What we put on our plates impacts the planet. So how can we make the weekly shop more sustainable, asks Harsh Amin, CEO, Ivy Farm Technologies.
In late 2024, the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) issued a stark warning to UK supermarkets about the lack of progress made in meeting their goal of halving the environmental impact of the average UK weekly shop by 2030.
Former Tesco CEO Dave Lewis, now a WWF trustee, warned that repeated failure by governments and businesses to address this issue puts climate, nature and food security at risk.
This should act as a wake-up call for supermarkets and the food industry. Still, too few supermarkets have yet to publicly disclose how they’ll reach net zero, without directly tackling the high carbon emissions behind the production and overconsumption of meat and dairy.
Education is first step
Raising awareness about the environmental consequences of diets high in animal-based products is essential to driving behavioural change. But studies have shown a disconnect between concern about the climate, and awareness of the impacts of meat on their plate.
A study by Mceachern, M.G., and Schröder, M.J.A., titled ‘The Role of Livestock Production Ethics in Consumer Values Towards Meat’, found that consumers choose meat products mainly based on visible qualities like colour and appearance, rather than less obvious factors such as the environmental impact of production.
The WWF report highlights how guidelines suggest protein sales should be split 40:30:30 across livestock, seafood and plant proteins. However, UK supermarkets were found to be selling twice the target proportion of livestock protein (meat and eggs). This increased level of demand for commodities like beef and soy used in animal feed comes with a risk of deforestation, and excess GHG emissions.
As gatekeepers of consumer choice, retailers must play a stronger role in communicating the importance of reducing our meat consumption, and the role the public can play in saving the planet through their plates. But education is just the start: the three biggest challenges we need to overcome next focus on availability, price and taste.
Availability
In 2023, sales of plant-based products in the UK fell by 13.6% compared to 2022. It’s of critical importance that supermarkets don’t let these products die out. Greater availability of plant-based options in-store can play a part in driving adoption. And it was encouraging to see, for example, Waitrose expand its plant-based product range for this Veganuary, while Squeaky Bean continued to innovate with new product ranges.
Lidl GB has also made a commitment to bolster its plant-based range, becoming one of the first supermarkets to make a firm commitment to ensure that at least 25% of its protein sales comes from plant-based sources by 2030, alongside a threefold expansion of its plant-based range.
Matching prices
Availability must also be matched by price. In the UK, where the cost-of-living crisis persists, making sustainable options more affordable is essential. In Europe, Lidl Germany and other European retailers such as Rewe and Carrefour, have done just this, matching prices between plant-based and conventional meat products to help make consumer choice even easier.
However, this is easier said than done. In the UK, current tax policies are working against this shift. While meat, fish, and dairy are zero-rated for VAT, plant-based alternatives often face a 20% VAT charge. This makes bringing the cost of products to price parity increasingly more difficult.
To truly empower people to make choices that benefit both their lives and the planet, we need to level the playing field on price and make sustainable options an affordable reality.
The taste challenge
Taste remains one of the greatest hurdles for alternative proteins, in their mission to compete with conventional meat. For consumers to make that switch, they demand products that won’t compromise on flavour, texture or overall quality. While there are some great-tasting plant-based options out there, mass adoption is being held back by the fact that people just enjoy the taste of meat more than plant-based alternatives.
The solution to this problem I believe is cultivated meat. This is real meat but produced in a way which is far more sustainable than meat produced by industrial agriculture.
Cultivated beef, for example, while being nutritionally identical to traditionally farmed meat has been shown to reduce emissions by 92%, reduce land usage by 90% and reduce water usage by 66%, staggeringly positive statistics when you consider the impact it could have on the global food industry.
While this was once thought of as science fiction, cultivated meat is now available to buy in Singapore and the US. We hope the UK will be one of the next markets on that list.
As the WWF report shows, retailers have the power to shift consumer buying behaviours by offering more choice, convenience, and competitive pricing. Once cultivated meat receives regulatory approval, it will enable the sector to further support supermarkets and plant-based partners in addressing these challenges.
Delivering a product that matches the taste of meat but is kinder to animals and better for the planet.
Together, we can ensure that supermarkets lead the way toward a climate-friendly and sustainable future.
