The Uncanny Valley of Alternative Foods

The uncanny valley concept considers the relationship between a human-like robotic or animated object and the emotion that it evokes, i.e. seeing a human-like object can create an uncanny or oddly familiar sense that makes us uneasy. We can use this concept to draw parallels to the relationship between humans and food. For many of us, the link between feeling, taste and identifying a food is linked, perhaps the driving factor in alternative foods often seeking to ‘replicate’ the taste, feel and texture of food that we’re substituting. But what impact does our attachment to ‘taste’ have on the environment?

The ways that we are using land to produce some of our favourite foods are having significant impacts on the environment. With increasing demand for food globally (often desired at a lower price point), we have tried to mechanise agriculture at a large scale, resulting in a significant contribution to the global warming crisis — 24% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide are driven by global agriculture and forestry activities.

The issue is multi-layered; despite this increase in demand, we’re still seeing roughly a third of the world’s food never being eaten, and current human consumption patterns mean that a shift in behaviour at a large scale is needed to tackle the problem. Added to this, the human element of the agriculture industry is an important one too, as are the secondary and tertiary effects of food alternatives on the communities that are responsible for the production of food. The ways in which we choose to deal with this will have a long lasting impact on the environment and communities working on these production methods.

Some crops and foods are more impactful than others — when we think of alternative foods, many think first of alternative meat products, but we should also be thinking about others, such as cacao. When we consider the carbon emissions of cacao, they are at similar levels to products such as cheese and lamb/mutton products (between 20 to 30 kilos of CO2 per kilo). Now relatively easily accessible in the West, demand for chocolate based products are high, but when you consider the production, manufacturing and shipping involved, the impact on the environment is unfortunately huge — a study in 2018 found that in the UK, the chocolate industry is responsible for two million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. With soil depletion, deforestation and carbon emissions amongst the key considerations from a climate perspective, we also need to consider the human impact too, labour rights and fair compensation amongst them.

The question then, is how do we make changes to current cacao production methods that will both help the environment and simultaneously satisfy enough people’s tastes to lead to a seismic shift, whilst also ensuring communities are not negatively affected?

There are some awesome startups looking at this very question. Tierra Foods is a company looking at how farming methods can be changed to help restore soils and biodiversity, whilst also regenerating land and capturing carbon. They are working with local communities to grow native plants and creating work and social enterprise opportunities.

In Episode 4 of the Cool Hominids Podcast, host Peet Denny speaks to Johnny Drain from WNWN, a company designing alternative foods which are sustainable and eco friendly, focusing on alternative chocolate. WNWN is looking at ways in which chocolate alternatives can be produced. In the episode, Johnny also mentions the need to re-engage with people — consumers and farmers alike, again reinforcing the importance of the human behaviour element of this space.

With all of that in mind, here are some of the things worth thinking about:

• Alternative foods are a powerful way of giving consumers a stepping stone away from harmful foods such as beef, dairy and cocoa — can we as consumers (especially in the West) take the plunge?
• How should we be thinking about the climate emergency relative to human impact? The urgency to tackle climate change is high, but we also don’t want to see any secondary social harms as a result.
• How does governmental policy impact this issue and how can we as citizens of the earth work together to ensure we’re thinking about these questions from a higher level view? For example, the governments of Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana (the two largest cocoa producers in the world) have included the establishment of climate-smart cocoa systems as part of their national strategy to tackle climate change.
• Are more ready-made alternative products the solution to helping people shift their behaviour versus food that requires cooking?

As said earlier, this is a layered and complex issue, but it is clear that the link between human behaviour, tastes and alternative foods is crucial. Have you tried any great alternative foods that you want to shout about? Let us know your thoughts!

Written by Shaazia Ebrahim for Climate VC