Barriers and Insights

Shared Barriers

These are among the many barriers to progress on a food-system shift of this magnitude:

• Terminology: Language referring to regenerative and plant-based products remains polarizing and confusing across food-system actors, production sectors, and civil society.
• Inclusion of key stakeholders in decision-making: Currently, institutions are failing to sufficiently involve and intentionally include farmers in the design and implementation of equitable transition models.
• Legacy of industrial subsidies and unequal playing fields in the marketplace: Long-term, consistent federal subsidies support both production and R&D for factory farming and present an extensive barrier for alternative systems to achieve market parity.
• Market prevalence and economic implications: Due to increasing demand for meat and the large size of factory farming and associated industries, even small changes would have significant implications for the incomes and lifestyles of rural communities. Therefore, ending factory farming and transitioning to a sustainable food system faces substantial possible resistance.

Insights

Our research and interview series yielded several notable insights:

• A food-system transition is already underway, but its direction is uncertain. Disagreement on what should replace factory farming is limiting collective progress to end it.
• Protein transition entails both a diversification of protein sources and a reduction in the quantity consumed regardless of the source.
• Influencing consumer behavior has limited impact on inducing protein transition compared with influencing policy, regulations, and production systems.
• The majority of people buying plant-based meat also buy conventional meat, but they have been shown to spend less on conventional meat and purchase fewer units than households purchasing only conventional meat.
• In the alternative-protein sector, many opportunities for farmers and rural communities exist, including growing crops for use in plant-based or cultivated meat, providing genetic material for cultivated meat, regenerative animal farming, jobs in new production facilities, and alternative land use.
• A single alternative is unlikely to replace factory farming. Rather, a chorus of alternatives and interventions must coordinate to replace factory farming.

Criteria for Solutions

The following criteria are meant to facilitate brainstorming, evaluation, and shortlisting of tangible alternatives to factory animal farming that resonate with the values and objectives of Foster & Gather.

Solutions emerging from Foster & Gather’s work should do the following:

• Support existing alternatives to factory animal farming or provide new alternatives to factory animal farming.
• Be economically viable for farmers.
• Ensure that farmers have significant decision-making power in drafting and implementation.
• Center racial, economic, and gender equity.
• Be scalable and reproducible.