Animals are healthier if they eat their legumes

Meat-based animal feed was banned in the EU in 2000 as one of the measures to combat the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) - or mad cow disease. As a result, three million tonnes of ground animal bones and intestinal parts had to be incinerated. Farmers have been faced ever since with the challenge of obtaining convenient sources of protein in the EU with which to feed livestock.

The once common practice of feeding cow-meat to cows emerged after the Second World War when intensified farming methods became the norm. Banning the practice has had serious implications for agriculture, with the EU now more dependent than ever on countries such as the US and Brazil for protein-rich soya beans, a crop grown in tropical conditions, which is now used by most farmers to feed cows and other animals.

A good alternative to soya beans for EU farmers are grain legumes such as peas, beans and lupins, plants which can be grown successfully in Mediterranean climates. As well as being rich in proteins, grain legumes are also environmentally friendly. They keep soil fertile when rotated with other crops, slowing the spread of pests, diseases and weeds, and do not require damaging artificial fertilisers due to their ability to absorb nitrogen and incorporate it into the soil (nitrogen is a key component of industrial fertiliser).

Grain legumes have considerable potential to be the farmer’s best friend, yet they remain an unpopular choice of crop, representing only 5% of Europe’s arable land. "Some organisations are trying to make grain legume more attractive for farmers, but they will only grow it if it is more profitable," says Hubert Pahl, an agricultural economist at the Technical University of Munich. "Politicians in Brussels need to think long-term as there is a problem of dependence on soya bean imports."

The small subsidy offered under the Common Agricultural Policy for the first 55 hectares devoted to the crop does not provide a sufficiently strong incentive for farmers to grow grain legumes. The only way to increase the crop’s popularity is to make it more profitable and the only way to do this is by improving factors such as seed quality and crop yield. The natural design of the plant means it often collapses under its own weight and problems such as root rot are common. Organisations including the Paris-based UNIP, the Union Nationale Interprofessionnelle des Plantes riches en Protéines, are carrying out research aimed at increasing the crop’s appeal. Technical expert Benoît Carrouée explains that failure to develop the potential of grain legumes could lead to serious imbalances in the EU agricultural sector.

In recognition of the importance of grain legumes in terms of sustainability, both environmental and economic, the European Commission provided funding for the Grain Legumes Integrated Project (GLIP) through the Sixth Framework Programme for research (2002-06), the main mechanism through which funding is provided for scientific projects. GLIP aims to bring together bodies like UNIP carrying out research on grain legumes. The project unites a variety of specialists from fields such as biochemistry, agronomy, plant genomics and animal nutritional studies and aims to push legumes higher up the EU agricultural agenda.

Meat-based animal feed was banned in the EU in 2000 as one of the measures to combat the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) - or mad cow disease. As a result, three million tonnes of ground animal bones and intestinal parts had to be incinerated. Farmers have been faced ever since with the challenge of obtaining convenient sources of protein in the EU with which to feed livestock.