Daily foods generate surprising a quantity of greenhouse gas emissions. Food production accounts for for ⅓ of greenhouse gas emissions around the world. [1] Not only green house gas emissions from food that we have to concern, another challenge issue is about global food security. The global population now is around 7.6 billion and it is projected to reach 10 billion by 2050 so that the demand for food will be 60% greater than it is today. [2] We can’t imagine how to sustainably feed  this world and how to manage global warming  produced from food. Although meat products have a much higher “energy footprint” than any other food (Figure 1), meat production is expected to continue to grow.

Now we consume around 350 million tons of meat a year and it is projected to reach between 460 - 570 million tons by 2050. [4] The planet therefore doesn’t have enough land or water to sustain the required increase in meat production to feed to projected population.

Over the last few years,  “Plant-based Meat” made from plant proteins and also “Cultured meat” (also known as Cell-Based, Cultivated, Slaughter-Free, Cell-Cultured, and Clean meat) [5] produced by in vitro cell culture of animal cells, instead of from slaughtered animals has been developing to solve  the need for animal slaughter , food insecurity and overcoming the major environmental issues.[6] With the growing urbanization, health conscious trend and environmental concerns, plant-based meat market in the US. has grown 38% in the past two years to USD 939 million. (Figure 2)

 Figure 2 : US Plant-Based Meat Market 2017-2019 [7]

Over 40 companies  are now developing more than a dozen types of cultured meat. [8]  Cultured meat is not yet commercially available because it still has moral, health, environmental, cultural, and economic aspects of discussion. [8]  However, the Institute of the Future in Palo Alto noted that cultured meat will be a common sight in supermarkets in the west by 2023. [9]

References :

[1] McDonald , B.(2016, May 20). We can't fight climate change without tackling agriculture emissions. CBC News.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/bob-macdonald-agriculture-emissions-1.3591177

[2] Food and Agriculture Organization (2009, October 12). How to Feed the World in 2050. The United Nations.