The global shortlist of security concerns just became a bit longer: border security, cyber security, economic security, water security and now, protein security.
Access to high quality protein sources, beef or otherwise, is increasingly challenging for companies and nations as more of world’s population adopts Western diets, according to a new study from Lux Research.
With the considerable water and energy requirements to grow beef and many other protein sources, the research is meant to help stakeholders understand how to increase the amount of protein produced without jeopardizing environmental resources.
The study looked at protein production data from more than 100 publications. The researchers then compared all of the protein sources across their entire life cycle. Each protein source was then benchmarked using the concept called “beef parity”, the total resource requirement and risk involved to produce the equivalent of 1 kilogram of beef protein.
Of course, many global health experts would argue that this type of research misses the point, as Western, and primarily American, diets are too laden with meat in general, and beef in particular. But the researchers argue that meeting a predicted 20 percent increase in global protein consumption over the next decade requires rigorous research that allows stakeholders to better understand which sources should be prioritized given local resources.
