Opinion paper: The role of livestock in a sustainable diet: a land-use perspective

Zanten, H.H.E. van; Meerburg, B.G.; Bikker, P.; Herrero, Mario; Boer, I.J.M. de

doi:10.1017/s1751731115002694

Cited by 102 publications

(81 citation statements)

References 3 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…This goes in line with outputs from a recent meta-analysis (Aleksandrowicz et al, 2016). Consistently, most ongoing scenarios simulate a decline in animal protein consumption and limit livestock production to pasture and co-products from human food (e.g., van Zanten et al, 2016). However, some proponents of SI, including actors and lobbies from food and farming industry, and researchers, still highlight the short-term negative effects such options could have on livestock business and economic growth in the agricultural sector (Röös et al, 2017).…”

Section: Animal Selection Goalssupporting

confidence: 73%

Review: Make ruminants green again – how can sustainable intensification and agroecology converge for a better future?

Dumont

Groot

Tichit

2018

Animal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Livestock farming systems provide multiple benefits to humans: protein-rich diets that contribute to food security, employment and rural economies, capital stock and draught power in many developing countries and cultural landscape all around the world. Despite these positive contributions to society, livestock is also the centre of many controversies as regards to its environmental impacts, animal welfare and health outcomes related to excessive meat consumption. Here, we review the potentials of sustainable intensification (SI) and agroecology (AE) in the design of sustainable ruminant farming systems. We analyse the two frameworks in a historical perspective and show that they are underpinned by different values and worldviews about food consumption patterns, the role of technology and our relationship with nature. Proponents of SI see the increase in animal protein demand as inevitable and therefore aim at increasing production from existing farmland to limit further encroachment into remaining natural ecosystems. Sustainable intensification can thus be seen as an efficiency-oriented framework that benefits from all forms of technological development. Proponents of AE appear more open to dietary shifts towards less animal protein consumption to rebalance the whole food system. Agroecology promotes system redesign, benefits from functional diversity and aims at providing regulating and cultural services. We analyse the main criticisms of the two frameworks: Is SI sustainable? How much can AE contribute to feeding the world? Indeed, in SI, social justice has long lacked attention notably with respect to resource allocation within and between generations. It is only recently that some of its proponents have indicated that there is room to include more diversified systems and food-system transformation perspectives and to build socially fair governance systems. As no space is available for agricultural land expansion in many areas, agroecological approaches that emphasise the importance of local production should also focus more on yield increases from agricultural land. Our view is that new technologies and strict certifications offer opportunities for scaling-up agroecological systems. We stress that the key issue for making digital science part of the agroecological transition is that it remains at a low cost and is thus accessible to smallholder farmers. We conclude that SI and AE could converge for a better future by adopting transformative approaches in the search for ecologically benign, socially fair and economically viable ruminant farming systems.Keywords: ecosystem services, efficiency, food systems, redesign, sustainability ImplicationsThere are different futures for ruminant farming systems as regards to production scenarios, climate mitigation measures and food consumption trends. Sustainable intensification (SI) and agroecology (AE) are two frameworks that aim to design more sustainable systems. Here, we analyse them in a historical perspective and discuss how they have been applied to temperate a...

show abstract

Section: Animal Selection Goalssupporting

confidence: 73%

Review: Make ruminants green again – how can sustainable intensification and agroecology converge for a better future?

Dumont

Groot

Tichit

2018

Animal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Besides the environmental argument, this pathway also stresses that the high consumption levels of ASF, especially red processed meat, in the western world are associated with the rise in noncommunicable diet‐related diseases, such as obesity, heart diseases, and cancer (Tilman & Clark, ). Only a few recent studies focus on a third, alternative pathway and consider the role that ASF can play in feeding the world when production and therefore consumption are capped at levels that avoid food–feed competition and thus reduce the need for arable land (Elferink, Nonhebel, & Moll, ; Fairlie, ; Garnett, ; Peters et al., ; Röös, Patel, Spångberg, Carlsson, & Rydhmer, ; Röös et al., ,; Schader et al., ; Smil, ; Van Kernebeek, Oosting, Van Ittersum, Bikker, & De Boer, ; Van Zanten, Meerburg, Bikker, Herrero, & De Boer, ). Results of those studies show that by eating a small amount of ASF from livestock fed on “low‐opportunity‐cost feedstuff” (livestock fed with products that we cannot or do not want to eat directly and biomass from grasslands further referred to as “low‐cost livestock”), we can feed the global population with lowest possible use of arable land.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining a land boundary for sustainable livestock consumption

Zanten

Herrero

Hal

et al. 2018

Global Change Biology

281

189

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The need for more sustainable production and consumption of animal source food (ASF) is central to the achievement of the sustainable development goals: within this context, wise use of land is a core challenge and concern. A key question in feeding the future world is: how much ASF should we eat? We demonstrate that livestock raised under the circular economy concept could provide a significant, nonnegligible part (9-23 g/per capita) of our daily protein needs (~50-60 g/per capita). This livestock then would not consume human-edible biomass, such as grains, but mainly convert leftovers from arable land and grass resources into valuable food, implying that production of livestock feed is largely decoupled from arable land. The availability of these biomass streams for livestock then determines the boundaries for livestock production and consumption. Under this concept, the competition for land for feed or food would be minimized and compared to no ASF, including some ASF in the human diet could free up about one quarter of global arable land. Our results also demonstrate that restricted growth in consumption of ASF in Africa and Asia would be feasible under these boundary conditions, while reductions in the rest of the world would be necessary to meet land use sustainability criteria. Managing this expansion and contraction of future consumption of ASF is essential for achieving sustainable nutrition security.

show abstract

“…Some recent studies have evaluated the potential of food waste, biomass from grazing land, co-products and other humaninedible agro-products in delivering human edible protein through livestock (Schader et al, 2015;van Zanten et al, 2016), suggesting important role of livestock in converting food wastes and other human-inedible products into highly nutritious products for human nutrition. For fully exploiting the complementarities in the nexus between FLW and livestock rearing and for realizing triple wins in sustainable food systems, the future needs and actions are:…”

Section: Future Research Needsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Opinion paper: Food loss and waste to animal feed

Makkar

2017

Animal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Opinion paper: The role of livestock in a sustainable diet: a land-use perspective

Cited by 102 publications

References 3 publications

Review: Make ruminants green again – how can sustainable intensification and agroecology converge for a better future?

Review: Make ruminants green again – how can sustainable intensification and agroecology converge for a better future?

Defining a land boundary for sustainable livestock consumption

Opinion paper: Food loss and waste to animal feed

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About