Agriculture: Steps to sustainable livestock

Eisler, M.; Lee, Michael R. F.; Tarlton, John F; Martin, Graeme B.; Beddington, J. R.; Dungait, Jennifer A. J.; Greathead, H.M.R.; Liu, Jianxin; Mathew, Stephen; Miller, H. M.; Misselbrook, Tom; Murray, P. J.; Vinod, Valil K.; Saun, Robert Van; Winter, Michael

doi:10.1038/507032a

Cited by 304 publications

(253 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…With increasing concern regarding environmental consequences of agricultural production worldwide, the importance of farming system evaluation has never been greater (Eisler et al., 2014; Gerber et al., 2013; Horton, Koh, & Guang, 2016). Among the plethora of evaluation methods, life cycle assessment (LCA) across agri‐food supply chains is considered to be one of the most informative tools to quantitatively compare environmental performances of multiple farming strategies at the systems level (de Vries & de Boer, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Framework for life cycle assessment of livestock production systems to account for the nutritional quality of final products

McAuliffe

Takahashi

Lee

2018

Food and Energy Security

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Life cycle assessment (LCA) is widely regarded as a useful tool for comparing the environmental impacts of multiple livestock production systems. While LCA results are typically communicated in the form of environmental burdens per mass unit of the end product, it is increasingly becoming recognized that the product quality also needs to be accounted for to truly understand the value of a farming system to society. To date, a number of studies have examined environmental consequences of different food consumption patterns at the diet level; however, few have addressed nutritional variations of a single commodity attributable to production systems, leaving limited insight into how on‐farm practices can be improved to better balance environment and human nutrition. Using data from seven livestock production systems encompassing cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry, this paper proposes a novel framework to incorporate nutritional value of meat products into livestock LCA. The results of quantitative case studies demonstrate that relative emissions intensities associated with different systems can be dramatically altered when the nutrient content of meat replaces the mass of meat as the functional unit, with cattle systems outperforming pig and poultry systems in some cases. This finding suggests that the performance of livestock systems should be evaluated under a whole supply chain approach, whereby end products originating from different farm management strategies are treated as competing but separate commodities.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Framework for life cycle assessment of livestock production systems to account for the nutritional quality of final products

McAuliffe

Takahashi

Lee

2018

Food and Energy Security

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“…Annually, about 1 billion tons of cereal grains are fed to livestock (Eisler et al 2014). Direct consumption of these cereals by humans is more efficient in terms of global land use than consumption of products derived from livestock fed with these cereals because energy is lost during conversion from plant to animal product (Goodland 1997).…”

Section: Current Drivers and Existing Measures Of Land Use Efficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Improving land use efficiency of livestock systems, therefore, also implies feeding livestock mainly by-products from arable production or the food processing industry, that are not edible for humans; or grazing of livestock on Bmarginal land^, i.e. land with low opportunity costs for arable production (Garnett 2009;Eisler et al 2014). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global food supply: land use efficiency of livestock systems

Zanten

Mollenhorst

Klootwijk

et al. 2015

Int J Life Cycle Assess

193

131

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Purpose Livestock already use most global agricultural land, whereas the demand for animal-source food (ASF) is expected to increase. To address the contribution of livestock to global food supply, we need a measure for land use efficiency of livestock systems. Methods Existing measures capture different aspects of the debate about land use efficiency of livestock systems, such as plant productivity and the efficiency of converting feed, especially human-inedible feed, into animal products. So far, the suitability of land for cultivation of food crops has not been accounted for. Our land use ratio (LUR) includes all above-mentioned aspects and yields a realistic insight into land use efficiency of livestock systems. LUR is defined as the maximum amount of human-digestible protein (HDP) derived from food crops on all land used to cultivate feed required to produce 1 kg ASF over the amount of HDP in that 1 kg ASF. We illustrated our concept for three case systems. Results and discussion The LUR for the case of laying hens equaled 2.08, implying that land required to produce 1 kg HDP from laying hens could directly yield 2.08 kg HDP from human food crops. For dairy cows, the LUR was 2.10 when kept on sandy soils and 0.67 when kept on peat soils. The LUR for dairy cows on peat soils was lower compared to cows on sandy soils because land used to grow grass and grass silage for cows on peats was unsuitable for direct production of food crops. A LUR <1.0 is considered efficient in terms of global food supply and implies that animals produce more HDP per square metre than crops. Conclusions Values <1.0 demonstrate that livestock produce HDP more efficiently than crops. Such livestock systems (with a LUR<1.0), therefore, do have a role in future food supply and therefore contribute to food security. Our LUR offers identification of livestock production systems that contribute to global food supply, i.e. systems that value land with low opportunity costs for arable production and/or byproducts from crop cultivation or the food or energy industry.

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“…The sustainability of meat consumption, in particular ruminant meat (13) , has been questioned as the livestock sector is responsible for more than 14 % of all greenhouse gas emissions (CH 4 and NH 4 ) (24) and 59 % of the global agricultural ammonia emissions (25) . Implementing mitigation strategies in livestock production (24,26) will not be enough; dietary changes will still be needed in order to meet the 2°C temperature-increase target set by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (27,28) . To use other protein sources is another option and seaweed, duckweed, cultured meat and insects have been proposed (29) .…”

Section: Proceedings Of the Nutrition Societymentioning

confidence: 99%

Edible insects are the future?

2016

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The global increase in demand for meat and the limited land area available prompt the search for alternative protein sources. Also the sustainability of meat production has been questioned. Edible insects as an alternative protein source for human food and animal feed are interesting in terms of low greenhouse gas emissions, high feed conversion efficiency, low land use, and their ability to transform low value organic side streams into high value protein products. More than 2000 insect species are eaten mainly in tropical regions. The role of edible insects in the livelihoods and nutrition of people in tropical countries is discussed, but this food source is threatened. In the Western world, there is an increasing interest in edible insects, and examples are given. Insects as feed, in particular as aquafeed, have a large potential. Edible insects have about the same protein content as conventional meat and more PUFA. They may also have some beneficial health effects. Edible insects need to be processed and turned into palatable dishes. Food safety may be affected by toxicity of insects, contamination with pathogens, spoilage during conservation and allergies. Consumer attitude is a major issue in the Western world and a number of strategies are proposed to encourage insect consumption. We discuss research pathways to make insects a viable sector in food and agriculture: an appropriate disciplinary focus, quantifying its importance, comparing its nutritional value to conventional protein sources, environmental benefits, safeguarding food safety, optimising farming, consumer acceptance and gastronomy.

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Agriculture: Steps to sustainable livestock

Cited by 304 publications

References 6 publications

Framework for life cycle assessment of livestock production systems to account for the nutritional quality of final products

Framework for life cycle assessment of livestock production systems to account for the nutritional quality of final products

Global food supply: land use efficiency of livestock systems

Edible insects are the future?

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