UNESCO:
From farm to fridge - truth about
livestock
The Korea
Herald (Seoul) April 4,
2011
http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20110404000604
The
following article was contributed
by UNESCO
on meat
production and consumption in
Asia. -
Editor
From farm
to fridge - truth about
livestock
By Emily
Chu
Tens of
billions of pigs, chickens,
turkeys and
cattle are
eaten globally every year, and
about 2
billion
people worldwide live on a
meat-based
diet.
Asia's
population and economic growth
has been
charted as
the fastest annual growth of
any
region in
the world in energy demand. Even
though
the demand
for meat and poultry is
steadily
increasing,
the number of farms providing
them
has
decreased, allowing for
corporate
consolidation
and industrialized
intensification
agricultural
techniques. Traditional
farming
practices
have been given up.
The global
production of meat grew fivefold
in
the latter
half of the 20th century and
continues
to
increase. A recent UNESCO
publication shows
that 4 of
the top 10 meat-producing
countries in
the world
are Asian.
Robert A.
Kanaly, head of a UNESCO working
group
on ethics,
energy and meat production
from
Yokohama
City University, Japan,
said:
"Consolidation
in the agricultural
markets
continues
worldwide and currently in Asia,
meat
production
intensification and
CAFO-(Concentrated
Animal
Feeding Operation)-type models
are rapidly
becoming
more popular ..."
"Š
(However,) there is a lack of
discussion of
core issues
such as their heavy reliance on
the
availability
of cheap non-renewable fossil
fuel
energy,
combined with a large number
of
potentially
serious environmental,
socioeconomic
and public
health consequences," he
added.
As a
country becomes wealthier, people
tend to
eat more
meat, resulting in
over-consumption and
potentially
chronic diseases common in
developed
countries.
Meat
production and climate change are
closely
interrelated.
Extra attention should be paid
to
serious
health risks posed by meat
production, as
well as
indirect health consequences
caused by
increased
greenhouse gas
emissions.
The
intensity of animal production is
a key
factor in
controlling carbon emissions due
to
land use
and animal waste. Up to 180
million tons
of animal
waste are excreted in the United
States
each year,
releasing methane and other
toxic
gases.
"I think
many people assume that
vegetarians are
animal-loving
tree huggers and it is a
political
statement
against cruelty to animals, which
I
agree has
its merits," said avid vegetarian
Lisa
Joya from
the Philippines.
"But I have
issues with how meat
is
contemporarily
produced by modern farmers
and
food
companies. I have a problem with
the
hormones
and other chemicals meat
producers use
to plump up
their animals and produce at
an
unnatural
pace."
Meat
production is a complicated
issue, deeply
integral to
the environment, public health
and
economics,
among many other factors. Since
it is
a major
factor in global GHG emissions,
it should
be more
heavily scrutinized.
"Environmental
experts have been warning
about
the severe
consequences of producing meat
for
years now.
It's nothing new, just
that
consumption
is exponentially growing at the
same
time we
want to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions"
said Darryl
Macer, Regional Adviser for
Social
and Human
Sciences in Asia and the Pacific
at
UNESCO
Bangkok.
"Beef, for
instance, is particularly
damaging due
to the low
conversion rate of energy from
maize
to cattle
and because methane Š is
released both
by cows and
by manure."
Seventy
percent of all agricultural land
and 30
percent of
the earth's land surface is used
for
pastoral,
mixed-system and intensive
livestock
production.
One of the most serious
consequences
is soil
erosion, which diminishes
productivity.
"An
integral part of intensive meat
production is
that cereal
crops are fed in large quantities
to
animals
that in turn require large
amounts of
fertilizer,
water, land and industrial
chemicals
to produce.
The fertilizer is basically made
from
nitrogen
fixation using oil," said
Kanaly.
"Indeed,
Food and Agriculture
Organization
projects
that account for 50 percent of
global
grain
production will be used for
animal feed by
2030."
Through
intensification, biodiversity
decreases -
a single
crop is grown over a huge area,
allowing
large
harvests with minimal labor. The
downsides
include a
quicker spread of diseases since
a
uniform
crop is more susceptible to
pathogens.
Situations
where there is little
genetic
diversity
will result in expansive
host
populations
of animals that will be
increasingly
vulnerable
to emergent pathogens.
Livestock
farms are responsible for
exacerbating
environmental
problems. UNESCO's report
revealed
that sewage
from animal operations in
the
Philippines
contributed to about 52 percent
of
the
pollution.
Another
issue is pig waste, which has a
low
demand as a
fertilizer. Most swine
farmers
deposit pig
waste in lagoons, septic tanks
or
digesters.
Pig manure contains
antibiotic-resistant
bacteria and compounds
such
as ammonia,
organic acids and sulfides.
These
pollutants
can have severe health effects
on
animals and
humans, and the report notes
that
most of the
manure is thrown into canals,
rivers,
open pits
or left on the ground to
decompose.
These
antibiotics' effects on ecology
are also a
concern.
Since many antibiotics are
poorly
absorbed by
farm animals, up to 90 percent
may
end up in
manure, then released into
soil,
surface
waters and possibly ground
water.
Another
concern is the transfer of
infectious
diseases
due to close contact between
animals and
humans
under unhygienic production
conditions.
When animal
production facilities are
built
closer to
the city center, this allows for
more
human-animal
contact. The consolidation
of
facilities,
transport routes and
coincident
networks
increases the transmission of
pathogens.
Regulations
to protect public health and
related
issues have
not kept pace with intensified
meat
production.
Several
meat companies in the Philippines
were
contacted
for a survey on environmental
values.
However,
the producers were unwilling to
be
interviewed,
a clear indication of
non-transparency
leading many to distrust
meat
producers.
Furthermore, the environmental
effects
and health
consequences that occur
affect
livestock,
human beings and the world around
us.
"Transparency
and ethical concerns in relation
to
intensive
farming clearly need to be
considered
more deeply
on the production side," said
Kanaly.
"But at the
same time, the consuming public
also
needs to
consider the ethics of their
choices."
The ethics
of producing animals for food
by
industrialized
systems also needs to
be
considered.
From a health perspective,
lower
levels of
saturated fat are always
conducive.
From an
environmental viewpoint, food and
energy
is arguably
wasted since animal production
is
based on
eating animals fattened with
grains and
other foods
that humans could have eaten
directly.
Animals'
living conditions are also to
be
considered,
as most live miserable lives so
that
their meat
can be made available at the
lowest
cost
possible, and society tolerates
animals
being left
to unsuitable conditions. It
is
important
for ethical standards to be
present in
different
countries.
In terms of
policy options, effective
public
policies
are essential to ensure that
livestock
contribute
to development goals and
minimize
damage to
social equity, the environment
and
public
health.
The UNESCO
report recommends that new
policies
need to
influence intensive livestock
production,
plus
abolishment of non-transparency
methods.
Better
regulations, more periodic checks
on
producers
and stricter enforcement
would
encourage
companies to practice
healthier
livestock
production.
For further
information, email the Regional
Unit
for Social
and Human Sciences in Asia and
the
Pacific
(RUSHSAP), UNESCO Bangkok, at:
rushsap.bgk@unesco.org.
