In 2021, a survey of over 1,000 Americans
found that nearly two-thirds
had eaten plant-based meat alternatives
in the past year.
Many cited potential health
and environmental benefits
as their motivation.
But are these alternative meats actually
better for us and the planet?
First, let’s introduce the contenders.
Meat from butchered animals,
which we’ll call farmed meat,
is a complex structure of muscle fibers,
connective tissues, and fat.
You may recognize meat
from its role in the human diet,
stretching back to our species’
very beginnings.
Our next challenger,
the plant-based meat alternative,
may look and taste like meat,
but it’s built with proteins,
carbohydrates, fats,
and other molecules from plants.
Transforming plant molecules
into something that resembles meat
takes effort.
Meat’s fibrous texture is created
by long rod-like proteins.
To replicate this structure,
a plant’s ball-shaped proteins can be
pushed through an extruder device
which forces them to unwind
and join into long filaments.
To mimic animal fat, companies mix
in fats and oils extracted from plants.
One popular brand adds
a beet juice pigment
that changes the patty’s color
as it cooks.
Another adds an iron-containing molecule
called heme,
which their team says
is key to its meaty flavor.
The resulting products come in many forms.
Finally, our last entrant:
lab-grown meat.
Also known as cell-based meat
and cultured meat,
these products begin as animal stem cells
that researchers coax to multiply
and form into muscle.
It’s worth noting that lab-grown meats
are largely still in development,
so the exact process may change
when they’re produced
at greater commercial scale.
So which meat or lookalike
is best for your health?
Farmed meat is a vital source of protein
and nutrients for many people.
But researchers have also found links
between diets
high in red and processed meats
and health concerns like
type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
One 2012 study concluded
that swapping red meat
for other options like chicken, nuts,
or legumes for one meal a day
can potentially reduce mortality risk
by 7 to 19%.
There is not enough data to know
whether replacing red meat
with a plant-based patty
would have the same effect.
Plant-based meats, while containing
just as much protein, calories, and iron
as farmed meat,
are highly processed and, therefore,
high in sodium.
And many contain coconut oil,
which has a lot of saturated fat,
and, like red meat,
may elevate heart disease risk.
Lab-grown meat, meanwhile,
has the potential to offer the same
nutritional qualities and health risks
as farmed meat.
But we won’t know for sure until
product development is further along.
So which contender is better
for the environment?
Animal agriculture generates
an estimated 14.5%
of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
Researchers estimate that producing
plant-based meat substitutes
results in, on average, around 90% less
greenhouse gas emissions
than an equivalent amount of beef,
63% less than pork,
and 51% less than poultry.
Plant-based meat alternatives also tend
to require far less land and water
than farmed meat.
And their production results in much lower
levels of pollutants running off farms
and entering waterways—
which threaten both the environment
and public health.
As for lab-grown meat,
today the industry largely takes
its stem cells
from the muscle tissue of livestock.
But how many animals will be required
for these biopsies
once production scales up?
It also isn’t clear to what degree
alternative meats
will reduce the environmental impact
of the farmed meats industry.
What if, instead of replacing
meat with alternatives,
people continue to consume
the same amount of farmed meat
while also eating newer options?
While the verdict is still out on which
meat is nutritionally superior,
if you care about your personal
impact on animal welfare,
public health, and the environment,
plant-based meat tends to come out on top.
And switching to meat alternatives doesn’t
have to be an all-or-nothing decision.
In fact, a 2022 study estimated that
forgoing red meat at just one meal a day
can decrease your personal dietary
carbon emissions by as much as 48%.
