Study on Livestock scenarios for Belgium in 2050

This study has been commissioned by Greenpeace Belgium in 2017 with the aim to open a public debate on the environmental consequences of current livestock practices and food consumption patterns in Belgium, and on existing alternative production systems, based on scientific data.
The study is based on a prospective approach: it starts with the description of the current livestock sector and highlights the diversity of production systems for the five main livestock productions. Several scenarios for the development of the livestock sector towards 2050 are then developed and their consequences in terms of production, consumption and environmental impacts are assessed.
The five main livestock productions in Belgium are bovine meat, pork, poultry meat, eggs, and milk. In the current situation (2015), national production largely overpasses national demand, with self-sufficiency ratios (ratio of production vs. net apparent consumption) of 158% for beef, 261% for pork, 158% for poultry meat, 109% for eggs, and 135% for milk (Table 2 and Figure 8). In terms of historical evolution, the sizes of the livestock populations have remained rather stable over the past ten years.