Increased plant-protein processing provides opportunity for net-zero economy

Plant-based products have a reputation for environmental sustainability—so much so that it’s one of the many reasons consumers cite for why they choose to increasingly incorporate such products into their diets. This environmental track-record toward the environment is also helping ingredient processors and food manufacturers across the country potentially lower the agrifood sector’s carbon footprint, allowing Canada to reach its emissions reduction targets by 2030 and its net-zero economy goals by 2050.

“There are two big developments facing agriculture and food production, here and abroad,” said David McInnes, who is leading an effort to create Canada’s first agrifood sustainability index. “First, there’s an increasing desire to know how food is produced, how it is grown or raised, what its impacts are on society, on people, on the environment. Second, there’s a need for the sector to show progress against bold marketplace and government goals being set to improve these outcomes, including net zero emissions, which is attracting significant national and global attention.”

In this role, McInnes sees first-hand Canada’s drive to reduce its environmental footprint. Approximately 85 organizations are working together on the index, broadly representing Canada’s agrifood system. The plant-based food and ingredients sector is well represented in this novel effort. Together, these organizations are seeking how best to benchmark Canada’s sustainability performance, including environmental impacts. The Index intends to measure outcomes on a consolidated basis, rather than at a farm or company level, but achieving these outcomes depends on efforts across the country to deploy technology, harness data and improve practices.

“Cropping systems, generally, can have a big role to play in meeting those objectives, whether it’s adopting precision technologies to reduce time on the combine and reducing fuel costs at one end, to conducting agronomy practices to help improve soil health,” McInnes said. “So how producers mark environmental progress on these practices is certainly going to become more relevant going forward. Not only will these efforts be beneficial on a proprietary basis, such as helping to build farmers’ production-level resiliency, but rolling up results at a national level can help create a better picture of performance.”

McInnes said the sector is already well on its way to creating positive change, thanks to the collaborative work of researchers, trailblazing companies, producers and investors across the country. For example, Pulse Canada has completed significant research to determine how much carbon the country’s pulse farmers displace each year, improving the health of soils while providing Canadians with healthy, sustainable food options.

“To date, the sector as a whole probably displaces what we would call three mega-tonnes,” Pulse Canada Director of Sustainability Denis Tremorin said. “Three million tonnes of carbon [per year] is what we’re displacing as an industry.”

But there’s more work to be done.

An essential step in ensuring Canada’s net zero goals is accomplished through benchmarking where the sector currently stands in regard to environmental sustainability. This will help provide greater insights on successes to date and to show where improvements can be made to meet rising supply chain, investor and regulatory expectations.

“Smartly measuring what matters is a key step,” McInnes said.

Working along the value chain—from on-farm production through processing and manufacturing through retail and restaurant distribution—to create the right benchmarks could allow the sector to better communicate about what’s being accomplished. McInnes also anticipates better evidence could lead to enabling greater consumer trust and more informed policy changes while helping advance Canada's trade opportunities where demonstrating sustainability is a requirement to accessing markets.

“Better metrics has the potential to be a multi-faceted tool for a marketplace and society demanding greater proof of sustainability performance,” he said.

Canada’s plant-based food and ingredients are well-positioned to fully leverage their environmental sustainability reputation, particularly as attention to meeting emissions and net-zero goals intensifies. Having the right metrics in hand is needed to show it.