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Pea and rapeseed acreage and land use for plant-based meat alternatives in the EU

Authors :
Marcus Mergenthaler
Frédéric Muel
Bruno Kezeya
Etienne Pilorgé
Wolfgang Stauss
Source :
Oilseeds and fats, crops and lipids, Vol 28, p 54 (2021)
Publication Year :
2021
Publisher :
EDP Sciences, 2021.

Abstract

Plant-based meat alternatives from grain legumes and oil crops are expected to play an increasing role in human nutrition. Several commercially available products use pea protein isolate as protein basis and rapeseed oil as lipid basis. The aim of the present study is to estimate the prospective area of peas and rapeseed for plant-based meat alternatives in the EU. A simple calculation model is employed to assess the impacts on land use and imported deforestation, in case plant-based meat alternatives substitute meat consumption in different shares. Various data sources and scenarios were used to estimate the cultivation potential. While pea acreage would increase considerably compared to current production, additional rapeseed acreage would be more limited. Even in an extreme scenario of 100% substitution only 12% of EU’s arable land would be used for pea and rapeseed as main ingredients for plant-based meat alternative. If pea protein isolate and rapeseed oil as main ingredients of plan-based meat alternatives increase, the land currently used for animal feed production would become partly available and imported deforestation could be decreased: a substitution of 25% of meat consumption would allow to provide the equivalent of food proteins without extending the cultivated areas in Europe, while avoiding soybean and maize imports for feed.

Details

ISSN :
22576614 and 22726977
Volume :
28
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
OCL
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....6b57d64982a0a72d950cbdf148eefcc5
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1051/ocl/2021037