VIP Leaf (Vertical Indoor Protein from Leaf)

目前的肉类消费对地球和公共健康来说是不可持续的。替代蛋白质来源是必不可少的，**对植物性蛋白质的需求正在增加**。英国食品中使用的植物蛋白主要来自进口大豆和豌豆。由于森林砍伐和过敏担忧，市场正在远离大豆，由于人们对高风险、低产量和无利可图的看法，英国豌豆蛋白产量仍然很低(4%的可耕地)。**CEA提供了另一种生产空间**，优势是使**新作物**能够在英国种植与我们的气候不相容的**新作物**，从而使我们的食物蛋白质来源更多样化。CEA系统尚未用于生产植物衍生蛋白质，但提供了巨大的潜力，**将蛋白质生产**本地化到食品制造场所，**减少对进口的依赖**，并实现低用水/无农用化学品生产。英国的植物蛋白生产和吸收的经济性明显好于昆虫蛋白(最接近的竞争对手)，因为没有饲料到食物的转化损失。许多多叶作物，包括菠菜、向日葵的嫩芽和苋叶**都含有20%的蛋白质。苋菜含有很高的赖氨酸含量(素食蛋白质市场上的高价值氨基酸)，以及促进健康的维生素、矿物质和抗氧化剂。CEA提供经济上可行的生产，收割时间短，资源消耗少，占地少。我们的项目将为蓬勃发展的替代蛋白质市场提供叶衍生蛋白质。我们将试验新的叶蛋白质来源，进一步开发苋菜的品种、生产和下游加工方法，向替代蛋白质部门开放垂直农业，使蛋白质生产本地化到食品加工场所。这项工作将有助于应对英国面临的挑战：i)到2050年**净零碳**(土地利用变化--植物蛋白生产需要比肉类蛋白少得多的土地/公斤；CEA具有高产量/m2，不需要农业优质土地)，ii)**解决日益增长的肥胖症**以及相关的NHS成本(植物蛋白的消费与改善健康有关)，以及iii)**绿色回收**(CEA能够减少食物里程，低浪费/环境污染)。

Current consumption of meat is unsustainable for the planet and public health. Alternative protein sources are essential and **demand for plant-based protein is increasing**. Plant proteins used in UK food are mainly from imported soy and pea. The market is shifting away from soy due to deforestation and allergy concerns, and UK pea protein production remains low (4% arable land) due to perceptions of high-risk, low-yield and unprofitability. **CEA offers an alternative production space** and the advantage of enabling **new crops** to be grown in the UK that are incompatible with our climate, allowing a better diversification of our food-protein-sources.CEA systems are not yet commercially used in the production of plant-derived proteins, yet offer huge potential to **localise protein production** to food manufacturing sites, **reduce reliance on imports** and enable low water-use/agrochemical-free production. The economics of plant protein production and the uptake in the UK are significantly better than insect protein (nearest competitor) due to no feed-to-food conversion loss. A number of leafy crops including spinach, sunflower shoots and amaranth leaf **contain \>20% protein**. Amaranth has high lysine content (high-value amino acid to the vegan protein market), as well as health-promoting vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. CEA offers economically viable production with short time to harvest, reduced resource use and reduced land footprint.Our project will access leaf-derived protein for the burgeoning alternative protein market. We will test new sources of leaf protein, as well as further develop varieties, production and downstream processing methods for amaranth to open up vertical farming to the alternative protein sector and enable localizing of protein production to sites of food manufacture. This work will help meet UK challenges of i) **Net Zero Carbon** by 2050 (landuse change - plant protein production requires far less land/kg than meat protein; CEA has high yield/m2 and doesn't require agricultural-quality land), ii) **tackling growing obesity** with associated NHS costs (consumption of plant protein is linked to improved health), and iii) **Green Recovery** (CEA enables reduced food-miles, low waste/environmental pollution).