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In Europe, cattle production is confronted with major challenges across all dimensions of sustainability, urging the need to promote environmentally friendly but also economically viable livestock systems. In addition, animal protein consumption greatly exceeds the dietary guidelines in most European countries. The protein transition, defined as th...
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Context 1
... Walloon dairy and beef sectors have strongly intensified over the last few decades (Figure 1), with a decrease in the total number of animals, an increase in productivity per cow and a restructuring of farms (i.e. a decrease in the number of farmers but an increase in the per farm herd size) (SPW, 2020). Figure 2 shows that milk production increased slightly in Belgium and remained stable in Wallonia between 2002 and 2018 while meat production decreased in Belgium and Wallonia from 2015. ...
Context 2
... Walloon dairy and beef sectors have strongly intensified over the last few decades (Figure 1), with a decrease in the total number of animals, an increase in productivity per cow and a restructuring of farms (i.e. a decrease in the number of farmers but an increase in the per farm herd size) (SPW, 2020). Figure 2 shows that milk production increased slightly in Belgium and remained stable in Wallonia between 2002 and 2018 while meat production decreased in Belgium and Wallonia from 2015. ...
Citations
... The farm's reliance on CAP subsidies is often inversely correlated with its economic stability. This means that a higher level of subsidy dependency tends to correspond to a lower economic stability [57]. Consequently, in these cases, the farmer's motivation and attitude will likely be lower [237]. ...
The European cattle milk sector has rapidly intensified in recent decades. This trend has received widespread disapproval from the public, which highlights the many problems linked to intensification. To address these concerns, agricultural policies commonly impose an agroecological transition. In order to evaluate and monitor the degree of sustainability of dairy cattle farms over time, many sets of indicators have been proposed in recent years. However, these indicators have often referred only to specific aspects of sustainability or have been generically proposed for the entire agricultural sector, and therefore, they are not capable of capturing the peculiarities and the complexity of the dairy cattle sector. A systematic review of the scientific literature was carried out to obtain a complete picture of the indicators proposed for the European context. A total of 325 out of over 6700 papers were selected, and three pillars—environmental, economic, and social pillars—were explored. A total of 70 indicators were identified, which could help build a complete and less sectoral picture of sustainability than that proposed so far. A total of 22 indicators were associated with the environmental pillar, 18 indicators were associated with the economic pillar, and 17 indicators were associated with the social pillar, while 12 indicators were associated with two different pillars. With reference to the measurement methods, considerable variability was highlighted, which did not allow us to identify or propose unique methods for measuring each indicator.
... About a third of the articles view the protein transition as a critical step towards reducing the negative externalities associated with industrial livestock production systems (ILPS). Such systems are generally associated with poor animal welfare owing to overcrowding and restraining animals indoors for their entire lives, which raises ethical concerns 38,39 . ILPS are linked to intensive antibiotic use, leading to antibiotic resistance and increasing the incidence of emerging diseases affecting animal and human health (for https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00906-7 ...
... example, avian influenza or bovine spongiform encephalopathy) 26,27 . ILPS are presented as being associated with the most important adverse environmental impacts 28,32,[37][38][39] . They typically rely on high-quality feed protein, such as maize and soy feed, leading to further negative environmental effects like deforestation and high pesticide use 36,39 . ...
... ILPS are presented as being associated with the most important adverse environmental impacts 28,32,[37][38][39] . They typically rely on high-quality feed protein, such as maize and soy feed, leading to further negative environmental effects like deforestation and high pesticide use 36,39 . ...
The protein transition, aiming to rebalance protein intake between animal and alternative proteins, is gaining momentum in scientific and policy discussions on food system transformation. Here, using a systematic review approach, we identified 33 articles that address challenges in reducing the environmental impacts of protein production and consumption, providing healthy diets for a growing population and preventing adverse effects of industrial livestock production systems. We found unclear definitions of the protein transition, conflicting views on reduction or replacement of dietary protein and a lack of attention to systemic change by reducing protein to its macronutrient function. Three narratives were identified, namely, the consumer narrative focusing on consumption-based solutions targeting dietary changes; the techno-centred narrative developing new, more resource-efficient protein production systems; and the socio-technological narrative that intends to transition the agri-food system from an animal-dominated regime to an alternative protein regime. We conclude that solutions should consider factors such as scale, initiating actors and expected impact to support complementary protein transition approaches.
... Summarizing all the aforementioned problems of animal protein reproduction, it is reasonable to intensify the manufacturing of highprotein plant-based feedstock (Anisuzzaman et al., 2016;Duluins et al., 2022;Päivärinta et al., 2020). More and more scientists specializing in different disciplines (biologists, chemists, economists, etc.) all over the world get involved in searching for alternative ways for obtaining protein and energy resources. ...
... The situation is particularly dire for beef farms. With structurally low farm incomes and a high dependence on subsidies, the economic viability of this sector can be put into question, as noted by Calay et al. (2020) and SPW (2020), and confirmed by Duluins et al. (2022). Average farm income values did not show significant intergroup differences, but they do hide different strategies to secure their farm income, resulting from different product and cost structures (Figure 3). ...
... In terms of combined environmental and socio-economic performances, environmentally friendly systems (mainly grass-based and extensive) present a better compromise between environmental impact score and farm income (bottom of Figure 4). Although we cannot assert that environmentally friendly systems perform better economically than the more environmentally harmful systems, we can conclude that the environmentally friendly systems are not burdened by poorer economic results, as also concluded by Duluins et al. (2022). This is crucial as farmers need to perceive that taking up sustainable practices does not imply any economic disadvantage (Lynch et al. 2018). ...
Livestock production is confronted with significant challenges across all dimensions of sustainability. There is an urgent need to identify sustainable livestock systems that are environmentally friendly, economically viable for farmers, and socially acceptable. To this end, diversity assessments and data-driven indicator-based sustainability assessments can be helpful tools. These two mutually reinforcing approaches each have their own dilemmas and strengths; however, their combination is not straightforward. In this paper, we propose a method that simultaneously assesses the diversity and sustainability of production systems within one agricultural sector, without compromising either aspect, while overcoming the dilemmas of diversity and sustainability assessments. We test our method on the Walloon dairy and beef sectors (Belgium) and base our assessment on data from the European Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN). We apply relevant classification criteria to the sample farms to group them into production systems. The core data was complemented with calculated environmental indicators to perform a comprehensive sustainability assessment, including structural, socio-economic, and environmental indicators. Our results confirm the importance of complementing sustainability assessments with diversity assessments. Our case study results show that a diversity of livestock systems coexist and that it is possible to overcome trade-offs between economic and environmental performances. Extensive grass-based systems present the best combination of economic and environmental results, which highlights the importance of preserving grassland resources at the regional level. The proposed method proves effective to improve the relevance of FADN data and supports the ongoing call to transform the FADN into a more comprehensive database that satisfactorily covers all dimensions of sustainability.
Проведено аналіз динамічних змін поголів’я корів, валового виробництва молока, його балансу та експорту за різними видами товарів. Встановлено, що за відсутності узгодженості взаємовідносин у харчовому ланцюгу «виробництво-переробка-реалізація» в Україні найвищими щорічними темпами у світі скорочувалось поголів’я корів, внаслідок чого в останні роки виник дефіцит молока-сировини. Паралельно мало місце скорочення кількості молокопереробних підприємств із завантаженістю потужностей до 60 %. За таких обставин вони були змушені нарощувати імпорт сирого молока з європейських країн. Основним напрямком вирішення цих проблем є встановлення рівноважних цін у харчовому ланцюгу з допомогою раніше розробленої нами моделі «витрати-випуск» молокопродуктового підкомплексу. У статті обґрунтовано, що застосовування такої моделі в молокопродуктовому підкомплексі як основного його модуля сприятиме теоретичному вирішенню проблеми гармонізації взаємовідносин між усіма учасниками інтегрованого виробництва, так як ця галузь повинна визнаватись як складна система, що потребує серйозних наукових підходів до її дослідження. Розробка інших модулів системи цього комплексу передбачає залучення фахівців із землевпорядкування, землекористування, екології, годівлі тварин, технологій виробництва і переробки, математики тощо, а також представників бізнесу як консультантів з прогнозу перспектив конкуренції на світовому ринку молочної продукції, так як лише злагоджена робота фахівців з еколого-економічних проблем спроможна розв’язати складне завдання щодо створення конкурентоспроможного молокопродуктового підкомплексу України. Розрахунки за допомогою цієї моделі показали першочерговість інвестицій у модернізацію молокозаводів із відповідним збільшенням рівня глибини переробки, що призведе до зниження собівартості кінцевої продукції заводів і виявлення значних резервів підвищення цін на сире молоко для первинних виробників.
In een tijd waarin de wereld geconfronteerd wordt met een toenemende bevolking en de daaruit voortvloeiende behoefte aan voedsel, staat het lectoraat Eiwittransitie voor een uiterst relevante uitdaging. De groeiende vraag naar eiwitten en de noodzaak om onze consumptiegewoonten in balans te krijgen met natuur en onze gezondheid vormen de kern van de missie van dit lectoraat.
