Paving the Way for Sustainable European Livestock Farming

Background and Objective

The European livestock sector is a significant part of the economy, generating substantial production value, providing jobs and income. It contributes to vibrant rural areas and delivers important ecosystem services. Furthermore, the sector produces a variety of valuable animal-based products that help to meet nutritional needs and ensure food security. However, the livestock sector is also responsible for a number of negative external effects, including greenhouse gas emissions and nutrient leakage, and is under increasing pressure due to ongoing concerns about animal welfare.

Currently, the European livestock sector is facing major challenges: It must remain economically competitive while meeting demanding ecological and social sustainability targets. As the sector plays an important role in ensuring food security, providing social benefits and ecosystem services, there is a strong rationale for supporting it in overcoming these challenges.

The STEP UP project aims to establish the evidence-based platform outlining the impacts and externalities of animal farming. Supported by model-based analysis, transition pathways to more sustainable and diverse production systems will be identified. The collated knowledge will help define policy measures that optimise the role of livestock in meeting the nutritional and societal needs of the European and global population.

Approach

To achieve this, the Thünen Institute is collaborating with 15 other partners from across Europe. Our main responsibility is to provide a model-based assessment of scenarios that showcase the transition of European livestock production systems towards ones that are more economically, ecologically, and socially sustainable.

The Thünen Institute leads the modelling work applying two well-established models AGMEMOD and CAPRI. While AGMEMOD is primary used to make year-by-year projections on EU member state level, CAPRI will be applied to show regional effects on the NUTS 2 level. Additionally, AGMEMOD will be enhanced to better account for the diversity of livestock production systems in the EU.

We are also involved in the work of developing of scenario narratives as well as the overall scenarios assessment using the concept of the Safe and Just Operating Space.

Links and Downloads

More info on the project can be found at:

https://horizon-stepup.eu/