Environmental Impact of Meat Protein Substitutes: A Mini-Review

Abstract

The expansion of alternative food industries, including cultured meat, is often promoted as a strategy to reduce environmental pollution, particularly greenhouse gas emissions. However, comprehensive data on the environmental impacts of these industries remains limited. This study examines the environmental impacts of traditional meat and meat substitute production, highlighting their respective advantages and disadvantages. Our findings indicate that meat substitute production generally has a lower environmental impact compared to traditional livestock farming. However, it is challenging to quantify the extent to which meat substitutes can reduce the environmental impacts of traditional livestock products, as both sectors produce different pollution measurements depending on the criteria used. Moreover, the growth of the meat substitute market has been significantly smaller compared to that of the traditional livestock products market, limiting the availability of accurate data on the environmental impacts of meat substitute production. Therefore, assumptions that the meat substitute market will eventually surpass the traditional livestock market and reduce environmental pollution require caution. Continuous and in-depth research is crucial to fully understand the long-term environmental impacts of meat substitutes. Furthermore, enhancing the quality of alternative meat substitutes should be prioritized to increase their overall acceptability and facilitate technological advancements in alternative protein production before it becomes a sustainable food production system.

Keywords: alternative protein; environmental impact; meat analogs; traditional meat.

Fig. 1.. Comparison of water and land use, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across various protein sources.

(A) Maximum (light blue) and minimum (blue) liters of water required to produce one kilogram of traditional or alternative meat; (B) Maximum (light green) and minimum (green) land area required to produce one kg of traditional or alternative meat; (C) Maximum (peach) and minimum (brown) carbon dioxide equivalent emissions associated with the production of one kilogram of traditional or alternative meat. Data are based on the works of Apostolidis and McLeay (2016); de Souza Schneider et al. (2018); de Vries and de Boer (2010); Derbyshire et al. (2020); Dreyer et al. (2021); Galán-Díaz et al. (2024); George (2020); Gerber et al. (2015); Gustafson (2017); Herrera et al. (2021); Lange and Nakamura (2021); Lee et al. (2022); Mekonnen and Hoekstra (2012); Miglietta et al. (2015); Poore and Nemecek (2018); Rodríguez Escobar et al. (2021); Shahid et al. (2024); Smetana et al. (2023); Souza Filho et al. (2019a); Tzachor et al. (2022). Plant: wheat, oats, beans; Cell: cultured meat; Insect: Tenebrio molitor, Zophobas morio; Algae: Desmodesmus subspicatus, Arthrospira platensis; Fungi: Fusarium venenatum.