Re-defining efficiency of food production by livestock

Re-defining efficiency of feed use by livestock.

Livestock, particularly ruminants, can eat a wider range of biomass than humans. In the drive for greater efficiency, intensive systems of livestock production have evolved to compete with humans for high-energy crops such as cereals. Feeds consumed by livestock were analysed in terms of the quantities used and efficiency of conversion of grassland, human-edible ('edible') crops and crop by-pro...

Defining Biological Efficiency of Beef Production

“Efficiency” is a poorly defined and generally overused term in livestock production. The segmentation present in the beef industry provides wide latitude for limited, and potentially conflicting, definitions and makes achievement of an industry-wide consensus on the definition of efficiency difficult. Much of what we believe today about efficiency of animal production was introduced by Dickers...

Productivity, Efficiency and Resilience of Crop and Livestock Production

Industrial Livestock Production: The Twin Myths of Efficiency and Necessity

It is widely assumed that food production must increase by 70% to feed the growing world population and accordingly that further industrialisation of livestock production is essential. This would result in poorer animal welfare as even with good stockmanship industrial systems generally have a low potential for delivering satisfactory welfare outcomes. In fact a large increase in food productio...

Defining disability – Re-defining policy

Introduction: In 2002, an EC study reported that different European countries define disability differently, and this is one of the primary reasons why no common Europe-wide policies on disability exist. The EU-MHADIE project was funded with the aim of producing recommendations and guidelines for future common disability policies. The WHO’s ICF classification and its bio-psycho-social model of ...