Replacing beef with a type of blue-green algae called Spirulina can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save water, and improve our health according to researchers from Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands and Oxford University.

A paper published in the journal Nature Food says that replacing as little as 50 grams of beef per day with Spirulina algae will help cut greenhouse gas emissions from a global food system by nearly a quarter and requires 21 times less water to produce Spirulina compared to beef

Spirulina's high level of protein (over 60% by dry weight) is more digestible than that of other algae or bacteria making it an efficient means of producing food as well as potentially being a cheaper meat replacement