Welcome to the bistroA small simple restaurant, often serving French food. of tomorrow. To start, there is a pea tartareRaw fish or meat served in small pieces. , pea terrineA dish made of pieces of meat, fish or vegetables pressed into a rectangular shape. and a pea charcuterieCold cooked meats. A charcuterie board often includes meat, cheese and fruits. platter. The main courses include pea a l'orange and pea frites. And for dessert, pea souffle.

This could be our future. Peas are environmentally friendly, healthy and rich in protein.¹ But their strong flavour is difficult to mask when they are used to make meat-free products. As a result, scientists have started developing flavourless peas.

Food researcher Professor Claire Domoney says: "People increasingly want plant-based protein in their diets rather than from animals. So flavourless peas have suddenly become flavour of the day."

Many think we need to turn to meat-free dining to save the world. Meat production has enormous environmental effects. Farm animals take up land, energy and water. They destroy habitats, dry up soil and cause some species to become extinct. Cattle in particular release methaneA particularly strong greenhouse gas produced by fossil fuels and cattle., fuelling global warming.

According to food innovator Bruce Friedrich, a single chicken uses about nine times as much land, water and energy as a vegetable to produce the same amount of food. By farming meat, we are throwing away eight meals for just one. Yet over 820,000 a year suffer from malnutritionPoor nutrition - caused by not having enough to eat or not having the right foods. . Without meat, we could feed them all. And as the global population increases, we will need more and more crops.

Conscientious eaters are choosing alternatives to meat. The meat-free food market has exploded. In 2021, a quarter of all food products launched were vegan. Research by Innovate UK found a 30% growth in demand for meat alternatives every year.

Yet other evidence suggests many are not quite ready to leave meat behind. Activists have begged people to give up meat for decades. And yet the demand for flesh keeps rising. Meat consumption has quadrupled since the mid-1960s.

Meat-eating is ingrained in many cultures: American families, for instance, bond over Thanksgiving turkeys, while Norwegians eat ribs for Christmas.² Writers have often waxed lyrical on the joys of eating meat. Charles LambAn English essayist and poet, born in 1775. wrote an entire essay on the "ambrosianExtremely sweet or pleasant, worthy of the Gods. " taste of roast pig.³

The meat-free boom may have peaked too soon. In the UK, for example, sales of meat-free products dropped by £37.3m in supermarkets between Septembers 2021 and 2022. Last month, sausage maker Heck cut its vegan range from 15 to just two. Co-founder Andrew Keeble said: "The public somehow wasn't quite ready for it."

Some have offered lab-grown products with the same taste and texture as meat. But research published last week found lab-grown substitutes to have a far higher energy cost than meat.

Eliminating meat would also have a huge economic effect. The meat industry employs millions of people. For some, it is all they have. A third of all land is too arid to grow crops. The people in these regions rely on farming animals for survival. Food researcher Ben Phalan says: "Without livestock, life would likely become impossible for some people".

Yes: It may seem unlikely as you chomp on a burger. But habits can change quickly. And given meat production's downsides, it is more difficult to imagine a future with meat than one without it. 

No: Eating meat helped ancient primatesThe order of mammals that includes humans, alongside apes like chimpanzees and gorillas. to evolve into the world-conquering humans we are today. And it remains at the centre of many cuisines. To convince billions of people to change is near impossible.

Or... The days of old-fashioned meat might be numbered. But if lab-grown alternatives can be developed sustainably and mass produced, we might be able to enjoy food with the same taste and texture forever.