Food Frontier: The Future of Alternative Proteins
A think tank is on a mission to change the role of meat in the Australian and New Zealand food culture.
Food Frontier’s vision is to promote a diverse and sustainable alternative protein supply that supports human and planetary health, reducing the country’s reliance on intensive animal agriculture and exploitation of land for animal feed production.
It aims to explore and promote the wide variety of alternative proteins which could address many of the issues we have seen in a meat-centric food industry: disease transmission from animal to human for example, as well as antibiotic resistance, food insecurity, and diet-related disease. According to the initiative, a more exciting variety of alternative proteins could stimulate demand and provide sufficient food for a healthy planet and a healthy population.
A mission-driven specialist organization, Food Frontier’s team is made up of research specialists and thought-leaders providing useful data, insights, strategies, recommendations, and commentary on the alternative protein industries. As Australia and New Zealand’s only think tank in this sector, Food Frontier claims to be a key influencer, already persuading major decision-makers to grow markets for alternative proteins.
The initiative is driven by communications, stimulating discussion and offering advice and insights about this emerging industry of plant-based proteins, cellular agriculture, and fermentation methodologies to government, media, and the food industry. Food Frontier claims that by creating the conversation, they can accelerate the market development of alternative proteins, unlocking economic, environmental, and health benefits.
Food Frontier’s contributions to the field of alternative proteins include comprehensive industry reports, government white papers, and a plethora of webinars, stakeholder roundtables, and events such as their AltProteins Annual Conference. They also keep audiences engaged with newsletters, press releases, media kits, op-eds, and foster ecosystem growth and support.
Food Frontier believes that it can achieve the most effective positive environmental impact through four strategic aims: firstly, by increasing the production and diversity of plant proteins to stimulate a market that is already showing an increasing interest in what is on the shelves. Secondly, influencing government and food standards regulators for the approval of cultivated meat products for consumption would give the green light for increasing fermentation production, which Food Frontier claims is a key factor in expanding the variety of alt-protein products. Thirdly, putting alternative proteins onto the agenda in the discussions around governmental climate and nature policy would be a huge boon for Food Frontier’s environmental campaign. Finally, encouraging food service providers to use alternative proteins in hospitals, schools, defence establishments, prisons, aged-care facilities, and university campuses, would change its perception in Antipodean food culture.
Food Frontier takes advantage of Australia and New Zealand’s position as a gateway into Asia. As a leader in research and development in this emerging market, the initiative believes it has the skills and infrastructure to make a major impact on global food culture.
Learn more about Food Frontier.
Written by Gilly Smith
Photos provided by Food Frontier.
