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.

Summary Grasslands are an important landscape element in Europe. However, the grassland area has been reduced in the last 50 years. This article assesses potential impacts of a scenario that redistributes CAP direct payments to maintain or increase permanent grassland areas using a farm‐level modelling approach in Germany, Wales and Switzerland. Our results indicate that a reallocation of support payments can help to prevent abandonment or conversion of permanent grassland to more intensive land use. This may be more difficult to achieve when there is a limited arable area to transfer budget from, as demonstrated by results in Wales. Policy effects at the level of farm type can often vary due to the heterogeneities and complexities of permanent grassland farming systems. Our results also show that unintended ‘slippage’ effects such as increased temporary grassland area may occur, though this could also be seen as a form of sustainable intensification. Other difficulties include: a) potential for negative effects on specific farm types despite a positive overall effect, and b) distortions within land markets due to the attractiveness of support payments within sectors of low profitability.

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The Alpine region is exposed to two major challenges in terms of sustainable agriculture: 1) topographical conditions constrain the area, which can be used for agricultural production and 2) the Alps have suffered a dramatic loss of biodiversity in the last few decades. This loss is to great extent caused by a) intensified use of agricultural land in high-yielding areas (e. g. excessive nitrogen depositions) and b) abandonment of agricultural areas with low productivity. In the near future, these challenges are expected to amplify, as the Alpine region will have to contribute to a growing global food demand. In order to find anchor points which help to tackle these challenges a qualitative system analysis was conducted to identify and analyse the variables which influence agricultural land use in Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Results suggest that our Alpine land use system exerts an enormous pressure on the level of certain variables. If current trends of land use continue to maintain, the level of the variables "ecological quality of agricultural areas" and "attractiveness of landscapes" will most likely decline. Contrarily, the level of "land use intensity on arable land and grassland" will increase further. This shows an imminent need to substantially change land use especially if we seek for long-term food security and conservation of natural resources.