Raising livestock and eating meat comes at a cost to the environment. Governments should implement policies on both the supply and demand sides to solve the problem.
The raising of livestock and the eating of animal products has benefits, but also come at a cost to the environment. Raising livestock accounts for about 80% of all agricultural land and 25-32% of agricultural water use.
When it comes to climate change, livestock contribute to the problem and are also affected by it. An estimated 8-18% of human-caused greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from livestock.
And as the climate shifts and average temperatures continue to rise, animals will suffer from heat stress, more parasites and diseases, and reduced quality and availability of feed.
Governments should implement policies on both the supply and demand sides to solve the problem.
From a supply point of view, subsidies and taxes can both be used to help reduce land use changes and curb emissions, but we need more documented case studies to see how these strategies are working in practice, and how they affect farmers’ livelihoods and food and nutritional security.
On the demand side, wealthy countries can use different policies to try to reduce meat consumption where it is excessive.
Changing dietary patterns in high meat-consuming populations in both developed and developing countries theoretically holds potential for reducing environmental impacts, but these changes are only hypothetical so far.
Whether consumer preferences can be changed through policies, such as with consumption-based taxes, has yet to be seen.
COVER STORY INDEX
- A different take on bovines
Josh Tickell, Author
“Then, after years of bull bashing, the previously silent pro-cow camp got fed up.
- Books like Cows Save the Planet by Judith Schwartz, Defending Beef: The Case for Sustainable Meat Production by Nicolette Hahn Niman of Niman Ranch, and Allan Savory’s The Grazing Revolution hit the shelves, painting a very different picture.”
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