Konstantin M. Zech, Uwe A. Schneider

• Average diets in the European Union are not in line with the dietary recommendations of the World Health Organization. Too little plant-based and too much livestock-based food is consumed. Livestock production requires substantial resources and causes considerable greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE), especially methane from enteric fermentation in ruminant animals. The livestock sector produces 18% of GHGE worldwide and uses 52% of the crops supplied in dry matter within the EU. Most livestock species are relatively poor feed converters. They require multiple units of feed to produce a unit of meat, milk, or eggs. The EU-average for this food conversion ratio ranges from 1.1 for milk to 34.2 for lamb meat on a dry-matter basis (Wilkinson, 2011). In addition to the impacts on the ecosystem, excess consumption of meat is also associated with substantial health risks.