Business and the planet. How they can pair up perfectly

Society is changing the way it eats. The traditional, Western diet of meat and dairy products is putting too much pressure on the environment, simply due to the fact that there are so many of us. The world currently holds around 23bln commercial farm animals, vastly outnumbering humans at 7.9bln. The question quickly arises how efficient and how sustainable it is to rear, feed and maintain a constant supply of farm animals as part of the food production system; an issue more pressing as our population numbers swell.

Agriculture, after all, needs to grow food for all these animals, using precious land and water resources. Agriculture will have to increase its total output by a 100% in 2050 (source World Bank) to feed the world population. That is a huge challenge and deemed to be impossible, unless agriculture becomes much more efficient.

Currently our food-system is that 1) we grow food for animals and then 2) we eat the animal. A logical conclusion would be to take the animal out of this chain and to eat the crops directly. Reducing the amount of farm animals will start to free up a lot of agricultural - and pastureland and it will be a huge part of how to feed the planet solution.

But how to replace the foods we love is the challenge. Not everyone will be happy to become a vegan or vegetarian as we associate, especially vegan foods, with limited choice and a compromised taste.

But help is on the way. As vegetarianism and to a lesser extent, veganism, are growing globally, clever businesses have seen the opportunity and are jumping into the space. Making very tasty, plant-based foods, is becoming a focus of many large companies as well as host of start-ups.

Beefburgers, one of the world’s favourite foods, are seeing most of the action. New, lab grown burgers are actually very tasty and at times undistinguishable from real burgers. Beyond Meat, Mosa Meat, The Vegetarian Butcher (now owned by Unilever) and Impossible Foods are the leading and tastiest meat-free meat products.

One of the more recent ‘meat’ startups is Redefine Meat in Israel (also called the Vegan Capital of the world, given that over 5% of the population is vegan), which just raised $29mln in its Series A financing round. The funds will be used to expand its production capacity for its 3D printed plant-based steaks, which are printed in the company’s proprietary 3D printers. (https://www.redefinemeat.com).