The interactions between the structure of the food supply and the impact of livestock production on the environment. A multivariate analysis for understanding the differences and the analogies across European Union countries

In many European Union countries, diets are characterized by high levels of meat, dairy products and eggs. This type of diet, as is well-known, is responsible for an intake of saturated fat and red meat in quantities that exceed dietary recommendations. In addition, the associated livestock production requires large areas of land and leads to high nitrogen and greenhouse gas emission levels. The aim of this paper is to identify the connections, the differences and the parallels between the 28 EU states with regard to the structure of their food supplies and the impact of farming practices on the environment. The paper analyzes data from FAOSTAT relating to the year 2013. The results of the application of Principal Component Analysis and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis reveal new and important details about the differences and the analogies between the 28 states. The findings show that, on the one hand, there are similarities in the structure of the food supply relating to the quantity of products of animal origin. On the other hand, there are many differences in the average use per area of cropland of nutrients and pesticides, in the density of livestock farming in the agricultural area, in the intensity of emissions from the production, in the rearing of livestock for meat and in the quantity of products of animal origin. The major conclusions are that, the environmental impact of agriculture varies, depending on the different structures of the food supply and on the diverse agricultural practices employed across the EU