As the world’s population grows, the demand for nutritious food will increase and place more pressure on our planet’s finite resources. There is change afoot though, with one New Zealand manufacturer seeing exponential demand in recent years for its plant-based foods.
What does the future of food look like?
STRATEGY: BIG IDEAS
For the last quarter of a century there’s been a view held by some economists and many politicians that inflation is dead.
Susan Muldowney is a Melbourne-based freelance writer and editor with an interest in sustainable finance, startups and smart cities. She also writes about architecture, engineering and ways to enhance the way we live, work and play.
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“We use about 1.7 planets worth of resources every year and we've only got one planet. It just simply doesn't make sense.”
Sholto Macpherson is an award-winning journalist and editor of DigitalFirst.com, a blog on the latest in accounting technology for accounting firms and SMEs
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– Justin Lemmens, Sustainable Foods Limited
The food we eat every day has a huge impact on climate change. Its production and consumption contributes to more than one-third of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, and the emissions from animal-based foods are twice those of plant-based foods. With the global population predicted to reach 10 billion in the next three decades, food-related emissions are set to spike. But if a net-zero emissions goal is to be achieved by 2050, how can we redesign the carbon footprint of our food?
Change is already underway across the globe. Research from Credit Suisse estimates the market for plant-based food to increase from the current size of US$14 billion to US$1.4 trillion by 2050.
The issue with inflation expectations is that when consumers and businesses expect prices to rise, they put their own prices up, which further fuels inflation. “If people started thinking that's going to continue for the next 10 years, then they get out there and demand high wages to cover that,” Oliver says.
Sustainable Foods Limited, a New Zealand manufacturer of plant-based proteins, is contributing to the growth through a range of products that includes a hemp-based alternative to chicken. Its co-founder Justin Lemmens has worked in food manufacturing for more than 25 years and says sustainability and nutrition are the key reasons he started the company in 2019.
Now
2050
US$14 billion
500 billion
1 trillion
1.5 trillion
Value of the plant-based food market (US$)
Lemmens says Sustainable Foods has grown by 850% in the past two years. It partners with scientists at New Zealand food research centre Riddet Institute to help perfect the taste and texture of its products, and sources hemp from local medicinal cannabis and hemp producer Greenfern Industries.
of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions come from food production and consumption
More than 1/3
2x
More emissions
come from animal-based foods as opposed to plant-based
US$1.4 trillion
Source: Credit Suisse
“I want to make sure that what we have today is preserved – and improved – for tomorrow,” he says. “We’re going to have about two billion more people joining the planet over the next few decades, and our current systems aren’t scalable in the sense that we have no more land to convert to farming animals, and a lot of the crops grown are fed to animals, so our current conversion of food is not the smartest.
“We use about 1.7 planets worth of resources every year and we've only got one planet,” adds Lemmens. “It just simply doesn't make sense.”
“We relocated to a former Fonterra [cheese] factory in Kāpiti late last year to give us the capability to scale,” says Lemmens.
Plant-based food companies are also capturing investor attention in Australia. Canberra-based food tech startup Nourish Ingredients, for instance, raised A$45.3 million in 2022, adding Main Sequence ventures and Hostplus to its register, as well as the private investment arm of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, Horizons Ventures.
“Hemp is a wonderful crop for regenerative farming and carbon sequestration,” says Lemmens. “It uses comparatively little water to grow and, on the nutrition front, has a suite of amino acids and is a great source of omega-3.
“It also has a fantastic flavour profile,” adds Lemmens. “We did more than 2000 food tastings at a show in Melbourne [in October 2022] and only two people said they didn’t like the taste and that was because they thought it was too much like meat. But we're not trying to recreate meat. We’re creating a fantastic eating experience.”
Lemmens says Sustainable Foods is preparing for expansion into markets including Australia, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.
“We’re seeing huge growth across the industry because there is a need to rethink our diet for the good of the planet and of our health,” he says. “We’ve designed a sustainable, nutritious product using a novel protein source and, importantly, it delivers on taste and texture.”
As the world’s population grows, the demand for nutritious food will increase and place more pressure on our planet’s finite resources. There is change afoot though, with one New Zealand manufacturer seeing exponential demand in recent years for its plant-based foods.
Now
2050
US$14 billion
500 billion
1 trillion
1.5 trillion
Value of the plant-based food market (US$)
The food we eat every day has a huge impact on climate change. Its production and consumption contributes to more than one-third of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, and the emissions from animal-based foods are twice those of plant-based foods. With the global population predicted to reach 10 billion in the next three decades, food-related emissions are set to spike. But if a net-zero emissions goal is to be achieved by 2050, how can we redesign the carbon footprint of our food?
Sustainable Foods Limited, a New Zealand manufacturer of plant-based proteins, is contributing to the growth through a range of products that includes a hemp-based alternative to chicken. Its co-founder Justin Lemmens has worked in food manufacturing for more than 25 years and says sustainability and nutrition are the key reasons he started the company in 2019.
“I want to make sure that what we have today is preserved – and improved – for tomorrow,” he says. “We’re going to have about two billion more people joining the planet over the next few decades, and our current systems aren’t scalable in the sense that we have no more land to convert to farming animals, and a lot of the crops grown are fed to animals, so our current conversion of food is not the smartest.
“We use about 1.7 planets worth of resources every year and we've only got one planet,” adds Lemmens. “It just simply doesn't make sense.”
“We relocated to a former Fonterra [cheese] factory in Kāpiti late last year to give us the capability to scale,” says Lemmens.
Plant-based food companies are also capturing investor attention in Australia. Canberra-based food tech startup Nourish Ingredients, for instance, raised A$45.3 million in 2022, adding Main Sequence ventures and Hostplus to its register, as well as the private investment arm of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, Horizons Ventures.
Lemmens says Sustainable Foods has grown by 850% in the past two years. It partners with scientists at New Zealand food research centre Riddet Institute to help perfect the taste and texture of its products, and sources hemp from local medicinal cannabis and hemp producer Greenfern Industries.
“Hemp is a wonderful crop for regenerative farming and carbon sequestration,” says Lemmens. “It uses comparatively little water to grow and, on the nutrition front, has a suite of amino acids and is a great source of omega-3.
“It also has a fantastic flavour profile,” adds Lemmens. “We did more than 2000 food tastings at a show in Melbourne [in October 2022] and only two people said they didn’t like the taste and that was because they thought it was too much like meat. But we're not trying to recreate meat. We’re creating a fantastic eating experience.”
Lemmens says Sustainable Foods is preparing for expansion into markets including Australia, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.
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