The New Scientist December
12, 2006
http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn10786-cows-pigs-and-sheep-environments-greatest-threats.html
Cows, pigs and
sheep: Environment's greatest
threats?
By Catherine
Brahic
________________________________
Cows, pigs, sheep and
poultry have been awarded the dubious honour of
being among the world's
greatest environmental threats, according to
the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The report, entitled
Livestock's long shadow, says the livestock
industry is degrading
land, contributing to the greenhouse effect,
polluting water resources,
and destroying biodiversity. In summary,
the sector is "one of the
top two or three most significant
contributors to the most
serious environmental problems at every
scale".
The authors say the demand
for meat is expected to more than double
by 2050 and therefore the
environmental impact of production must be
halved in order to avoid
worsening the harmful impacts of the
industry.
Perhaps the report's most
striking finding is that the livestock
sector accounts for 18% of
global greenhouse gas emissions - more
than transport, which
emits 13.5%.
Entire cycle
The FAO's estimate of
livestock emissions surpasses previous ones
because this time
researchers looked at the entire production
cycle.
This includes emissions
generated by fertiliser and feed production,
deforestation to open up
pastures, manure management, and emissions
from the livestock
themselves and from transporting them and their
feed.
Livestock require a lot of
land, occupying 26% of Earth's ice-free
land. Their pastures
account for 70% of deforested areas in the
Amazon, and their feed
occupies one-third of global
cropland.
Not only does
deforestation increase greenhouse gas emissions
by
releasing carbon
previously stored in trees, it is also a major
driver in the loss of
biodiversity. The report goes so far as to say
that the livestock sector,
which accounts for about 20% of
terrestrial animal
biomass, "may be a leading player in the
reduction
of
biodiversity".
Livelihoods in
livestock
Encouraging the global
population to become vegans is not a viable
solution, however. For
starters, says the lead author of the FAO
report, Henning Steinfeld,
it is quite simply not an option for many
of the one billion people
whose livelihoods rely on livestock
production.
Moreover, vegetable
production is not devoid of environmental
problems either. And
recent studies have shown that global fish
stocks are not sustainable
at current levels of exploitation.
Steinfeld says the crux of
the livestock problem is the sheer bulk of
land the sector occupies:
"We need to discourage indiscriminate
deforestation for pasture,
a large part of which takes place because
of land
speculation."
Convenient
occupation
In the Amazon, where
governments struggle to enforce legal systems,
settlers occupy swathes of
"no-man's land" and wait 15 years, after
which time practice,
though not law, dictates that they own the land.
Using the land for pasture
is simply a convenient tool to occupy the
land, explains
Steinfeld.
Ultimately, the authors
argue, environmental services such as
sustainably managed land
and clean water, need to be given a price.
"Most frequently, natural
resources are free or underpriced, which
leads to overexploitation
and pollution," write the authors,
concluding that "a top
priority is to achieve prices and fees that
reflect the full economic
and environmental costs".
Steinfeld says
negotiations of the next step of the Kyoto
Protocol
might be a good
opportunity to do this.