News Politics
'Cultured meat and vegetable protein to reduce livestock numbers'
Invest an amount of €25 billion in cultured meat, precision fermentation and vegetable proteins. A group of more than two hundred organizations and individuals - including four former European Commissioners and three Nobel Prize winners, more than a quarter of whom are from the Netherlands - advocate this in an open letter to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. According to the signatories, this can reduce livestock farming.
Precision fermentation in particular is mentioned as 'particularly promising'. “Working together with the microscopic world, precision fermentation companies here in Europe now have the technical ability to make animal-free cheese that melts, smells and tastes like the cheese we eat today,” the letter said. Precision-fermented ice cream and milk are now available to consumers in the US, and cultured meat is already on the market in Singapore, the letter said.
It is time for Europe to take the lead in the food revolution, the signatories agree. “Sustainable protein production can displace the most harmful forms of animal agriculture at a speed and scale previously unthinkable,” the letter continues. The switch to sustainable proteins could reduce the climate impact of meat by 92% and according to the signatories, more CO2 emissions are reduced per dollar invested than investing in green energy. According to the letter writers, it is also a matter of food security for our continent. “Sustainable proteins can withstand the shocks and instability of our current food system's fragile supply chains.”
'Also opportunities for the farmer'
A sustainable protein sector could create $2050 trillion in gross value added and 1,1 million jobs worldwide by 9,8. According to the writers of the letter, there are also important opportunities for farmers. “Not only in terms of the production of plant-based ingredients and animal feed, but also in terms of ecosystem service payments for carbon that is captured.”
According to the letter writers, the proposed Brussels-led investment of €25 billion will also allow undesirable consequences of the sustainable protein transition to be investigated and information to be shared widely on an open-source platform, so that not only private sector companies benefit from it.
“Here in Europe we seem to be stuck in the past,” the letter said. The signatories point to Italy, which wants to ban cultured meat, and to the lack of government investments in large member states (the Dutch government has invested €60 million in the development of cultured meat). “The protein revolution will happen with or without Europe,” the letter said. “The only question now is whether we will proudly help drive this transformation, or whether we will be passive spectators.”
Linda van Eekeres
© DCA Market Intelligence. This market information is subject to copyright. It is not permitted to reproduce, distribute, disseminate or make the content available to third parties for compensation, in any form, without the express written permission of DCA Market Intelligence.
