Evaluation of the contribution of 16 European beef production systems to food security

Livestock production, and more particularly ruminants, is criticized for its low conversion efficiency of natural resources into edible food. The objectives this paper are to propose an evaluation the contribution food security different European cattle farms through three criteria: 1) production assessed by amount human-edible protein (HEP) energy (HEE) produced at farm level, 2) feed-food competition beef scale estimated in terms net land used, 3) affordability cost meat, energy. analysis based on 16 representative systems France, Belgium, Ireland, Italy Germany covers cow-calf systems, finishing dairy mixed dairy- with or without cash crops. results show that, producing both milk cereals have higher HEP HEE per hectare (up 370 kg 60,000 106J.ha?1) than specialized 50 1600 lower costs (approximately €6 kg?1 system €29 a cow-calf-fattener system). Beef almost all consumers. Results variable concerning efficiency. enterprises mostly producers but, order produce human these need be combined that consumers HEP. In most cases, cow-calf-finishing (between 0.6 0.7) but grass-based using very little concentrates co-products not humans producers. use area kilogram carcass major part non-tilled land, thus direct production. lowest meat live weight livestock unit (LU) year lowland which share between meat. Although efficient typically costs, some grassland stand out positively indicators. These pave way improvements security.