It is thought that conventional animal production may fall short of meeting the protein needs of the human population in the near future. In this context, alternative protein sources have to need to be evaluated seriously for the short and medium-term.

In the forthcoming decades, animal production does not seem possible to remain as is today, both in terms of production and structural aspects. Two main issues that push the production amount upwards reflect the mainstream opinion in the sector: the rapidly increasing world population and changing consumption habits. It is estimated that the world population, which is already approaching 8 billion, will hit around 9.5-10 billion by 2050. While the number of people to be fed by natural resources is increasing, food consumption habits are also changing. The amount of animal food consumed by the average person is gradually increasing.

The two factors mentioned above provide sufficient information to show the course of the total amount of production in the future of animal production. Considering the limited natural resources of the world, this reality reveals the necessity of obtaining more output with less input. Although technological developments respond to this need with their positive contribution to efficiency, it is clear that a paradigm shift is needed.

It seems that reducing the use of agricultural land for compound feed production will not be possible by increasing the efficiency of conventional methods alone. This is where the concept of alternative protein sources, which is one of the issues we, as Feed Planet magazine, attach great importance to comes into play.

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