Alternative proteins support global food security
Amid a global grain shortage and skyrocketing food prices, one-third of the global grain supply is used for animal feed. A transition to alternative proteins could reduce staple crop prices, halt deforestation, expand access to dietary protein, and make the global food system more resilient to supply chain disruptions and climate change.
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Executive summary
In addition to exacerbating global hunger and nutrition crises, food insecurity threatens U.S. national security by increasing the risks of conflict, unrest, and violent extremism. Animal protein production makes a significant though little-recognized contribution to food system insecurity, driving up prices for grains and other staple crops, worsening climate change, and making supply chains less resilient. By contrast, none of this is true of alternative proteins—meat, eggs, dairy, and seafood made from plants and cells without the use of live animals. A large-scale shift from animal products to alternative proteins therefore has tremendous potential food and national security benefits.
Right now, the primary obstacles to greater uptake of alternative proteins are taste and price, but experts believe alternative proteins can be made comparable to animal-based products on both fronts with further efforts by researchers. In addition, alternative proteins face a markedly easier path to implementation than many other system transformations of similar scale and impact, making them a winning strategy to reduce food insecurity, enhance national security, and strengthen climate action. For all these reasons, the United States should make international cooperation on alternative proteins a top diplomatic priority. This policy brief offers policy recommendations that the United States can and should adopt in order to accelerate innovation in alternative protein technologies.
We can feed the world
Bruce Friedrich, GFI founder and President, and Nigel Purvis, former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state, put forth alternative proteins as a key food security solution and call for government action in this Foreign Policy op-ed.
Alternative proteins as a global solution
The National Security Case for Lab-Grown and Plant-Based Meat
GFI Senior Adviser Matt Spence explains how alternative proteins can improve the state of national and global security.
Agriculture is at a climate crossroads. Alternative proteins are a global solution.
Learn how GFI is advocating for the inclusion of alternative proteins as a climate solution in federal policy and bringing increased visibility to what governments around the world are doing…
Climate, land use, and biodiversity
Join experts to discuss how alt proteins are a key solution for climate, biodiversity, and land use.
A global protein transition is necessary to keep warming below 1.5°C
Learn why alternative protein innovation is crucial to meeting the Paris Agreement temperature target and how we can accelerate progress.
Climate solutions
Alternative proteins play an essential role in meeting global climate goals. Learn more about what you can do to help change how meat is made.