Land
Production can use less direct agricultural land, though feedstocks still carry land impacts.
Water
Facilities use water, and agricultural inputs may require irrigation.
Time & place
Yeast grows rapidly and facilities can operate where protein crops are difficult to grow.
Energy
Aeration, fermentation, separation and drying can require substantial energy.
Compare systems, not slogans
A 2023 life-cycle assessment found lower land use than soy in one oat-side-stream scenario, but higher impacts in several other categories; energy was a substantial contributor. The right question is not whether fermentation uses resources, but which resources, how much, and compared with what alternative.
Life-cycle assessment of yeast-based single-cell protein production with oat processing side-stream
The yeast scenario had lower land-use impact than soy, but higher impacts in several other categories; energy production contributed substantially.
- Model
- Modeled production scenario using an oat-processing side stream
- Sample
- Environmental model
- Intervention
- Not applicable · Modeled life cycle
- Comparator
- Soy-protein production scenario
Kobayashi Y et al. · 2023 · Science of the Total Environment 873:162318
DOI 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162318 ↗View references (1)
- Kobayashi Y et al.. (2023). Life-cycle assessment of yeast-based single-cell protein production with oat processing side-stream. Science of the Total Environment 873:162318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162318