Feeding animals home-grown instead of imported feed could save rainforest and wildlife.
Friends of the Earth has commissioned the Royal Agricultural College (RAC) to:
• Explore the potential for home-grown alternatives to soy
• Assess the effect of specific policies relating to animal feed.

Livestock farming is one of the most significant contributors to global environmental damage – yet in the UK we are doing little about it. Central to the problem is our reliance on imported soy for animal feeds.
This comes mostly from South America, where rainforests and grasslands are being ripped up to make way for soy plantations or for beef ranching which has been displaced by soy plantations.
This report draws on new research that shows the barriers to replacing soy are not so much the nutritional needs of animals or what can be grown in the UK – but a lack of policy and market incentives for farmers to change.
It also outlines solutions that would ensure a thriving UK livestock sector at the same time as reducing its massive global impacts.

Livestock farming globally is responsible for 18 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions.
• Livestock farming in the UK is dependent on soy in animal feeds.
The expansion of soy plantations for animal feeds in Europe is helping to drive the destruction of South American rainforests and other important habitats.
• There are many alternative animal feed crops that would meet the requirements of UK livestock.
• New research by the Royal Agricultural College (RAC) for Friends of the Earth shows that 50 per cent of soy meal currently used for animal feed in the UK could be directly replaced by home-grown alternatives. This would require 8 per cent of UK arable land.
• Our reliance on soy could be reduced further if meat and dairy consumption was reduced in line with healthy eating guidelines. Reduced consumption need not damage the UK livestock industry, and would allow farmers to get off the treadmill of intensive production.
• Some farmers are leading the way in finding alternatives to soy. But while prices remain low, most are unlikely to demand home-grown alternatives.
• There is an imminent threat to existing supplies of UK feeds because the subsidy paid to growers of protein crops is due to end in 2012.
• The Government should do more to support environmentally friendly
farming. It should switch the huge amount of taxpayers’ money that goes into intensive livestock production to sustainable farming.
• As well as policy and market incentives, there will be specific requirements for infrastructure, advice and further research to make transformation possible.
• The Government urgently needs to set out a strategy for reducing the global impacts of livestock production. It must ensure that it does not simply export problems elsewhere.

For more information on this report, visit www.foe.co.uk