Animal product alternatives

Cheap, tasty, and healthy animal product alternatives can decrease animal product consumption. This would decrease and, in turn, reduce farmed animal suffering and reducemitigate the negative environmental impact of agriculture.^[1]

• Plant-based products made from plants and/or fungi. Plant-based meats and milks are already stocked in supermarkets, and on the menu inmenus of some restaurants and fast-food chains. Estimates suggest that global plant-based meat retail value increased from $2.8 billion in 2017 to $5.6 billion in 2021.^[2]
• Cultivated meat is real animal meat produced by cultivating animal cells directly rather than raising an entire animal. Currently,As of 2023, such meat is significantly more expensive than animal meat and production quantities are very small. There has been a lot ofconsiderable disagreement about when such products might become cost-competitive.^[3] Forecasts by Rethink Priorities suggest limited production through 2050. Many cultured meat companies make much more optimistic claimsclaims, but so far many of their predictions turned out to be wrong.^[4]
  • Acellular agriculture, or fermentation, is the process of using microorganisms to produce proteins and fats (as opposed to whole animal cells), e.g. for dairy and eggs. The technical challenges in fermentation appear more surmountable than in cultivated meat.^[5]

For-profit investment in animal product alternatives has been increasing. According to reports by the Good Food Institute reports, , in just 2021, plant-based meat, seafood, egg, and dairy companies raised $1.9 billion dollars,, cultivated meat companies raised $1.38 billion dollars,, and alternative protein fermentation companies raised $1.69 billion dollars.. In all three categories, investments in 2021 were much higher than in years prior.

cultivated meat | dietary change | farmed animal welfare

Animal product alternatives (or alternative proteins) are meat, eggs, and dairy products not made from living animals. Two main types ofCheap, tasty, and healthy alternatives candecrease animal product alternatives are cell-based ("consumption. This would decreasecultivated meatfarmed animal suffering") and plant-based ("plant meat").reduce the negative environmental impact of agriculture.^[1]

There are two broad categories of alternatives:

• Plant-based products made from plants and/or fungi. Plant-based meats and milks are already stocked in supermarkets, on the menu in some restaurants and fast-food chains. Estimates suggest that global plant-based meat retail value increased from $2.8 billion in 2017 to $5.6 billion in 2021.^[2]

  Improving

• Cultivated meatis real animal welfaremeat produced by cultivating animal cells directly rather than raising an entire animal. Currently, such meat is significantly more expensive than animal meat and production quantities are very small. There has been a promising focus area. One strategy for improving animal welfare is to reduce consumptionlot of animaldisagreement about when such products. Creating more attractive alternatives to meat, dairy products and eggs may help to encourage more people to reduce consumption of these products, and so reduce the suffering caused by factory farming. might become cost-competitive.^[3] Forecasts by Rethink Priorities suggest limited production through 2050. Many cultured meat companies make much more optimistic claims but so far many of their predictions turned out to be wrong.^[4]
  • Acellular agriculture, or fermentation, is the process of using microorganisms to produce proteins and fats (as opposed to whole animal cells), e.g. for dairy and eggs. The technical challenges in fermentation appear more surmountable than in cultivated meat.^[5]

These categories are fairly distinct in terms of scientific approach and technical skills required. However, most products are likely to involve a blend of these technologies.

For-profit investment in animal product alternatives has been increasing. According to Good Food Institute reports, in just 2021, plant-based meat, seafood, egg, and dairy companies raised $1.9 billion dollars, cultivated meat companies raised $1.38 billion dollars, and alternative protein fermentation companies raised $1.69 billion dollars. In all three categories, investments in 2021 were much higher than in years prior.

1. ^{^}

   Open Philanthropy (2015) Animal product alternatives, Open Philanthropy, December.

2. ^{^}

   For a literature review see Annika Lonkila & Minna Kaljonen (2021) Promises of meat and milk alternatives: An integrative literature review on emergent research themes, Agriculture and Human Values, vol. 38, pp. 625–639.

3. ^{^}

   Rorheim, Adrian et al. (2016) Cultured meat: an ethical alternative to industrial animal farming, policy paper by Sentience Politics.

4. ^{^}

   He, Jiang et al. (2020) A review of research on plant‐based meat alternatives: Driving forces, history, manufacturing, and consumer attitudes, Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, vol. 19, pp. 2639–2656.

5. ^{^}

   The Good Food Institute (2022) 2021 State of the industry report: Plant-based meat, eggs, seafood, and dairy, The Good Food Institute (figure 5).

6. ^{^}

   Linch, Zhang; Dullaghan, Neil (2021) Cultured meat: A comparison of techno-economic analyses 

7. ^{^}

   Dullaghan, Neil (2021) Cultured meat predictions were overly optimistic

8. ^{^}

   Yip, Wen (2020) When can I eat meat again?

Animal product alternatives (or alternative proteins) are meat, eggs, and dairy products not made from living animals. Two main types of animal product alternatives are cell-based ("cleancultivated meat") and plant-based ("plant meat").^[1][2]

culturedcultivated meat | farmed animal welfare

Huang, Amy (2020) Closing gaps in alternative protein science, EA Student Summit 2020, October 24.

Annika Lonkila & Minna Kaljonen (2021) Promises of meat and milk alternatives: An integrative literature review on emergent research themes, Agriculture and Human Values, vol. 38, pp. 625–639.

Animal product alternatives (or alternative proteins) are meat, eggs, and dairy products not made from living animals. Two main types of animal product alternatives are cell-based ("clean meat") and plant-based ("plant meat") (Open Philanthropy 2015; see Lonkila & Kaljonen 2021 for a literature review).^[1][2]

Improving animal welfare is a promising focus area. One strategy for improving animal welfare is to reduce consumption of animal products. Creating more attractive alternatives to meat, dairy products and eggs may help to encourage more people to reduce consumption of these products, and so reduce the suffering caused by factory farming (Rorheim et al. 2016; He et al. 2020).^[3][4]

BibliographyFurther reading

Related entries

cultured meat | farmed animal welfare

1. ^{^}

   Open Philanthropy (2015) Animal product alternatives, Open Philanthropy, December.

2. ^{^}

   For a literature review see Annika Lonkila & Minna Kaljonen (2021) Promises of meat and milk alternatives: An integrative literature review on emergent research themes, Agriculture and Human Values, vol. 38, pp. 625–639.

3. ^{^}

   Rorheim, Adrian et al. (2016) Cultured meat: an ethical alternative to industrial animal farming, policy paper by Sentience Politics.

4. ^{^}

   He, Jiang et al. (2020) A review of research on plant‐based meat alternatives: Driving forces, history, manufacturing, and consumer attitudes, Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, vol. 19, pp. 2639–2656.

   Lonkila, Annika & Minna Kaljonen (2021) Promises of meat and milk alternatives: An integrative literature review on emergent research themes, Agriculture and Human Values, vol. 38, pp. 625–639.

   Open Philanthropy (2015) Animal product alternatives, Open Philanthropy, December.

   Rorheim, Adrian et al. (2016) Cultured meat: an ethical alternative to industrial animal farming, policy paper by Sentience Politics.

   Related entries

   cultured meat | farmed animal welfare

Animal product alternatives (or alternative proteins) are meat, eggs, and dairy products not made from living animals. Two main types of animal product alternatives are cell-based ("clean meat") and plant-based ("plant meat") (Open Philanthropy 2015; see Lonkila & Kaljonen 2021 for a literature review).

Cargill, Natalie & Keiran Harris (2018) How exactly clean meat is created & the advances needed to get it into every supermarket, according to food scientist Marie Gibbons, 80,000 Hours, April 10.