PARIS, April 22 — In order to rethink our food system, which has a heavy impact on our planet, we must find a way to produce protein in a way that doesn’t involve raising livestock.

While lab-grown meat is sparking interest, it’s not the only innovation in the area. Have you ever heard of molecular farming? On the occasion of Earth Day, April 22, we explain what it involves.

You may be familiar with molecular gastronomy, which combines scientific principles with culinary arts allowing cooking techniques to be considered from a different perspective. It’s been the subject of books such as one by Hervé This, who has long worked on the subject.

But do you know what molecular farming is? While the names suggest they’re related, similarities basically end there. Molecular farming is about rethinking the food system and making it less impactful for the planet.

According to the FAO, the United Nations agency for agriculture and food, the meat industry is responsible for about 14.5 per cent of CO2 emissions related to human activities, while it’s estimated that the food industry is linked to around one third of greenhouse gas emissions.

Adding to the complexity of the issue are population projections for 2050, which indicate that by that date the planet will be home to ten billion people who will have to be fed. In this context, the consumption of meat and dairy products are predicted to increase by 70 per cent.

Could plants hold the solution? They’re already used as a source of proteins, in particular the legume proteins provided by soy, lentils and chickpeas. With molecular farming, the use of plants takes on another dimension since this approach sees them used to manufacture proteins.

The principle is nothing new. For 40 years now, molecular farming methods have been used by the pharmaceutical industry to develop drugs and vaccines. The technique consists in manipulating the plants on a cellular, genetic level to stimulate the production of proteins.

What are we talking about here?

What’s really new here is applying this principle to the food industry. In California, Nobell Foods has been "instructing” plants to produce casein since 2016, in the aim of creating "cheeses” with the same elasticity or meltability as conventional dairy-based cheese.

The US company has just hired a former executive of the famous meatless burger startup Impossible Foods, which supplies many fast food restaurants with their plant-based offerings.

In Massachusetts, the start-up Ingredient Werks relies on corn to produce not only casein, but also the leghemoglobin that gives plant-based meat alternatives their red colour.

"The Impossible Burger includes an ingredient from soybeans called leghemoglobin, a protein that is chemically bound to a non-protein molecule called heme that gives leghemoglobin its blood-red colour.

In fact, a heme — an iron-containing molecule — is what gives blood and red meat their colour.

Leghemoglobin is evolutionarily related to animal myoglobin found in muscle and hemoglobin in blood, and serves to regulate oxygen supply to cells,” explained Mark R. O’Brian, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Buffalo, in an article published in The Conversation, a media outlet dedicated to academic expertise that relays the analyses of scientists.

As a result, there are hopes of developing cells capable of structuring a material resembling meat.

The challenge is currently being taken up in Iceland, where the company ORF Genetics is growing some 130,000 barley plants. The plants are genetically modified and serve as a basis for the extraction of proteins that are then put under a microscope to stimulate cell production.

So when will our menu consist of foods issued from molecular farming?

As innovative as it may be, the Icelandic case illustrates the limits of molecular farming: it uses genetically modified plants. And in Europe, that presents an obstacle in terms of the legislative framework.

Only the MON810 maize is authorised for commercial cultivation in Europe, points out Greenpeace France, but it notes that many GMOs, "including soy and corn, are authorised for import.

It is the European Commission that decides and authorises these imports, systematically following the opinion of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which is always in favour of GMOs.”

In addition, just last week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned start-ups involved in molecular farming research innovations about the potential development of allergies. The warning was relayed by the agritech news portal AFN. — ETX Studio