In the context of environmental sustainability and use of natural resources, livestock production systems show a considerable diversity, reflecting the different agricultural areas and permanent grasslands. A transition from linear to circular production mod-els is essential to meet environmental targets and a better use of natural resources. Since 2008, the environmental targets for Swiss agriculture focused on preserving and promoting biodiversity, regional landscapes and adequate water corridors, while re-ducing greenhouse gas emissions and nitrogen losses. The agroecological objectives for improving the sustainability of Swiss agriculture are based on maintaining herbage-based production in grass-based milk and meat pro-duction (GMM), protecting and maintaining permanent grasslands, foster the value of grass/legume leys in crops rotations, integrated production methods such as agrofor-estry, and using alternative sources of animal feed such as by-products and former foodstuffs. Side-adapted production in Switzerland focuses on resource-efficient agriculture that exploits site-specific potential for food and feed production within the carrying capacity of ecosystems. Key benefits include: sustainable production, ecosystem conservation and economic stability. In conclusion, Switzerland and the world as a whole need to move from linear to circu-lar production models in an agroecological context. Political support is essential to promote these models.
