A major new report by the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) ''The Politics of Protein: Examining claims about livestock, fish, ‘alternative proteins’ and sustainability'' sheds light on misleading generalizations that dominate public discussion about meat and protein, and warns of the risks of falling for meat techno-fixes.

With the climate crisis and threats to food security mounting, meat and protein are firmly in the spotlight.

Big meat, dairy and seafood companies are fast-rolling out a range of technologies - such as plant-based alternatives, lab-grown meat, and precision livestock and fish-farming - with the backing of governments worldwide.

But IPES-Food warns that a number of misleading claims dominate public discussion about meat and protein, leading to a disproportionate focus on ‘protein’, a systematic failure to account for differences between production systems and world regions — and ultimately to the wrong solutions.