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Journal Article

Decoupling livestock from land use through industrial feed production pathways

Authors

Pikaar,  I.
External Organizations;

Matassa,  S.
External Organizations;

/persons/resource/Bodirsky

Bodirsky,  Benjamin Leon
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;

/persons/resource/Isabelle.Weindl

Weindl,  Isabelle
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;

/persons/resource/Florian.Humpenoeder

Humpenöder,  Florian
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;

Rabaey,  K.
External Organizations;

Boon,  N.
External Organizations;

Bruschi,  M.
External Organizations;

Yuan,  Z.
External Organizations;

Zanten,  H. van
External Organizations;

Herrero,  M.
External Organizations;

Verstraete,  E.
External Organizations;

/persons/resource/Alexander.Popp

Popp,  Alexander
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;

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Fulltext (public)

22913oa.pdf
(Postprint), 662KB

Supplementary Material (public)
There is no public supplementary material available
Citation

Pikaar, I., Matassa, S., Bodirsky, B. L., Weindl, I., Humpenöder, F., Rabaey, K., Boon, N., Bruschi, M., Yuan, Z., Zanten, H. v., Herrero, M., Verstraete, E., Popp, A. (2018): Decoupling livestock from land use through industrial feed production pathways. - Environmental Science and Technology, 52, 13, 7351-7359.
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.8b00216


Cite as: https://publications.pik-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_22913
Abstract
One of the main challenges for the 21st century is to balance the increasing demand for high-quality proteins while mitigating environmental impacts. In particular, cropland-based production of protein-rich animal feed for livestock rearing results in large-scale agricultural land-expansion, nitrogen pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. Here we propose and analyze the long-term potential of alternative animal feed supply routes based on industrial production of microbial proteins (MP). Our analysis reveals that by 2050, MP can replace, depending on socio-economic development and MP production pathways, between 10–19% of conventional crop-based animal feed protein demand. As a result, global cropland area, global nitrogen losses from croplands and agricultural greenhouse gas emissions can be decreased by 6% (0–13%), 8% (−3–8%), and 7% (−6–9%), respectively. Interestingly, the technology to industrially produce MP at competitive costs is directly accessible for implementation and has the potential to cause a major structural change in the agro-food system.