Towards resilient, inclusive, sustainable livestock farming systems
Background: While livestock products comprise the cornerstone of food security, livestock managers face the dual challenge of adapting to a climate crisis and sustainably reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Climatic variability and extreme weather events impact the agri-food chain, hindering global agricultural productivity and threatening safe, nutritious, and affordable livestock products.
Scope and Approach: This review delves into five key aspects: (1) the cultural, socio-economic, and food security importance of livestock, (2) the impact of climatic, economic, and geopolitical shocks on the global livestock sector, (3) the livestock sector's role in climate change, (4) opportunities for transitioning to inclusive, sustainable livestock farming systems, and (5) prerequisites and transformative initiatives for the livestock sector.
Key Findings and Conclusions: Climatic, economic, and geopolitical shocks have increased, particularly affecting the poultry, dairy, and small ruminant sectors in the last three decades. These shocks have amplified risks of contravening tipping points. Low adaptive capacity and high vulnerability to the climate emergency demand place-based adaptation. Interventions reducing food waste and restoring tropical forests offer the greatest mitigation potential, while agrivoltaics and on-shore wind production appear most promising economically. Trade-offs between production, conservation, prosperity, and mitigation demand contextualization and co-design of innovations for credibility, legitimacy, and adoptability.
Funding
Sustainable pathways to CN30 : Meat and Livestock Australia | B.CCH.2121
History
Publication title
Trends in Food Science & TechnologyVolume
152Article number
104668Pagination
1-16eISSN
1879-3053ISSN
0924-2244Department/School
TIA - Research Institute, Ecology and BiodiversityPublisher
ElsevierPublication status
- Published
Rights statement
© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Socio-economic Objectives
190101 Climate change adaptation measures (excl. ecosystem), 190103 Social impacts of climate change and variability, 190102 Ecosystem adaptation to climate change, 190301 Climate change mitigation strategies, 159901 Carbon and emissions trading, 190502 Climate variability (excl. social impacts), 190501 Climate change models, 190302 Management of greenhouse gas emissions from animal productionUN Sustainable Development Goals
13 Climate Action, 2 Zero Hunger, 1 No Poverty, 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities, 10 Reduced Inequalities, 13 Climate Action, 15 Life on Land, 2 Zero Hunger, 3 Good Health and Well Being, 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, 7 Affordable and Clean EnergyUsage metrics
Categories
- Climate change law
- Greenhouse gas inventories and fluxes
- Agricultural, veterinary and food sciences
- Engineering
- Environment and climate finance
- Agriculture, land and farm management
- Food sciences
- Climate change impacts and adaptation
- Ecological impacts of climate change and ecological adaptation
- Human impacts of climate change and human adaptation
- Chemical engineering