Planning an agricultural sector’s response to alternative proteins

The question

Alternative proteins were attracting billions in capital, and the body asked how its sector should respond.

It wanted to understand the shifts in food and food technology, the threats and opportunities they could bring for its members, and what would have to change, for government, the body itself, processors and farmers, to meet them.

Our approach

We heard from the whole value chain, from government, restaurants and grocery to the scientists and founders building alternative proteins.

Chefs, nutritionists and sociologists widened the view, and consumer research in two markets, one in North America and one in Asia, brought in the people who would eat the food.

Desk research traced the forces that could disrupt the sector, from regulation and investment to technology and changing consumers, across Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Scenario planning brought it together. A simple frame of supply against demand produced possible futures, and we mapped strategic responses against each, every one illustrated by an industry that had faced its own version of the moment.

What the team came away with

The sector body had a set of future scenarios and strategic responses, each with a scorecard.

The work set out four possible futures and four strategic responses, with what each response would ask of government, the body, processors and farmers.

They were built for the body to take its members through the choice, with every part of the sector able to see its own role under each response.