Impacts of feeding less food-competing feedstuffs to livestock on global food system sustainability.
- Schader C Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Ackerstrasse 113, 5070 Frick, Switzerland christian.schader@fibl.org.
- Muller A Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Ackerstrasse 113, 5070 Frick, Switzerland Institute of Environmental Decisions, ETH Zürich, Universitätstrasse 22, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland.
- Scialabba Nel-H Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Viale Terme di Caracalla, 00150 Rome, Italy.
- Hecht J Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Ackerstrasse 113, 5070 Frick, Switzerland.
- Isensee A Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Ackerstrasse 113, 5070 Frick, Switzerland.
- Erb KH Institute of Social Ecology Vienna (SEC), Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt-Vienna-Graz, Schottenfeldgasse 29, 1070 Vienna, Austria.
- Smith P Scottish Food Security Alliance-Crops and Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen, 23 St Machar Drive, Aberdeen AB24 3UU, UK.
- Makkar HP Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Viale Terme di Caracalla, 00150 Rome, Italy.
- Klocke P Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Ackerstrasse 113, 5070 Frick, Switzerland Bovicare GmbH, Hermannswerder Haus 14, 14473 Potsdam, Germany.
- Leiber F Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Ackerstrasse 113, 5070 Frick, Switzerland.
- Schwegler P Institute of Environmental Decisions, ETH Zürich, Universitätstrasse 22, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland.
- Stolze M Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Ackerstrasse 113, 5070 Frick, Switzerland.
- Niggli U Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Ackerstrasse 113, 5070 Frick, Switzerland.
- 2015-12-18
Published in:
- Journal of the Royal Society, Interface. - 2015
consistency
food security
food system
livestock
sufficiency
sustainable intensification
Animal Feed
Animal Husbandry
Animals
Humans
Livestock
Models, Biological
English
Increasing efficiency in livestock production and reducing the share of animal products in human consumption are two strategies to curb the adverse environmental impacts of the livestock sector. Here, we explore the room for sustainable livestock production by modelling the impacts and constraints of a third strategy in which livestock feed components that compete with direct human food crop production are reduced. Thus, in the outmost scenario, animals are fed only from grassland and by-products from food production. We show that this strategy could provide sufficient food (equal amounts of human-digestible energy and a similar protein/calorie ratio as in the reference scenario for 2050) and reduce environmental impacts compared with the reference scenario (in the most extreme case of zero human-edible concentrate feed: greenhouse gas emissions -18%; arable land occupation -26%, N-surplus -46%; P-surplus -40%; non-renewable energy use -36%, pesticide use intensity -22%, freshwater use -21%, soil erosion potential -12%). These results occur despite the fact that environmental efficiency of livestock production is reduced compared with the reference scenario, which is the consequence of the grassland-based feed for ruminants and the less optimal feeding rations based on by-products for non-ruminants. This apparent contradiction results from considerable reductions of animal products in human diets (protein intake per capita from livestock products reduced by 71%). We show that such a strategy focusing on feed components which do not compete with direct human food consumption offers a viable complement to strategies focusing on increased efficiency in production or reduced shares of animal products in consumption.
- Language
-
- English
- Open access status
- hybrid
- Identifiers
-
- DOI 10.1098/rsif.2015.0891
- PMID 26674194
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/229145
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