A scientometric retrospective of the Livestock Long Shadow Report

Océane Duluins^1*Aurélien Goutsmedt^2,3Noé Vandevoorde¹Philippe Vincent Baret¹

• ¹SYTRA, Universite catholique de Louvain Earth and Life Institute, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
• ²ICHEC Brussels Management School, Brussels, Belgium
• ³ISOPOLE, Universite catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

Concerns over the sustainability of livestock systems have been at the forefront of environmental discourse for decades. A pivotal moment came with the FAO’s 2006 report Livestock’s Long Shadow (LLS), which framed livestock as a major contributor to global environmental challenges, including greenhouse gas emissions, land degradation, and biodiversity loss. Despite criticism, it has become a seminal work, cited over 3,000 times as of 2024 on Scopus. Using a scientometric approach, this paper examines how the scientific community has engaged with LLS and explores the extent to which it is linked to the emerging discourse around the protein transition, a shift away from animal-based products toward more sustainable alternatives. We pursue three objectives: (1) to map the research communities citing LLS, (2) to investigate the connections between LLS-related and protein transition literature, and (3) to assess whether academic treatments of production and consumption remain siloed or integrated. Using bibliographic coupling and topic modeling, we identify seven thematic clusters spanning livestock emissions, nutrient pollution, climate mitigation, land use, biodiversity, sustainable consumption, and food innovation. Notably, three of these clusters align with the major narratives of the protein transition. However, our findings point to a continued divide. Livestock-related research largely focuses on environmental and production-side concerns, while protein transition literature is predominantly framed around consumption, ethics, and health.