Summary
This study of the German Meat Production and Supply System highlights beef as not only the least energy efficient meat along the supply chain, but also the highest emitting at production stages. Using a Mass-Balance approach (utilizing dry matter mass and energy balance) to map the efficiency of meat, poultry, and pork against each other and then against plant foods, the study confirms the need for shifts towards plant-based food in consumption. It also highlights the importance of mitigation strategies on the production side in order to minimize meat production’s environmental impact. A strength of the study is a whole-chain approach to assessing efficiency, as well as an account and comparison of various different mitigation strategies including trade pattern shifts, food waste reduction, dietary choice shift, and process optimization. Limitations of the study include potential inaccuracies and gaps in statistical data as provided by country, necessitating bounds of uncertainty within the study. Overall, finding potential for a 32% decrease in emissions with a 50% decrease in animal product consumption, ideal action as per the study is that of a consumption side shift towards plant foods.
Meat production and consumption contribute significantly to environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These emissions can be reduced via various strategies ranging from production efficiency improvement to process optimization, food waste reduction, trade pattern change, and diet structure change. On the basis of a material flow analysis approach, we mapped the dry matter mass and energy balance of the meat (including beef, pork, and poultry) supply chain in Germany and discussed the emission reduction potential of different mitigation strategies in an integrated and mass-balance consistent framework. Our results reaffirmed the low energy conversion efficiency of the meat supply chain (among which beef was the least efficient) and the high GHG emissions at the meat production stage. While diet structure change (either reducing the meat consumption or substituting meat by edible offal) showed the highest emissions reduction potential, eliminating meat waste in retailing and consumption and byproducts generation in slaughtering and processing were found to have profound effect on emissions reduction as well. The rendering of meat byproducts and waste treatment were modeled in detail, adding up to a net environmental benefit of about 5% of the entire supply chain GHG emissions. The combined effects based on assumed high levels of changes of important mitigation strategies, in a rank order considering the level of difficulty of implementation, showed that the total emission could be reduced by 43% comparing to the current level, implying a tremendous opportunity for sustainably feeding the planet by 2050.