Untapped power of food system by-products to increase global food supply

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This study analyzed global food system by-products and found they could potentially replace 11% of animal feed, increasing global food supply by 11-17% in kcal and 11-15% in protein.

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The paper investigates how increasing the use of food system by-products and residues as animal feed could reduce competition with human food. The authors compile a harmonised global material flow database spanning crop, livestock, and aquaculture production, then model substituting feedstuffs that currently include cereals, whole fish, vegetable oils, and pulses (about 11% of total global feed) with available by-products while accounting for animal nutritional requirements. They find this replacement could free food-grade feeds for human consumption and increase global food supply by 11–17% in kcal (6–11% without crop residues) and 11–15% in protein (9–14%). The main limitation explicitly noted is that this is a preprint and it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. The paper does not explicitly discuss endometriosis or adenomyosis; it was included in the corpus via a keyword match in the upstream search index.

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Abstract

Abstract Many animal feeds compete for resources with human food production. The current use of food system by-products and residues as feed could potentially be increased to reduce the competition. We gathered a harmonised global food system material flow database for crop, livestock and aquaculture production including the availability of food system by-products. This allowed us to analyse the potential to replace the food-competing feedstuff, here cereals, whole fish, vegetable oils and pulses, that currently account for 11% of total feed used globally, with available food system by-products. While considering the nutritional requirements in animal production, we found that the replacement could free food-grade feeds for human consumption and increase the current food supply in kcal by 11-17% (6-11% if the use of crop residues is not accounted for) and in terms of protein 11-15% (9-14%). Our results thus indicate that the increased feed use of by-products has considerable potential, particularly when used in combination with other measures, in the much needed transition towards more sustainable and circular food systems.
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Untapped power of food system by-products to increase global food supply | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Untapped power of food system by-products to increase global food supply Vilma Sandström, Anna Chrysafi, Marjukka Lamminen, Max Troell, and 6 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-990009/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 19 Sep, 2022 Read the published version in Nature Food → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Many animal feeds compete for resources with human food production. The current use of food system by-products and residues as feed could potentially be increased to reduce the competition. We gathered a harmonised global food system material flow database for crop, livestock and aquaculture production including the availability of food system by-products. This allowed us to analyse the potential to replace the food-competing feedstuff, here cereals, whole fish, vegetable oils and pulses, that currently account for 11% of total feed used globally, with available food system by-products. While considering the nutritional requirements in animal production, we found that the replacement could free food-grade feeds for human consumption and increase the current food supply in kcal by 11-17% (6-11% if the use of crop residues is not accounted for) and in terms of protein 11-15% (9-14%). Our results thus indicate that the increased feed use of by-products has considerable potential, particularly when used in combination with other measures, in the much needed transition towards more sustainable and circular food systems. Environmental Policy circularity sustainable food systems livestock feed aquaculture feed byproducts Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files SIdata.xlsx Supplementary Data Set 7 SupplementaryInformation.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 19 Sep, 2022 Read the published version in Nature Food → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. 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