How we eat is subject to forces, movements, moments in time. These milestones often resemble the flick of a switch: afterward, the way we eat will never be the same again.
Historic milestones like canning, refrigeration, and industrial farming all played a role in what found its way to our plate. But in 2023, as we’ve watched the food-as-pleasure and convenience era peak, the unstable and unsustainable nature of our food system has become painfully clear. It was not designed to feed 7.8 billion people. And the pandemic only further amplified what we already know: it’s time to change the way we make food.
Technology is forging a path into the next era of eating: animal-free food. Scientists and innovators, inspired to take action in addressing climate change, have lit the match for the next Food Renaissance, an era where science and nature combine to feed growing populations.
So, how are food tech companies creating new sources of proteins beyond animals? And how are they doing so in a way that all can afford?
As the Founder of Alpine Bio, I’ve gained an insider’s view of this Food Renaissance. Over the last six years, we’ve developed a new technology platform for plant-grown proteins to make animal-free cheese. The following guide on the New Age of Animal-Free Food covers the three main protein technologies driving food culture forward.
Food Tech: 3 Sectors
Science and technology have long dictated how we cultivate, store, trade, and consume the vital life-source that is food. Today, many food tech companies are working to solve the global climate crisis and feed growing populations with alternative proteins, and most can be broken down into three main groups:
In producing proteins, all three technologies can address the inefficient land usage caused by raising livestock. Half of the world’s habitable land today is already used for agriculture; this is a massive footprint, especially when we consider that all cities, towns, villages, roads and infrastructure only make up 1% of usable land. Livestock makes up 77% of agriculture’s footprint, making our reliance on meat and dairy one of the largest drivers of deforestation around the globe. And even though livestock takes up most of the world’s agricultural land, it only produces 18% of the world’s calories and 37% of total protein. Additionally, it is estimated that the world’s 1.4 billion cattle produce 40% of global methane emissions. (Our World in Data)
Let’s take a look at each technology (Fermentation, Cellular Agriculture, & Plant Grown Proteins), which are all working toward creating a more resilient food system without sacrificing taste, and the hurdles they might encounter. One of the main visible distinctions between the approaches is where the protein is created; fermentation and cellular agriculture make protein in steel vats and tanks, while Plant Grown Proteins grows protein within plants outdoors.
FERMENATION
According to the Good Food Institute, the fermentation sector raised $290 million in Q1 of 2022 alone. Companies like C16 Bio are using fermentation to create a sustainable alternative to palm oil, MycoTechnology is utilizing mushrooms to create flavorful, digestible plant-based proteins, and Helaina is harnessing fermentation to create a new category of infant formula with proteins identical to those found in breast milk.
The biggest challenge for fermentation is competing with traditional animal farming methods on price; fermentation has been successfully used to make higher value ingredients but has yet to reach pricing with commodity priced animal proteins. To get there, it will require additional biological breakthroughs and scale
CELLULAR AGRICULTURE
Meat and seafood are now being grown directly from cells (this is also called cultivated meat). The manufacturing process starts with obtaining stem cells from an animal and then growing these cells in bioreactors. This means that the vast land required to raise livestock or the extensive water required for farming fish can be bypassed entirely, having a substantial long-term impact of allowing land to rewild and oceans to recover.
There are several positive features of cellular agriculture:
MOLECULAR FARMING
At Alpine Bio, we teach plants to grow the same proteins found in animals, without ever needing an animal or animal cells to create them. Here’s an easy way to think about it: we’ve figured out how to turn a plant into a protein factory. We achieve this by harnessing a plant’s natural ability to make proteins, and teaching the plant to grow the proteins found in animal products.
We are starting with the dairy protein Casein, which is responsible for the stretch, melt, and texture of cheese. With plant grown proteins (which can grow a wide range of proteins), proteins are grown outdoors at farms, by farmers, in soil. This means that at Nobell, an animal is no longer required to source Casein and we can make animal-free cheese.
There are several positive aspects of Plant Grown Proteins:
Relative to Fermentation and Cellular Agriculture, Plant Grown Proteins is a newer category in food. Companies like Tiamat Sciences, are creating custom proteins for the food and pharmaceutical industry and ORF Genetics, an Icelandic company making growth factors that can be used to accelerate how cells grow outside of an animal (i.e catalyze the cellular agriculture field), are additional examples of technology and nature coming together to make progress toward animal-free products.
One challenge for plant-grown proteins is time. Plants need time to grow and set seeds, making R&D cycles longer than for other technologies such as fermentation and cellular agriculture.
Proteins aren’t the only goal for the Food Tech sector. There are other important categories helping to drive this larger renaissance and address climate change.
INDOOR AGRICULTURE
OUR FOOD SYSTEM REIMAGINED
Technology is responsible for a reimagining of the way food is produced. What will the impact of these technologies look like? When we turn to growing food that is kinder to the planet, to animals, and to our health, there is potential for many quantifiable shifts: retired farmland can be rewilded, increasingly ecosystem biodiversity and letting nature heal; when animals are no longer needed as sources of protein, the methane emissions associated with these animals could plummet; when produce is grown indoors, the water consumption would drastically decrease and would keep pesticides out of our water supply.
This new age of animal-free food and demand for plant-based products represents an opportunity. An opportunity for investors seeking companies with strong ESG profiles, an opportunity for food lovers to eat well and ethically without sacrificing flavor, and an opportunity for the tech community to contribute to a sustainable, cruelty-free food system.
Tech has flicked a switch on the next Food Renaissance, and the way we eat will never be the same again.
