Most feed given to livestock consists of byproducts unfit for human consumption
Evidence shows that a significant portion of livestock feed consists of human-edible crops like cereals rather than byproducts, refuting the claim.
The claim states that most livestock feed consists of byproducts unfit for human consumption. However, multiple papers (such as [3], [8], and [11]) point out that a large share of animal feed is made of cereals and human-edible crops (about one-third of global cereal production). Papers like [5] and [8] discuss shifting livestock to byproducts and grass as a future sustainable strategy, which confirms that current practices still heavily rely on human-edible feed. Therefore, the claim is refuted.
Peter Alexander, Calum Brown, Almut Arneth, John Finnigan, Dominic Moran, Mark Rounsevell. Losses, inefficiencies and waste in the global food system. 2017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2017.01.014
States that roughly one-third of total cereal production is currently used in animal feed, meaning a substantial portion of feed consists of human-edible grains rather than byproducts.
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H.H.E. van Zanten, Mario Herrero, Ollie van Hal, Elin Röös, Adrian Müller, Tara Garnett, Pierre Gerber, Christian Schader, I.J.M. de Boer. Defining a land boundary for sustainable livestock consumption. 2018. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14321
Discusses livestock eating human-edible biomass like grains, noting that circular systems would reduce this competition, which implies it is not currently the majority practice.
Christian Schader, Adrian Müller, Nadia El‐Hage Scialabba, Judith Hecht, Anne Isensee, Karl‐Heinz Erb, Pete Smith, H.P.S. Makkar, Peter Klocke, Florian Leiber, Patrizia Schwegler, Matthias Stolze, U. Niggli. Impacts of feeding less food-competing feedstuffs to livestock on global food system sustainability. 2015. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2015.0891
Explores scenarios where animals are fed only grassland and byproducts, demonstrating that this is a departure from current practices where livestock consume significant human-edible concentrate feeds.
H.P.S. Makkar. Review: Feed demand landscape and implications of food-not feed strategy for food security and climate change. 2017. https://doi.org/10.1017/s175173111700324x
Notes that approximately one-third of global cereal production is used as animal feed, contradicting the idea that most feed is already unfit for human consumption.
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