Last week we celebrated Thanksgiving here in the US, and I had a hearty helping of ham and turkey alongside my casserole with mashed potatoes and green beans.


Meat is often the star on our plates, but our love for animal foods is a problem for the climate. Depending on how you add it up, the cattle are responsible somewhere between 10% and 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions.


A growing number of alternative foods seek to imitate or replace options that require the raising and slaughter of animals. These include plant-based products and newly approved cultured (or lab-grown) meat. An increasing number of companies are even growing microbes in the laboratory, hoping we’ll add them to the menu. as I told in a story this week.


But as one of my colleagues always says when I tell him about an alternative food product, the most important question is: will anyone eat it?


Food is perhaps one of the most difficult climate problems to solve. Technically, none of us must eating the foods with the highest emissions – like beef – are the worst for the climate. But what we eat is very personal and often depends on our culture and social life. Many people want hamburgers at the barbecue and tasty steak dinners.


The challenge of the climate impact of our food system is only becoming more difficult: Richer countries tend to eat more meatAnd as populations grow and living standards rise around the world, we will also see emissions from livestock farming rise.


In an effort to combat that trend, alternative food products aim to deliver food similar to the food we know and love, with less harmful impact on the climate. Plant-based options like those from Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have exploded in recent years, finding their way into grocery stores and even on the menus of major fast-food brands like Burger King.


The problem is that many alternative products have been struggling lately. Unit sales of meat alternatives in the US fell 26% between 2021 and 2023, and fewer households are purchasing plant-based alternative meat options, a study shows. report from the Good Food Institute. Consumers say alternatives are still not up to par in terms of taste and price, two key factors that determine what people decide to eat.


So companies are racing to invent better products. I’ve spent a lot of time dealing with cultured (or lab-grown) meat. To make these products, animal cells are grown in the laboratory and processed into, for example, chicken nuggets. Two companies received approval to sell farmed chicken in the US by 2023, and we’ve seen both offer their products in limited quantities at high-end restaurants.


But these products are still not quite the same as the meat we are used to. When I tried a hamburger which contained cells grown in a laboratory, it was similar to plant cells which have a softer texture than I am used to. Chicken from Upside Foods, served in a Michelin star restaurant, had similar textural differences. And these products are still only available on a very small scale, if at all, and they are expensive.


microbial protein powder on a table top

One major issue that comes up time and time again when I report on these new products is what to call them. The industry strongly prefers cultivated, not “lab-grown.” It’s probably better not to remind people that they’re eating something grown in vats in a lab. As the companies that make these products often point out, we don’t typically use this kind of language for the animal products we’re used to. You’ll never see the phrase “butchered baby cow” on a menu, only “veal.”


I thought about this issue of language and marketing again recently when I told a story about a company that wants to grow, dry and sell bacteria to feed animals or people. I found myself a little weirded out at the prospect of dried microbe powder making its way into my diet. But I have no problem drinking wine or eating cheese, two products that rely on microbes and a fermentation process.


Maybe LanzaTech will come up with a marketing plan that will make their microbe powder an easy addition to my Thanksgiving table. But ultimately, I’m not sure how much we can rely on alternative products to solve our food system’s climate challenge, no matter how well they are marketed.


As is often the case when it comes to tackling climate change, we need not only some behavioral changes, but also technical solutions such as farm pills for livestock and new fertilizer options, as well as policies to boost our food system . good direction.




Related reading


A new crop of biotech startups wants to grow food from scratch. Read more about some of the leading companies in this story from earlier this fall.


Cultured meat products are made with laboratory-grown animal cells. Last year I discussed what we know what those products mean for climate change.


We expect too much from our fake meat products. Here’s how my colleague James Temple stopped worrying and learned to love alternatives.


Rumin8 And Turn Biotwo of our climate tech companies to watch this year are both working to tackle agricultural emissions.


Keeping track of the climate


China announced it would ban the export to the US of several rare minerals crucial in technology, such as semiconductors. The move follows US efforts to shift supply chains away from China. (New York Times)


Donald Trump has promised to increase tariffs on Chinese goods, while other countries around the world have already implemented such policies. (Rest of the world)


Australia is on track to meet its 2030 emissions target. The country’s climate pollution is expected to be more than 42% below 2005 levels by the end of this decade. (Bloomberg)


Talks on an international plastic treaty failed this week. Some countries supported reducing plastic production, while others, including oil-rich countries, pushed back. (Washingtonpost)


The US Department of Energy announced a nearly $7 billion loan to Stellantis and Samsung for two battery factories that will supply batteries for electric vehicles. (New York Times)
→ That follows a $6.6 billion loan to Rivian to help the company build a stalled factory in Georgia. (Associated press)
→ The Biden administration is rushing to hold loans and protect them from rollbacks before Donald Trump takes office in January. (E&E news)


California could increase ethanol use, a move the state says could lower gas prices. But experts warn that expanded use of corn ethanol could have negative consequences for climate and environmental progress. (Indoor climate news)


The Norwegian government is blocking plans to mine the seabed. There were plans to start offering permits in the first half of 2025, and preparations will continue during the suspension. (Reuters)
→ These deep-sea ‘potatoes’ could be the future of battery materials mining. (MIT Technology Review)


Ten years ago, sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean skyrocketed during a dramatic marine heat wave. Now scientists are looking for clues to understand what rising temperatures will mean for the ocean in that case. (New York Times)



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