Changes in the livestock sector and animal nutrition: the Italian feed industry in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Abstract

The aim of this work is to study the evolution of the modern feed industry in Italy. Livestock feeding changed during the nineteenth century with the spread of oilseed cakes. In European countries with more advanced agriculture, traditional forages were gradually replaced by a new range of products made from tropical seeds and vegetable oils. Italy was among the European countries that created an industry for the manufacture of oilseed cakes during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the 1930s, zootechnical feeding was modernized with the advent of compound feeds, which have been widely used since the mid-twentieth century. Italy became a European leader in feed manufacture, as the economic boom and increased purchasing power led to greater consumption of meat and dairy products. Though Italian and European production capacity remained high at the beginning of the twenty-first century, a new phase began with the emergence of other feed-producing countries and the impact of the international debate on the negative effects of intensive livestock farming on animal living conditions and ecological balances. The Italian case shows how the history of the feed industry constitutes an important chapter in the modernization of contemporary agriculture.