Aimutis on the Sustainability of Plant-Based Protein Alternatives

NC Food Innovation Lab Executive Director Bill Aimutis is among the national experts who weighed in recently on the sustainability of plant-based protein alternatives for one of the world’s most-cited scientific journals and an associated podcast. 

In the December 2024 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, or PNAS, Aimutis and co-author Rohan Shirwaiker argue for better methods and metrics for assessing the impacts, both good and bad, of plant-based protein alternatives.

Aimutis is also the co-director and chief operating officer of the Bezos Center for Sustainable Protein (BCSP) at NC State University. Shirwaiker is BCSP co-director and chief scientific officer. 

Toward a More Complete Picture of Sustainability

In their PNAS paper, “A Perspective of the Environmental Impact of Plant-Based Protein Concentrates and Isolates,” Aimutis and Shirwaiker note that numerous environmental life cycle assessments indicate that plant-based protein alternatives are more environmentally favorable than animal-derived protein. 

However, the co-directors point out that these studies have shortcomings, especially when it comes to considering steps beyond the harvest of ingredients.

In a PNAS “Science Sessions” podcast that accompanies the perspectives paper, Aimutis explains the existing assessments sometimes miss such steps as drying the plants and extracting and concentrating the proteins. These steps, he says, can be energy-intensive and often rely on harsh chemicals.

As he and Shirwaiker suggest, accounting for such steps will be key to realizing the more accurate environmental benefits of plant-based food ingredients and securing protein availability for future generations through a flexitarian diet. Toward these goals, they also encourage the consideration of factors such as equity, ethics, safety and security.

Find Out More

For more about the factors contributing to environmental sustainability of plant-based proteins and animal-derived proteins, read Aimutis and Shirwaiker’s full PNAS paper here, or listen to the Science Sessions podcast episode here. 

You can also find out more about Aimutis and Shirwaiker in our previous post, “The Faces of Future Sustainable Proteins.”