China understands food security - the EU doesn’t

The 5th of March may go down in history as the day the EU decided to miss the boat of a defining technology of the 21st Century: new proteins. On that date, in grey Brussels, political representatives of all EU countries agreed to ban ‘meaty’ terms such as beef, pork or chicken to name cultivated meat products.

Meanwhile, in Beijing, the National People’s Congress unveiled the 15th Five-Year Plan, China’s most important political and industrial strategy document, and for the first time identified new proteins - including cultivated meat - as a national food security priority. Leaving aside the ridiculousness of not allowing producers to call a muscle grown from a cow cell ‘beef’, Europe’s decision demonstrates a total failure to address the critical issue of food security through protein diversification.

A food system reliant on imports

We, in Europe, like to think that we are self-sufficient in food, but the reality is a supply chain heavily dependent on imports for meat production. Yes, the EU is a net exporter of meat (especially pork) and dairy. But the mighty EU industrial meat complex is structurally dependent on imported high-protein feed to grow the farmed animals, especially soy and maize. 

The EU relies on imports for two-thirds of its high-protein feed requirements. High-protein feed (above 30% protein content), such as most oilseed meals, is used to optimise growth and overall productivity in intensive livestock production. Soybean meals are the primary high-protein feed source, accounting for 17% (11.8 million tonnes) of total EU feed protein use, of which nearly all is imported. Soya production in the EU only covers 10% of usage in the bloc, primarily for human consumption (think of soya drinks, yogurts and tofu). The EU also imports substantial volumes of maize, largely from Brazil, Ukraine and the US, because domestic production doesn't cover the high demand for animal feed. The Ukraine and Iran wars are troubling examples of how vulnerable systems like this are, with supply chain disruption causing spiralling meat prices.

China houses the largest meat production capacity in the world - roughly one out of every two pigs slaughtered in the world happens in China. Like Europe, it’s highly dependent on imported animal feed, in particular soy from Brazil, Argentina and (recently less so due to the tariff war) the US. Unlike Europe, China sees the dependency on high-protein feed as a critical vulnerability for the country. Hence, Chinese President Xi Jinping elevated new proteins to a top food security priority in the 15th Five-Year Plan. 

New proteins as a food security strategy

The plan explicitly states that China will "include new protein sources in the national food security strategy." Its stated goal is to: "Promote the development of the biomanufacturing industry, build key technology and raw material platforms, strengthen R&D and applications in areas such as microbial proteins and functional food ingredients, and drive the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries." Biomanufacturing, the backbone of precision fermentation and cultivated meat, now sits alongside renewables and AI as a national priority sector.

In fact, China now treats new proteins the same way it treated solar panels two decades ago, and batteries and EVs a decade ago: as national security infrastructure, not a consumer lifestyle choice. As a new report by Systemiq shows, China is applying its proven ‘industrial strategy playbook’ to protein production: combining state-backed R&D, infrastructure investment, public procurement and low-cost capital to accelerate domestic capability and reduce dependence on imported feed and livestock systems. 

Reshaping the global economy

China’s Five-Year Plans don’t just transform their own economy. They reshape global markets. When China decided to back EVs in the 2011-2015 Plan, electric car adoption accelerated worldwide. More than one in four cars sold today are electric. China dominates the electric car industry, with its brands responsible for more than half of global BEV models and sales. The same pattern could now play out in food.

According to projections from Systemiq’s analysts, China’s strategic pivot toward biomanufacturing and alternative proteins is set to slash its soybean import dependency by approximately 25% by 2030. This is a volume almost equal to the current imports from the United States. 

And China is not starting from zero. Today, it is the world's largest public funder of agricultural R&D, spending twice as much as the US. Moreover, Chinese universities and public research institutes have filed more cultivated meat patents than Europe and the US combined.

If the EU doesn’t act now and invests heavily in new proteins, it risks increasing the (already considerable) trade deficit and feed dependency with China. China already produces the vast majority of essential livestock vitamins and a significant portion of the amino acids derived from fermentation that are currently used in EU animal feed.

The biotech opportunity

The irony is that this technology was born in Europe. Around 15 years ago, the Dutch developed the first lab-grown burger in the world. This makes sense: we don’t have a lot of arable land but we are world leaders in biotechnology and biomanufacturing. We have a competitive advantage there.

This makes sense: we don’t have a lot of arable land but we are world leaders in biotechnology and biomanufacturing. In addition to research and innovation capacity, Europe has the highly-skilled labour force needed to take proteins made from plants, microorganisms and cultivated animal cells to market. We clearly have a competitive advantage there.

Thankfully it’s not too late; with the upcoming EU Biotech Act II there’s a second chance. This powerful industrial policy instrument is the EU’s bid to stop being a biotech talent farm for the US and China, by cutting red tape, unlocking investment, scaling up production at home and boosting ‘Made in the EU’. For the Act to work towards strengthening food security in the bloc, it needs to include biomanufacturing for food and feed applications. This way, we could biomanufacture enzymes, feed inputs, proteins, and biomaterials domestically rather than importing them. 

The inclusion of food and feed production in the Biotech Act II could signal that the EU is finally onboard the food security boat before it’s too late.

A version of this opinion was originally published on Euronews