October 15th is blog action day, with this year’s theme being climate change. What better day, then, to touch on the profound impacts of factory farming and the global livestock industry on our planet.
The top-line is that the world’s livestock is responsible for a massive 18% of greenhouse gas emissions. That’s more than all of our planes, cars and other transport put together. And the bad news doesn’t end there. Currently, 60 billion farm animals are produced each year, the majority in factory farms. According to experts at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), this figure could double by 2050 as demand surges for meat and dairy products, particularly in developing countries. 120 billion farm animals would bring big challenges to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It would also increase the land, energy and water resources needed to grow the crops to feed them.
As we know from previous postings, factory farmed animals guzzle grain. A third of the global grain harvest goes to feed farm animals. And just like those big gas-guzzling ‘automobiles’, intensively reared farm animals can be incredibly wasteful; one kilogramme of intensively-reared beef requires around 20 kg of animal feed and nearly 16,000 litres – about a hundred bathtubs – of water to produce.
The projection of a doubling in animal production comes at a time when climate change may make large areas of the world’s current cropland unusable or seriously reduce crop yields due to coastal flooding or drought. A one metre rise in sea level is possible by the end of this century, perhaps even by mid-century. This would flood a fifth of Bangladesh and 2 million square kilometres of land globally. As many as 150-200 million people could be permanently displaced by 2050 due to rising sea levels, floods and droughts. These people might well need to settle on what was previously farmland. Water resources could become so stretched as to cause armed conflicts in some areas.
The huge resources of land, water and energy on which our current intensive livestock production is based, let alone a doubling, may simply not be available by 2050.
As demand for livestock products continues to surge, particularly in developing countries, the onus is surely on the rich world to take a lead on this issue. If we are to have a hope of stabilising the numbers of farm animals worldwide, and mitigating the effects on our climate and precious resources, the European Union and other high-income countries need to reduce meat and dairy consumption by 60% by 2050.
But less is more; instead of eating lots of ‘cheap’ meat from factory farmed animals reared in appalling conditions, the mid-century consumer could be eating less, but better quality meat and milk, preferably reared by local farmers. Under this scenario, farmers would be better able to earn a premium for their products, with higher prices being reflective of the carbon costs of consuming livestock products. This kind of move would not only have climate benefits, but would enable farmers to move toward more extensive, humane and sustainable farming methods, like free range or organic.
These issues and more will be up for discussion at our major lecture event in London on the evening of Thursday 29th October. Lester Brown of the Washington-based Earth Policy Institute will be our special guest speaker and will no doubt have much to say on these important topics. To be there with us, click here for your tickets.
On the subject of lectures, yesterday, I heard Sir Richard Branson describe the battle against climate change as like fighting both world wars at the same time. Given the scale of the task, society surely has to dare to challenge, and make it stick. Reappraising the way we view products from our farm animals has got to be high on the list to address. With a fifth of greenhouse gas emissions from livestock, and factory farming representing the biggest issue of animal cruelty on the planet, the time is right to tackle both issues head-on at once. If we fail to do so, it could be more than beef getting a roasting on planet Earth.
