surprise report from the UN

[Guest guest]

http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/index.html

 

Livestock a major threat to environment

Remedies urgently needed

29 November 2006, Rome - Which causes more greenhouse gas emissions, rearing

cattle or driving cars?

 

Surprise! According to a new report published by the United Nations Food and

Agriculture Organization, the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas

emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent – 18 percent – than transport. It is

also a major source of land and water degradation.

 

Says Henning Steinfeld, Chief of FAO’s Livestock Information and Policy Branch

and senior author of the report: “Livestock are one of the most significant

contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is

required to remedy the situation.”

 

With increased prosperity, people are consuming more meat and dairy products

every year. Global meat production is projected to more than double from 229

million tonnes in 1999/2001 to 465 million tonnes in 2050, while milk output is

set to climb from 580 to 1043 million tonnes.

 

Long shadow

 

The global livestock sector is growing faster than any other agricultural

sub-sector. It provides livelihoods to about 1.3 billion people and contributes

about 40 percent to global agricultural output. For many poor farmers in

developing countries livestock are also a source of renewable energy for draft

and an essential source of organic fertilizer for their crops.

 

But such rapid growth exacts a steep environmental price, according to the FAO

report, Livestock’s Long Shadow –Environmental Issues and Options. “The

environmental costs per unit of livestock production must be cut by one half,

just to avoid the level of damage worsening beyond its present level,” it warns.

 

When emissions from land use and land use change are included, the livestock

sector accounts for 9 percent of CO2 deriving from human-related activities, but

produces a much larger share of even more harmful greenhouse gases. It generates

65 percent of human-related nitrous oxide, which has 296 times the Global

Warming Potential (GWP) of CO2. Most of this comes from manure.

 

And it accounts for respectively 37 percent of all human-induced methane (23

times as warming as CO2), which is largely produced by the digestive system of

ruminants, and 64 percent of ammonia, which contributes significantly to acid

rain.

 

Livestock now use 30 percent of the earth’s entire land surface, mostly

permanent pasture but also including 33 percent of the global arable land used

to producing feed for livestock, the report notes. As forests are cleared to

create new pastures, it is a major driver of deforestation, especially in Latin

America where, for example, some 70 percent of former forests in the Amazon have

been turned over to grazing.

 

Land and water

 

At the same time herds cause wide-scale land degradation, with about 20 percent

of pastures considered as degraded through overgrazing, compaction and erosion.

This figure is even higher in the drylands where inappropriate policies and

inadequate livestock management contribute to advancing desertification.

 

The livestock business is among the most damaging sectors to the earth’s

increasingly scarce water resources, contributing among other things to water

pollution, euthropication and the degeneration of coral reefs. The major

polluting agents are animal wastes, antibiotics and hormones, chemicals from

tanneries, fertilizers and the pesticides used to spray feed crops. Widespread

overgrazing disturbs water cycles, reducing replenishment of above and below

ground water resources. Significant amounts of water are withdrawn for the

production of feed.

 

Livestock are estimated to be the main inland source of phosphorous and nitrogen

contamination of the South China Sea, contributing to biodiversity loss in

marine ecosystems.

 

Meat and dairy animals now account for about 20 percent of all terrestrial

animal biomass. Livestock’s presence in vast tracts of land and its demand for

feed crops also contribute to biodiversity loss; 15 out of 24 important

ecosystem services are assessed as in decline, with livestock identified as a

culprit.

 

Remedies

 

The report, which was produced with the support of the multi-institutional

Livestock, Environment and Development (LEAD) Initiative, proposes explicitly to

consider these environmental costs and suggests a number of ways of remedying

the situation, including:

 

Land degradation – controlling access and removing obstacles to mobility on

common pastures. Use of soil conservation methods and silvopastoralism, together

with controlled livestock exclusion from sensitive areas; payment schemes for

environmental services in livestock-based land use to help reduce and reverse

land degradation.

 

Atmosphere and climate – increasing the efficiency of livestock production and

feed crop agriculture. Improving animals’ diets to reduce enteric fermentation

and consequent methane emissions, and setting up biogas plant initiatives to

recycle manure.

 

Water – improving the efficiency of irrigation systems. Introducing full-cost

pricing for water together with taxes to discourage large-scale livestock

concentration close to cities.

 

These and related questions are the focus of discussions between FAO and its

partners meeting to chart the way forward for livestock production at global

consultations in Bangkok this week. These discussions also include the

substantial public health risks related to the rapid livestock sector growth as,

increasingly, animal diseases also affect humans; rapid livestock sector growth

can also lead to the exclusion of smallholders from growing markets.

--

 

Contact:

Christopher Matthews

Media Relations, FAO

christopher.matthews

(+39) 06 570 53762

 

links: Another Inconvenient Truth

http://www.eatkind.net/inconvenient.htm

 

EarthSave: A New Global Warming Strategy

http://www.earthsave.org/globalwarming.htm

 

Another Inconvenient Truth: Meat is a Global Warming Issue

http://www.emagazine.com/view/?3312

 

Another Inconvenient Truth: In the modern world, it is impossible to reconcile a

carnivorous diet with environmental responsibility

http://www.aquarianonline.com/Eco/anotherinconvenienttruth.htm

 

Warming Up to a New Diet

http://simplevegan.blogspot.com

 

Diet, Energy and Global Warming

http://geosci.uchicago.edu/~gidon/papers/nutri/nutri.html

 

ABC News: Meat-Eaters Aiding Global Warming?

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/TenWays/story?id=2119267 & page=1

 

Greenpeace: On Your Plate

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/green-living-guide/on-your-plate

 

Fight Global Warming by Going Vegetarian

http://goveg.com/environment-globalwarming.asp

 

Vegan diets healthier for planet, people than meat diets

http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/06/060413.diet.shtml

 

The SUV in the Pantry

http://www.organicconsumers.org/btc/gasfood112105.cfm

 

Cut Global Warming by Becoming Vegetarian

http://www.physorg.com/news4998.html

 

Five Food Choices for a Healthy Planet

http://www.veg.ca/issues/enviro-5reasons.html

 

Eco-Eating: Eating as if the Earth Matters

http://www.brook.com/veg