Fermentation-Derived Proteins Are Bubbling Up in 2025
The Good Food InstituteFermentation-derived proteins are bubbling up in 2025
Fermentation-derived proteins are bubbling up in 2025
I thought to myself as I read yet another story about the latest spike of avian influenza where I live in Colorado. This news, unfortunately, no longer surprises me.
The global alternative protein market and larger food tech spaces have grown rapidly over the past decade.
The plant-based meat category in the U.S. has undoubtedly transformed over the last decade, emerging from just a handful of items positioned toward vegans and vegetarians into a billion-dollar category with its sights set on appealing to the broader market of meat-eaters.
Alternative proteins鈥攎eat made from plants, cultivated from animal cells, or produced via fermentation鈥攐ffer consumers the foods they love made with more sustainable protein sources. To evaluate the potential of plant-based meat to reduce the environmental impacts of the food system, the Good Food Institute commissioned EarthShift Global to complete a comprehensive, ISO-certified life cycle assessment (LCA). This LCA is the most comprehensive, open-access LCA conducted to date (2024).
A new study from鈥 the Good Food Institute (GFI), a鈥 long鈥-鈥媠tanding World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) partner and alternative protein research and advocacy organization, indicates 鈥嬧嬧嬧媡hat a shift toward alternative proteins in the US protein supply would enable鈥 鈥媋 significant amount of land to be repurposed鈥 鈥媐or agroecological and regenerative farming鈥 and鈥 ranching鈥 as well as 鈥嬧媐鈥媜r 鈥媓abitat restoration and conservation鈥嬧.
Food innovation at the dinner table and the mess hall is essential to national defense, biosecurity, and warfighter readiness.
GFI鈥檚 Dr. Faraz Harsini interviews one of the world鈥檚 leading cultivated meat researchers in his lab at Texas A&M
Only five years ago, public funding for alternative protein R&D was close to zero. Fast forward to 2023 and you see governments around the world investing in alternative proteins for a variety of reasons 鈥 to meet national policy goals, make good on their climate commitments, and create good-paying, sustainable jobs to name a few.
Climate-friendly choices sometimes require lifestyle adjustments and personal sacrifices, but consumers can be reluctant to embrace these types of changes.
Alternative proteins help decrease emissions, feed more people with fewer resources, and restore biodiversity. They also address the urgent problems of antibiotic resistance and pandemic risk caused by our food system.
About half of the world鈥檚 habitable land is used for agriculture, which means that global food system change is an enormous, intensive, and lengthy pursuit. Scaling alternative protein sectors from virtually nonexistent to commercial volumes is a monumental task.