Sustainable livestock production in Europe: A question of food security, climate and innovation

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Swinging-cow-brush-TeilPolicy Paper – October 2015

Meeting current and forecast demand in a sustainable way is a challenge, especially given that we are already using the earth’s resources at rates thought to be unsustainable. The livestock sector currently constitutes the world’s largest user of natural resources: with 80% of all agricultural land used for grazing or animal feed production and 8% of the global water use, primarily for irrigation of feed crops. Moreover, climate change is expected to further challenge food security through more extreme weather events and other challenges at both regional and global scales.
Thus, the European Union (EU) is faced with a dual challenge: it is called to produce larger quantities of high quality and affordable meat, milk, and eggs in response to an increasing global demand, while doing so through production systems that are environmentally sound, socially responsible, and economically viable. Read more…