Overview of Technology Options for Industrial Systems

Main environmental problems:

- Emissions of nitrate and phosphorus to soils and water (resulting in pollution of ground and surface water);
- Emissions of ammonia and odours to the atmosphere;
- Emissions greenhouse gases to the atmosphere (methane and nitrous oxide)
- Accumulation of heavy metals in soils;
- High consumption of fossil energy (CO2 emission, global warming).
- Loss of biodiversity in farm animals
- Depletion of fresh water resources
- Intensified agricultural productio
- Waste water production from product processing

Starting points for the design of technology and policy options:

- Improvement of the efficiency (feed conversion). The industrial system is relatively efficient, it requires less input per unit of output (feed per kg of product) and results in lower nutrient excretion per unit of product (manure per kg of product);

- Improving growth rates (daily gain). Improved growth per day and/or a higher muscle/fat ratio results in reduce maintenance requirements and a higher percentage of useful product. The same amount of input will produce more output.

- mprovements in manure management: Losses could be reduced considerably by improving handling, storage and application of manure.

- Reduction of concentrated production: The high concentration of production contributes to the high efficiency at animal level but also to the major environmental problems related to industrial systems:

- Reduction/Prevention of manure surplus per unit land area. Restoring the imbalance between (feed-)crop production and animal production. Improved manure management and preventing regional manure surpluses (manure per ha) will reduce emissions (to soil, water and atmosphere) and the need of transportation and further processing of manure

- Reduction of fossil fuel consumption. Concentrated production by definition induces a need for transport of inputs and outputs.

- Reduction of animal disease challenges and food safety problems. Concentrated production induces high disease pressure, while the immune status of the animal is reduced, resulting in a higher dependence on veterinary products. Heavy metals in feed reduce the disease challenge and increase feed efficiency but have a polluting effect.

- Reduction of offal and wastewater from the animal product processing industry: Improved recovering and utilization of offal for by-products and economising the use of fresh water.

- Increased use of waste and by-products: if waste and by-products from the agro-processing industry which would otherwise be an environmental burden could be converted into animal feed, this would reduce the total environmental burden

- Development and introduction of Good Management Practices (GMP): For many environmental problems in the industrial production system solutions are available and could be implemented through development and implementation of Good Management Practices (prescription of procedures), e.g. a sort of ISO-2000 norm and certificate.

Trade-offs in the industrial system:

- Fossil energy consumption versus feed efficiency: the high efficiency in feed conversion at animal level goes togetherwith a higher consumption of fossil energy (per unit of product) at systems level;

- High quality feedstuffs versus low quality feedstuffs: a high efficiency at animal level leads to an increase competition between food and feed at system level and possibly a reduced use of waste and by-products;

- Large-scale intensive units versus small-scale ‘extensive’ units: intensive units contribute to high efficiency at animal level but induce animal welfare problems and abundant use of veterinary products.

Proceed to matrix of policy options and systems

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