Excitement about alternative meat and dairy products is exploding. Lab-grown or plant-based, animal-free substitutes are being held up as a panacea to overcome the negative environmental and health impacts associated with the world’s livestock systems.
But that assumption rests on the skewed perspectives of North Americans and western Europeans — and misses a big part of the story. In many developing countries and less affluent economies, animalsource food is less a consumer product than a vital source of income, food and livelihood.
For the one in 10 people living on less than $2 a day, “alt-meats” are unlikely to be a viable dietary solution for the simple reason that most people would be unable to access or afford them. Samburu
livestock herders in northern Kenya, for example, live in rural areas with little access to grocery stores that might sell plant-based meat or soy milk. Instead, they rely on their cows, goats and sheep for both food and income.
Meat and dairy alternatives do little to address the nutritional challenges faced by the poor in Africa and Asia. The most common dietrelated health problem there is not overconsumption of animal-source foods but “hidden hunger”, a form of malnutrition characterised by deficiencies in the essential nutrients found in milk, meat and eggs.
For the impoverished Ethiopian or Bangladeshi mother who is unable to breastfeed her newborn because she is herself malnourished, even the smallest gains in milk, meat or egg consumption can be vital. According to the UN’S Food and Agriculture Organization, just 20 grammes of animal protein per person per day — the equivalent of one and a half eggs — can stave off malnutrition.
Getting enough protein and micronutrients is especially important for vulnerable groups such as infants and children, mothers, the sick and the elderly. For babies between six and nine months in Cotopaxi, rural Ecuador, for example, eating an egg a day meant stunting was reduced by almost 50 per cent. One mother told us her baby had started standing by himself and became more engaged after she added eggs to his diet.
Equally important are livestock’s contributions to the rural economy — a feature under-appreciated by those in more industrialised countries. In low to middle-income countries, livestock is a lifeline as well as financial asset, providing jobs, incomes, financial collateral, insurance, fertilisation for crops and muscle to transport farm goods.
