Cows, pigs, sheep and poultry have been awarded the dubious honour of being among the world鈥檚 greatest environmental threats, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The report, entitled , says the livestock industry is degrading land, contributing to the greenhouse effect, polluting water resources, and destroying biodiversity. In summary, the sector is 鈥渙ne of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems at every scale鈥�.
The authors say the demand for meat is expected to more than double by 2050 and therefore the environmental impact of production must be halved in order to avoid worsening the harmful impacts of the industry.
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Perhaps the report鈥檚 most striking finding is that the livestock sector accounts for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions 鈥� more than transport, which emits 13.5%.
Entire cycle
The FAO鈥檚 estimate of livestock emissions surpasses previous ones because this time researchers looked at the entire production cycle. This includes emissions generated by fertiliser and feed production, deforestation to open up pastures, manure management, and emissions from the livestock themselves and from transporting them and their feed.
Livestock require a lot of land, occupying 26% of Earth鈥檚 ice-free land. Their pastures account for 70% of deforested areas in the Amazon, and their feed occupies one-third of global cropland.
Not only does deforestation increase greenhouse gas emissions by releasing carbon previously stored in trees, it is also a major driver in the loss of biodiversity. The report goes so far as to say that the livestock sector, which accounts for about 20% of terrestrial animal biomass, 鈥渕ay be a leading player in the reduction of biodiversity鈥�.
Livelihoods in livestock
Encouraging the global population to become vegans is not a viable solution, however. For starters, says the lead author of the FAO report, Henning Steinfeld, it is quite simply not an option for many of the one billion people whose livelihoods rely on livestock production.
Moreover, vegetable production is not devoid of environmental problems either. And recent studies have shown that global fish stocks are not sustainable at current levels of exploitation (see No more seafood by 2050?).
Steinfeld says the crux of the livestock problem is the sheer bulk of land the sector occupies: 鈥淲e need to discourage indiscriminate deforestation for pasture, a large part of which takes place because of land speculation.鈥�
Convenient occupation
In the Amazon, where governments struggle to enforce legal systems, settlers occupy swathes of 鈥渘o-man鈥檚 land鈥� and wait 15 years, after which time practice, though not law, dictates that they own the land. Using the land for pasture is simply a convenient tool to occupy the land, explains Steinfeld.
Ultimately, the authors argue, environmental services such as sustainably managed land and clean water, need to be given a price.
鈥淢ost frequently, natural resources are free or underpriced, which leads to overexploitation and pollution,鈥� write the authors, concluding that 鈥渁 top priority is to achieve prices and fees that reflect the full economic and environmental costs鈥�.
Steinfeld says negotiations of the next step of the Kyoto Protocol might be a good opportunity to do this.
