Beef is one of the most common foods eaten worldwide, but what is the likelihood of being able to eat it in the future? Animal agriculture is already known to cause 12% of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions, which is the leading cause of climate change. In order to survive on this planet, we have to look towards sustainable food alternatives, especially with meat.
How do we do that? First, we must find an alternative meat source that requires less energy than producing livestock. Insects have become one of the few alternatives capable of providing the same or more nutritional value than beef. For Undark Magazine, professor of entomology, Arnold Van Huis at Wageningen University conducted an experiment where he gave two sets of meatballs to a group of ten people to try. One set was 100% beef, while the other set was a 50–50 mixture of beef and ground mealworms. The result? Nine out of ten preferred the 50–50 mixture of beef and ground mealworms over the 100% beef. Eating insects isn’t as impossible as it might seem. Already ⅓ of the world’s population consumes insects on a regular basis in Asia.
“Insects, however, offer a food source that can feed the planet while keeping carbon emissions in check. Unlike cattle, which eat low-nutrient grass and release methane in the process, insects are cold-blooded and thus require less energy to maintain their internal body temperatures. This means they are extremely efficient at converting their food into protein. Crickets, for instance, need 1.7 kilograms of feed to produce 1 kilogram of meat, and around 80 percent is edible. By contrast, a cow requires 8 kilograms of feed to produce the same amount of meat, and just 40 percent can be consumed.” -Marcello Rossi
Visual: Peter Halasz/CC/Wikimedia
It should be obvious that not every insect is safe to consume. In order to have insects as part of a global diet, we would have to cultivate only certain edible species like mealworms or crickets. The most difficult part in implementing insects as a dietary food is changing the perspective of Western consumers. Many Western countries view eating insects as gross or disgusting. That notion of disgust is referred to as the “yuck” factor.
“It’s the consumer attitude part of the equation that may be toughest to crack. The greatest obstacle to insects becoming a significant part of our diets is arguably the “yuck” factor. “It is not a social norm to eat insects in the West. The thought of eating insects for many causes disgust, hence their use on reality TV shows,” says Alexander. “Such perceptions are hard to change, and any change is likely to be a slow process.”-Marcello Rossi
If we can normalize the idea of eating insects and can mobilize them for mass production, then we will be able to save massive amounts of energy and save costs. Insects have proven to be a strong competitor in meat alternatives, but there are also a discussions about using soy and algae as plant-based alternatives to meat.
Soy has probably been the most used meat alternative so far. This is not only because it’s an option for vegetarian or vegan diets, but also because it’s relatively more sustainable than conventional livestock production. Soy goes through a process called high moisture extrusion where soy is able to take the form of any meat. It has the same texture, odor, and taste as any other conventional meat. This same process is being applied to a micro-algae called Arthrospira platensis, otherwise known as spirulina, in order to develop additional meat substitutes. Similarly to soy, spirulina also requires relatively small amounts of expenditure.
“Furthermore, the environmental footprint of spirulina protein compared with traditional protein crops is smaller in terms of water use, land occupation and energy consumption(Habib et al., 2008).” — Stephanie Grahl
Tests were conducted based off of different attributes. These included moisture, spirulina content, temperature, and screw speed. Depending on the different amounts of each variable, the spirulina product would come out with some strong characteristics but also some lacking characteristics.
In the top picture, the extruder is shown, while one of the spirulina-soy extrudates is produced. This “endless” string of sample was cut into blocks of 300 g from which the strips of 10 g (bottom picture) were cut prior to cooking for sensory evaluation.
“In terms of novel protein sourcing, algae come into play so as to enlarge the repertoire accessible to human consumption and to enable substitution of plant proteins which have a substantial impact on the environment, e.g. soybeans (Taelman et al., 2015). Arthrospira platensis, hereafter referred to as spirulina, contains up to 63% of protein based on dry matter (Becker, 2007) while soy beans contain on average 35%–40% of protein (Malav et al., 2015).” — Stephanie Grahl
The goal of this experiment was to see if this algae could become an alternative on its own, but so far the results have only yielded part of that goal. Currently, the high moisture extrusion process only allows the algae to partially replace some part of the soy alternatives. More research needs to be done in order to perfect it into an independent meatless-meat product that will convince the masses into eating it as if it were an actual meat product.
“When keeping moisture low, but screw speed and temperature high during extrusion, it is possible to partly substitute soy with spirulina in order to produce firm and fibrous products with a decent algae flavor that will contribute to shape a more sustainable future for food.” — Stephanie Gahl
Besides veggie-grounded solutions, scientists are also looking into lab-grown meat. Essentially, lab-grown meat is the process of taking animal cells and cultivating them, outside of the actual animal. It’s also known by other names like cultured meat. Though there is an argument that going around the science community directed toward the practical application of lab-grown meat. Some say selling it to commercial markets will be difficult because of the labels it’s associated with: “fake,” “dirty,” etc. Some also argue that it’s not a sustainable alternative since it uses almost just as much energy to produce the cell culture and maintain it as conventional animal farming.
“Cultured meat requires the initial collection of stem cells from living animals and then greatly expanding their numbers in a bioreactor, a device for carrying out chemical processes. These living cells must be provided with nutrients in a suitable growth medium containing food-grade components that must be effective and efficient in supporting and promoting muscle cell growth. A typical growth medium contains an energy source such as glucose, synthetic amino acids, antibiotics, fetal bovine serum, horse serum and chicken embryo extract.”
“The process for making cultured meat has technically challenging aspects. It includes manufacturing and purifying culture media and supplements in large quantities, expanding animal cells in a bioreactor, processing the resultant tissue into an edible product, removing and disposing of the spent media, and keeping the bioreactor clean. Each are themselves associated with their own set of costs, inputs and energy demands.”
“One study concluded that ‘in vitro biomass cultivation could require smaller quantities of agricultural inputs and land than livestock; however, those benefits could come at the expense of more intensive energy use as biological functions such as digestion and nutrient circulation are replaced by industrial equivalents.’”
-Alison Van Eenennaam
Others have realized as well that the cattle that produce beef aren’t only grown for their meat. Cattle have various uses and are therefore seen as necessary despite the amount of methane they release, which add to the GHG emissions and to climate change. On the other side of that argument, scientists say that lab-grown meat can easily become a common commodity sold and bought on the global market. It has apparently already been introduced to the public through a survey. Results showed that the three largest world populations were ready in trying lab-grown meat.
“A new study, for which I was a peer-reviewer, is the first to rigorously assess consumer interest in plant-based and “clean meat” (also known as lab-grown or cultured meat) in the US, India and China. The study found “high levels of acceptance” in all three countries and “significantly higher acceptance” in India and China, where 86% and 93% respectively reported being at least “somewhat likely” to purchase clean meat.” — Jacy Reese
Photograph: David Parry/PA
Among the hunt for sustainable meat solutions, I questioned why there was so much environmental damage in this field. I understood the concepts of erosion and the production of methane gas through enteric fermentation as causes for that destruction, but I wanted to see if there was more to it than just the biological processes. In my research, I discovered that human behavior has much to do with the possibility or impossibility of food sustainability. Obviously, the human diet is the biggest factor into why we produce meat on an industrial scale, but I wasn’t aware of just how large a determinant it was once all the number accumulated and were counted. The only change that has occurred in the human diet over the last half century was the increased consumption of meat. We eat so much meat on a daily basis, way more than is recommended by health professionals. This behavior leads to overconsumption and obesity which causes a disease epidemics across countries like the United States. These health conditions impose degrading modes of transportation like traveling by car instead of walking or bicycling. Transportation ends up adding to the destruction of the environment, but besides humans, we also transport our food. This leads to questions like “Should we continue long-distance travels or should we focus on local transportation?” Hence, another question concerning the environment. Should we stop having supermarkets and only have local farmer markets? And within these markets, local or not, should we continue to make and sell GMOS? Recently, scientists have been saying that these genetically modified foods pose a risk to wild populations and can deter biodiversity. Finally, what I believe to be the most crucial aspect of human behavior, is the act of wasting food. Food waste is a HUGE problem, especially among the developed countries.
“According to estimates, of the 200 million metric tons of food produced annually in the U.S., 60 million metric tons go to waste …It is fair to say that the main drive to food waste at the household level in the U.S. is that food is inexpensive… Besides being morally questionable, food waste uses resources to produce and transport extra food such as land, energy, water, and fertilizers with the consequent emission of greenhouse gases. “ — Ruben O Morawicki and J. Díaz González Delmy
I believe it is possible to acquire sustainable food production practices, but we must act now if we are to make a difference in the environment, or to at least stave off the inevitable end. It only begins when we end bad behavior and strive to be better for the sake of ourselves and the sake of others.
