By Tom Johnston, MeatingPlace.com on 9/19/2017

Sometimes beef gets a bad rap for taking food away from humans. This article provides some information to the contrary.

Cattle raised for beef production play a key role in maintaining a sustainable food system, according to new research published by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.

The research, published in September’s issue of the journal Global Food Security, essentially counters claims that beef production consumes too much human-edible feed, finding that cattle are net contributors to the global protein supply, and concludes that “modest yield improvements” can reduce further land expansion for feed production.

FAO researchers created a global database of what livestock eat, finding that 86 percent of the feed the animals consume, most of it grasses grown on marginal lands, are not edible to humans.

This counters frequent claims that beef production requires a very high consumption of grain, — as much as 20 kg per 1 kg of beef produced. The researchers note that such high projections are based on feedlot beef production, which accounts for only 7 to 13 percent of global beef output. It does not apply to other forms of beef production that produce the remaining 87 to 93 percent of beef.

As cattle scarcely eat what would be edible to humans, FAO researchers found that 1 kg of protein in meat and milk only requires 0.6 kgs of protein from human food, and the protein in meat and milk has a higher nutritional quality than the protein in grain that cattle eat.

The research also found that livestock play a key role in preventing a likely environmental challenge. That is, they eat leftovers from human food, fiber and biofuels production.

“Livestock play, and will continue to play, a critical role in adding value to these residual products, a large share of which could otherwise be an environmental burden,” the study states.

Read the full study here: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211912416300013.