A more efficient livestock sector means a better carbon footprint
14/11/2016
Speaking in Canada in early November at the 2016 Global Conference on Sustainable Beef, Professor Mitloehner, who teaches at the University of California, Davis, said: “We need to become much more efficient, worldwide, in animal production while thinking about all other sustainability indicators.”
He said these indicators include animal welfare, food safety issues, workers’ health and safety and financial viability, as well as greenhouse gas emissions.
On the subject of emissions, he made it clear that producing more meat and milk from fewer animals decreases the livestock industry’s carbon footprint. “Production intensity and emission intensity are inversely related,” he said. “Livestock and agricultural production will always have an environmental footprint, but when production per animal goes up, emissions per animal go down.”
He described as “outrageous” the number of animals required to produce meat and milk in countries that lack efficiency in animal nutrition, veterinary care and so on. He contrasted this with the US where, he said, there were 140 million head of beef cattle in 1970, compared to 90 million today. “Even though we have so much fewer cattle today, we still produce the same amount of beef,” he explained, putting the figure at 10.7 million tonnes. “That’s with 50 million fewer cattle, which means we can produce the same amount of beef as we did in 1970, but without the emissions or the water consumption of 50 million head of cattle. That’s a huge improvement.”
On the dairy side, he said 9 million dairy cows in the US today compare to 25 million dairy cows in 1950. And in spite of having much fewer cows in its dairy herd today, Professor Mitloehner said the US produces 60% more milk, which means that the carbon footprint of a glass of milk in the US has reduced by 66% in 66 years.
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