Food for thought: a diet to cut use of agricultural land

The latest research on whether consumption of insects, cultured meat (‘lab-based’, or synthetic meat) or imitation meat could reduce global agricultural land use has thrown up some interesting findings. It has been revealed that imitation meat and insects have the highest land use efficiency, land use requirements are only slightly greater for eggs and poultry meat, cultured meat does not seem to offer substantial benefits over poultry meat or eggs, and a mix of small changes in consumer behaviour would help to achieve a sustainable diet.A group of scientists from the UK, Germany and Australia have concluded that although a diet with lower rates of animal product consumption is likely to create the greatest reduction in agricultural land, changes such as replacing beef with chicken, reducing food waste and potentially introducing insects more commonly into diets, would also achieve land savings and a more sustainable food system.The research was supported by the UK’s Global Food Security Programme project Resilience of the UK food system to Global Shocks and the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme LUC4C, which aims to provide progress towards quantitative understanding of impacts and feedbacks in the coupled human-land-climate system, and the role people play. The Scottish Government also supported the research.These results suggest that alternatives to the current mix of livestock production systems could substitute current animal products and substantially reduce the current agricultural land use footprint from food production. Reducing meat consumption overall is likely to have the greatest effect on the land use footprint, but replacing beef or lamb with any of the foods considered here has the potential for substantial sustainability benefits. Although, the two most efficient products considered, i.e. imitation meat and insects, both come with consumer perception barriers, a shift towards poultry meat, eggs and milk was also found to offer land use and associated environmental benefits, of only slightly smaller magnitudes. Reductions in consumer waste have potentially important but smaller impacts on resource requirement than the other scenarios considered. The conclusion is that a diet which reduces agricultural land requirements may best be achieved through a combination of approaches, including both waste reduction, shifts towards more efficient conventional animal products (e.g. chicken and eggs), and greater use of alternatives such as insect and imitation meat. A more balanced approach than those in the stylised scenarios considered here would also require less extreme shifts in diets and therefore need less dramatic changes in consumer consumption habits. Though the research focuses principally on the land requirements, the scientists pointed out that a similar consistent greenhouse gas lifecycle analysis across all options is warranted, as well as consideration of consequences for biodiversity, water requirements and other ecosystem services. Further research is also required into the technologies and production systems for the large scale production of insects, including what feeds are most appropriate and the potential use of food waste and by-products, and to better understand how consumer behaviour and preferences can be influenced towards a healthier and more sustainable diet.