The Worldwatch Institute
in Washington, D.C., is raising concerns about the continued increase in
livestock farming.
It says in a report
released today that the global population of farm animals increased 23 percent
between 1980 and 2010, from 3.5 billion to 4.3 billion, and increased harmful
effects on the environment, public health, and global development.
Both production and
consumption of animal products are increasingly concentrated in developing countries,
says the report by Danielle Nierenberg, director of the institute’s Nourishing
the Plant project.
Consumption is, however, now
declining in these countries, she says.
"The demand for meat, eggs, and
dairy products in developing countries has increased at a staggering rate in
recent decades," she writes.
"While
industrialized countries still consume the most animal products, urbanization and
rising incomes in developing countries are spurring shifts to more meat-heavy
diets.
"Farm-animal
production provides a safety net for millions of the world's most vulnerable
people, but given the industry's rapid and often poorly-regulated growth, the
biggest challenge in the coming decades will be to produce meat and other
animal products in environmentally and socially sustainable ways,"
Nierenberg writes.
Concentrated animal
feeding operations (CAFOs), or factory farms, are the most rapidly-growing
system of farm animal production.
The United Nations Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 80 percent of growth in the
livestock sector now comes from these hog and poultry barns and beef feedlots
CAFOs now account for 72
percent of poultry production, 43 percent of egg production, and 55 percent of
pork production worldwide, according to the United Nations.
‘But CAFOs produce high
levels of waste, use huge amounts of water and land for feed production,
contribute to the spread of human and animal diseases, and play a role in biodiversity
loss,” Nierenberg says.
“Farm animal production
also contributes to climate change: the industry accounts for an estimated 18
percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, including nine percent of
the carbon dioxide, nearly 40 percent of the methane (a greenhouse gas 25
times more potent than carbon dioxide), and 65 percent of the nitrous oxide
(300 times more potent than carbon dioxide).
“Factory farms pose
a serious threat to public health as well. Diets high in animal fat and meat----particularly red meat and processed meats, such
as hot dogs, bacon, and sausage----have
been linked to obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and certain types of
cancer,” she writes.
CAFOs
are becoming increasingly prevalent in developing regions such as East and
Southeast Asia where environmental, animal-welfare, public health, and labor
standards are often not as well-established as in industrialized regions, she
writes.
She
claims that approximately 75 percent of the new diseases that affected humans
from 1999 to 2009 originated in animals or animal products.
She notes that the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations claims that at least 21 percent of the
world's livestock breeds are at risk of extinction.
She also says ‘cattle enterprises have
been responsible for 65-80 percent of the deforestation of the Amazon, and
countries in South America are clearing large swaths of forest and other land
to grow animal feed crops” such as corn and soybeans.
