The DOI matches its Crossref record; 44 of the 44 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Defining a land boundary for sustainable livestock consumption
Open accessAbstract
The need for more sustainable production and consumption of animal source food (ASF) is central to the achievement of the sustainable development goals: within this context, wise use of land is a core challenge and concern. A key question in feeding the future world is: how much ASF should we eat? We demonstrate that livestock raised under the circular economy concept could provide a significant, nonnegligible part (9–23 g/per capita) of our daily protein needs (~50–60 g/per capita). This livestock then would not consume human‐edible biomass, such as grains, but mainly convert leftovers from arable land and grass resources into valuable food, implying that production of livestock feed is largely decoupled from arable land. The availability of these biomass streams for livestock then determines the boundaries for livestock production and consumption. Under this concept, the competition for land for feed or food would be minimized and compared to no ASF, including some ASF in the human diet could free up about one quarter of global arable land. Our results also demonstrate that restricted growth in consumption of ASF in Africa and Asia would be feasible under these boundary conditions, while reductions in the rest of the world would be necessary to meet land use sustainability criteria. Managing this expansion and contraction of future consumption of ASF is essential for achieving sustainable nutrition security.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“in order for organic production to be a viable option for feeding the world, production and consumption of animalsource foods must be both significantly reduced and transformed to reduce the use of feeds which compete with food (Muller et al. 2018; van Zanten et al. 2018; Willett et al. 2019).”
From Delivering “less but better” meat in practice—a case study of a farm in agroecological transition (2022) · cites this paper as van Zanten et al. 2018
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“As it is undesirable to increase meat production from a sustainability perspective (Röös et al. 2017; van Zanten et al. 2018; Willett et al. 2019)”
From Delivering “less but better” meat in practice—a case study of a farm in agroecological transition (2022) · cites this paper as van Zanten et al. 2018
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Ruminant livestock can play a positive role in this regard by transforming inedible biomass into highly nutritious food, but only when limited to land that is unsuitable for cropping (so that arable land can be used for direct food production) or fed waste streams from food production (Mottet et al. 2017; van Zanten et al. 2018).”
From Delivering “less but better” meat in practice—a case study of a farm in agroecological transition (2022) · cites this paper as van Zanten et al. 2018
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Hence, ruminants can graze pastureland that is unsuitable for growing crops for human consumption, thus contributing to food security without competing for cropland (Van Zanten et al., 2018).”
From Time-dependent climate impact of beef production – can carbon sequestration in soil offset enteric methane emissions? (2022) · cites this paper as Van Zanten et al., 2018
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet
Steffen, W., Richardson, K., Rockström, J., Cornell, S. E., Fetzer, I., Bennett, E. M., Biggs, R., Carpenter, S. R., de Vries, W., de Wit, C. A., et al. (2015) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1259855 · Cited by 12,527
Food Security: The Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion People
Godfray, H. C. J., Beddington, J. R., Crute, I. R., Haddad, L., Lawrence, D., Muir, J. F., Pretty, J., Robinson, S., Thomas, S. M., & Toulmin, C. (2010) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1185383 · Cited by 11,943
Solutions for a cultivated planet
Foley, J. A., Ramankutty, N., Brauman, K. A., Cassidy, E. S., Gerber, J. S., Johnston, M., Mueller, N. D., O’Connell, C., Ray, D. K., West, P. C., et al. (2011) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature10452 · Cited by 8,476
Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity
Rockström, J., Steffen, W., Noone, K., Persson, Å., Chapin, F. S. I., Lambin, E., Lenton, T. M., Scheffer, M., Folke, C., Schellnhuber, H. J., et al. (2009) · Ecology and Society · doi:10.5751/es-03180-140232 · Cited by 7,187
Livestock's long shadow: environmental issues and options.
Steinfeld, H., Gerber, P., Wassenaar, T., Castel, V., Rosales, M., & de Haan, C. (2006) · Agritrop (Cirad) · Cited by 4,383
Self-citationWorld agriculture towards 2030/2050: the 2012 revisionPreprint
Alexandratos, N., & Bruinsma, J. (2012) · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · doi:10.22004/ag.econ.288998 · Cited by 3,192
Global diets link environmental sustainability and human health
Tilman, D., & Clark, M. (2014) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature13959 · Cited by 3,026
(2013) · Cited by 2,540
Self-citationSustainable Intensification in Agriculture: Premises and Policies
Garnett, T., Appleby, M. C., Balmford, A., Bateman, I. J., Benton, T. G., Bloomer, P., Burlingame, B., Dawkins, M., Dolan, L., Fraser, D., et al. (2013) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1234485 · Cited by 1,741
Self-citationComparing environmental impacts for livestock products: A review of life cycle assessments
de Vries, M., & de Boer, I. J. M. (2009) · Livestock Science · doi:10.1016/j.livsci.2009.11.007 · Cited by 1,237
Research works printed but not linked: 5
- FAO, 2017, FAOSTAT: Food balance sheets
- Garnett T., 2014, What is a sustainable healthy diet?
- T. Garnett E. Röös D. C. Little 2015 Food Climate Research Network (FCRN) Oxford UK
- Parker R., 2012, Review of life cycle assessment research on products derived from fisheries and aquaculture: A report for Seafish as part of the collective action to address greenhouse gas emissions in seafood
- Picard M., 1986, FAO animal production and health paper
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Regenerative agriculture – the soil is the base
Schreefel, L., Schulte, R. P. O., de Boer, I. J. M., Pas, A., & van Zanten, H. H. E. (2020) · Global Food Security · doi:10.1016/j.gfs.2020.100404 · Cited by 540
The EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy, sustainable, and just food systems
Rockström, J., Thilsted, S. H., Willett, W. C., Gordon, L. J., Herrero, M., Hicks, C. C., Mason-D’Croz, D., Rao, N., Springmann, M., Wright, E. C., et al. (2025) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(25)01201-2 · Cited by 621
Self-citationPrinciples, drivers and opportunities of a circular bioeconomy
Muscat, A., de Olde, E. M., Ripoll-Bosch, R., Van Zanten, H. H. E., Metze, T. A. P., Termeer, C. J. A. M., van Ittersum, M. K., & de Boer, I. J. M. (2021) · Nature Food · doi:10.1038/s43016-021-00340-7 · Cited by 403
The battle for biomass: A systematic review of food-feed-fuel competition
Muscat, A., de Olde, E. M., de Boer, I. J. M., & Ripoll‐Bosch, R. (2019) · Global Food Security · doi:10.1016/j.gfs.2019.100330 · Cited by 408
The potential of future foods for sustainable and healthy diets
Parodi, A., Leip, A., de Boer, I. J. M., Slegers, P. M., Ziegler, F., Temme, E. H. M., Herrero, M., Tuomisto, H. L., Valin, H., van Middelaar, C. E., et al. (2018) · Nature Sustainability · doi:10.1038/s41893-018-0189-7 · Cited by 412
Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Van Zanten, H. H. E., Herrero, M., Van Hal, O., Röös, E., Muller, A., Garnett, T., Gerber, P. J., Schader, C., & De Boer, I. J. M.
- Affiliations
- Animal Production Systems Group Wageningen University & Research Wageningen the Netherlands
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU)
- Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SE)
- Research Institute of Organic Agriculture Frick Switzerland
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (IT)
- Forschungsinstitut für Biologischen Landbau (CH)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Global Change Biology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2018-06-11
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 4185-4194
- ISSN
- 1354-1013 (ISSN-L)
- 1365-2486
- OpenAlex
- W2804166887
- Cited by
- 406
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 51 · 2025: 57 · 2024: 51 · 2023: 54 · 2022: 65 · 2021: 63 · 2020: 30 · 2019: 28 · 2018: 7
- FWCI
- 3.38
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Global Change Biology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Epsilon Open Archive (Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet biblioteket (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences)) (acceptedVersion)
- Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Repository for Publications and Research Data (ETH Zurich) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- ETH Zürich Research Collection (cc-by)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Agriculture and Rural Development Research
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Agricultural and Food Production Studies
- Keywords
- animal source foods, livestock consumption, sustainable land use, circular economy, arable land, protein requirements, Sustainable Development Goals
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Animal Feed, Animal Husbandry, Cattle, Diet, Food Supply, Livestock
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
