Food sustains life, but its production carries a high cost. Around 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from the food chain, which also drives deforestation, soil loss, water scarcity, and biodiversity decline. In response, Swedish energy company Vattenfall is urging a rethink of how we grow and consume food. One innovation comes from Finland’s Solar Foods, which has created Solein—a protein powder made by feeding microbes with hydrogen and captured CO₂. Containing about 80% protein, it requires little land or water and can achieve very low emissions when powered by fossil-free electricity. If accepted widely, such alternatives could sharply reduce food’s environmental footprint. Vattenfall is also studying how greenhouses can use waste heat and how fossil-free electricity could cut emissions across farming, processing, and packaging. This would position the company as a partner in reshaping food systems rather than just supplying power. Yet barriers remain. Food is cultural, and people resist changing diets. Taste, price, and tradition weigh heavily, and regulators move slowly with novel products like Solein. Scaling up to a level that significantly lowers emissions will take time. Still, the potential is strong: cleaner energy paired with new production methods could ease pressure on land and water, cut emissions, and help feed a growing population sustainably. As Vattenfall puts it, the issue is no longer whether alternatives exist—but whether society is ready to embrace them.
Read more on Vattenfall.com
