The Protein Problem - Part 1

It is hard to argue that we, and by we, I mean people in rich countries, eat far too much animal protein. Although the ideal amount is a matter of debate, consistent evidence suggests that we should be eating far less than we do today. Personally, I’m of the view that reducing that amount down to zero is going too far, and some animal production in an agricultural system is probably a good thing. But, despite the consistent efforts of industry lobby groups, it is pretty much impossible to make a coherent argument on health or environmental grounds against decreasing current consumption.

There is also a strong financial argument for reducing livestock production in many areas of the UK, as often, such farming is only possible because of extensive subsidies. Where subsidies currently fund the production of sheep or cows, we would almost certainly be better off using the same money to help return land to a more natural state. In the UK, returning farmland to nature is not a case of leaving it alone for a few years. It requires skilled, hardworking people to manage and maintain. Given the huge environmental benefits of this work, it would seem a much wiser use of our money than making our meat production artificially cheap.

However, as we shift away from animal production, we will still need protein in our diets, and that protein will have to come from plants (or fungi, don’t @ me). The obvious candidates to meet this shortfall are soya, pea and wheat, as they are established crops that produce large amounts of readily available protein. In later posts, I am going to cover the potential of biomass fermentation and cellular agriculture, but realistically, for the time being at least, a lot of the extra protein required is going to come from these three plants.

But there’s an issue within the UK. Although we grow a lot of wheat (about 15 million tonnes annually, yielding around 2 million tonnes of edible protein), the crop has allergen, digestibility, and taste issues for many people. Also, for various climate and economic reasons, the UK wheat crop is not the most reliable or highest in quality, so more that 50% of our home-grown wheat is only used for animal feed.

We currently don’t grow much soya here, and most of the UK crop currently goes into industrial bread production as a dough improver (we do not process it into animal feed in the UK, so interestingly, none of our home-grown soya is fed to livestock). Although the UK soya crop is in growth, and there are new varieties suited to our climate, it still only amounts to around 3,000-5,000 tonnes each year. In comparison, we probably import about 2 million tonnes of soya meal for livestock feed annually.

We grow quite a few field peas in the UK, about 180,000 tonnes in total, but most of that goes into animal feed, or gets milled into flour. We grow a large amount of fava beans (broad beans), around 700,000 tonnes annually, more than anywhere else in Europe. Fava is a good protein crop and UK beans are of particularly high quality, but bizarrely, we only eat about a thousand tonnes domestically, shipping large amounts to Northern Africa, where it is a cuisine staple. Again however, the vast majority, around 600,000 tonnes, is fed to livestock. 

It is not that plant-based foods are unpopular in the UK. We consume more plant-based meat, dairy, cheese, ready meals and food-to-go items than any country in Europe. Our food industry has an almost insatiable demand for plant protein, with every plant-based sector in huge growth. It’s just that when it comes to the plant-based foods currently available in our supermarkets, most are based on imported protein isolates or concentrates derived from soy, pea or wheat, largely because locally grown versions just aren’t available. 

These isolates and concentrates are highly processed ingredients, with most of the fibre and starch stripped out to increase the protein levels. In part, this is to ensure that products have levels of protein comparable to meat, but it is also because extracted plant proteins can be manipulated to behave more like animal muscle tissue. Mock Duck, the traditional Chinese dish made from extracted wheat gluten, is one example. Extracted soya and pea proteins can be used in a similar way, with slightly different properties. Soya protein in particular has properties that make is particularly suited to plant based meats, with proteins that are easily manipulated into new structures.

Protein concentrates or isolates can be made in a variety of ways, the most basic involving the creation of a flour which is then air classified (blown up through a chamber and sorted by particle size and weight) to create a high protein fraction). More commonly, protein is extracted using water or other solvents. Water extraction is a fairly simple process that can be replicated at home for wheat flour (link here), but doing so at scale requires a large industrial plant, millions of pounds of investment, and great care to avoid pollution and waste. As with any purification process, there is also a waste stream to be managed.

In the UK, there is very little plant protein extraction taking place, simply because the infrastructure does not exist. This is why the current boom in plant-based foods is largely being driven by imported soya and pea isolates, shipped from Canada, the US, China, India and some parts of Europe. Apart from a small amount of gluten, UK produced plant protein is extremely hard to get hold of, despite us growing plenty of protein crops. Fava bean protein is now being extracted and sold as an ingredient, but it is mostly produced in Southern Europe and sourced from across the EU. Despite the perceived importance of local provenance when it comes to the meat and dairy markets, UK farmers are hardly benefiting from the current boom in plant-based equivalents.

This is happening at a time when the UK’s arable farmers are desperate for new rotation crops. Canola (Rape Seed) and Wheat rotations have dominated large parts of the UK agricultural landscape for many years, but pest issues, the loss of certain insecticides and a fall in the commodity price has resulted in the recent collapse of UK canola. Legume crops such as peas and beans are excellent replacements as they fix nitrogen and improve the soil, but a lack of transformation infrastructure is preventing UK farmers benefiting from the rapid growth in plant-based foods. The UK arguably has the most developed retail market for plant-based products in the world, but a lack of infrastructure means that the market is dependent on unnecessarily long supply chains, importing ingredients that could easily have been grown domestically. 

I recently spoke to the team behind a multi-million-euro Latvian project to extract protein from pea, an ingredient that has become prominent in plant-based products due to its consumer appeal, good functional properties and lack of allergenicity. The development will benefit farmers across the Baltic states, creating a centre for plant-based ingredients to fuel the coming protein transition. Although the UK has world leading agricultural science and biotechnology sectors, our investment in protein transformation is woeful, and is likely to leave us trailing the world.

There is hope. Some investment is taking place and a few products from locally grown soy or fava are likely to reach the market soon. But given the importance of this sector over the next few years, we must hope it is not too little too late.

Next week, the Protein Problem Part 2 will talk about the challenge of transforming plant proteins into meat like structures.