Environment
Throughout the 20th century growing populations and ever-increasing
industrialisation had devastating effects on our environment. Global
warming, widespread pollution, deforestation, land degradation and
species extinction are just some of the problems we now face. The full
consequences of such large-scale environmental degradation are
impossible to judge, but what we do know is that the impacts on
humanity will be most devastating in the developing world. With
hundreds of millions of people already not obtaining enough food to
meet their basic needs and billions of people lacking access to safe
water supplies, it is imperative that we find sustainable methods of
food production that do not further degrade planetary health.
"Removing the causes of environmental degradation is often more effective than seeking to control the symptoms."
- Cornelis de Haan, Livestock Adviser to the World Bank.1
Agriculture
in general is one of the most resource-intensive and environmentally
damaging aspects of industrialised living. What this means for us as
individuals is that if we are trying to reduce our car use, limit the
amount of water we waste, become more 'energy-efficient' and generally
lessen our environmental impact, then we should also examine our eating
habits.
People are increasingly becoming aware of the direct correlation
between what they eat every day and the health of the planet.
Environmentally conscious consumers are concerned not only with food
miles, over-packaging, pesticide use and GM foods, but also question
the environmental sustainability of modern animal husbandry. Farmers
used to be seen as 'custodian's of the countryside,' but the overriding
image of modern industrial farming is one of destruction and waste.
World meat production has quadrupled in the past 50 years and livestock now outnumber people by more than 3 to 1.2
In other words, the livestock population is expanding at a faster rate
than the human population. This trend contributes to all of the
environmental problems already outlined.
A report commissioned by the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO), the US Agency for International Development (USAID)
and the World Bank concluded that factory farming, "acts directly on
land, water, air and biodiversity through the emission of animal waste,
use of fossil fuels and substitution of animal genetic resources. In
addition, it affects the global land base indirectly through its effect
on the arable land needed to satisfy its feed concentrate requirements.
Ammonia emissions from manure storage and application lead to localized
acid rain and ailing forests."3
And the problems don't end there.
1. C. de Haan Livestock production and sustainable use of the global natural resource base Invited paper to the Congress of the American Veterinary Medical Association
2. Extrapolated from FAO, FAOSTAT Agricultural Data 2002 www.fao.org
3. C. de Haan, H. Steinfeld & H. Blackburn, 'Livestock and the Environment: Finding a Balance' FAO, USAID, World Bank, 1998