ALEPH 2020: animal source foods in sustainable, ethical, and healthy diets

The ALEPH 2020 initiative was launched at the end of 2020; the acronym refers to Animal source foods and Livestock: Ethics, Planet, and Health. ‘Aleph’ is also the first letter of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, which later morphed into the Greek 'Alpha' and Latin 'A'. Originally, the letter was derived from the West Semitic word for 'ox' depicted in a Proto-Sinaitic glyph, obtained from an Egyptian hieroglyph showing a bovine head. As such, it not only represented a vocal sound and scriptural element, but also notions of strength, vitality, fertility, and generosity. Throughout (pre)history, animals (hunted or domesticated) and animal source foods have always held these connotations, as they were essential for survival. 

Recently, however, there is a remarkable tendency to invert their original meaning, especially in the urban centres of high-income countries. Their consumption is increasingly being represented as unethical and harmful to both our health and the planet, to the point that some advocate a diet without or with only low amounts of animal source foods, and in some cases even the end of livestock farming. We argue that these astonishing claims are not only counter-intuitive but also that their scientific foundations are misinterpreted and presented out of context. By addressing the topics of ethics (animal health), sustainability (planetary health), and nutrition (human health), we claim that livestock and the foods derived thereof have an important role to play within an overall One Health framework.

As a 'dynamic white paper', this website should at all times be considered as imperfect work in progress and not as a static database or as settled science. The aim of this initiative is to continuously feed the various pages with new information, which implies that some of the opinions and conclusions can change due to emerging evidence and new insights.