The Next Course: Reinventing What We Eat
Meat and dairy emissions occur at every stage of production. Land cleared for livestock and feed releases stored carbon, while ruminant animals like cows and sheep emit methane during digestion. Processing, transport, and refrigeration require energy, and packaging production and disposal add further emissions — together creating a significant climate footprint.
To save our climate future, we need to change the way we eat. The meat and dairy on our plates is feeding the climate crisis, driving deforestation, methane emissions, and massive land and resource use. As the global appetite for meat keeps growing — and the world’s cattle population surges toward 2 billion — the climate cost of what we eat is quickly becoming unpalatable. But what if we could have meat and dairy without the cow, and at a cost advantage to livestock? A new generation of alternative proteins and fats made from plants, industrial production, or directly from animal cells offers a pathway to do just that. Scaling these innovations is one of the most powerful levers we have to create tasty, nutritious food with a fraction of the footprint — and build a food system that can sustainably and affordably nourish a growing world.
Using IPCC and GCAM data, Energy Innovation projected future “greenhouse gas emissions at stake” in 2050, assuming current policies remain in place. The resulting estimates overlap because different technologies may reduce the same emissions pool.
The Path We’re On
Meeting our climate goals means rethinking meat.
Food is fundamental. It’s much more than fuel. It's culture and tradition. It’s comfort. And it’s a major climate issue.
More than half of the emissions resulting from food production come from animal-based foods. The worst culprits on our plates: beef, lamb, and dairy, three of the highest-emission foods per 100 grams of protein.
Where do meat and dairy emissions come from?
To fatten up livestock, we grow large volumes of corn, soy, and grains. The fertilizers used release nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that’s nearly 300 times more potent than CO₂ over 100 years.
Grazing, ruminant livestock (cattle, sheep, goats) digest food through enteric fermentation. When they burp, they release methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
Animal waste emits both methane and nitrous oxide as it decomposes.
Half of the world’s habitable land is used for agriculture, and more than two-thirds of agricultural land is used for grazing livestock. That translates to less space for natural, carbon-absorbing ecosystems like forests, peatlands and marshlands.
Slaughtering, refrigerating, and transporting meat uses energy, mainly from fossil fuels.
As the world population grows and countries get wealthier, the demand for meat and dairy will only increase, as will the resources required to feed billions more people. The global meat industry is expected to reach two trillion dollars by 2030.
But animal protein is not a particularly efficient source of energy. When we feed a cow one calorie of soy, we get only a small fraction of a calorie of beef out — roughly 2%, in fact. Simply put, traditional meat is an inefficient and unsustainable way to feed a growing population.
The best fix is to eat less meat and dairy. What is produced should be done as sustainably as possible. We must waste less of what we produce.
And then there’s alternative proteins and fats. Serving the same nutritional roles as animal byproducts, these options are designed to replicate the foods many of us love while reducing the negative environmental, ethical, and health impacts of conventional animal agriculture.
A New Way Forward
Eating better: changing our future by changing our food
Alternative proteins and fats are not a silver bullet — but they can play a part in making lower-emissions diets viable at scale. The imperatives and moonshots below outline the innovations that could replace some of the most emissions-intensive animal proteins by making alternatives affordable, familiar, and appetizing.
Innovation Imperatives
Develop low-cost cultured animal cells that grow rapidly and efficiently, and pioneer technologies to turn them into appealing protein alternatives.
Cultivated meat (also called lab-grown, cell-based, or cultured meat) is real meat produced by growing animal cells in a controlled environment, but without raising or slaughtering animals. Speeding up the growth and division of animal cells will be essential for cultivated meat products to become viable at scale. By engineering cells to behave more like fast-growing organisms (such as yeast), increasing the efficiency of converting inputs into usable calories, and radically reducing the cost of the bioreactors and growth media, scientists aim to reduce the time, cost, and complexity of producing real animal tissue. Only by unlocking this critical first step can we hope to make cell-based meat appealing, cost-effective, and nutritious enough for everyday consumption.
Create industrialized production of plant oils and animal fats through thermochemical processing or biomanufacturing
In addition to alternative proteins, we need new fats. This imperative focuses on producing animal-like fats — the key to flavor and texture — without animals, through engineered cells, microbial biomanufacturing, or thermochemical processing. Perfecting these fats could accelerate adoption of alternative proteins by improving taste and cooking performance in plant-based and hybrid foods. Unlike livestock-derived fats, industrial fats can be produced precisely, consistently, and with far fewer inputs.
Develop more palatable, lower-cost, and nutritious alternative proteins
Innovators are working to develop new sources of protein that can stand in for meat, whether they’re made from plants, fungi (such as mycoprotein), or cultivated directly from animal cells. Each approach aims to recreate the taste, texture, and nutritional profile of animal protein. While we’re seeing improvement in this area, overcoming remaining challenges related to taste and texture, nutrition, and cost could help drive further adoption.
The most viable solutions will:
Food signals tradition, community, and status, and meat is deeply entrenched in rituals and norms. New products will need to be palatable to people en masse, across cultures and around the world.
New solutions will need to taste as good as or better than the foods we know and love. Alternatives must equal or beat meat on flavor, juiciness, texture, cooking behavior, and overall eating experience.
Products must deliver complete proteins and key micronutrients (such as vitamin B12 and iron) and be adopted as at least as healthy as conventional options.
New foods will need to reach cost parity with conventional meat at point of purchase.
Ideally, new options will meet people where and how they already shop, cook, and eat — with little to no extra friction.
Solutions must deliver a meaningful climate benefit by reducing land use, energy demand, and lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions relative to conventional animal proteins.
