A Circularity Evaluation of New Feed Categories in The Netherlands—Squaring the Circle: A Review

Abstract

The concept of circularity is currently proposed to address key sustainability issues affecting and affected by livestock production. Through a desk study, this paper evaluates some feed sources that are being developed in The Netherlands as an alternative to current feeds, namely food waste; seaweed; and localized production and alternative plant-based feed sources. These feed categories are evaluated according to four circularity criteria. The first two criteria concern standard circularity principles aimed at both stopping and preventing environmental damage as well as a focus on natural resources use efficiency: (1) Safeguard the health of ecosystems and (2) avoid the production of unnecessary products and use/recycle biomass effectively, as well as evaluating possible food–feed competition. In addition, two ‘people’ and ‘animal’ centred principles have been integrated: (3) fairness and accessibility and (4) animal health and wellbeing. The article concludes that people and animal centred principles are key to thinking of, developing, implementing, and evaluating circularity initiatives. Moreover, the article suggests that categories such as the local production of soya (approx. 132 ha) or seaweed (approx. 10–15 ha) are as yet irrelevant regarding production volumes within the Dutch context. However, some feed sources such as seaweed, insects, livestock leftovers produced at farms and abattoirs, and food waste might strengthen the transition towards more circular and sustainable practices.

Triple Bottom-Line Evaluation of the Production of Animal Feed from Food Waste: A Life Cycle Assessment

“…Adequate treatment of FW and sufficient quality control, regulation and management are of utmost importance [ 48 ]. The cattle mouth and foot disease outbreak that took place in the UK in 2001 and resulted in losses of up to 8 billion pounds [ 106 , 117 ] is a salient case. An investigation indicated that the origin of this outbreak was in a pig abattoir in Essex in February of the same year, 1 which was licensed to feed processed FW under the Animal Byproducts legislation of 1999 [ 42 ].…”

“…Accompanied by FW reduction, this allows for better alignment to CE framework objectives [ 113 , 136 ]. Hence, circularity concepts and improved methods of feed production from FW are encouraged in recent research studies without compromising health and safety [ 117 ].…”

A manure-arrangement based approach to circularity in the Netherlands - Perspective

“…Moreover, they also argue that livestock breeding and feeding practices ought to orient itself towards efficiently and exclusively converting humanly non-edible biomass, in particular, of those locally available (ibid. ; see also Puente-Rodríguez et al, 2022).…”

Evaluation of Beeswax Supplementation on Productive Performance of Growing Assaf Lambs

“…There are also fatty acids that are free (12–14%) and have a C24–C32 chain length. Linear wax monoesters and hydroxymonoesters generated predominantly from myeloid, 15-hydroxypalmitic, and oleic acids have been found to consist of 35% to 45% hydroxymonoesters and linear wax monoesters, with chain lengths ranging from C40 to C48 [ 8 ].…”