ARTICLE F&A Alternative Proteins Edition April 2023 41 About Robert Mansfield Robert Mansfield is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Deep Branch, responsible for overseeing the development of the company's proprietary gas fermentation platform, (R)evolve™. Regarded as one of the leading minds in gas fermentation internationally, Robert co-founded Deep Branch after completing a PhD and post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of Nottingham’s Synthetic Biology Research Centre. He performs several development and translational roles across process development and engineering disciplines to ensure that all the essential technical considerations for Deep Branch's scale-up are addressed effectively. animal products. However, there are increasing limitations on further scaling of the incumbent protein ingredients. Most notably, real-world limits on global fish stocks cap the amount of fishmeal that can be reasonably produced annually. Meanwhile, international pressure to limit further deforestation worldwide hinders any significant expansion of soy production. As such, there is a genuine opportunity for alternative protein sources to step up and fill the gap in the availability of suitable protein. A single silver bullet solution will unlikely replace the traditional method of producing animal feed. However, gas fermentation looks well-equipped to become one of the major players in this new space of alternative approaches. Fermentation concepts have been successfully developed for centuries, from beers to wines and everything in between, so there is reliable evidence that these technologies scale well. For gas fermentation to make a significant impact, all stakeholders in the value chain will need to buy into the vision. This includes feed producers, the de-facto gatekeepers for market entry for any new ingredient. BioMar and AB Agri are two examples of feed producers backing gas fermentation by trialling proteins derived from the technology in its products. The success of the development work over the coming years will also rely heavily on the support of well-aligned investors to provide the financial backing required for the realisation of the technology scale-up and commercialisation strategy. DSM, Novo Holdings and Barclays’ Sustainable Impact Capital initiative are several investors in the sustainable feed and food ingredients space to have invested in gas fermentation technologies. Despite the global economic uncertainty the world faces, this increasing financial interest in gas fermentation's potential signals an increasingly shared understanding and alignment of the importance and value of technologies such as this over the coming decades. HOW WILL THE INDUSTRY LOOK IN THE FUTURE? The animal feed production market will only get bigger over the coming decades - that’s what global trends show. What’s also clear is that the industry will have moved towards more sustainable production methods and engaged heavily in alternative ingredients to fill an increasing supply gap for protein feedstocks. This is already happening, but how much of an impact sustainable production method will make will depend on the level of adoption and the willingness of all stakeholders to engage. Given the importance of customers as stakeholders, the current lack of transparency associated with food sustainability should be considered a significant problem. Improving general communication and clarity of the carbon intensity and ecological effects of the food on shelves would be a starting point for giving the public a voice in this conversation. To get there, we need a better shared understanding of measuring sustainability. There are increasing ways of calculating sustainability, and certain industries are better at it than others. Stronger regulations for undertaking life cycle assessments of the feed used in food and identifying the entire life cycle of products on the supermarket shelf would be a great start.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUxNjkxNQ==