The European beef sector has accepted that sustainability is no longer an option, but an essential condition for ensuring its future viability
In a context of growing environmental, social and economic demands, the European beef sector has accepted that sustainability is no longer an option, but an essential condition for ensuring its future viability. Faced with increasingly polarised discourse that reduces the debate to a simple ‘meat yes or meat no’, the reality of livestock systems — especially in countries such as Spain — is much more complex, nuanced and dynamic.
Due to the climatic, geographical and structural conditions shared by Mediterranean countries such as Spain, Italy and Portugal, they have developed a mixed production model that combines extensive grazing on natural pastures (on natural pastures or dehesas, often in areas of high ecological value) with a final phase of intensive fattening in technified feedlots.
This combination not only allows for the efficient use of natural resources and reduces pressure on pastoral ecosystems, but also offers substantial improvements in animal welfare, meat quality and a reduction in the environmental footprint per kilo produced. In addition, it provides greater stability to the system from an economic and logistical point of view, strengthening its international competitiveness.
Far from the idealised image that many citizens have of “sustainable” production — understood exclusively as extensive and traditional — this integrated model demonstrates that sustainability and efficiency are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary: it is precisely this complementarity between systems that allows us to move towards a more resilient, circular and climate-responsible model.
The path to carbon neutrality, in line with the objectives of the European Green Deal and the Farm to Fork Strategy, involves strengthening these synergies and extending good practices — many of which are already in place — throughout the entire production chain. Spain is not starting from scratch: it is starting from a solid foundation with leadership capacity.
Mixed production model
The mixed production model practised in Mediterranean countries such as Spain, Italy and Portugal, which combines extensive farming (on natural pastures or dehesas, often in areas of high ecological value) with a final phase of intensive fattening in technified feedlots, allows these countries to move towards a more resilient, circular and climate-responsible model.
In its aim to align itself with the objectives of the European Green Deal, the Farm to Fork Strategy and the EU’s 2050 Carbon Neutrality target, the European beef sector has been undergoing significant improvements and a profound technical evolution of the production system as a whole for years, although the transformation that has always been carried out in these Mediterranean countries in the beef cattle fattening phase, with the help of science, is particularly noteworthy.
Specifically, in the case of Spain, all these improvements in production have always been carried out with the support of prestigious research and scientific institutions such as the Remedia Network, INIA-CSIC, agricultural universities, LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) methodologies applied specifically to the beef sector in the European context, etc.
Likewise, and with a commitment to continuous improvement, the Interprofessional Organisation of Spanish Beef, Provacuno, commissioned the scientific community to draft Codes of Good Practice that producers could apply at different stages of the chain to improve their production systems and thus reduce emissions, ensure soil preservation and improvement, and increase animal welfare.
Producing more with less
Some of these measures would be aimed at guaranteeing one of the keys to sustainability, which is ‘producing more with less’. To this end, recommendations could be applied that would reduce fattening time, which would mean lower consumption of water, energy and feed per animal; conversion rates* would be improved thanks to genetic improvements and livestock feed management through ‘precision nutrition’ **; or enteric emissions could be reduced by formulating diets using adjusted feed, natural additives or agricultural by-products (which have not only proven effective in improving emissions, but also represent a circular economy process through the use of waste products).
Other measures would enable a reduction in emissions and an improvement in soils thanks to the management of slurry and manure in both the extensive and intensive phases. From controlled composting, which would transform what was previously waste into a high-value agricultural resource, to improvements in the form and timing of application of these composts, which would ensure improved soil fertility with adequate doses without polluting water or the atmosphere, to improved storage systems that would reduce emissions in this phase by up to 70%.
Likewise, thanks to the numerous scientific publications on the subject, the sector has also worked on carbon capture in soils and pastures, taking advantage of the enormous potential to sequester atmospheric carbon in agricultural and livestock soils. To this end, rotational and planned grazing strategies are being applied that favour plant regeneration, water infiltration and increase soil organic matter; techniques for revegetating degraded areas and sowing plant cover on mixed plots; and the promotion of silvopastoralism and agroforestry systems such as extensive pastureland, which combine livestock production with native trees, adding permanent carbon sinks.
Technological development is also proving to be a great ally in the transformation of the sector. Many feedlots and farms are incorporating technological improvements that reduce both energy consumption and indirect emissions. For example, the use of solar energy for air conditioning, pumping and auxiliary processes; the use of automated feeding systems, which reduce waste and improve efficiency; and the digitisation of management (tracking apps, sensors, management software) to monitor consumption, emissions, animal performance and welfare in real time.
All these measures, and many others that are being implemented, are beginning to show results. According to a report published in February 2024 by a group of scientists in the journal Animal***, the carbon footprint of beef in Spain per kilo of meat produced is already 66% lower than the global average, when compared with FAO data, and its water footprint is one third of the global average.
It is obvious that there is still a long way to go, but it is clear that only with the help of science can the EU’s 2050 Carbon Neutrality Target become a reality.
* Conversion rate: This is the amount of feed an animal needs to gain one kilogram of weight. The lower this rate, the more efficient the animal is and the fewer resources it consumes.
** Precision nutrition: This is a way of feeding livestock by adapting exactly what each animal needs, without excess or deficiency. This improves their health, reduces waste and causes less pollution.
