NEWS
Population, waste bigger
environmental factors than
livestock
Reprinted From: https://agriabout.com/
Agri About
A
s the world’s population increases
and the planet’s temperature ris-
es, many are pointing to animal
agriculture as a leading cause of climate
change, said Dr Robin White from the
Virginia State University.
White said animal agriculture can and
must become a significantly more sus-
tainable industry. Much of her research
focuses on sustainable beef production
that considers human and animal nutri-
tion as well as climate change, social
justice, animal welfare and the impact
of emerging ag-tech.
“We are expected to reach over nine
billion people within 30 years and the
estimates for the 2100 population are
as high as 11 billion people or perhaps
higher,” said White. “However, we’re
also expecting changes in the demo-
graphics of that population.
”Economies in developing countries
are beginning to mature, and incomes
are rising, said White. “Historically, as
people’s incomes rise, their demand
for animal products also rises. The pro-
jections suggest that we’re looking at
something like a 70 per cent increase in
demand for animal protein products on
a global scale.”
Though this growth in demand will allow
people the opportunity to grow markets
and expand their businesses, the issue
is that there is only so much land and
water that the planet can provide. Be-
yond that, many countries are making
commitments to reducing greenhouse
gas emissions, and White said livestock
Figure 1: There is only so much land
and water that the planet can provide.
Grassroots
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Figure 2: Our population is often the cause of our environmental problems - as
seen here on the beach.
products are often associated with high
emissions of greenhouse gases.
“It’s really our population that’s caus-
ing our environmental problems — it’s
not necessarily the food production
system,” said White. “If animal agricul-
ture was the major driver of increasing
environmental impact over the last sev-
eral years, we would expect to see their
numbers to be much higher, which is
just not supported by the data.”
A lot of White’s work deals with the en-
vironmental impacts of having global
plantbased diets in order to understand
whether the benefits of stopping the
production of animal products out-
weigh the potential health risks to pop-
ulations.
In one of her charts, White estimates
that if animals were eliminated from
agriculture, the production of legumes
would need to triple, and there would
need to be five times the production
of nuts. There would also be a large in-
crease in grain production. “The ques-
March 2020
tion then arises whether the planet can
sustain so much more nut and plant
production,” said White.
This change in diet could pose a health
risk for the population, especially those
who are already vulnerable, like the el-
derly, growing children, and women
who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
White said the population’s intake of
important micronutrients, like B12, cal-
cium, Vitamin A and Vitamin D, would
be greatly decreased.
Another issue is that many plants and
nonanimal foods can’t be grown just
anywhere, so the possibility of having
a global plantbased diet is simply not
feasible due to these limitations.
White said there would not be that
much of a decrease in greenhouse gas-
es, especially when because the popu-
lation would also be losing a great deal
of micronutrients.
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