Restorative land use and biodi- versity practices is one of the Feed Compass principles.
report, which formed the foundation for the project. Then we organised workshops, went to several feed conferences and raised the profile of the issue. Since then we have engaged with feed innovators, producers and food retailers to work to identify challenges and opportunities to scale and we have built a collaboration between a number of European based actors in the feed sector such as Evonik, but also parties like Ahold Delhaize and Calysta. Feed Compass aims to find better ways of feeding farmed animals and fish that reduces envi- ronmental impact on land and sea, releases land for cultiva- tion of other foods and frees up high-quality plant protein for human consumption,” Mitchell explains. But why the sudden focus on animal feed? Mr Mitchell: “We believe that animal feed has been the hidden part of the sustainability puzzle and significant changes can be made by looking at feed in- gredients and their effect on the total agri-food chain. Within agriculture, animal feed is a defining issue across the food sector. What we choose to feed livestock matters because it relates to how we manage half of the agricultural land on the planet. In our oceans, a large volume of wild catch is trans- formed into fish meal for use in animal feed. At the same time, the feed chain has always been typically focused on ani- mal nutrition, health, welfare and feed efficiency. Efficiency gains are a form of making food production more sustaina- ble, but we are missing out on the long term costs and effects here. Think of soil depletion. If we continue like this, how many harvests can we still get from these soils? Within Feed Compass we therefore want to take a more robust and holis- tic evaluation to provide insights and identify areas to focus,
10 ▶ ALL ABOUT FEED | Volume 27, No. 3, 2019
guide decision making and enable top-line comparison be- tween different feed ingredients. We want to help companies choose for future-fit animal feed that suits their business best,” says Dr Mitchell.
Using impact tools Luckily, many companies are already making progress to- wards ‘future-fit’ animal feed. A growing number are con- scious of supply chain risks, and focus on addressing issues such as deforestation through certification or other tools. Mc- Donald’s for example has committed itself to ensure no soy from deforested land by 2020. Others are investing in new, in- novative feed alternatives that require less land, are more wa- ter-efficient and have a smaller greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) footprint – in particular by sourcing alternative pro- teins such as insects, algae and seaweed. “But more knowl- edge on the real (long term) impacts of feed and at the same time, more collaboration, is needed,” Dr Mitchell says. Accord- ing to her, there is no method of comparing how sustainable different types of feed are, across environmental, economic and social (the more long-term effects so to say). In other words, can we measure what these long-term effects are of using certain feed crops on soil depletion in the future for in- stance? The Feed Compass team is therefore developing an easy-to-use framework that will help companies to compare different types of feed and guide purchasing decisions. Dr Mitchell: “We’ve partnered with the University of Minnesota in the US to identify metrics and databases to underpin sus- tainability evaluation of feedstocks. As we further develop
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