Change the paradigm: from pharming to farming

The alt proteins innovations

In the field of alternative proteins, one promising area is molecular farming, a biotechnology used to produce specific ingredients such as proteins, flavours, fats, and much more from plants. The technology is not new, but was developed in the 1990s, when the first proof-of-concept was set up for the production of human serum albumin using genetically modified tobacco and potato plants. The term ‘molecular farming‘ is an evolution of molecular pharming, a combination of ‘pharmaceutical‘ and ‘agricultural‘, and indicates the process of genetically modifying plant cells to obtain specific recombinant and therapeutic proteins.

When molecular pharming was introduced, however, the pharmaceutical industry itself placed other obstacles in the way of disseminating this technology: the big pharmaceutical companies were not interested in the fact that the cost of producing drugs from plants was cheaper, as clinical trials account for the biggest cost of drug development. There were also regulatory hurdles, which highlighted the lack of a regulatory framework to allow the safe launch of plant-derived drugs on the market, thus reducing the field of molecular pharming to a niche technology over the past two decades.

Today, the concept of molecular pharming is shifting from the production of therapeutic ingredients from genetically engineered plants to the production of specific ingredients for human nutrition, under the name of molecular farming. In recent years, molecular farming technology has taken its first steps in the food industry. Several companies are exploring this field for the production of animal proteins from vegetable crops. As odd as it may seem, thatâ€™s exactly what this technology makes possible and involves proteins such as those found in milk and eggs, proteins such as collagen, or more specific and functional ingredients such as plant-based heme, which is already used in Impossible Meat’s vegetable-based hamburger to replicate the blood effect in meat. On an even more complex note, it is also possible to obtain metabolic products, such as secondary metabolites, or even new alternatives to the fats and oils commercially available today.

Molecular farming is a promising area in the field of alternative proteins, and is often compared to precision fermentation as both use modified organisms as â€œbioreactorsâ€ for the production of specific proteins. On the other hand, molecular farming could prove to be more appealing when it comes to production costs. Unlike precision fermentation in fact, this technology does not require the use of sterile, confined reactors but instead relies on traditional cultivation methods, in the field, albeit probably in a greenhouse due to the current regulations in various countries. This would allow the use of existing facilities, and the optimisation of growing space through vertical farming, the optimal growth of plants in controlled environments, often with vertical arrangement and optimisation of space.

Another advantage offered by this production system is that the resulting ingredient does not present the risk of contamination through human pathogens, since the raw material, i.e. the plant, is free of them.

There are, however, several factors that slow down the spread of this technology, and the marketing of these products. From an environmental point of view, there is concern that modified genes could spread to wild species. Furthermore, the issue of public acceptability of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the food sector is also crucial. In addition to this, other issues of a more technological nature, such as the time required to obtain stable strains, or the difficulty of purifying the target molecule, can be an obstacle in terms of set-up time, or create a bottleneck when scaling-up production. (Forward Fooding, Forward Fooding: Foodtech trend and insight, Plant Molecular Farming explained, 2023).

Nonetheless, this technology would allow the production of alternative proteins and ingredients that are appealing from the perspective of food system sustainability: demand for animal protein, particularly meat, is growing steadily, even in low-income countries, with a forecast of +75% in 2050, according to FAO estimates. In this scenario, new technologies for producing protein in a sustainable way are becoming increasingly interesting in terms of innovation in the food sector.

As stated, genetic transformation technology was first developed about 30 years ago, but several investors are now showing interest in start-ups operating in the field as a sub-category of alternative proteins. According to the Good Food Institute in 2021, investments reached USD 118 million in capital in a total of 8 deals. Examples of companies in the sector include the New Zealand start-up Miruku, which produces milk proteins from oilseeds, or Nobell Foods, which is focusing on the production of caseins, the proteins responsible for giving cheese the ability to ‘melt’, using plants.