The plant-based ‘meat’ and ‘dairy’ industries, which provide vegetarian and vegan substitutes, are on the rise. This perhaps has something to do with the traction that veganism has been gaining in recent years, but is also a result of people who are cutting down on meat products and trying out plant-based alternatives but haven’t fully switched. An important motivation for some is environmentalism.
The benefits in terms of sustainability of plant ‘meats’ could be first outlined by the ways in which animal agriculture is bad for the environment, and moving towards phasing it out could help reduce these issues.
Greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation (for land use) are two key issues relating to agriculture. It is estimated that about 14.5% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock agriculture, a significant percentage considering it one we have relative influence over as consumers. Deforestation of the Amazon and other rainforests in Brazil has been caused through (among other factors) animal agriculture, both in cattle grazing and soya production. The vast majority, up to 90% perhaps, of soya is used to feed livestock, and such the demand for it is tied into the animal agricultural industry.
Still, it is livestock grazing that primarily occupies land. In addition, the land used for livestock grazing is twice that of land to grow crops. Eating soya-based proteins instead of feeding them to livestock for later consumption would be a more direct and less environmentally harmful approach to feeding the world.
However, we should perhaps consider looking at alternatives to both meat/dairy and soya-based replacements. An example here is pea protein -the Beyond Meat burger for example uses this as its protein base. Pea protein is sustainable because its source, yellow split peas, can actually be grown domestically This would reduce the ‘food miles’ in production that are inherent in soya bean transportation from the Americas, which contribute to increasing emissions. Additionally, it would also help start regenerating South American rainforests, key to regulating CO2 levels in the atmosphere.
Alternatively, oats are generally more environmentally friendly than soya and almonds, in terms of emissions, water use, and food-miles, and so we would do well to consider oat milk over its plant-based competitors.
Overall, we should be looking toward alternatives to meat and dairy in the future; particularly those alternatives based on (more) environmentally friendly ingredients like pea-protein and oats.
We should also be looking to cease the carelessness and overproduction which causes 40% of our produced food to be wasted. But plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy are surely a key addition to reducing our contribution to destroying our planet, if we can pick the right alternatives and produce them in a sustainable way.
