Lysine Supply Is a Critical Factor in Achieving Sustainable Global Protein Economy

Abstract

Production of animal-based protein is a significant global source of greenhouse gases, a major driver of agricultural land use and a source of nutrient loss to the environment. In this study, we provide a new assessment of the current sources of proteins in the human diet and analyze the options for increasing the use of plant-based sources, taking the protein quality, as indicated by the amino acid composition, into account. The results demonstrate the importance of sustainable global supply of lysine, one of the amino acids essential for human nutrition. It is demonstrated here that the current production of plant-based lysine that can be considered as replacement of lysine obtained from animal protein largely comes from soybean originating from a small number of countries. There are limited large-scale options to broaden the supply of plant-based lysine, namely increase of soya production outside its current main production areas, increase of production of legumes other than soya or other lysine-rich crops, obtaining plantbased lysine from sources not currently used for human consumption, or manufacturing lysine from non-standard plant-based sources (e.g., through fermentation from sugar). All of these options would require major changes in the structure of global agricultural production and associated agri-food systems and would especially have consequences on agricultural land use.

Representing crop rotations in life cycle assessment: a review of legume LCA studies

“…These FUs are not representative of other key nutrients. Furthermore, protein quality varies considerably depending on the source, with different amino acid compositions affecting human (and animal) nutrition (Sonesson et al 2017;Leinonen et al 2019). In developed countries, protein quality is less pertinent considering that the population largely over consumes protein, and net protein utilisation from various sources is similar for the adult population (WHO 2007).…”

Sustainable Diets in the UK—Developing a Systematic Framework to Assess the Environmental Impact, Cost and Nutritional Quality of Household Food Purchases

“…In addition to the harmful emissions to environment, food production is associated with the use of limited resources. For example, there are few opportunities to increase the land area available for agricultural production, despite the fact that the food requirement of growing global population is continuously increasing [6]. Although food production is a necessary activity, it is possible to mitigate its environmental consequences, for example, by reducing its greenhouse gas emission intensity [7].…”

Substantial Depletion of Vicine, Levodopa, and Tyramine in a Fava Bean Protein-Based Nutritional Product

“…The fava bean ( Vicia faba ) has been identified as a “high-protein crop” suitable for large-scale cultivation as a sustainable plant source of dietary protein [ 1 ]. Fava beans contain 24-32% ( w / w ) protein, and the fava bean protein (like the protein from soy and other legumes) does not exhibit the human dietary lysine deficiency associated with cereal proteins (Cardador-Martinez et al 2014, [ 2 ]). By virtue of these and additional attributes—including nitrogen fixation capacity and soybean substitution potential—fava beans (with a global production of 4.1 million tons in 2014) are regarded as one of the more globally important legume crops, and research directed at increasing yield, protein, and stress resistance, as well as decreasing antinutritional factors, is underway [ 2 – 5 ].…”