The article, “Livestock circulation necessitates a change in the EAT-Lancet diet in Europe,” published in the journal Nature Food, points to the complex links between animal agriculture and livestock. , Europeans’ food choices and impacts on a rapidly warming planet.
Study co-author Mario Herrero, professor of sustainable food systems and global change at Cornell, said: “Societies that produce and eat food today have an impact on climate and last in future. “We must re-imagine how food is produced if we are to avert the worst effects of global climate change.”
The paper’s lead author is Hannah van Zanten, a visiting professor of global development at Cornell and an associate professor at Wageningen University.
In the paper, the scientists found that feeding European livestock with low opportunity cost biomass (LCB) – i.e. feed from leftovers suitable for animals but not humans – can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 31% and the area of land devoted to agriculture increases by 42%. But those environmental benefits will only be achieved if Europeans reduce and change the types of animal proteins they consume.
The global food system is a major cause of greenhouse gas emissions. About 25% of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture; Resource-intensive foods such as meat are a major contributor to overall emissions.
Globally, about 40% of arable land is devoted to growing high-quality animal feed. Circular food systems attempt to avoid feeding livestock with foods suitable for humans, favoring LCB or other food waste streams instead, and reducing overall environmental impact.
In 2019, the EAT-Lancet Committee recommended a planet-friendly diet to meet an individual’s daily nutritional needs while preserving the long-term sustainability of the environment. The EAT-Lancet Diet calls for reducing animal-based foods like red meat and increasing vegetables, beans, and nuts.
“Those dietary guidelines recommend poultry over foods derived from cows and pigs. But the circular food system – which prioritizes the use of arable land to produce food for humans – is most optimized for milk, beef and pork production, contradicts EAT- Ben van Selm, the study’s first author and doctoral student from Wageningen.
In the paper, van Selm and colleagues found that the EAT-Lancet diet could be achieved if food systems using farm animals were strictly LCB-fed, but doing so would require changes in the type of animal protein consumed by Europeans.
The tension between the EAT-Lancet guidelines and conventional food systems suggests that dietary recommendations will require continual revision as agricultural improvements shift the balance between production and consumption. food production and environmental damage, Herrero said.
“The circularity of our food system has great potential to separate livestock from the soil by taking advantage of the low opportunity cost biomass of livestock and other food waste streams,” said Herrero. “Modifying food consumption and waste patterns is central to achieving healthier diets while increasing food system sustainability.”
Source: Eurekalert
