As one can imagine, the increasing demand for food and resources due to the rising and rapid growth of the population is a severe threat to world sustainability. In fact, our population of 7.9 billion is growing at an alarming rate of 1.05% per year. This means our resources are continuously depleting without a chance of being replenished. As a result, we need to use all possible means to find solutions to keep the environment safe, protect world biodiversity, avoid deforestation, ensure sufficient water supply, and to use all other available resources economically and efficiently.
As a result of the increasing world population, the need for protein consumption is also increasing dramatically. Ruminants are crucial for fulfilling the increasing demands on high-quality animal protein, milk, and meat. Intriguingly, ruminants are the highest land occupying animals worldwide and are the primary source of protein for people living in developing areas, especially in less fertile or in desert areas.
It is crucial to find sustainable food resources for these animals. We need to ensure sustainable intensification by making economical use of our limited resources, which will safeguard food safety and security. What is more is that we need to consider essential and effective strategies for sustainable feeding and intensification of animals.
Take the amino acid for example – using this to supplement diets can have an incredible impact on animal growth. Increasing evidence shows animals can’t synthesize essential amino acids and these need to be supplemented through their diets.
That’s why at Kemin we strongly believe in precision feeding whereby additives and nutrients can help efficient production and reduce raw material use, therefore leading to overall decreased CO emissions. Precision feeding can improve nutrient use, development, growth, reproduction, and milk production.
Our work at Kemin is also in line with the European Union’s sustainability policies. We’re working towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, part of the 2030 Agenda (adopted at the Sustainable Development Summit 2015). Additionally, European countries are committed to fulfilling the UN’s 2030 Agenda by means of the European ‘Green Deal’ which focuses on making Europe the first climate-neutral continent.
Not only do we use the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as a guideline to determine our focus areas and responsibilities. We’re also focusing our sustainable action using a triple-bottom-line approach that encompasses three overlapping areas:
We see these areas as three important lenses that provide the framework we use to measure the impact of our efforts. Each lens includes both an internal and external scope.
The internal scope addresses, for example, how we can improve our internal operations, sourcing and production processes. The external scope looks at how our solutions can sustainably transform lives, animal welfare, the environment and our customers’ operations, to name a few.
Enhancing sustainability and improving protein absorption must be at the forefront of operations to fulfill the needs of the world population. We need to take the initiative in reconsidering our traditional practices for intensification and thus a sustainable world.
That said, without data we cannot formulate a plan for sustainability going forward. And at Kemin we believe that data-driven statistics can fuel our knowledge and therefore our feed strategies going forward and in making the world more sustainable.
Want to learn more on how we see a cost-effective and sustainable animal production? Visit our webpage!
