Consuming Lab-Grown Meat and Insects Benefits Planet

According to a study, eating lab-grown meat and insects is good for your health. It leads to savings in carbon emissions and water and frees land for nature. The scientific community says such a diet could help reduce the pressure on the planet by over 80 per cent.

It is not yet clear whether consumers will switch to these eating habits. Non-conventional foods will provide people with food rich in protein and other nutrients. Consequently, our planet could save land and water.

Scientists vetted three measures of environmental pressure—usage of water and land and carbon emissions. They also studied the nutritional aspects of these products.

The new diet recommended by scientists will provide more nutrients than a vegetarian diet. But they also found that reducing meat and increasing vegetables had a similar effect on the planet.

Rachel Mazac of the University of Helsinki said: "With significant reductions in animal-sourced foods and substitutions with novel or future foods and plant-based protein alternatives, you can have significant reductions in environmental impacts in terms of global warming potential, land use and water use."

"similar savings in impacts in a vegan diet". And in a diet with a 75% reduction in animal-sourced foods, "you can have an approximately 75% reduction across all of your impacts". she added.

The foods studied include ground-up flies and crickets, egg white from lab-grown chicken cells, edible algae, milk, meat and berries grown from cells, a type of seaweed called kelp and protein powders made from mushrooms or microbes.

When people don't want to change their diets, they might not be able to make this "much-needed transition." That's what Dr Asaf Tzachor of the University of Cambridge thinks.

Several studies have demonstrated that switching to a plant-based diet is good for health and the environment.

According to a recent assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a conversion to a balanced diet rich in plants such as grains and vegetables, with a moderate amount of sustainably produced meat and dairy, is suggested.