Alternative proteins - and especially novel APs like cell-cultured meat and precision fermentation - are the subject of some contention in food system debates. For advocates, they may offer a way to produce animal products with fewer environmental and ethical harms, an accessible first step towards dietary diversification and change, or a tool to challenge the economic dominance of the industrial livestock model. For critics, they might smack of techno-credulity, be a distraction that will prop-up an ultra-processed and industrially-produced status quo, or a threat to valued modes of living and means of producing. In this report, based on three webinars hosted by TABLE in the summer of 2025, we outline these polarised positions and try to go beyond them. What diversity of views do we find within advocates and critics? Where is there overlap and agreement between those who are concerned and those who are optimistic? What are the more nuanced, and perhaps more achievable, futures for APs that we should be discussing?

https://www.doi.org/10.56661/6238c4bc