by Gitte Barknowitz, Global Market Development Manager, SCIEX
A significant challenge over the coming decades will be how to feed a growing population on a planet with a climate that’s less predictable for food production. The world’s population is expected to be 9.8 billion by 2050, and the global demand for meat is expected to rise correspondingly.
Despite the popularity of meat, its consumption presents inherent challenges. Meat-based diets require more energy, water, and other resources than those consisting of plants. Beyond sustainability concerns, the risk of infectious disease outbreaks spreading from animals to humans is large. The United States alone produces over 10 billion land animals each year for food, and disease spillover between animals and humans is common, with roughly 75 percent of emerging infectious diseases in humans having an animal origin. How can we feed the world’s growing population in a resource-responsible, sustainable, and safe way?
A major part of the solution could be a push away from traditional meat products and toward alternative sources of protein. What was once a trend is gaining momentum with an increase in the diversity of alternative protein products on the market. Plant-based options have long been consumed as sustainable meat alternatives. Microbial-based alternative proteins are a newer option, with the product Quorn being a popular example, offering meat-like products made from the fungus Fusarium venenatum. Insect-derived proteins—which are produced on an industrial scale nowadays, and mainly used to feed animals like fish—have a growing share of the market, and a major benefit of insects is their small resource footprint compared to traditional meat products. Finally, cell-cultured meats are the most recent addition to the alternative protein market. The technology involved in this meat production is relatively new, and the first lab-cultured burger was sold for a staggering $330,000 in 2013. In the last decade, however, the costs of manufacturing and production cell-cultured meats have decreased enough that the price of these meats, while subsidized, is similar to traditional meat products in Singapore, the first country in the world to approve the sale of cell-cultured meats.
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