We asked four agriculture and food experts to share their thoughts on some thorny questions related to our individual choices and the larger challenge of feeding the world sustainably. The experts were among the 30 leading researchers and practitioners who took part in the Alex Trebek Forum for Dialogue on the future of protein held at uOttawa October 25 and 26.
Diana Rodgers
What should consumers be considering when making food decisions?
There’s a lot of confusion and misinformation when it comes to which foods to eat, but to make it simple, I suggest focusing on real, whole foods and avoiding modern, hyper-palatable, processed foods that encourage us to overeat. This means buying vegetables and fruit, preferably in season and raised without chemicals, and sourcing meat, poultry and seafood from sustainable producers and fishermen.
What does the latest research tell us about the health benefits and risks involved in consuming animal and plant-based proteins?
The evidence against red meat is largely based on epidemiology, which can’t prove cause, only associations. When comparing people who are vegetarian to the general public, there are a lot of confounding factors like smoking, drinking and other lifestyle behaviours that need to be adjusted for.
Also, people aren’t truthful on food frequency questionnaires, so they might remember the burger they ate last week, but not the large fries, 72-ounce soda and deep-fried apple pie they ate with it. Studies that take these factors into account have failed to show any benefits to giving up meat for all-cause mortality.
Animal proteins are complete, very nutrient-dense, and ruminant animals are one of our best chances at reversing climate change because they can help sequester carbon.
Gabrielle Bastien
Is it possible to raise livestock sustainably? What about soy and other industrially produced protein crops?
It absolutely is possible to raise livestock sustainably. In fact, we need ruminants to make pastures more productive and turn them into net carbon sinks, removing carbon from the atmosphere and mitigating climate change. Regenerating land through properly managed grazing also enables better water absorption and filtration, and enhances biodiversity.
It is possible to grow crops like soy in a more sustainable manner than the conventional way, notably by eliminating tilling. Nut trees are a good way to source protein, given that they grow deep roots. However, when grown industrially, producers sometimes till between trees — no-till production is more sustainable.
How can we mitigate the environmental impact of producing protein-rich foods, and how might global environmental change shape their production?
By sourcing more of our protein from deep-rooted perennials, as well as from livestock that has been managed holistically on pasture (thereby regenerating land), we can not only lower our environmental footprint but actually have a positive impact on our ecosystems.
Global environmental change will cause more variation in precipitation — longer droughts, and heavier and shorter precipitation. Sourcing our protein from crops and livestock that have regenerated soil health — such as perennials, no-till crops and properly managed pastured livestock — makes agro-ecosystems more resilient to climate change, since they are better able to absorb and retain water and prevent soil erosion.
Tovar Cerulli
What are the ethical concerns we need to consider in the future production and consumption of meat and its alternatives (such as plant-based alternatives and other “novel proteins”)?
In addition to specific ethical concerns about the welfare of human beings, the welfare of other animals and the well-being of the larger natural world, we need to consider what values and relationships our eating honours.
Regardless of whether we eat domestic meat, wild meat, lab meat, insects or plant proteins, we need to ask:
- Is our eating guided by an ethic of respect for each other, other animals and the larger natural world?
- Are our food systems rooted in humility and compassion, or in arrogance and callousness?
- Do our approaches to food connect us or alienate us?
Sarah Martin
We’re seeing an increased interest in legumes, nuts, crickets and lab-grown meats. What’s next in sustainable proteins?
There is a dramatic increase in interest in these areas, whether plant-based proteins or lab-grown meats. There is no doubt that industrial animal agriculture is not sustainable.
That said, many of the new models seem to be repeating many of the same mistakes as past models, albeit in new ways. It’s difficult to predict what might be next, but I hope that the production, distribution and consumption of proteins is positioned with a view to the long-term sustainability of rural communities and the environment.