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  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Livestock’s long shadow
  • Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2008 17:53:46 -0700


For the record, homegrown meat is fine with me; it's the unsustainable
industrial feedlots and poultry that supplies the excess and ecological
damage.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net
------------------------------------------

The FAO stated that the world's livestock generate more greenhouse gases
than the entire transportation industry.

Livestock’s long shadow
Environmental issues and options
http://www.virtualcentre.org/en/library/key_pub/longshad/A0701E00.HTM
a 2006 report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations
By H. Steinfeld, P. Gerber, T. Wassenaar, V. Castel, M. Rosales, C. de Haan
- 2006, 390 pp



Summary: This report aims to assess the full impact of the livestock sector
on environmental problems, along with potential technical and policy
approaches to mitigation. The assessment is based on the most recent and
complete data available, taking into account direct impacts, along with the
impacts of feed crop agriculture required for livestock production.

The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most
significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at
every scale from local to global. The findings of this report suggest that
it should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land
degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water
pollution, and loss of biodiversity.

Livestock’s contribution to environmental problems is on a massive scale
and its potential contribution to their solution is equally large. The
impact is so significant that it needs to be addressed with urgency. Major
reductions in impact could be achieved at reasonable cost.

Executive summary

This report aims to assess the full impact of the livestock sector on
environmental problems, along with potential technical and policy
approaches to mitigation. The assessment is based on the most recent and
complete data available, taking into account direct impacts, along with the
impacts of feedcrop agriculture required for livestock production.

The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most
significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at
every scale from local to global. The findings of this report suggest that
it should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land
degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water
pollution and loss of biodiversity.

Livestock’s contribution to environmental problems is on a massive scale
and its potential contribution to their solution is equally large. The
impact is so significant that it needs to be addressed with urgency. Major
reductions in impact could be achieved at reasonable cost.

Global importance of the sector

Although economically not a major global player, the livestock sector is
socially and politically very significant. It accounts for 40 percent of
agricultural gross domestic product (GDP). It employs 1.3 billion people
and creates livelihoods for one billion of the world’s poor. Livestock
products provide one-third of humanity’s protein intake, and are a
contributing cause of obesity and a potential remedy for undernourishment.

Growing populations and incomes, along with changing food preferences, are
rapidly increasing demand for livestock products, while globalization is
boosting trade in livestock inputs and products. Global production of meat
is projected to more than double from 229 million tonnes in 1999/01 to 465
million tonnes in 2050, and that of milk to grow from 580 to 1 043 million
tonnes. The environmental impact per unit of livestock production must be
cut by half, just to avoid increasing the level of damage beyond its
present level.

Structural changes and their impact

The livestock sector is undergoing a complex process of technical and
geographical change, which is shifting the balance of environmental
problems caused by the sector.

Extensive grazing still occupies and degrades vast areas of land; though
there is an increasing trend towards intensification and industrialization.
Livestock production is shifting geographically, first from rural areas to
urban and peri-urban, to get closer to consumers, then towards the sources
of feedstuff, whether these are feedcrop areas, or transport and trade hubs
where feed is imported. There is also a shift of species, with production
of monogastric species (pigs and poultry, mostly produced in industrial
units) growing rapidly, while the growth of ruminant production (cattle,
sheep and goats, often raised extensively) slows. Through these shifts, the
livestock sector enters into more and direct competition for scarce land,
water and other natural resources.

These changes are pushing towards improved efficiency, thus reducing the
land area required for livestock production. At the same time, they are
marginalizing smallholders and pastoralists, increasing inputs and wastes
and increasing and concentrating the pollution created. Widely dispersed
non-point sources of pollution are ceding importance to point sources that
create more local damage but are more easily regulated.

Land degradation

The livestock sector is by far the single largest anthropogenic user of
land. The total area occupied by grazing is equivalent to 26 percent of the
ice-free terrestrial surface of the planet. In addition, the total area
dedicated to feedcrop production amounts to 33 percent of total arable
land. In all, livestock production accounts for 70 percent of all
agricultural land and 30 percent of the land surface of the planet.
Expansion of livestock production is a key factor in deforestation,
especially in Latin America where the greatest amount of deforestation is
occurring – 70 percent of previous forested land in the Amazon is
occupied by pastures, and feedcrops cover a large part of the remainder.
About 20 percent of the world’s pastures and rangelands, with 73 percent
of rangelands in dry areas, have been degraded to some extent, mostly
through overgrazing, compaction and erosion created by livestock action.
The dry lands in particular are affected by these trends, as livestock are
often the only source of livelihoods for the people living in these areas.

Overgrazing can be reduced by grazing fees and by removing obstacles to
mobility on common property pastures. Land degradation can be limited and
reversed through soil conservation methods, silvopastoralism, better
management of grazing systems, limits to uncontrolled burning by
pastoralists and controlled exclusion from sensitive areas.

Atmosphere and climate

With rising temperatures, rising sea levels, melting icecaps and glaciers,
shifting ocean currents and weather patterns, climate change is the most
serious challenge facing the human race.

The livestock sector is a major player, responsible for 18 percent of
greenhouse gas emissions measured in CO2 equivalent. This is a higher share
than transport.
The livestock sector accounts for 9 percent of anthropogenic CO2 emissions.
The largest share of this derives from land-use changes – especially
deforestation – caused by expansion of pastures and arable land for
feedcrops. Livestock are responsible for much larger shares of some gases
with far higher potential to warm the atmosphere. The sector emits 37
percent of anthropogenic methane (with 23 times the global warming
potential (GWP) of CO2) most of that from enteric fermentation by
ruminants. It emits 65 percent of anthropogenic nitrous oxide (with 296
times the GWP of CO2), the great majority from manure. Livestock are also
responsible for almost two-thirds (64 percent) of anthropogenic ammonia
emissions, which contribute significantly to acid rain and acidification of
ecosystems.

This high level of emissions opens up large opportunities for climate
change mitigation through livestock actions. Intensification – in terms
of increased productivity both in livestock production and in feedcrop
agriculture – can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and
pasture degradation. In addition, restoring historical losses of soil
carbon through conservation tillage, cover crops, agroforestry and other
measures could sequester up to 1.3 tonnes of carbon per hectare per year,
with additional amounts available through restoration of desertified
pastures. Methane emissions can be reduced through improved diets to reduce
enteric fermentation, improved manure management and biogas – which also
provide renewable energy. Nitrogen emissions can be reduced through
improved diets and manure management.

The Kyoto Protocol’s clean development mechanism (CDM) can be used to
finance the spread of biogas and silvopastoral initiatives involving
afforestation and reforestation. Methodologies should be developed so that
the CDM can finance other livestock-related options such as soil carbon
sequestration through rehabilitation of degraded pastures.

Water

The world is moving towards increasing problems of freshwater shortage,
scarcity and depletion, with 64 percent of the world’s population
expected to live in water-stressed basins by 2025.

The livestock sector is a key player in increasing water use, accounting
for over 8 percent of global human water use, mostly for the irrigation of
feedcrops. It is probably the largest sectoral source of water pollution,
contributing to eutrophication, “dead” zones in coastal areas,
degradation of coral reefs, human health problems, emergence of antibiotic
resistance and many others. The major sources of pollution are from animal
wastes, antibiotics and hormones, chemicals from tanneries, fertilizers and
pesticides used for feedcrops, and sediments from eroded pastures. Global
figures are not available but in the United States, with the world’s
fourth largest land area, livestock are responsible for an estimated 55
percent of erosion and sediment, 37 percent of pesticide use, 50 percent of
antibiotic use, and a third of the loads of nitrogen and phosphorus into
freshwater resources.

Livestock also affect the replenishment of freshwater by compacting soil,
reducing infiltration, degrading the banks of watercourses, drying up
floodplains and lowering water tables. Livestock’s contribution to
deforestation also increases runoff and reduces dry season flows.

Water use can be reduced through improving the efficiency of irrigation
systems. Livestock’s impact on erosion, sedimentation and water
regulation can be addressed by measures against land degradation. Pollution
can be tackled through better management of animal waste in industrial
production units, better diets to improve nutrient absorption, improved
manure management (including biogas) and better use of processed manure on
croplands. Industrial livestock production should be decentralized to
accessible croplands where wastes can be recycled without overloading soils
and freshwater.

Policy measures that would help in reducing water use and pollution include
full cost pricing of water (to cover supply costs, as well as economic and
environmental externalities), regulatory frameworks for limiting inputs and
scale, specifying required equipment and discharge levels, zoning
regulations and taxes to discourage large-scale concentrations close to
cities, as well as the development of secure water rights and water
markets, and participatory management of watersheds.

Biodiversity

We are in an era of unprecedented threats to biodiversity. The loss of
species is estimated to be running 50 to 500 times higher than background
rates found in the fossil record. Fifteen out of 24 important ecosystem
services are assessed to be in decline.

Livestock now account for about 20 percent of the total terrestrial animal
biomass, and the 30 percent of the earth’s land surface that they now
pre-empt was once habitat for wildlife. Indeed, the livestock sector may
well be the leading player in the reduction of biodiversity, since it is
the major driver of deforestation, as well as one of the leading drivers of
land degradation, pollution, climate change, overfishing, sedimentation of
coastal areas and facilitation of invasions by alien species. In addition,
resource conflicts with pastoralists threaten species of wild predators and
also protected areas close to pastures. Meanwhile in developed regions,
especially Europe, pastures had become a location of diverse
long-established types of ecosystem, many of which are now threatened by
pasture abandonment.

Some 306 of the 825 terrestrial ecoregions identified by the Worldwide Fund
for Nature (WWF) – ranged across all biomes and all biogeographical
realms, reported livestock as one of the current threats. Conservation
International has identified 35 global hotspots for biodiversity,
characterized by exceptional levels of plant endemism and serious levels of
habitat loss. Of these, 23 are reported to be affected by livestock
production. An analysis of the authoritative World Conservation Union
(IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species shows that most of the world’s
threatened species are suffering habitat loss where livestock are a factor.
Since many of livestock’s threats to biodiversity arise from their impact
on the main resource sectors (climate, air and water pollution, land
degradation and deforestation), major options for mitigation are detailed
in those sections. There is also scope for improving pastoralists’
interactions with wildlife and parks and raising wildlife species in
livestock enterprises.

Reduction of the wildlife area pre-empted by livestock can be achieved by
intensification. Protection of wild areas, buffer zones, conservation
easements, tax credits and penalties can increase the amount of land where
biodiversity conservation is prioritized. Efforts should extend more widely
to integrate livestock production and producers into landscape management.

Cross-cutting policy frameworks

Certain general policy approaches cut across all the above fields. A
general conclusion is that improving the resource use efficiency of
livestock production can reduce environmental impacts. While regulating
about scale, inputs, wastes and so on can help, a crucial element in
achieving greater efficiency is the correct pricing of natural resources
such as land, water and use of waste sinks. Most frequently natural
resources are free or underpriced, which leads to overexploitation and
pollution. Often perverse subsidies directly encourage livestock producers
to engage in environmentally damaging activities. A top priority is to
achieve prices and fees that reflect the full economic and environmental
costs, including all externalities. One requirement for prices to influence
behaviour is that there should be secure and if possible tradable rights to
water, land, use of common land and waste sinks.

Damaging subsidies should be removed, and economic and environmental
externalities should be built into prices by selective taxing of and/or
fees for resource use, inputs and wastes. In some cases direct incentives
may be needed.
Payment for environmental services is an important framework, especially in
relation to extensive grazing systems: herders, producers and landowners
can be paid for specific environmental services such as regulation of water
flows, soil conservation, conservation of natural landscape and wildlife
habitats, or carbon sequestration. Provision of environmental services may
emerge as a major purpose of extensive grassland-based production systems.

An important general lesson is that the livestock sector has such deep and
wide-ranging environmental impacts that it should rank as one of the
leading focuses for environmental policy: efforts here can produce large
and multiple payoffs. Indeed, as societies develop, it is likely that
environmental considerations, along with human health issues, will become
the dominant policy considerations for the sector.

Finally, there is an urgent need to develop suitable institutional and
policy frameworks, at local, national and international levels, for the
suggested changes to occur. This will require strong political commitment,
and increased knowledge and awareness of the environmental risks of
continuing “business as usual” and the environmental benefits of
actions in the livestock sector.

Download the full document (PDF , 5Mb), click here ...
http://www.virtualcentre.org/en/library/key_pub/longshad/A0701E00.pdf
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  • [Livingontheland] Livestock’s long shadow, TradingPostPaul, 01/26/2008

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