6: Alternative proteins

Abstract

‘Alternative proteins’ is a term used to describe a diverse set of foodstuffs that have been posited as potential replacements in an individual's diet for livestock products such as meat, milk and eggs. Examples include foods in which the core ingredients are insects, plant-based replications of meat, or novel foods produced through cellular agriculture, which includes precision fermentation and cell culturing. In this entry, we demonstrate the commonalities and divergences among foodstuffs categorised as alternative proteins, while noting that their shared grouping is premised upon how they are defined in opposition to industrial livestock production such as meat. We examine the core examples, discuss their narrative framings, and issues related to consumer acceptance, policy and regulation. We also discuss future issues regarding the feasibility of their potentially world-changing capacity and speculations upon the possible impact for urban landscapes, circular economies, and rural communities, if alternative proteins were to succeed at mass scale.