Alternative protein foods want to make friends with Australian farmers

And a senior farm leader who supports the alternative protein industry, agrees it is not the villain it has been portrayed.

Both sides fear they have gotten off on the wrong foot due to Australia's heated and lengthy political stoush over food labelling.

A sold out conference in Melbourne yesterday, the first ever in this country focused entirely on fake foods, was organised by Food Frontier, one group the nation's red meat industry has heavily attacked in the past.

But speaker after speaker at AltProtein 22 said in order to feed the world's growing population - expected to reach 10 billion by 2050 - this new food industry and farmers needed to work together of else people would starve.

The conference was told the nation's farmers and manufacturers had a $7.5 billion growth opportunity to create new jobs and boost Australia's agriculture.

The keynote speech was given by "food futurist" Tony Hunter who said the world needed farmers and the alternative protein industry to partner up.

"What these new industries are doing is not going to see the end of livestock industries or conventional agriculture ... we are going to need every weapon in our armoury," he said.

Victoria's Agriculture Minister Mary-Anne Thomas agreed there was "room for all".

The Minister made her pitch for the Wimmera grain centre of Horsham to be the "hub of this new sector".

Agriculture Victoria has poured millions of taxpayer dollars into pulses research in Horsham looking to capitalise on alternative proteins where the Australian Plant Proteins factory has set up shop.

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Wimmera grain grower and National Farmers' Federation vice president David Jochinke was a panellist at AltProteins 22 and said he supported the industry.

"When you have a product in demand I am going to grow it," Mr Jochinke said.

"Local processing capacity (to extract proteins from pulses) means local employment as well."

He said it was key to his business to be able to diversify and cash in on new markets for pulses and grains.

CSIRO's Future Protein team leader Professor Michelle Colgrave said she believed farmers wanted to know what consumers wanted.

"They see a perceived threat from this industry and we are trying to show them there is a seat at this table for everyone."

Prof Colgrave and the CSIRO came under attack from the red meat industry during the Senate inquiry over food labelling for its financial support of fake food startups.

"I hate to pick up a product at a supermarket, turn it around and find it is made in Australia from 100 per cent imported products," she said yesterday.

The conference heard Australia was on the brink of becoming a global player in alternative proteins.

Cheese made from dairy proteins, but minus the cow, could hit our supermarket shelves as early as Christmas, while cultivated meat such as kangaroo meatballs and chicken schnitzels grown from animal cells could be on sale in a years' time.

According to Food Frontier there are already more than 250 plant-based meat products in Australian stores.

Demand for plant based meat products alone is expected to increase by 200 per cent in the next five years in markets like China and Thailand.

Prof Colgrave said as well as developing new plant protein products, farmers could add value by breeding new varieties of plant crops which are higher in protein, good quality, easy to digest and even free from allergens.

"A lot of plant-based ingredients are imported, but we can build Australia's manufacturing expertise to turn legumes including soybean, fava beans and chickpeas into higher value ingredients onshore to create 100pc Australian-made plant-based products," she said.

The conference was told the number of Australian and New Zealand plant-based meat, cultivated meat and precision fermentation companies has more than quadrupled from 2018 to now.

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