Paper short abstract:

How did ideas and practices on plant-based proteins travel and evolve between state, industry, food, and environmental groups (Netherlands 1950-1980)? This paper traces the history of discourses on plant-based proteins, specifically the often overlooked early adaptation of the food industry.

Paper long abstract:

The period after the Second World War saw a surge in large-scale animal farming and intensive agriculture in the Netherlands. This increased the availability and affordability of animal protein and drove meat consumption in this period. From the late sixties, alternative food and environmental groups voiced their concerns about growing animal protein consumption and production. For example, these groups pointed out the negative environmental impact and health effects on humans and animals. Historical scholars predominantly focused on environmental and food groups in contesting the consumption of animal proteins. Contributing to the narrative that consuming and producing plant-based protein was marginal. These scholars, however, have left out that food retail and the food industry invested in developing plant-based protein from the 1950s onwards. This effort was motivated by commercial and ideological goals to establish a sustainable protein source to feed a growing world population.

This paper highlights that the state and the industry also investigated the potential of plant-based protein, often based on concerns like food and environmental groups. In this paper, I analyse the engagement of industry, retail and state actors in the search for an ‘alternative’ protein source between 1950 and 1980. Specifically, I focus on the interaction between state, industry (Unilever), food retail (Vroom and Dreesman) and alternative food groups from the seventies onwards in tracing the evolution of the discourse on alternative proteins. The research shows that the evolution of meat alternatives is not one-sided; it has involved diverse actors at the margins and in the mainstream.