FOOD
EGG WHITES CAN EXPAND SIX to eight times in volume when whisked or whipped, and they help to bind ingredients together. They make our foods fluffy, foamy, or even sticky. Those functionalities are a product of specific proteins-the most abundant of which is called ovalbumin—which can't easily be replicated with plant-based alternatives.
Ovalbumin is “one of nature's wonders,” says Maija It konen, CEO of biotech company Onego Bio. But eggs are also, she notes, rife with environmental and ethical issues: Cage-free hens account for just 34% of all egg-laying flocks, and though responsible for fewer emissions than proteins like beef, 86% of eggs are still produced in carbon-intense industrial-farm