Transforming how we use land

We use around half of the world's potentially available land for agriculture. Food and biofuel production also caused around three-quarters of global deforestation, making it the largest contributor to biodiversity loss.

This is largely because of the extreme inefficiency and externalities caused by the production of meat, dairy and eggs.

The Green Alliance's recent report, A New Land Dividend,

A recent report "A New Land Dividend: The Opportunity of Alternative Proteins in Europe", funded by the Good Food Institute Europe and published by Green Alliance, explores the transformative potential of alternative proteins to address Europe's land use challenges. Europe faces a severe land crunch due to nearly all productive land being in use. This results in a significant reliance on land outside Europe for food production, while posing a challenge to meeting national and international commitments around carbon neutrality and conservation.

Alternative proteins, which include plant-based, fermentation-based, and cultivated meat products, offer a solution by providing equivalents to meat and dairy with much lower environmental impacts. Certain plant-based products and non-dairy milks are already displacing some processed meat and dairy items as they reach cost parity. Precision fermentation produces foods with the distinctive flavors and textures of animal products without using animals, such as the heme protein in Impossible Burgers. Cultivated meat, grown from animal cells, provides the same meat products without farming animals, with products recently approved in Singapore and the U.S.

The report outlines two scenarios for alternative protein adoption by 2050:

1. Low Intervention Scenario: With limited policy support, alternative proteins could displace about a sixth of meat and dairy consumption. In this case, only plant-based proteins would expand, replacing primarily processed meat and dairy products.
2. High Innovation Scenario: With significant policy support, alternative proteins could replace two-thirds of meat and dairy consumption. This scenario includes precision fermentation and cultivated meat reaching cost competitiveness, and displacing more complex meat cuts and cheeses. The shift would free up 44% of domestic farmland and reduce overseas land use by 57%, equivalent to the area of Spain.

The report highlights four major benefits of the high innovation scenario:

1. Europe could achieve self-sufficiency in food production.
2. Farmers could capitalize on carbon removal markets, avoiding costly engineered solutions and saving €21 billion annually by 2050.
3. Agroecological farmland could quadruple, supporting the EU Farm to Fork strategy's goal of 25% organic land.
4. Enough wildlife habitat could be created to restore Annex I habitats under the EU’s Nature Restoration Law.

The report finds that policy plays a critical role in this transition. Governments can facilitate market entry for alternative proteins by supporting startups, infrastructure, and regulatory approvals. Consumer adoption will depend on the price, taste, and convenience of these alternatives compared to conventional meat and dairy products. The report suggests reimagining the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as a "new rural deal" to support farmers and land managers in this transition, integrating payments for nature restoration and carbon removal alongside food production.

Ultimately, the "land dividend" from adopting alternative proteins provides a unique opportunity to balance food production, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity conservation, transforming Europe's agricultural landscape for a sustainable future.