Is excitement over meat alternatives overheated?
Is excitement over meat alternatives overheated? Investors have poured billions of dollars into the sector to kickstart technologies that produce protein with ingredients such as peas, soybeans, mushrooms, and lab-grown animal cells, but they are unlikely to offset livestock agriculture’s climate and land use impacts anytime soon, according to Stanford environmental scientist David Lobell. In the meantime, policymakers would do well to focus on ways to dramatically reduce emissions of animal-based systems.
Lobell, the Gloria and Richard Kushel Director of Stanford’s Center on Food Security and the Environment and professor of Earth system science in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, teaches a popular undergraduate course called Re-Thinking Meat, which assesses alternative protein sources and strategies for feeding a growing global population (read more about the course here).
Below, Lobell discusses opportunities for shrinking agriculture’s environmental impacts, his hope for better-tasting cheese alternatives, and more.
Read more at: Stanford University
Photo Credit: Fermosergio via Pixabay
