Biodiversity
No one really knows just how many species there are on earth. Estimates range from 2 million to 100 million, but most experts opt for a best estimate of about 10 million. Of these, only 1.4 million have been named and only a small percentage of these have been studied in any detail. [1]
The World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List of threatened species shows that 18% of all of the vertebrates they assessed in 2002 were threatened with extinction. This included 24% of mammals, 12% of birds, 25% of reptiles, 21% of amphibians, and 30% of fish. A massive 49% of plants assessed in 2002 were threatened with extinction. [2] It has been estimated that the current rate of species loss is between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than it would naturally be. [3] Statistics such as these have led many environmental scientists to believe that we are in the process of a mass extinction.
This is extremely worrying for a number of reasons. Whether or not we believe that a species has its own intrinsic value, there is no denying that the loss of a large number of species could have serious consequences for food production, environmental sustainability and future biological and medical advances, as well as a knock-on effect throughout the entire ecosystem. Loss of genetic diversity also has a serious impact on indigenous populations who depend on a wide variety of species for their survival.
THE LIVESTOCK CONNECTION
"Many extinctions attend the human harvest of food." World Resources Institute. [4]
In a report commissioned by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the World Bank, de Haan et al. concluded that industrial livestock production contributes to species loss through, "its demand for concentrate feed, which changes land use and intensifies cropping. The production of feed grains, in particular, adds additional stress on biodiversity through habitat loss and damages in ecosystem functioning." [5]
Habitat destruction is the single greatest factor in species being lost forever. Deforestation, land degradation and intensive arable farming all represent the destruction of ecosystems, resulting in massive loss of biodiversity.
Tropical rainforests, although covering only 10% of the world's surface, are thought to contain about 90% of all species - many of which have never been studied. [6] The wholesale destruction of forest environments to provide grazing land for cattle and land to grow feed for livestock directly contributes to loss of biodiversity.
Other factors affecting species depletion include pollution, climate change, over-exploitation and invasion by introduced species. All of these factors relate directly to livestock production.
"The roots of the biodiversity crisis are not "out there" in the forest or on the savannah, but embedded in the way we live." [7]