As discussed previously, the production of food, especially meat is extremely pollutive. The rearing of livestock for meat requires a large amount of feed, water and land while emitting a large amount of carbon dioxide and methane (both greenhouse gases) (Michel, Hartmann & Siegrist, 2021). Worse of all, the global demand for meat is projected to rise by 73% by 2050 (European Environment Agency, 2020), worsening the pollution problem.

In recent years, there has been increasing attention towards reducing emissions and land impact of the meat industry. One such solution is plant-based meat, a more sustainable alternative to meat from livestock. For instance, the Beyond Meat patty, made primarily with pea protein, canola oil and coconut oil is designed to look, cook and taste like ground beef (Heller & Keoleian, 2018).

Are these plant-based meat really less pollutive?

Based on existing studies, the answer appears to be “Yes”. A study found that replacing beef with equally nutritious plant-based products would use only require 10% of the land and produce only 4% of the greenhouse gas emission (Kusch & Fiebelkorn, 2019). Focusing Beyond Meat’s patty, the life cycle analysis found that the meat alternative produces 90% lesser greenhouse gas, requires 99.5% lesser water and 93% lesser land use as compact to conventional beef (Heller & Keoleian, 2018).

Figure 1: Comparision between Beyond Burger and Beef Patty (Heller & Keoleian, 2018)

Based on these results, plant-based meats do have huge potential to drastically solve the pollution problem of meat production. However, the challenge would be to get consumers to switch from traditional meat to plant-based meats. Plant-based meat faces multiple challenges towards adoption – (1) Price, (2) Consumer awareness of the product and (3) Consumer perception towards the “fake” meat. Hopefully, with the increasing adoption of plant-based meat in mainstream restaurants, there will be increased consumer adoption.

Would you be willing to give up your beef patty for a plant-based patty to save the environment?

 

References:

European Environment Agency (2020). Artificial meat and the environment. Retrieved Jan 30, 2022 from https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/artificial-meat-and-the-environment/at_download/file

Heller, M. C. & Keoleian, G. A. (2018). Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger Life Cycle Assessment: A detailed comparison between a plant based and an animal-based protein source. Retrieved on Jan 30, 2022 from http://css.umich.edu/sites/default/files/publication/CSS18-10.pdf

Kusch, S., & Fiebelkorn, F. (2019). Environmental impact judgments of meat, vegetarian, and insect burgers: Unifying the negative footprint illusion and quantity insensitivity. Food Quality and Preference, 78, 103731. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2019.103731

Michel, F., Hartmann, C., & Siegrist, M. (2021). Consumers’ associations, perceptions and acceptance of meat and plant-based meat alternatives. Food Quality and Preference, 87, 104063. doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2020.104063

Featured Image from https://pulsenews.co.kr/view.php?year=2019&no=213221