Dr Hanna Tuomisto, Professor of Sustainable Food Systems, University of Helsinki and Natural Resources Institute Finland 

Hanna Tuomisto is the professor of sustainable food systems at the University of Helsinki and at the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke). She leads the Future Sustainable Food Systems -research group at the University of Helsinki. Tuomisto’s research interests are focused on the development of sustainability assessment methods and estimating the potential of different approaches to improve the sustainability of food systems, such as emerging food technologies, alternative proteins, dietary change and agroecological farming. Tuomisto holds an MSc degree in Agroecology from the University of Helsinki and a doctoral degree from the University of Oxford. She gained post postdoctoral research experience at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Dr Philip H. Howard, Professor, MIchigan State University 

Philip H. Howard is professor in the Department of Community Sustainability at Michigan State University, USA and a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (iPES-Food). He is the author of Concentration and Power in the Food System: Who Controls What We Eat? (2016, 2021 Bloomsbury Academic), and lead author of The Politics of Protein: Examining Claims About Livestock, Fish, ‘Alternative Proteins’ and Sustainability (2022, iPES-Food). He holds a PhD in Rural Sociology from the University of Missouri.

Joel Scott-Halkes, Wild Card/WePlanet 

Joel Scott-Halkes is a rewilding campaigner based in Devon. Formerly a frequently-arrested coordinator of Extinction Rebellion, Joel went on to co-found the rewilding campaign group Wild Card and be the founding campaigns director for the pro-science international movement WePlanet. At Wild Card he has partnered with household names from all sides of the political divide – from Chris Packham and Caroline Lucas to Michael Gove and Judi Dench– to successfully campaign for large landowners like the Royal Estates to start rewilding. At WePlanet Joel and the team work with Nobel prize winners, leading politicians and grassroots activists to defend technologies that could spare land for rewilding. Joel co-led WePlanet's Reboot Food with George Monbiot which helped secure tens of millions of funding for precision fermentation startups from the EU Commission. 
 

Jennifer Dodsworth, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford 

Jennifer is a social scientist with expertise in cultural geography, environmental governance, and agri-environment policy. Her research spans both theoretical inquiry and applied, impact-focused projects, combining participatory and digital methodologies to explore rural landscapes, land management, and environmental change. She works at the intersection of academia and policy, engaging directly with farmers, policymakers, and local communities to co-develop practical solutions for sustainable agriculture and biodiversity restoration. As both a researcher and a tenant hill farmer in Cumbria, Jennifer also aims to integrate first-hand experience of land management into her research, ensuring her work remains grounded in the realities of rural livelihoods.

This is part 3 of our 3-part series: "Alternative proteins and better food futures: moving beyond the binaries".

There is a growing interest in ‘alternative proteins’, food products that claim to provide sustainable alternatives to animal-based proteins (e.g., meat, milk, and eggs). These alternative proteins range from more traditional products (e.g., plant-based burgers) to novel products (e.g., cell-cultivated meat and new-fermentation derived proteins). However, the claims surrounding these products are heavily contested. These concerns have led to a polarised climate around alternative proteins and have limited the possibility for a constructive, inclusive dialogue. Advocates for alternative proteins assert that they can facilitate a transition to healthier, more sustainable food systems without requiring a significant shift in dietary habits. Critics of alternative proteins have disputed the evidence for these claims and have raised concerns around the concentration of power and the implications for human-nature relationships.

In partnership with the United Nations Foundation and Food Standards Agency, TABLE is organising a series of three webinars exploring key themes and debates around novel alternative proteins (e.g., cell-cultivated meat and new-fermentation derived proteins). This series seeks to respond to the challenge of polarisation by bringing together a diverse range of stakeholders to discuss alternative proteins across three themes. The aim is to equip policy-makers, industry leaders, researchers and civil-society stakeholders with a clear, balanced understanding of alternative proteins (APs), the debates they provoke, and pathways toward constructive, inclusive dialogue and policy-making.

​​Each webinar will last 1.5 hours, and will feature a panel that includes expert representatives from different sectors. Short speaker presentations will be followed by a moderated discussion and opportunities for audience Q&A. A short pre-event discussion paper is available to download here. Following the conclusion of the webinar series the discussion paper will be updated to include insights gained from panelists, audience questions, and feedback received. 

Webinar 3: Environmental Dimensions of APs

The third webinar centres on the environmental debates surrounding APs. Food is identified as the largest driver of environmental degradation, exceeding safe planetary boundaries in GHG emissions, nitrogen/phosphorus use, and biodiversity loss. APs have been presented as a potential solution, enabling us to move away from land and input-dependent conventional agriculture, thereby mitigating these environmental concerns, and nurturing more sustainable food systems. However, APs are not immune from environmental challenges and in particular concerns have been raised over the energy usage of APs and their reliance on nutrient resources. More fundamentally, concerns have been voiced that purportedly landless forms of production such as these entrench a problematic mindset which sees humans as separate from, rather as part of the natural world. Finally, power related questions also arise: currently, novel APs are predominantly produced at smaller scales. As, or if, they scale, are unequal power structures within the food system still maintained, and who or what suffers as a result?

Through engagement with panelists, this session will discuss the questions surrounding the environmental dimensions of APs. It will ask whether novel APs can contribute to environmental sustainability and consider how and where technological innovations can both help progress and undermine the journey towards more sustainable food systems.

Panelists

• Dr Hanna Tuomisto, University of Helsinki

• Dr Philip Howard, Michigan State University

• Joel Scott-Halkes, Wild Card/WePlanet 

• Jennifer Dodsworth, University of Oxford

Literature shared by Dr Hanna Tuomisto: 

• Tuomisto, H. (2022) Challenges of assessing the environmental sustainability of cellular agriculture. Nature Food, 3, 801-803, https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-022-00616-6 

• El Wali, M., Rahimpour Golroudbary, S., Kraslawski, A. & Tuomisto, H.L. (2024). Transition to cellular agriculture reduces agriculture land use and greenhouse gas emissions but increases demand for critical materials. Communications earth & environment. 5, 61, p. 1-17, https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-024-01227-8 

Literature shared by Dr Phil Howard: 

• Howard, P. H., (2022). Cellular Agriculture Will Reinforce Power Asymmetries in Food Systems. Nature Food 3(10), 798-800. https://rdcu.be/cXOS7   

• Howard, P. H., et al. (2021). “Protein” Industry Convergence and Its Implications for Resilient and Equitable Food Systems. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems (Social Movements, Institutions and Governance section) 5, 684181. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2021.684181/  

• iPES-Food. 2022. The Politics of Protein: Examining Claims About Livestock, Fish, ‘Alternative Proteins’ and Sustainability. http://www.ipes-food.org/pages/politicsofprotein 

Literature shared by Joel Scott-Halkes: 

• Sillman, J., et al. (2019). Bacterial protein for food and feed generated via renewable energy and direct air capture of CO2: Can it reduce land and water use? Global Food Security, 22, 25–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2019.09.007  

• Balmford, A. (2021). Concentrating vs. spreading our footprint: how to meet humanity’s needs at least cost to nature. Journal of Zoology, 315(2), 79–109. https://doi.org/10.1111/jzo.12920 

• Harwatt, H., & Hayek, M. (2019). Eating Away at Climate Change with Negative Emissions, Repurposing UK Agricultural Land to Meet Climate Goals. https://animal.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/Eating-Away-at-Climate-Change-with-Negative-Emissions%E2%80%93%E2%80%93Harwatt-Hayek.pdf