In Part One of this series, we explored why alternative proteins are a crucial climate solution that deserves more support. In Part Two, we’ll explore a broader range of alternative protein benefits for people and the planet that further strengthen the case for additional investment and policy support.
Alternative Protein Benefits from Innovation
Significant non-climate environmental benefits
Because it requires vastly more land than other food, including alternative proteins (APs), livestock production is the number one driver of tropical deforestation—itself a major source of greenhouse gas emissions—and thus a major driver of associated biodiversity losses. Livestock production is also a major contributor to air and water pollution and freshwater use.
These external costs of conventional meat production—currently at levels worthy of significant concern and attention—will only become more severe if global meat production rises through 2050 in line with current projections. Consequently, investments aimed at increasing the consumer appeal of APs could deliver significant environmental benefits, including reduced deforestation and biodiversity losses, more and higher quality water, and improved air quality. In addition, by reducing the land demands of food production, a shift to APs would open up space for more humane and more biodiversity-friendly forms of agriculture as well as for less consumptive uses of land currently used for pasture or feed production, such as restoration, conservation, and recreation.
Alternative protein benefits for food security
APs could also have significant food security benefits. This is so for three primary reasons.
Firstly, AP supply chains are less vulnerable to localized shocks and more adaptable than those for conventional animal meat. The COVID-19 pandemic made clear that our food system is alarmingly fragile and prone to disruption; however, the production of conventional animal products has two features that make it especially vulnerable to breakdown:
1️⃣ Animal meat production requires particular geographies and climates. animal protein production tends toward a degree of spatial concentration that exacerbates its vulnerability to localized disruptions such as natural disasters when compared to other, less spatially concentrated supply chains.
2️⃣ The timeline from the first planting of feed crops to the final distribution to supermarkets for animal meat is long and hard to adjust mid-stream, making short-term adjustments difficult. By contrast, APs can be produced almost anywhere, enabling great geographic dispersal, and involving shorter timelines that make it far easier to adapt their supply chains to unexpected changes than those for animal products.
Second, APs make food systems more resilient to shocks by increasing the diversity of available protein sources. Because AP supply chains are so different from those for many other protein sources, they are less likely to be impacted by disruptions affecting other protein sources. As a result, increases in AP availability and affordability can help ensure that consumers continue to have access to high-quality protein sources when they otherwise would not.
Third, since the emissions associated with AP production are so much lower than for conventional animal meat, greater AP uptake can help to prevent or attenuate the food system disruptions associated with extreme weather events, changing rainfall patterns, and other challenges. The food security benefits of APs could be further enhanced if they are developed so as to facilitate local production throughout the world and use locally available crops as inputs.
Protecting public health
AP innovation could also help to reduce public health risks related to pandemics, animal-derived diseases, and antimicrobial resistance. Preventing the Next Pandemic, a report published by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), CGIAR, and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) named increasing demand for meat and intensive livestock production as two of the seven major anthropogenic drivers of zoonotic disease emergence.
In addition, with around 65% of all medically relevant antibiotics sold being used on livestock, livestock production contributes to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Some estimates suggest this could lead to as many as 10 million deaths annually by 2050. By contrast, since AP production does not use large quantities of antibiotics on large numbers of genetically similar animals held together in close quarters, it does not carry these same risks.
Alternative protein benefits for bolstering the global economy
Once AP production achieves sufficient scale, the industry stands to create millions of jobs and significantly increase gross value added (GVA). APs could lead to the creation of more than 53 million jobs by 2040 and as many as 83 million jobs by 2050, some of them requiring specialized technical skills. In addition, GVA could increase from about $29 billion today to as much as $740 billion in 2040 and $1.1 trillion by 2050. Notably, APs account for 70% of the jobs expected from innovations to address food system methane emissions and 98% of the expected increase in GVA.
Job and GVA Estimations
Data from the ClimateWorks Foundation and Global Methane Hub Global Innovation Needs Assessment (GINA)“Food Systems Methane Innovations” report
APs are more than just a climate solution. They’re a potential catalyst for transforming food systems across multiple dimensions and helping drive new innovations that can support economy-wide shifts. It’s no surprise they’re getting more attention, but more action must be taken to help meet their potential for impact. In the next and final part of this series, we’ll explore steps countries can take to ensure that this key climate pollution mitigation technology realizes its potential.
