Estimating low-opportunity-cost feed

Abstract

arising from Q. Fang et al. Nature Food https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00813-x (2023)

Global demand for animal feed, driven by growing meat consumption, has resulted in deforestation, carbon emissions and biodiversity loss, underscoring the need to improve the environmental sustainability of feed production¹. Fang and colleagues² developed a linear feed allocation optimization model and estimated that feeding more low-opportunity-cost products (LCFs), such as food waste and by-products, to animals in China could have substantial land-use-related environmental benefits. While their study contributes to advance research on sustainable feed alternatives, we question some of the key assumptions underpinning their model and note important discrepancies between some of their predictions and observations.