Land use
Crops are primarily grown for human consumption, and no agricultural land is used for the co-products resulting from the processing of these crops. In other words, co-products do not compete for farmland with human food. On the other hand, feeding crops grown for the feeding of livestock often uses land that could be used to grow crops directly for human consumption.
In turn, creating a competition for land between feeding livestock and feeding humans. In some countries, it is not only the competition between livestock and human, but also between livestock and wildlife, for example deforestation or excessive / irresponsible use of water. Utilising co-products as feed for livestock therefore reduces competition for land, water and nutrients.
For some products, is not possible to state with complete certainty that the land use is indeed zero. For brewer’s spent grains, for example, international calculation rules state that 1% of the land use relating to the cultivation of crops and the brewing of beer must be allocated to brewer’s spent grains as livestock feed.
