UNEP Developing Alt-Protein Policy Report
After claiming meat is the "world's most urgent problem", the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is currently compiling a report that will assess imitation foods, tissue-engineered lab meat and microbial biomass.
Initial indications predict the report will be skewed towards support of alternative protein sources, but given it won’t be published until early 2023, the global meat sector is in the preferable position with time to prepare our response for its release.
GMA spoke to Professor Dr Frédéric Leroy at Vrije Universiteit Brussel who provided information of the report. He says the report could form the foundation of future policy documents advocating for alt-protein.
“This will be the answer to the question, ‘what should we do with respect to alternative proteins?’” Frédéric told GMA.
“You cannot get into policy documents if they just have an oral dialogue; they need to have somewhere written down… they have to give something ‘neutral’ and in a transnational framework to give it a certain credibility.”
Frédéric says the influential UNEP – which has a history of standing for radical positions – will explore if there is an end date for global meat consumption.
The information Frédéric has received notes that ‘background scoping research and rapid consultations with internal and external experts have provided an initial framing for the assessment, and key experts who could be engaged.’ Those experts include a long list of alt-protein product corporations.
The concern is that the findings have already been found.
“UNEP explores all the alternatives, there’s nothing wrong with that. They say complements or replacements, so it’s about complementing or replacing, but sometimes they use stronger language,” Frédéric said.
The report will likely be published in February or March 2023. So, right now, it remains a ‘watch this space’ situation, however GMA will be following its development and will provide suggested responses once its findings are clear.
However, it is important to lay preliminary groundwork ahead of its release.
As a parting note when discussing how we can best combat any potential fallout, Frédéric reminds us that money talks, saying that when advocates promote the report’s release, they “will play the financial agenda, clearly.”