A stake in the game?

The global market for animal-free meat substitutes is growing rapidly. James Penn investigates the advances being made in this agricultural alternative.

In labs around the world, scientists have been quietly laying the groundwork for products they hope will disrupt one of the world’s oldest industries: agriculture.

These scientists and their companies, armed with loads of cash from venture capitalists hunting for the next big growth industry, are developing meat-free proteins — often referred to as “synthetic meats” or “alternative meats”.

Their race to market is gathering pace, and has the potential to threaten conventional meat producers in the future, according to some experts from the sector.

“2015-16 saw an explosion of high technology plant-based meat start-ups launch,” says Dr Rosie Bosworth, a food and agritech specialist.

“The global market for, and interest in, animal-free meat, egg and dairy substitutes is growing rapidly.”

A 2016 study by Lux Research predicted the alternative protein market would double by 2024. An earlier report by the same firm suggested alternative proteins would comprise one-third of the entire protein market by 2054.

While meat substitutes such as tofu and tempeh have been on the market for some time, a growing body of companies are using plantbased ingredients such as soy to develop non-meat products that look and taste exactly like the proteins consumers are used to.

One of those leading the charge is Californian company Impossible Foods. Its flagship product the “Impossible Burger” even leaves a blood-like residue when cooked, replicating the entire experience of cooking and eating a conventional beef burger.

Impossible includes a key ingredient, called heme, that they say is “a basic building block of life on Earth, including plants, but it’s uniquely abundant in meat.”

This, according to the company’s website, is what makes meat “smell, sizzle, bleed, and taste gloriously meaty”.

Other companies, such as Memphis Meats, are growing animal meat within cell cultures, rather than using plant-based building blocks.

But if these products are striving to replicate the entirety of meat experience, why not just stick with the proteins we have eaten for centuries?

There are, of course, ethical concerns associated with meat eating that may sway some. Increasing exposure of meat production processes through social media has arguably raised a generation of consumers more ethically conscious when it comes to meat eating than their parents.

However, Fiona Greig, Nutrition Manager at Beef + Lamb New Zealand, the industry marketing body, points to their industry-wide Quality Mark programme which “sees the highest of standards in animal welfare, food safety, consistent eating quality, and fat trimming that is carried out throughout the processing chain from gate to plate”.

Perhaps the most pressing difference between alternative and traditional meats is the respective environmental impacts.

Bruce Friedrich, executive director of The Good Food Institute and cellular agriculture focused investment capital firm New Crop Capital says, “if you were looking for a way to create food you really couldn’t do much worse than growing crops to feed them to animals so the animals convert them into meat.”

Impossible Foods claims that, compared to cows, their burger uses 95 per cent less land, 74 per cent less water, and generates 87 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions.

However, the deciding factor for whether any product is able to make a dent in mainstream markets is likely to be price. On this metric, Bosworth says alternative meats may also have an upper hand.

“Plant-based meats like Impossible and Beyond Meat are currently sold at a small premium to animal meat alternatives and these costs are rapidly declining as they continue to increase production capacity,” she says.

“Costs for cultured meat have dropped even more exponentially.”

However, Richard Fowler, a Te Puke dairy farmer who was awarded a 2016 Nuffield Scholarship to write a paper on the topic, is less bullish on the current economics of cultured meats. “I think cell cultured meat (using stem cell technology) is a long way down the track and may never become cost effective so I don’t think it poses an imminent threat.,”

He says the real threat is the way the marketing campaigns of synthetic food companies may affect public opinion.

“Agriculture is being labeled as one of the lead causes of environmental degradation and a threat to human health.”

“While there’s definitely work to be done on making animal agriculture carbon-neutral, there’s technology and practices out there that will help us achieve it,” says Fowler. “The trouble is that at the moment, we’re being lumped in with all agriculture and the challenge for New Zealand is differentiating our products based on our different farming systems.”

Fowler points to New Zealand’s pastoral grazing systems (as opposed to large scale feedlots) as an example of this.

“In short, there could be a huge substitution of animal milk and meat to synthetic products but I can see New Zealand animal produce making up a large part of what remains.”

And according to Greig there could even be a revenue upside: “With more protein options to the end-user, comes more opportunities for the protein industry.”

“Whether this be joint ventures with our own producers contributing their resources to the technology, and/or a push back from some consumers that will see a higher demand for traditional meat.”

However, Professor Ralph Sims of Massey University doesn’t think Kiwi farmers have been made sufficiently aware of or prepared for the threat.

“I raised it at recent farmer meetings and there was a reaction, as expected, to say it won’t work and there will always be demand for animal products,” says Sims.

“Which is true, but mainly for quality food into niche markets — so not milk powder and lamb carcases perhaps?”

Bosworth concurs when asked about domestic research and development,

“Despite the increasing global demand for environmentally, ethically and nutritionally superior protein sources, the activity in both plant-based meat and cultured meat has been markedly absent.”

Kiwi company Sunfed Meats has developed a plant-based chicken that is reportedly set to arrive in our supermarkets in July — but aside from that, New Zealand’s stake in the game appears limited.

Plant-based meats are currently sold at a small premium to animal meat alternatives and these costs are rapidly declining as they continue to increase production capacity. Rosie Bosworth