We use food sovereignty to refer to ecological, local and regional, nonindustrial food systems in which consumer communities can exercise control over food production. Food sovereignty, a concept first introduced by La Via Campesina,2 refers to “the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.”

Co-benefits

We use the term co-benefits to describe potential additional societal benefits that alternative proteins can support beyond their default benefits, e.g. better labor conditions and worker protections, improved environmental health via sustainable agriculture, and positive economic impacts on communities nearby processing facilities.

Default benefits

We use the phrase default benefits to refer to significant core benefits alternative proteins would provide by replacing the products of industrial animal agriculture, e.g. reducing farmed-animal suffering, greenhouse gas emissions, air and water pollution, pandemic risk, and antimicrobial resistance and improving public health.

The common good

We use the common good to refer to the combined interest and well-being of all food system interest groups and stakeholders, including—but not limited to—animals, workers, farmers, communities, and the environment.

Inclusive Food System Transformation

We use inclusive food system transformation to signal a version of food system transformation that explicitly prioritizes equity, justice, and the provision of broad societal benefits for all entities impacted by food production.

Food system transformation

We use the term food system transformation to refer to hypothetical large-scale food system change with the goal of correcting negative social, environmental, and animal welfare impacts created by the incumbent industrial food system with its focus on industrial animal agriculture.

Alternative proteins

Stray Dog Institute uses the term alternative proteins to refer to foods that are “produced to provide the sensory experience and nutrition”¹ of animal meat, dairy, and eggs but are created using plants, fungi, fermentation, or cellular agriculture. For the purposes of this research, we exclude from our definition traditional high-protein foods of non-animal origin such as tofu, beans, and lentils. In this report, the terms alternative proteins, alt proteins, and plant-based alternative proteins interchangeably refer to plant-based alternative proteins and should not be construed to include the products of cellular agriculture or precision fermentation.

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