NC State Researchers to Discuss Alternative Proteins at AAAS Annual Meeting
For Immediate Release
A seemingly intractable problem appears on the horizon: A growing world population needs access to more sources of protein without the corresponding growth in available land to produce the animals and plants necessary to provide that protein.
Plant-based meats, cell-cultivated meats and fermentation-derived ingredients are all emerging as complements to traditional meat protein sources – livestock, poultry and seafood. But can these technologies scale up in time to help feed 10 billion people by 2050? How sustainable are these technologies? And do consumers even want them?
A trio of NC State researchers will tackle these and other questions during a discussion panel, titled “Can Alternative Proteins Feed 10 Billion People?” at the American Association for the Advancement of Science Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (MST) on Friday, Feb. 13.
NC State researchers Khara Grieger and Katariina Koivusaari organized the panel, along with moderator Katherine Consavage Stanley from Duke University.
During the panel, NC State’s Minliang Yang will make a presentation on the environmental impacts and cost feasibility of plant proteins.
The annual meeting’s focus, “science at scale,” seems the perfect venue for a discussion about alternative proteins, Grieger said.
“It’s important just to have the conversation around what kind of future we should or could have with alternative proteins to meet the growing demands for protein,” Grieger, an NC State assistant professor and extension specialist in applied ecology, said. “There are potential benefits, including food-security aspects. But there are other components to consider when we think about sustainable food systems, including social and environmental issues.”
Technical hurdles remain in the race to bring alternative proteins to scale, Koivusaari said.
“There’s still a lot of interesting technical work going on, and this panel session discusses not only cell-cultivated, but also plant-based meat analogs,” Koivusaari, a postdoctoral research scholar with NC State’s Bezos Center for Sustainable Protein, said. “There are still technical hurdles and consumer-acceptance challenges. And we need more information on various aspects of sustainability.”
That’s one of the issues that Yang, an assistant professor of food, bioprocessing and nutrition sciences at NC State, focuses on in her research.
“The whole idea behind sustainable proteins is to provide an option so people have choices,” Yang said. “To assess the sustainability of these proteins, we mainly use two approaches in my research program. One is called a life-cycle assessment, which quantifies environmental impacts of plant proteins, and the other is a techno-economic analysis to assess the cost feasibility of producing plant proteins. We analyzed different plant proteins – pea and lentil – and compared them with animal proteins, as well as what would happen if people chose different types of diets – current U.S. diets, vegetarian diets, Mediterranean diets, for example – and found that there are environmental savings if we have more plant proteins.”
Fermentation technologies, including precision fermentation, are another method of producing more proteins. Grieger said that advancements here could be important in feeding more people a variety of foods.
“When we talk about alternative proteins, I think people automatically jump to think about cell-cultivated meats and seafoods,” she said. “But there are many other applications that I think could have a different trajectory. If we think about precision fermentation, what if we were able to create butter or ice cream that actually tastes like butter and ice cream, but doesn’t involve any animals?”
Grieger, who also serves as associate director of policy and outreach for NC State’s Bezos Center for Sustainable Protein as well as co-director of knowledge transfer for the STEPS Center, adds that consumers need to be informed – and listened to – as sustainable proteins are developed.
“The work that we’re doing is really framed within the broader concept of responsible innovation,” Grieger said. “We are not interested in just developing new food technologies in a silo, in a vacuum, and trying to push them out to people, and trying to convince people that this is the way to go. Instead, we’re trying to understand more about the technologies, how we can scale them up, how we can make them more cost-effective, nutritious and tastier. But also, how can we make sure that they’re sustainable, that they actually provide an environmental and societal benefit?”
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Note to editors: The presentation synopsis and speaker summary follow.
“Can Alternative Proteins Feed 10 Billion People?”
Organizers: Khara Grieger and Katariina Koivusaari, North Carolina State University; Katherine Consavage Stanley, Duke University
Presented: Feb. 13, 2026, at the AAAS Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona
Synopsis: By 2050, global demand for protein is expected to surge. Innovative approaches such as plant-based meats, cell-cultivated meat, and fermentation-derived ingredients are emerging to complement conventional livestock, poultry, and seafood production. While these technologies offer promise for improving food security and sustainability, they also raise complex questions about scalability, public acceptance, sustainability, and policy. Can alternative proteins scale to meet demand in an environmentally and socially responsible way? And what are the sustainability implications of scaling up alternative protein products? This session explores the broader landscape of alternative proteins through the lens of environmental and social trade-offs, life cycle and techno-economic assessments, and the policy implications. Attendees will gain an understanding of both the potential benefits and limitations of these emerging technologies, grounded in current data and critical analysis. The session will be particularly relevant to those interested in science-policy interfaces, sustainability, and the responsible innovation of food systems.
“Environmental Impacts and Cost Feasibility of Plant Proteins”
Speaker: Minliang Yang, NC State University
Presented: Feb. 13, 2026, at the AAAS Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona
Summary: To shift the food system toward a more sustainable future, it is crucial to comprehend not only the environmental advantages of plant proteins but also to create cost-competitive options that are readily accessible to consumers in the market. This talk will discuss the trade-offs between costs and environmental impacts of plant proteins from diverse sources, and the development of the life-cycle sustainability assessment framework in sustainable proteins.
