5.12 Lab-grown meat and other protein alternatives

Alternative proteins are derived from nonlivestock sources—such as insects, plants (legumes, Kernza), aquaculture, and cell cultures (lab-grown meat)—and offer promising alternatives to traditional proteins used in human, animal, fish, and pet consumption. Given that beef has almost 30 times the GHG emissions per calorie of vegetables such as lentils or lab-grown meat, this shift can have a potentially significant impact on overall GHG emissions and the environmental footprint (box 5.12). The insect protein market alone is estimated to be worth about $8 billion by 2030, up from less than $1 billion today (Financial Times 2020b).

BOX 5.12

Lab-grown meat and other protein alternatives

Interest in emerging innovations and alternative protein sources is growing. lab-grown meat may meet consumer needs without the heavy resource costs of rearing livestock, including the deforestation required to create grazing land, the atmospheric damage from livestock emissions, and the threat of zoonoses. Although lab-grown meat has yet to reach mainstream consumers, progress in making it affordable and accessible shows its potential to complement existing food production methods. Efforts to create artificial meat and protein have attracted investment from future-looking billionaires such as Richard Branson and Bill Gates as well as from large food firms. lab-grown meats were forecast to be accessible to mainstream consumers by 2020 (Green 2018). Globally, more than two dozen firms are testing lab-grown fish, beef, and chicken, hoping to break into an unproven segment of the alternative meat market, which Barclays estimates could be worth $140 billion by 2029 (Meat news 2020).

Asia is an active player in lab-grown meat. Japan is leading Asia in lab-grown meat and cellular agriculture research. Acknowledging technological progress in other regions and the benefits for domestic meat consumption, China’s government recently signed a $300 million trade deal with Israel, a lab-grown meat innovator, enabling the purchase of lab-grown meat from the country’s suppliers. Media reports indicate that Silicon Valley–based Hampton Creek has also been in talks to license lab-grown meat technology to South Asia (Green 2018). In late 2020, the company, Eat Just Inc., has gained regulatory approval in Singapore to produce and sell lab-grown chicken meat (Meat news 2020).

Other emerging (or old in a new format) food innovations include insects, which are consumed in powdered form and contain more protein and micronutrients per pound than beef, and Kernza, a perennial plant that produces grain for five years (as opposed to wheat’s single year of production) and can be used in baking and beer production. It has numerous ecological benefits because of its deep roots, which provide drought resilience as well as deposit carbon into the soil and boost overall soil health. Even algae are being used to produce a new form of oil, which could potentially act as a substitute for palm oil (Ecosperity 2018a).

Alternative proteins are still in an early stage of adoption and understanding, and may come with ancillary implications that require a systems perspective: if they prove popular, they could negatively affect the livelihood of livestock farmers and the economies of countries dependent on livestock, highlighting the need to account for trade-offs and externalities associated with this demand shift. Moreover, the health implications of the novel processes and ingredients used in some of these products are not yet well understood (WEF 2018). Consumers are also likely to take time to adjust to alternative foods such as lab meat as well as other innovations like insect protein products. There are also barriers to implementing nutrition education in countries such as the Republic of Korea, including the lack of a systematic curriculum and the lack of continuing education for nutrition teachers (Asian Scientist 2017; le page 2017; Woo et al. 2015). A final challenge is the scaling up of lab-meat production given that laboratory facilities cannot easily move from prototypes to mass market output.