Europe is testing an innovative approach to livestock feeding by using spent coffee grounds (SCG) as a sustainable food source. This initiative, Life Ecofeed, aims to upcycle the abundant coffee waste, which often ends up in landfills, into nutritious feed for dairy cows and sheep. Traditionally, livestock feed relies heavily on environmentally impactful imported soybeans. The project has already seen 80 tonnes of coffee-based feed used in Spain, with positive results: no impact on milk yield, an improved fatty acid profile in the milk, and a surprising 20% reduction in methane emissions from the animals. If adopted widely, using spent coffee grounds as feed could significantly reduce the environmental footprint of livestock farming, considering the vast amount of coffee produced globally.
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