The next protein transition

Abstract

Background: Meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals requires a relatively rapid transition towards a circular economy. Therefore, a multidisciplinary perspective is required to sketch why a transition from diets based primarily on animal proteins towards diets based primarily on plant proteins products is extremely urgent for both food security and sustainability.

Scope and approach: This review starts out by identifying ecological, economic and social aspects of sustainable food consumption. Subsequently, it is argued how protein supply is underlying and linking the top-3 of anthropogenic impacts based on the planetary boundaries concept, i.e. 1) biodiversity loss, 2) nitrogen cycle acceleration, and 3) carbon cycle acceleration (resulting in climate change). These environmental impacts associated with current Western food consumption need to be reduced urgently. In order to address the inefficiencies inherent to current dietary patterns, therefore, a ranked list of more sustainable options is proposed, based on their order of magnitude. Addressing consumers, industry, and governmental stakeholders plus cultural aspects, challenges and options are sketched.

Key findings and conclusions: Clearly, a dietary transition from primarily animal towards plant protein products is required. Fortunately, new dietary guidelines are increasingly taking sustainability into account and the contours of a diet transition are slowly emerging.

Fig. 1

Food, cereal and crude oil indexes 1990–2013 (Source: Porter et al., 2014, p. 595).

Fig. 2

Targets of change strategies at the levels of diets, dishes, ingredients and bites.