ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the emerging role of animal meat alternatives in sustainable, nutritious, and ethical diets. Innovative meat alternative start-up companies have benefitted from increased consumer demand for foods that are both nutritious and environmentally sustainable. These brands portray their products as a crucial component to a lifestyle that prioritizes health, ethical consumerism, and environmental consciousness. However, there is still limited evidence on the environmental and nutritional implications of these technologically innovative foods relative to their animal counterparts or to more traditional plant-based sources of protein. In effect, these meat alternative products benefit from a “halo effect”, whereby consumers assume product integrity, benefits, and sustainability without requiring producers to substantiate these perceptions. Producers often express a technofix approach in which long-standing food systems concerns can simply be engineered away. Although eliminating animals from food production has many benefits, it is not a panacea for the range of complex production issues in the modern food system; no one product can inherently solve diet-related disease risk or the individual contribution to environmental harms by food production. This chapter evaluates the current evidence of meat alternatives with regard to nutrition, environmental sustainability, food safety, the role of farmed animals, and business practices. The chapter concludes with a vision for how meat alternative producers can create meaningful change.
