Abstracts - Environnement

According to life cycle assessment (LCA), meat from ruminant species has a higher environmental impact per kg of protein than meat from monogastric species. Conversely, the framework of ecosystem services (ES) indicates that ruminant farming systems can provide higher levels of regulating ES (e.g. water purification). We applied both approaches to twelve contrasting meat production systems (six ruminant, six monogastric). The LCA was applied using two ‘functional units’: i) the quantity of protein produced (kg) and ii) the land area used to produce the meat (m²/year). Our results confirm that, per kg of protein, ruminant systems emit more greenhouse gases and consume more energy than monogastric systems, but the opposite is observed of land area. Ruminant systems also provide more regulating ES, thanks to their grasslands. Our study reveals that LCA and ES approaches can converge or diverge depending on the functional unit used.

Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, particularly enteric methane (CH₄) from cattle, is a key challenge in achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. The Methane 2030 program (2023–2028) addresses this issue by pursuing a 30% reduction in CH₄ emissions from French cattle farming within ten years, while maintaining milk and meat production levels. Combining a network of experimental farms and commercial herds, the program uses multiple measurement and estimation methods to develop reference data and identify effective low-emission strategies. Several levers are explored, including feeding practices, nutritional additives, genetic improvement, and herd management innovations. Coordinated by a consortium of industry, research, and development partners, Methane 2030 will deliver an integrated “toolbox” for emission mitigation. Built around the CAP’2ER® assessment tool, genomic selection, and livestock advisory services, this toolbox will provide practical and science-based solutions to support sustainable, low-emission cattle production systems in France.

In 2022, the Dublin Declaration on the societal role of livestock farming encouraged animal scientists to alert policymakers and the public to the importance of basing dietary recommendations and promoting an image of livestock farming on sound scientific evidence. In October 2024, animal, environment and social scientists renewed and deepened their commitment by publishing the Denver Call to Action https://www.dublin-declaration.org/fr/lappel-a-action-de-denver at the Second International Summit on the Societal Role of Meat and Livestock, where current scientific knowledge about livestock farming was presented in a synthetic manner. This call is addressed to policymakers worldwide to commit to plurality and rigor in evidence-based decision-making.

The Dublin Declaration on the Societal Role of Livestock Farming encouraged scientists in the field to alert policy-makers and the public to the importance of basing dietary recommendations and promoting an image of livestock farming on sound scientific evidence. They do this conscientiously, even if they become the target of militant campaigns aimed at discrediting disturbing scientific voices. Certainly, divergent views have been expressed on the best way to implement scientific findings, or on the optimum nature or size of future livestock systems. However, there is a firm consensus on the crucial importance of maintaining rigorous scientific approaches for an informed debate on livestock farming. This context prompted animal scientists to renew their commitment by publishing the Denver Call to Action. This was done on the occasion of the second International Summit on the Societal Role of Meat and Livestock in Denver in October 2024, where scientific knowledge about livestock farming was presented. This call is addressed to political decision-makers around the world to commit to plurality and rigor in evidence-based decision-making. Meeting the colossal challenge of feeding the world's populations while minimizing environmental damage will only be possible through the transparent application of scientific rigor, avoiding hubris, presumption and dogmatism.

With rising feed prices and sustainability being the watchword, it's time to think about ways to conserve resources, especially feed. As the largest cost item on livestock farms (60%), feed is a good way to make farms more self-sufficient and/or to reduce costs. By-products from the agri-food industry that can be used in animal feed seem to be a promising way to feed ruminants at a regional level, especially as such a sector is likely to be part of a circular economy approach. By-products from plant production, especially fruit and vegetables, have a particularly high potential for use in animal rations. Many other types of residues from processing industries could also be used, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

Given the global demand of proteins predicted for 2050, a transition of our current agricultural model is required. An agroecological model proposes to meet these needs while producing with ecological foresight, but also considering social and economic issues. Livestock rearing in order to meet protein needs is where agroecological principles and the more industrial accepted term of sustainable intensification overlap in certain areas. Multiple definitions of sustainable intensification have been proposed, however, many have a focus on an increase in productivity on already cultivated land while reducing environmental degradation and sparing natural habitats from agricultural expansion. Animal products, as demonstrated within this review, can contribute to a global diet within a limitation of 11–23 g of protein/person/day through agroecological practices. Animal protein can be included if livestock are fed only on pasture, waste or by-products; no scenario exists in which livestock could continue to be fed on human-edible crops. Agroecological practices are already being used by smallholders globally, however, barriers exist to scaling up and out these practices, which require a shift in the policy framework to value and transfer the knowledge of agroecological farmers and increase their access to public resources such as infrastructures. As currently both large-scale agri-industry and smallholders provide for the global population, a strategy that includes both could be favoured. Coupling the upscaling of agroecological practices used by smallholders and transitioning intensive agriculture towards an agroecological model using sustainable intensification as a bridge to implement agroecological practices could help ensure global protein requirements in 2050.