Nutritional Benefits of Selected Plant-Based Proteins as Meat Alternatives

Humans meet their nutritional requirements by consuming food, and our body uses naturally sufficient amounts of all necessary nutrients to maintain its functioning. Proteins form the basis of the human diet because they are necessary for immune responses, cell signals, muscle masses, and the repair of damaged cells. Animal and plant food products are the main protein sources in the human diet. Based on scientific evidence, proteins derived from animals recently started to be replaced by plant-based options as prefered proteins for a range of reasons. Consumption of non-meat protein sources being shown to be healthy and environmentally friendly is a major consideration. Plant-based protein is helping minimize high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, certain types of cancer, including colorectal, ovarian, and breast cancers, and a diet based on non-animal proteins could increase life expectancy and decrease greenhouse gases emissions from livestock as less resources are used for plant production. The chapter describes the nutritional benefits and current uses of nine non-animal protein sources and the health benefits arising from replacing animal protein.

Normality, Naturalness, Necessity, and Nutritiousness of the New Meat Alternatives

In the West, meat is acceptable, tasty, delicious, palatable, and enjoyable. It has a well-established position in the consumers' food habits shaping the taste of the affluent eating culture and accepted as normal, natural, necessary, and nutritious. Although recent scientific evidence recognizes that meat has a high negative environmental impact, there is still lack of attention on the fact that we live on a planet with limited resources which need to be preserved. Part of this is a transition to more sustainable consumption habits and diets. This chapter examines the social readiness and acceptability of new meat alternatives as normal, natural, necessary, and nutritious amongst Gen Y and Gen Z consumers. It concludes that a reduction in meat consumption should be an essential part of creating a more sustainable diet in light of the projected increase of the world population, expected human health benefits, and improved environmental wellbeing of the planet.

Sustainable Food Consumption in the Neoliberal Order

In recent decades, we have seen the rise of the sustainable food consumption field and its push for disciplinary space in development studies. This chapter turns to the original impetus of sustainable food consumption and the question of how neoliberal order can be reconciled with the need to save the ecology. Beyond the fundamental objectives, there is a need to assess the links between the global food system, as influenced by neoliberal order, and the signs that it leads to adversity for low-income countries. A review of relevant literature in the sustainable consumption field is explored using content analysis to examine links between neoliberal food consumption dynamics, the logic of global food politics, and the emerging terminological shifts from food consumption to food system. The world systems theory and the Marxian political ecology framework are used to show that sustainability is notable for emphasizing resource efficiency and equitability, which can be useful when sustainability challenges are matched with ecological policies. This chapter makes some policy recommendations.

Comparing the Effects of Unsustainable Production and Consumption of Food on Health and Policy Across Developed and Less Developed Countries

The unsustainable food consumption across high-income countries (HICs) and low-income countries (LICs) is expected to differ in nature and extent, although no formal evidence in this respect has been documented. Documenting this evidence is the aim of this chapter. Specifically, the chapter seeks to answer the following questions: 1) Do the contexts in less developed countries (LDCs) and developed countries (DCs) make the nature and extent of unsustainability in food consumption different? 2) Do the mechanisms of the linkage between unsustainability of food consumption and health outcomes independent of countries' contexts? 3) Are current policies against unsustainable food consumption equally effective in DCs and LDCs? These questions are answered by means of a systematic review of the literature for the period 2000-2017. The findings are that the nature and extent of unsustainability is quite different across contexts of LICs and HICs.

Disrupting Agriculture

The United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture (FAO) estimates that farmers will need to produce about 70% more food by 2050. To accommodate the growing demand, the agricultural industry has grown from labor-intensive to smart agriculture, or Agriculture 4.0, which includes farm equipment that are enhanced using autonomous unmanned decision systems (robotics), big data, and artificial intelligence. In this chapter, the authors conduct a systematic review focusing on big data and artificial intelligence in agriculture. To further guide the literature review process and organize the findings, they devise a framework based on extant literature. The framework is aimed to capture key aspects of agricultural processes, supporting supply chain, key stakeholders with a particular emphasis on the potential, drivers, and challenges of big data and artificial intelligence. They discuss how this new paradigm may be shaped differently depending on context, namely developed and developing countries.

Economic and Environmental Costs of Meat Waste in the US

Food waste is a major issue around the globe impacting food security, resource use, economic operations, and the environment. Meat waste, constituting approximately half of total annual meat production in the United States, is particularly relevant to address due to significant resource inputs used in livestock breeding and the meat production process. In this chapter, the authors monetize annual costs of natural resources including water, land, and energy, as well as emissions of methane and nitrous oxide embedded in wasted meat in the United States. Results indicate the total annual cost of $32-32.5 billion. The outcomes substantiate the need to reduce current levels of wasted meat in order to minimize economic, social, and environmental impacts on natural resources and make food and meat production more sustainable.

Recent Advances in Waste Cooking Oil Management and Applications for Sustainable Environment

This chapter discusses the management of waste cooking oil (WCO) in a sustainable manner in order to protect the environmental pollution. Increasing consumption of edible oils worldwide leads to generation of substantial amount of waste cooking oil (WCO). While WCO is not considered toxic, large amount of WCO can contribute to environment pollution if not being handled properly. The huge generation of WCO in the world creates problem of collection, treatment and disposal. Due to its chemical features, the recycling of WCO not only provides a renewable feedstock for producing biofuels and bio-based products, but also alleviates environmental pollution arising from its improper handling. This chapter also provides an overview of some recent approaches in WCO recycling and applications.

Value-Added Products From Food Waste

Food waste is the most challenging issue humankind is facing worldwide. Food waste, which consists of carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and inorganic compounds, is a biodegradable waste discharged from food processing industries, households, and hospitality sectors. The management of food waste is very important. The food waste generated is usually incinerated or dumped in open areas which may cause severe health and environmental issues. The management of food waste can be done by conversion to different value-added products, for example, phytochemicals, bioactive compounds, food supplements, livestock feed, dietary fibers, biopigments and colorants, emulsifiers, edible and essential oils, biopreservatives, biofertilizers, biofuels, and single cell proteins. The value-added products from food waste will be very eco-friendly. The chapter will focus on different value-added products from food waste.

Food Waste Reduction Towards Food Sector Sustainability

FAO estimates on average more than 1.3 billion tons of food loss and waste (FLW) along the whole food supply chain (equivalent to one-third of total food production) of which more than 670 million tons in developed countries and approximately 630 million tons in developing ones, showing wide differences between countries. In particular, EU data estimates an amount of more than 85 million tons of FLW, equal to approximately 20% of total food production. This research presents two main goals. First, to review the magnitude of FLW at a global and European level and its environmental, social and economic implications. Second, use Material Flow Analysis (MFA) to support and improve FLW management and its application in an Italian potato industry case study. According to the case study presented, MFA has demonstrated the advantages of tracking input and output to prevent FLW and how they provide economic, social, and environmental opportunities.

Factors that impact Quality during the Transportation of Tomatoes

This paper examines the factors that impact the quality of tomatoes during the transportation through the supply chain. This is motivated by the criticality transportation in north India region. Primary data was collected through a survey using a questionnaire with responses from 140 transporters from the Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand states of India. The data were analyzed using factor analysis to identify the factors that are impacting the quality of tomatoes during the transportation stage. Based on the analysis, three factors were identified that impact quality: Operational, Preservation and Infrastructure. The identification of these factors will benefit the stakeholders involved in the process of decision-making, like the state government, food processing units, transporters, and the farmers. This will help us to understand the current status of transportation and related issues and challenges which enable them to make better planning and management to improve efficiency in the transportation stage of the supply chain.