Lab-grown meat and insects 'good for planet and health'

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Dining on lab-grown meat or ground-up insects could lead to big savings in carbon emissions and water, as well as freeing up land for nature.

That is the finding of a study calculating the environmental benefits of greener foods.

According to scientists, the pressures on the planet could fall by more than 80% with such foods.

It is not known if consumers will want to change their eating habits.

A host of non-conventional foods are being developed with the aim of providing food rich in nutrition and being gentle on the planet by using less water and land.

Some of these products were studied by scientists in Finland and they looked at three measures of environmental pressure: the use of water, land and potential carbon emissions.

They say substituting meat, dairy and other animal products for alternative foods could reduce these impacts by more than 80%.

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They found that cutting down on meat and eating more vegetables had the same impact on the planet.

With significant reductions in animal-sourced foods and substitution with novel or future foods and plant-based alternatives, you can have significant reductions in environmental impacts.

She said there were similar savings in the impacts of a vegan diet. You can have an approximately 75% reduction across all of your impacts with a 75% reduction in animal-sourced foods.

New foods that are expected to become a bigger part of our diet in the future, many of which rely on high-tech methods to grow animal and plant cells in bioreactors, are examined in the research published in Nature Food.

Some of the novel foods are still on the drawing board.

• Ground-up flies and crickets

• Egg white from lab-grown chicken cells

• A type of seaweed called kelp

• Protein powders made from mushrooms or microbes

• Milk, meat and berries grown from cells.

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Dr Asaf Tzachor of the University of Cambridge, who was not part of the research team, said that the lack of willingness of consumers to shift their diet might prevent this much-needed transition.

There are many studies that show the benefits of moving towards a plant-based diet.

A recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommended a switch to a balanced diet with a moderate intake of meat and dairy.