World Health Organization plans landmark report on alternative proteins
Moments ago, the Good Food Institute Asia Pacific (GFI APAC) and the World Health Organization’s Asia-Pacific Centre for Environment and Health in the Western Pacific Region (ACE) jointly announced a historic, multi-year partnership aimed at exploring the role of alternative proteins in public health strategies across the world’s most populous region.
The final terms of the partnership were formally ratified by GFI founder Bruce Friedrich and ACE’s Dr. Sandro Demaio at a signing ceremony in Seoul, then publicly announced during the World Food Forum at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome.
Wow! What will the partnership entail?
This landmark agreement aims to enhance cross-sector collaboration between health, environment, and food system stakeholders, while supporting WHO Member States in “transitioning towards sustainable, climate-resilient, and health-promoting food systems.”
Among the planned outputs of this new alliance is a first-of-its-kind report published by the World Health Organization (WHO) on the role of alternative proteins—such as plant-based and cultivated meat—in food systems.
This flagship report will serve as the foundation for a series of seminars and issue-specific technical briefs aimed at building international consensus and policy alignment on integrating alternative proteins into regional public health strategies. The partnership also includes earmarked funding for two technical staff members at WHO dedicated to advancing the partnership’s mission, as well as an external academic researcher, all of whom will be based in Korea.
Korean plant-based squid, courtesy of Growthwell
Preventing global health crises before they start
As the world’s largest intergovernmental health organisation, with more than 150 field offices, the WHO is uniquely well positioned to explore how alternative proteins can support its mandate to promote health and safety—particularly among vulnerable populations across Asia.
Previous United Nations reports have revealed the immense volatility and public health threats linked to conventional protein production. According to the UN Environment Programme, agricultural intensification has been associated with more than 50 percent of zoonotic diseases that have emerged in humans, and contributed to recent outbreaks of African swine fever and avian flu. Asian countries also experience more severe soil contamination from heavy metals and other pollutants than most other regions—driven in part by industrial food production—which threatens rural livelihoods and consumer health.
Worse yet, due to the intense confinement on farms, antibiotic usage in livestock production is significantly higher in Asia, which increases the threat of antibiotic-resistant superbugs—a crisis that former WHO director-general Dr. Margaret Chan believes could usher in “an end to modern medicine as we know it.”
In a post-antibiotic era, “things as common as strep throat or a child’s scratched knee could once again kill,” warns Dr. Chan. “Some sophisticated interventions, like hip replacements, organ transplants, cancer chemotherapy, and care of preterm infants, would become far more difficult or even too dangerous to undertake.” Without a change in trajectory, the UN estimates that by 2050 these superbugs could kill 10 million people a year.
Alternative proteins like plant-based and cultivated meat eliminate the need for antibiotics by removing live animals from the equation. Plant proteins also boast higher levels of fibre, lower calorie density, and lower saturated fat and cholesterol than their animal counterparts. In fact, research suggests that plant-based meat could offer meaningful health benefits when used to replace processed animal meat, such as reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.
Similarly, cultivated meat—real animal meat cultivated directly from cells—is produced in a clean and controlled environment, which offers numerous advantages for product safety and risk management, including a significant reduction of contaminants, foodborne pathogens, and other additives commonly found in farm-raised meat.
Building a healthier food future for Asia—by reimagining meat
Given the untapped potential of alternative proteins to mitigate future crises, GFI and WHO are eager to align with APAC policymakers and public health leaders who are open to implementing the partnership’s recommendations at a regional, national, or international level.
Is that you? Someone you know? Contact us at APAC@GFI.org today to secure your seat at the table.
Onwards,
Ryan Huling
Senior Writer | GFI APAC