From field to fork: the role of legumes in the UK's alternative protein transition

This report presents an author-reviewed technical synthesis of workshop feedback; workshop comments were not counted, ranked or formally validated. It therefore identifies themes and possible actions without claiming consensus. The workshop feedback presents legumes as an underused means of connecting alternative protein development with farm resilience, nutrient cycling, food and feed security, environmental performance, nutrition and health. Taken together, the comments suggest that legumes should not be treated only as raw material for protein extraction. Their distinctive value lies in their capacity to function simultaneously as crops, foods, feeds, rotational components and biological sources of nitrogen. In this synthesis, legumes are therefore considered ‘system crops’, whose performance depends on connections across activities related to crop breeding, seed supply and availability, farming, processing, markets and policy.