Environmental impacts from livestock production with different animal welfare potentials – a literature review
نویسندگان
چکیده
SUMMARY There is a rising awareness of the many negative environmental impacts related to the rapidly growing global production and consumption of animal products, such as land degradation, biodiversity losses, emissions of nutrients (most importantly nitrogen and phosphorus) and greenhouse gases. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and, more recently, Carbon Footprinting (CF), have become the major methods to assess the environmental performance of livestock production, and today there is access to relatively sophisticated and standardised methods for Carbon Footprinting. Results from LCA/CF research and consultancy work are used in the industry, by policy makers and also, recently, by consumers. Animal welfare is not included in current LCA or CF analyses of food production systems. The lack of data on animal welfare which is comparable with environmental LCA data means that there can be inadequate knowledge of how sustainable animal production systems can and should develop. This knowledge gap is the background for this study which was commissioned by Compassion in World Farming (CIWF). Method This study is based on a thorough literature review of scientific reports on the environmental impacts of milk, meat and egg production. The reports reviewed were mainly LCA and CF studies. Peer reviewed papers and recent, high quality reports that compare and present results from differing production systems were examined in more detail. There is limited or no information about animal welfare in the studies analysed. One way to deal with this limitation is to consider grazing and/or organic farming systems and different types of free-range systems as a proxy for systems with a greater potential for higher farm animal welfare. Of the studies examined, all include emissions of greenhouse gases from animal production (although emissions due to land use and land use change are seldom included) and most of the studies present figures on energy use, land use, eutrophication and acidification. Few studies include use of pesticides or toxicity assessments, phosphorous use or other resource depletion. Assessment of biodiversity is included in only one study, whilst land quality and medicine use are not included in any of the studies reviewed. Land use is quantified in a number of studies, but they do not include any classification of the quality of land. This makes it hard to determine the amount of prime arable land needed versus the amount of upland or marginal land used in farming systems that have the potential for higher or lower animal welfare. …
منابع مشابه
Precision livestock farming technologies for welfare management in intensive livestock systems.
The worldwide demand for meat and animal products is expected to increase by at least 40% in the next 15 years. The first question is how to achieve high-quality, sustainable and safe meat production that can meet this demand. At the same time, livestock production is currently facing serious problems. Concerns about animal health in relation to food safety and human health are increasing. The ...
متن کاملLivestock Super Farms
Farmers will have to increase production levels to provide food for a growing population, while meeting the current and future welfare and environmental targets and legislation. There has been a steady decline in the number of farms, farmers and livestock in the UK, with an increase in the average farm size. Proposed UK super farms are smaller in scale compared to some of the world’s larg...
متن کاملOrganic livestock farming A critical review
Based on production guidelines, organic livestock farming has set itself the goal of establishing environmentally friendly production, sustaining animals in good health, realising high animal welfare standards, and producing products of high quality. By striving for these goals, organic livestock farming meets the demands of an increasing number of consumers who are critical of conventional pro...
متن کاملEnvironmental aspects of ethical animal production.
Livestock and poultry producers face a number of challenges including pressure from the public to be good environmental stewards and adopt welfare-friendly practices. In response, producers often implement practices beyond those required for regulatory compliance to meet consumer demands. However, environmental stewardship and animal welfare may have conflicting objectives. Examples include pas...
متن کاملGenome Wide Association Studies, Next Generation Sequencing and Their Application in Animal Breeding and Genetics: A Review
Recently genetic studies have been revolutionized by next generation sequencing (NGS) technology, and it is expected that the use of this technology will largely eliminate defects in the methods of association studies. The NGS technology is becoming the premier tool in genetics. However, at the moment the use of this method is limited especially in the livestock due to high cost and computation...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
عنوان ژورنال:
دوره شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2012