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- A new study by Finnish researchers, published Monday, has shown that diets that reduce meat and dairy consumption are almost as climate-friendly than diets that rely heavily on culture-grown meats and milk.
- Global agriculture and food systems, especially the production of meat and milk, accounted for 31% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2021, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization.
Could eating fungus meat or bug powder help combat climate change? Yes, say scientists in Finland, but they’ve also got some more palatable suggestions.
Researchers created a model to calculate how different diets can reduce global warming potential. With some tweaking, they got that reduction as high as 80% but it came at a price – some variants of the diet got much of their protein from things like cell-based cultured meat, microalgae and milk produced in a tank from cow mammary cells.
It was a pleasant surprise to discover that diets that reduced meat and dairy consumption were almost as climate-friendly.
“It doesn’t need to be technology,” said Rachel Mazac, a food systems researcher at the University of Helsinki and one of the paper’s authors.
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Their model showed that even replacing 80 percent of animal food sources with plant-based alternatives resulted a 75% reduction on climate impact. A reduction in meat consumption alone led to a 60% decrease in environmental impact.
“The real take-home message,” she said, “is we have food pathways forward.”
Experts say that these pathways will be required. The world is expected have 9.7 billionThere will be more mouths to feed by 2050, 1.9 billionFrom today. Almost all countries have signed on to the agreement simultaneously. Paris Climate AgreementA commitment to shift to a carbon neutral economy in order to combat climate change
Food will play a major role in all of this. As much as 31% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2021, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization. The United States’ agriculture is the sole source of greenhouse gas emissions. 11%.
“We need to make some pretty sweeping changes if we want to minimize our impacts,” said Mazac.
Future foods: Vat-grown milk, culture-grown meat and microbial proteins
The paper was published in the scientific journal by the authors Nature Foods, focused on what they call “novel or future foods” which include some very old fare and some very new.
Insect meal would be in the ancient category. John the Baptist was known to have eaten locusts, wild honey, and other insects in the Bible. Insects are an excellent source for protein and healthy fat in many cultures.
The new category includes things like spirulinakelp, mushroom meat, and kelp.
Spirulina is a blue-green algae powder that’s vitamin-rich and added to smoothies and other foods. The U.S. sells mushroom meat, which is actually made of fungus. Quorn. Kelp jerky and burgersThey are already available.
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Plant-based meat substitutes such as Beyond Burgers and Impossible Burgers are already popular – Even fast-food restaurants like Burger King, KFC and Starbucks.
The future category will be milkCulture-grown from cells MeatAnd microbial proteins.
These last aren’t on the market yet but there are several companies working on them. Singapore-based Turtle Tree Labs has an operation in West Sacramento, California, that’s testing cell-based dairy. Many companies around the globe are working to produce lab-grown meat. A San Franciso company is working to perfect the art of brewing precision food-grade proteins.
Adding these novel foods to a daily diet wouldn’t require Whole crickets for dinnerMazac said that kelp should not be used in large quantities in salads. Most of them come in powdered form.
“It’s more like you can incorporate it into breads, protein shakes, those kind of things,” she said.
Mazac has a possible menu for those who wish to double down on future food.
The day could start with a protein shake for breakfast made from cow milk brewed in cell cultures, with added insect powder for protein, blue-green algae for vitamins and lab-grown cloudberry slurry for taste. Lunch could include a burger made with beef from a vat, and dinner could include a burrito made of scrambled cultural fungal protein.
It’s not much of a contrast with a meal available today from plant-based options, she noted. This could include whole grain toast with peanut butter and a smoothie using banana and oatmilk. Lunch: An Impossible Burger, and dinner: A burrito stuffed with spicy Jackfruit in barbecue sauce.
Agriculture industry is seen as part of the solution by climate change deniers
Fabrice DeClerck is the director of science at EAT. This international foundation works to make food systems more sustainable.
Speaking from Amsterdam, he said it’s much more common to find healthier and more plant-forward foods at train stations, airports and the like today than it was even five years ago.
This could include a carrot and lentil salad or a sandwich menu that offers several vegetarian options. Even the meat sandwiches “might come with one slice of ham instead of six,” he said.
How to fight global warming at dinnertime: Less meat, More Vegetables
While novel foods could work to lower the carbon impact of food, there’s a much easier way to get to the same goal, said DeClerck. His organization helped to write a 2019 reportA description of how a healthy and sustainable global diet might look.
It was similar to other research in this area, and found that lowering the consumption of meat and dairy made diets more healthy and less likely to contribute towards global warming.
“When you look at the ranges, we’re talking about beef once per week. Poultry twice weekly. Fish two to three times per week,” he said.
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Some of the changes will occur naturally. As the population increases, there will be more demand for agriculture. This will increase costs and make products like meat and milk more expensive. Consumption will drop.
In the end, shifting to a diet heavier in fruits and vegetables, whole grains and meat added more for flavor than substance may be easier than getting humanity over its collective “food neophobia,” the avoidance of new foods.
It’s not simply a question of having the right chemical composition, said Geoffrey Heal, a professor of environmental economics at Columbia University business school.
“Do people like it? Does it have the right taste and mouth-feel?” he said. “There are a lot of things that go into deciding if something is acceptable to humans as food.”
Mazac said their models showed lowering food’s environmental impact doesn’t require an entirely new food technology, or for everyone to become vegan.
“It just says that we need to start consuming less and focusing a bit more on the quality of the nutrition and the quality of the production,” she said.
