DGfZ-Preis 2023 (Masterarbeiten) Ermittlung des Aufkommens an nicht-essbarer Biomasse aus dem Agrar- und Verarbeitungssektor Deutschlands

Farm animals play an essential role in agricultural systems. In the context of increasing awareness of the consequences of intensive agriculture, livestock are perceived as food competitors, but it is often not considered that most of the biomass produced in agriculture is not edible for humans. This inevitably occurring biomass generates high-quality food through feeding to live stock without accompanying food-feed-competition. Therefore, the aim of this research was to quantify the amount of edible and non-edible biomass produced annually in Germany's agricultural and processing sector, assuming different cultivation/utilization scenarios. Furthermore, the food competition of the feeds used in 2019/20 was calculated based on the allocation of human edible fractions. During the observation period 2012-17, this resulted in approximately 38-57 million t dry matter (DM) of edible biomass and 115-134 million t DM of non-edible biomass annually in Germany. Food competition existed for 25-37% of the feed used in 2019/20 (20.3-30.3 million t DM) whereas 63-75% of the feed (51.7-61.7 million t DM) did not compete with human nutrition. Because livestock can act as efficient recyclers of non-edible biomass and turn it into high-quality food for humans, their role will persist in future agricultural systems.