United Nations Environment Programme
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What's Cooking? An assessment of potential impacts of selected novel alternatives to conventional animal products
The food systems are responsible for about 30% of the current anthropogenic GHG emissions, and animal products account for almost 60% of those emissions. There is a need to change the way we produce and consume the food we eat, because of its growing impact on the triple planetary crises. While many approaches are available to address the adverse impacts of animal agriculture, this report looks specifically at novel alternatives to conventional animal source food.
This special issue of the Frontiers Report focuses on the potential environmental, health, social and animal welfare implications of the uptake of novel meat and dairy alternatives, in particular novel plant-based, fermentation-derived and cultivated products. A team of interdisciplinary experts has assessed the available evidence on the impacts of these alternatives in comparison with their conventional counterparts, identifying pertinent considerations for policymakers involved in regulating, investing in or providing other support for novel meat and dairy products and highlighting research gaps.
Further Resources
- Full Report
- Executive Summary
- Key Messages
- Press conference: What's Cooking? Publication Launch
- Press release: Novel meat and dairy alternatives could help curb climate-harming emissions - UN
- Speech: Transforming food systems: role of novel protein alternatives
- Presentation document of UNEA6 Official Side Event
- Recording video of UNEA6 Official Side Event
What’s Cooking: UNEP’s Special Edition Frontiers Report 2023
This special edition of UNEP’s Frontiers report explores the available evidence on novel plant-based foods, cultivated meat and fermentation-derived products as alternatives or complements to conventional meat and dairy that could potentially leave a much smaller environmental footprint. The report provides an overview of scientific knowledge of these novel alternatives as elements of…
Novel meat and dairy alternatives could help curb climate-harming emissions - UN
Emerging novel alternatives to animal products such as meat and dairy may contribute to significantly reducing the environmental footprint of the current global food system, particularly in high- and middle-income countries, provided they use low-carbon energy.
What you need to know about new animal-source food alternatives
As the world’s population grows, so does the demand for animal-sourced foods like meat and dairy. The challenge: animal agriculture can be environmentally destructive, worsening the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.
