Poultry meat and egg production are crucial in feeding humanity within planetary boundaries. Chicken is a high-quality meat, low in saturated fat and high in unsaturated fatty acid. Eggs are a complete and nutritious food, rich in vitamins, minerals, and proteins. Together they constitute a popular protein source for billions of people worldwide – being accessible and affordable for many – and as populations grow and incomes rise, demand for poultry and eggs will continue to rise. It is thus imperative to understand the progress and identify opportunities to further improve the sustainability of poultry production.
Pressure for change
Measured against the international treaty on climate change (the Paris Agreement) current food production is already transgressing planetary boundaries, and it is recognized that fundamental change is required on many fronts.
The drive for sustainable food is manifesting itself throughout the value chain, with a strong pull coming from investors, retailers, and consumers.
Financial institutions, for example, are looking to develop net zero loan portfolios; food retailers are making science-based commitments to reduce their Scope 3 emissions; and consumers, concerned about their own impact on the environment, want to know more about the products they buy and make informed choices
All these factors compel poultry producers and feed millers to reduce their environmental footprints – before regulatory requirements are factored into the mix – but this also offers many value-adding opportunities.
Over the past five decades, global poultry meat production has grown significantly:
This represents an increase of more than 800%. This means that poultry meat production is the fastest-growing animal product1. It has now reached the highest proportion (35.44%) among all meat types in 2020 (FAOSTAT, 2022). This growth is due to factors like affordability and superior nutritional quality.
Asia has contributed the largest, 41.6%, to this growth. This represents an absolute growth increase of 121.9 million tons between 1970 and 2020. This correlates with the rising population and income trends in the region.
In terms of sustainability, poultry meat and egg production stand out. Poultry are one of the most efficient converters of feed into valuable, affordable protein that meets consumer demand and can be farmed in all parts of the world.
Evolution of sustainability in poultry production
Compared to grazing animals, poultry do not produce significant amounts of the greenhouse gas, methane, during digestion. There have also been significant technological advances and improved animal husbandry. This has resulted in significant reductions in the per-kilo environmental impact of poultry and eggs.
Between the years 1965 and 20102 , improvements in background systems and bird performance significantly reduced the environmental impacts and resource needs in U.S. poultry meat production.
Between 1965 and 2010, the environmental impacts linked with poultry production fell significantly. Per 1000kg (about 2204.62 lb.) of weight, this resulted in:
While resource-related impacts also decreased significantly per 1000kg (about 2204.62 lb.) of weight:
A similar study3 looked at egg production in the United States between1960 and 2010. It also found significant reductions in the environmental impact. In this same period, it noted that egg production increased 27%:
Both studies attributed these improvements to technological advances, such as crop production improvements that resulted in higher yields for the feed and improved animal husbandry that resulted in enhanced bird performance and a higher feed conversion ratio.
Feed accounts 50-80% of the total environmental footprint of poultry meat and eggs
Inputs and outputs
To fully understand the sustainability of poultry, we need to analyze the full lifecycle of the production systems. This includes nutrition, emissions management, waste reduction, animal health, production efficiency, and housing practices. In terms of environmental performance, key contributors include feed raw material (crop) and feed production, the farming process including feed utilization, harvest yield and manure management and to a lesser extent energy use.
In the production process, one main input in terms of both cost and environmental impact is poultry feed. Feed is a major contributor to poultry sustainability because of how the crops are grown, requiring water, fertilizers, and pesticides and changes in land use. For that reason, feed accounts for 50–60% of total egg and broiler production costs, and anywhere from 50-80% of the total environmental footprint of poultry products.
Sustainable poultry production depends heavily on measures that actively reduce the environmental impact of feed at every stage of its journey, from production through to digestion to excretion.
Feeding birds to meet their nutritional needs reduces nutrient overflow into manure, cutting environmental impacts.
Regarding outputs: effective waste management prevents emissions into the atmosphere. It includes recycling litter as fertilizer and optimizing nitrogen use. Energy efficiency in housing, along with the use of solar panels and renewables, further enhances sustainability. Additionally, sustainable practices extend to transport and the slaughtering process in meat production.
Measuring progress to create opportunities
Measurement of these inputs and outputs is critical in building a rigorous life cycle analysis. Accurate, primary data is needed to guide improvements throughout the full production system. It includes factors like resource use, waste, and greenhouse gases along with other emissions such as ammonia. To catalyze significant advancements in environmental performance, independent, science-based guidance is indispensable.
Having a clear understanding of the farm´s environmental footprint is a good business diagnostic: a large footprint is often associated with inefficiency. The poultry industry can reduce its ecological footprint by adopting clear and measurable strategies. For example, it can optimize feed and nutrients and improve feed conversion. Better efficiency improves the sustainability and profitability of poultry production.
In the end, sustainability improvements rely on informed decision-making. This in turn is guided by robust data analysis, correct, credible measurement, and a commitment to improvement.
Interventions throughout the value chain
Reducing the environmental impact of animal protein requires multiple interventions, especially during farming. Scientifically grounded nutrition and lifetime performance programs have the power to improve welfare, yield and farm efficiency—with a direct effect on reducing the environmental footprint.
For example, this is seen when reducing replacement rates and increasing the lay cycle in layers. Feed enzymes and eubiotics can boost nutrient utilization and feed conversion ratios (FCR), improving performance and reducing direct emissions. Effective manure storage and treatment also helps shrink production’s environmental footprint.
Production systems vary enormously, however. Country averages may help sketch an overall picture and show a general direction of travel, but emissions reduction must be practiced farm by farm, and complex by complex. It is essential to deploy interventions that can be tailored to each farm’s realities.
More efficient food processing, along with measures to cut food loss and waste, also have an important part to play in reducing the footprint of the final product consumed.
Reductions in food waste can be helped by extending the shelf-life of products by improving the inherent quality of the animal protein at farm level through vitamin nutrition, as well as using bio-preservatives and smart packaging during the processing stage.
In the meat sector, for example, the inclusion of vitamin E at adequate levels in the diet improves the product’s natural antioxidant status, extends shelf-life by 3–6 days and delays production of ‘off’ flavors by 8–9 days following storage. Data from WRAP, a UK non-profit organization targeting food loss and waste reported that 146,000 tons of meat products were thrown away each year by consumers, of which 31% were due to not being used in time. Improving the antioxidant status of the meat and extending the shelf life would significantly help reduce such wastage and further improve the sustainability of meat production.
Precision nutrition and alternative feed raw materials
Much can be done at the macro feed raw material level to reduce the overall emissions associated with livestock farming. Precision nutrition and feed additives allow for more optimized nutrition and lower protein diets, thereby reducing not only the feed carbon footprint but also on-farm emissions of manure nitrogen and its reactive forms.
Using feed raw materials that lead to less change in land use along with alternative feed ingredients and co-products with inherently lower environmental impacts balanced with precision micronutrition lead to significantly reduced environmental footprints. Alternative feed ingredients have the added benefit of lowering the industry’s reliance on human-edible grains which aids the transition to more sustainable food systems.
Prospects for the future
Feed has the greatest environmental impact in poultry and egg production. Addressing this via greater use of circular feed raw materials and alternative ingredients, combined with gains in feed utilization is crucial in improving the industry's environmental footprint. There are significant opportunities for further sustainability improvements that also deliver tangible economic benefits, but key to all of this is accurate and credible measurement of the environmental impacts to enable the industry to make conscious, fact-based decisions The good news is that the industry and value chain can already do this by adopting and building on the best current practices and technologies. This helps the environment. It also creates opportunities for poultry farmers, producers, retailers, and consumers.
16 April 2024
