Livestock feed production is an example of the circular economy in action. Secondary resources that are not used in human food are included in feedstuffs, returning energy and nutrients to the food chain. However, there are opportunities for better valorisation of several by-products in feed to improve the sustainability and circularity of the EU food system.
Eight industry sector federations and stakeholder organisations including EFPRA have worked together to develop a catalogue of measures aimed at creating a supportive legislative environment that stimulates and increases feed circularity without compromising safety. We detail these proposals in a report, illustrated by a non-exhaustive list of examples of regulatory restrictions faced by the feed chain to access certain materials and which deserve, in our view, a re-examination of their justification.
This catalogue of measures has the potential to increase the use of different secondary nutrient streams in animal feed. These measures would reduce competition for land use with food production, reduce imports of feed materials and reduce livestock system net greenhouse gas emissions, whilst maintaining safety, traceability and farmer and consumer confidence. They would support an effective Nutrient Circular Economy, so contributing to food sovereignty, competitiveness and farm system resilience.
There are nine principles which should underpin the legislative framework supporting feed circularity:
- Feed & Food Safety must remain the overarching principle and the backbone of any circular feed policy. Safety must be backed-up where appropriate by traceability and responsibility.
- Science must be the basis for any prohibition of access to a feed resource.
- Coherence should be ensured between the different legal acts and policies and be based on the Waste Hierarchy and the Food & Waste Use Hierarchy.
- Coherence should be secured between the General Food Law, waste legislation, ABP regulation and other sectorial legislations (including end-of-waste status, supervision by authorities)
- Accelerate, harmonise and clarify conditions for delivery of “End-of-Waste” status.
- Discrepancies among Member States in the enforcement of the EU legislation should be minimised via EU guidance and administrative burden for operators to comply with EU feed legislation should be simplified without compromising feed safety.
- A methodology should be developed to measure feed circularity and allow operators to evaluate their practices.
- Existing food/feed and ABP legislation and other relevant legislation should be checked for its contribution to circularity and any impact assessment of new legal initiatives should include circularity as a key evaluation criterion.
- Easily actionable
Learn more about the steps needed to increase the circularity of EU Animal Feed in the EU Feed Circularity Catalogue and the Summary Document.