Think of bison as a teenager with the learners permit behind the wheel of a Chevy suburban. They're large, fast, and unpredictable. Bison can run three times faster than a human. They weigh as much as two thousand pounds. But since they eat grass and not elk or deer, people assume it's safe to move in for a quick selfie. Here's a question for you. Would you file this story under things we do for the Graham or TikTok trouble? One more for you? A nine year old girl in Washington State was recently attacked on May by a mountain lion as she was playing hide and seek at a campground. The lion attacked as she jumped out to as her friends. According to the Washington Department of Fishing Wildlife, it's unclear exactly what happened next. Washington Fish and Wildlife officials have said the lion was young and male and that it was killed at the scene, but they haven't yet said why they believed the lion attacked or how it was convinced to leave the girl alone. Fortunately, the story does not end there. The girl, whose name is Lily, was rushed to the hospital, where she underwent several hours of surgery and a brief stay in the intensive care unit. As of May thirty, she was out of the i c U expected to recover. Her mother described her recovery so far as amazing and said that Lily wants everyone to know that she was quote very brave and tough. Quick stop at the fishing desk, a team of English biologists recently discovered by accident that scallops are attracted to led disco lights. Of course, we all knew that scallops were party animals from that scene and the Little Mermaid. You know what I'm talking about? What do They got a lot of s and we got a hot crustache in ben. Each little clam here knows how to jam here under the sea. Oh, come on, you knew the words, don't pretend you don't. The team had been trying to develop a special crab pots that could attract crabs using light rather than fish. They soon realized that while crabs can take or leave disco scalops love it. Scallops or saltwater bivalve mollusks in the Pectinidae family, and you've probably eaten them at seafood restaurants covered in garlic, lemon and butter. They have up to two hundred eyes, and those eyes love an underwater light show. This discovery is interesting, but it's also a potential win for conservation. Scallops are the most valuable fishery in England, but they're usually caught by dredging. Dredging is when a boat drags along the bottom of the ocean a big steel net in the shape of a scoop. When done on an indust st real scale, this method can damage reefs and other marine environments. Lighted pots won't be able to replace all forms of dredging, but they can give fishermen a way to supplement their income without potentially damaging inshore ecosystems. As researchers describe in their recently published study, nine eighty five lighted pots caught five hundred eighteen scallops, while nine hundred one control pots without lights caught only two. If scientists can perfect this light system, they believe they can catch scallops at scale. If you're surprised that scallops see at all, join the club. Turns out, scalops have hundreds of eyes along the inner edge of their shell openings, and they have two retinas, one to sense darker things and one to sense lighter things. Scientists who spoke with the Guardian believe the scallops are attracted to led lights because they provide safety from predators, or because it's easier to find the plankton they eat. Whatever the reason, next time you dig into a plate of scallops fried sautet, maybe humble little Bjs, it'll be an appropriate send off for those delicious five outs. Moving on to the Ancient History Desk, archaeologists working near Stonehenge have discovered what they believed to be thousands of ancient hunting pits. Some of the pits are ten thousand years old, and the entire site dates from between eighty two hundred BC and seventy eight hundred BC. One of the pits measures thirteen feet wide and six and a half feet deep, making it the largest of its kind in northwestern Europe. According to the BBC, no one knows for sure why ancient people built Stonehenge or what it was used for, but this new discovery reinforces the fact that this area was highly important to ancient people's Stonehenge was built from three thousand BC to two thousand BC, which means the oldest hunting pits around are about five thousand years older than Stonehenge. However, some of the earliest pits date from hundred BC. Me people were hunting in the area before and after the famous Megalists were constructed. The holes cluster on the higher ground to the east and west of Stonehenge, in parts of the landscape that were repeatedly visited over millennia. According to archaeologists, the early pits were dug by hunter gatherers who were roaming the landscape during the early Mesolithic period when Britain was reinhabited after the Last Ice Age. The later pits were dug by Bronze Age inhabitants of farms and field systems. The pits were used to trap large animals like red deer, wild boar, and an extinct species of wild cattle called oros Rex were among the largest herbivores in Holocene Europe. They were all black, stood about six ft high at the shoulders, and bowls could weigh as much as three thousand pounds. For a little context, the average weight of an angus bull is about nineteen hundred pounds. If ancient Stonehenge inhabitants were trying to trap an orec, you can see why they needed to pit thirteen feet wide. That's a lot of beef. When these ancient hunters killed an animal, they ate every part of it. According to a sister study of a settlement near Stonehenge, researchers came to this conclusion by studying human and dog copper lights. That's right, fossilized poop. Based on their findings from nineteen of these partially mineralized specimens, they determined that Stonehenge builders should have used a meat thermometer. They found parasite eggs and five of the samples, which suggests that the people ate animal organs that they hadn't cooked properly. They likely ate these organs during large feasts that were held in the region. Farmers herded cattle from as many as sixty miles away so folks could participate in what one researcher, with obviously no working knowledge of internet search engines called a quote meat fest Extravaganza end quote. Don't type that into your search bar, kids, but do keep in mind that your poop tells people a whole lot about you, and that's something you should remember when you feel like you don't need to bury your poop. That's all I've got for you this week. Thank you so much for listening. Remember to let me know what's happening in your neck of the woods by writing in to a s k C. A L. Let's ask Cal at the meat eater dot com. Thanks again, and I'll talk to you next week. Yeah.

Save this episode