1. SUSTAINBEEF Co-definition and evaluation of SUSTAINable BEEF farming systems based on resources non edible by humans
Sylvain Hennart

2. Index Objective : presented and discussed various projects and associated problems and solutions: Learning processes involved in scientific and technical development which covered projects.
0. Project description and Preliminary results (information summarized from the poster)
Contribution to SusAn research objectives : Research and innovation on sustainable animal production co-funded in ERA-NET SusAn should address a number of high-level objectives, towards the development of Sustainable Animal Production systems in Europe
Research Impact on the 3 pillars of sustainability: Area 1 (‘Economy’): Improve the productivity, resilience and competitiveness of European Animal Production Area 2 (‘Environment’): Improve and manage resource use to reduce waste and enhance the environmental sustainability of European animal production Area 3 (‘Society’): Improve on-farm practices to enhance consumer acceptability and address societal challenges associated with animal welfare, product quality and safety, biodiversity and provision of ecosystem services
Transnational collaboration and will facilitate knowledge exchange, sharing of good practice and will transfer knowledge to practice through connections with important stakeholders in the animal production chain
Multi actor approach which will encourage input and draw effort from across the European scientific and technical communities, at the fundamental, strategic and applied levels to ensure involvement and participation from all relevant stakeholders along the whole value added chain
Cross-scale approach is an approach which takes into account the differences between scales with their specific properties e.g. farm, regional, national, European and global scale. It is expected that interactions between the levels is integrated in the development of innovations.
Dissemination and communication strategy Dissemination of results will contribute to exploitation by transforming knowledge produced in the research projects funded by the ERA-NET SusAn co-funded call and subsequent call(s) into solutions to current challenges for a sustainable European animal production.

3. Project description Problems addressed in the project Objectives
Reduced sustainability of beef farming systems in the EU due to
increased use of concentrate feeds
abandonment of grassland based systems
market developments – decrease of red meat demand
dependency on direct support to beef production
Controversy about animal productions
Environmental impact
Feed/food competition
Objectives
Develop and assess innovative ways to improve the sustainability of beef production systems by valorizing resources non-edible by humans

4. Preliminary results  
Selection and description of 20 innovations decreasing feed-food competition
13 farm-case studies
France
Belgium
Italy
Germany
42 indicators of sustainability according to fuzzy logic
Environmental
Social
Economic

5. Use of natural and non- or poorly renewable resources efficiently
Contribution to SusAn research objectives : Which is the contribution of your research to SusAn objectives  
To improve the competitiveness and resilience of the entire beef value chain
All actors of the value chain contribute to the innovations’ catalogue and to validation of scenarios
Use of natural and non- or poorly renewable resources efficiently
A better valorisation of permanent grassland and coproduct will decrease the use of resources edible by human (work hypothesis)

6. Contribution to SusAn research objectives : Which is the contribution of your research to SusAn objectives  
To make more efficient utilisation of feed, taking into account land use and quality to achieve an optimum balance between food and feed production
The aim of this project is to identify innovations reducing the feed-food competition (including a better use of grassland and pasture) and to evaluate the impact of their implementation on beef production sustainability
To consider opportunities for converting non-edible feedstuffs into valuable human edible protein sources and other animal products
 main objective of SUSTAINBEEF in beef production sector

7. The three pillars are approached across two ways:
Research Impact on the 3 pillars of sustainability: Does the project adequately address the different pillars? How do the different pillars contribute to the aim of your project?  
The three pillars are approached across two ways:
In FarmDyn the evaluation of each sustainability pillars is taken into account :
Economic: the model optimizes the net profit of the farm
Environmental: GHG emissions, N balance…
Social: work load
Sustainability evaluation tree also considers the three pillars :
Economy: Income, Efficiency and Farm capacity to cope with risk
Environmental: Atmosphere, Water, Resource and energy, and Biodiversity
Social: food safety, animal welfare, working load, territorial employment and transmissibility

8. Innovations can be forced in
Research Impact on the 3 pillars of sustainability: How relevant are the links made between the pillars?  
Key assumption: Economical survival is required for any sustainability improvement and has a strong influence on farm decisions
profit / utility optimization
considering (dis)incentives by policy instruments (coupled support, greening obligations, nitrates directive, agri-environmental programs)
Impact on others pillars quantified based on optimized farm program, using indicator framework
Innovations can be forced in
to quantify their contribution
and the necessary economic incentives for their realization

9. Association and exchange of knowledge and competence
Transnational collaboration: What is the added value of transnational collaboration?  
Association and exchange of knowledge and competence
German team focuses on bio-economic modeling with FarmDyn
French team develops evaluation tree of sustainability and case studies description
Belgium provides expertise in qualitative data analysis methodology and multi-actors approaches
All partners present production systems different in organization, resource use, intensification giving the opportunity to evaluate innovations from different perspectives
Results address a broad diversity of beef production system across Europe
Evaluation will be done with the same harmonized methodology

10. Transnational collaboration: Is the transnational collaboration beneficial for broad implementation of the results?  
During the focus group, all innovations (i.e. innovations of each region) were presented and discussed with participants of each region :
Farmers
Farm Advisers
Up and downstream actors of the value chain
 On this basis we expect a broad diffusion and implementation of the outcomes of the project

11. What we did : What we will do :
Multi actor approach: Is there a strategy to involve relevant stakeholders?  
What we did :
Use data and mobilize farm advisors and experts to identify relevant farmers profiles to involve and involve relay actors to recruit them
Identify and mobilize representative actors per each activity within the value chain
Invite all the stakeholders on a voluntary basis
Ensure the follow-up of issues raised in focus groups
What we will do :
Invite all participants involved in interviews and focus groups to validate scenarios
Organize one transnational focus group to present and assess results related to decreasing feed-food competition in beef production

12. Identified innovations submitted to
Multi actor approach: Are research outcomes validated under practical conditions along the whole value added chain?  
Identified innovations submitted to
Farmers & advisers : identify levers and barriers at farm scale
Up- and downstream value chain actors: identify levers and barriers at value chain scale
Later validation of scenarios with all actors mobilized for focus groups plus individual interviews
Stakeholders (i.e.: farmers, farm advisers, up and downstream value chain actors)
Experts (i.e. scientists, thematic advisers)

13. Importance to have point of view of all members of the value chain
Cross-scale approach: In how far does it make sense in the particular research project to target the different levels? How relevant are the interactions seen between the levels?  
The project will consider all the value chain :
Typical barriers to implement innovations at farm level concern the market or a link of the value chain
Importance to have point of view of all members of the value chain
Pointed out by farmers
Innovation’s implementation depending of the opportunity to valorize the produces (new feeds, by-products, meat…) within the value chain

14. Cross-scale approach: Which is the Impact of the project in terms of knowledge acquisition?  
Farmers: propose new innovations along with quantified pros/cons for case studies
Value chain actors : communicate potentially interesting farm-scale innovations to support, e.g. by developing labels
Regional to European legislator: communicate potentially interesting farm-scale innovations to support along with contributions to three pillars of sustainability

15. The strategy of publication is under development
Dissemination and communication strategy: Is there strategy for exploiting the potential of the projects results?  
The strategy of publication is under development
4 scientific articles are planed
Each partner has to publish at least 2 technical publications or publications targeting a wider public
Scenarios will be discussed in focus groups with stakeholders (i.e. farmers, farm advisers, value chain actors)
Results will be disseminated to farmers through advising associations : AWE (Be), regional agricultural rooms (Fr), …

16. Dissemination and communication strategy: Do you disseminate the projects results via Open Data?  
Publication in open access journals or negotiation with publishers to enable immediate open access or delayed open access of up to 6 months as requested
Development of an open data repository to store the data generated by the project, together with the associated metadata