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BEYOND FACTORY FARMING Sustainable Solutions for Animals, People and the Planet

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BEYOND FACTORY FARMING Sustainable Solutions for Animals, People and the Planet BEYOND FACTORY FARMING Sustainable Solutions for Animals, People and the Planet A Report by Compassion in World Farming - 2009 CONTENTS 05 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 19 INTRODUCTION 19 Feeding the world in 2050 19 Animal production and global resources 20 Animal production and climate change 20 Why factory farming must end by 2050 21 PART 1. FACTORY FARMING, RESOURCE USE AND CLIMATE CHANGE 21 1. Global economics and resources 21 1.1 New resource pressures 21 1.2 Peak Oil and the coming energy crunch 22 1.3 A combination of risks 23 2. The 20th-century revolution in livestock production 23 2.1 Changing diets and the globalisation of industrial livestock production 24 2.2 Another livestock revolution? 24 2.3 The animal welfare impact of factory farming 25 2.3.1 Loss of farm animal genetic diversity 25 2.3.2 Selective breeding and animal health 26 2.3.3 Cloning and genetic engineering of farm animals 26 3. Climate change: Livestock’s impact on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 27 3.1 GHG emissions from animal production 27 3.2 Deforestation for soybean plantations 28 3.3 Climate impact of doubling meat production 28 3.4 The reductions needed in livestock-related GHG emissions 29 4. Diet and greenhouse gas emissions 30 5. Climate mitigation strategies and animal welfare 30 5.1 Manipulating the animals’ digestion 30 5.2 Intensification 31 6. Climate change and global resources: The inefficiency of factory farming 32 6.1 Feed crop efficiency 33 6.2 Land efficiency 33 6.3 Water efficiency 2 BEYOND FACTORY FARMING Sustainable Solutions for Animals, People and the Planet 35 6.4 Fuel energy efficiency 36 6.5 Food energy efficiency 37 7. Food production at a time of climate change 37 7.1 Land demand and availability 38 7.2 Climate-induced sea level rise 39 7.3 Crop yields during climate change 40 7.4 Water scarcity 42 7.5 Energy use to produce animal feed 43 7.6 Biofuels in competition for land 44 7.7 Conclusions on resource use for factory farming 45 PART 2. THE COSTS OF FACTORY FARMING 45 8. Factory farming’s impact on the environment 45 8.1 Soil degradation and desertification 46 8.2 Water pollution and depletion 47 8.3 Loss of habitat, biodiversity and extinctions 49 9. Factory farming and health 49 9.1 Pollution hazards to farm workers and the public 50 9.2 Increased risk of animal diseases 50 9.2.1 Impact of climate change on animal disease and food safety 51 9.2.2 Highly pathogenic avian influenza (bird flu) 52 9.2.3 Swine influenza 53 9.2.4 Foot and mouth disease (FMD) and animal production viruses 54 9.2.5 Emerging zoonotic diseases 54 9.3 Food quality and nutrition 54 9.4 Food safety and food poisoning 55 9.5 Antibiotic resistance and factory farming 56 9.6 ‘Downer’ cows and BSE 56 9.7 Human nutrition, health and disease prevention 57 9.7.1 Obesity and diet 57 9.7.2 Diet-related disease risks 59 PART 3. SUSTAINABLE ALTERNATIVES TO FACTORY FARMING FOR 2050 59 10. The global benefits of ending factory farming 59 10.1 Savings in energy and water use 60 10.2 Protecting soil and climate 60 10.3 Reduced dependence on synthetic fertilisers 61 10.4 Better animal welfare 61 10.5 Better allocation of resources and lower external costs Sustainable Solutions for Animals, People and the Planet BEYOND FACTORY FARMING 3 62 10.6 Checklist for a sustainable food system 63 11. The choice ahead 64 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 64 Why change is urgent: a summary 66 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE 67 REFERENCES List of Tables 23 Table 1: Increase in number of food animals (excluding fish) used annually in developed and developing countries 29 Table 2: Contribution of different foods to total Dutch food-related GHG emissions 32 Table 3: The feed inefficiency of factory farming 33 Table 4: Area of land required in a typical industrial country (The Netherlands) to produce 1 kg of either animal products or staple plant products 34 Table 5: Water used to produce selected products: ‘virtual’ water content 35 Table 6: Comparative efficiency of water to produce food energy in China for selected products 36 Table 7: Energy inputs per unit output of animal product, from industrial production methods in the United States 37 Table 8: Losses in the world’s food energy supply from feed conversion and waste at different stages of production 42 Table 9: Average energy consumed by chemical inputs for crops 43 Table 10: Proportion of all mineral fertiliser used for feed crops and pasture 59 Table 11: Change in energy use for selected products as a result of organic farming, compared to non-organic farming in the UK 62 Table 12: Reduction in external costs achievable by organic production UNITS USED IN THE TEXT 1 hectare = 2.47 acres 1 square kilometre (km2) = 100 hectares = 247 acres 1 tonne (metric tonne) = 1000 kg = 0.98 ton 1 cubic metre (m3) = 1000 litres 1 kilocalorie (kcal) = 1000 calories 1 gigajoule (GJ) = 1 billion joules = 278 kilowatt hours (KW hr) = 0.278 megawatt hours (MW hr) 4 BEYOND FACTORY FARMING Sustainable Solutions for Animals, People and the Planet EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ‘Well before 2050, the world will need farming systems capable of feeding 8 –11 billion people within a resource-light, low-carbon economy. ‘ Factory farming of animals for food is Livestock production globally is currently resource-hungry and carbon-intensive. responsible for 18% of human-induced A creation of the second half of the 20th greenhouse gas emissions,2 a higher century in the developed world, it depends proportion than all global transport (14%).7 on high inputs of global natural resources – Climate change could fundamentally change energy, water and land. Sixty billion animals the conditions under which livestock can be (poultry and mammals) are used to produce produced in future, by reducing the food annually1 and over 50% of pigmeat and availability of feedcrops, water and land. 70% of chickenmeat is already industrially High temperatures may drastically reduce crop produced.2, 3 Industrial systems have been yields.9 Large areas of the world’s current increasing at six times the rate of traditional cropland may become unusable or mixed farming systems.4 Policymakers now unproductive due to coastal flooding or predict that meat production will double by drought. A rise in sea level of one metre is 2050, potentially doubling the number of possible by the end of this century; this would animals used to 120 billion a year. The planet flood one-fifth of Bangladesh and 2 million will not be able to sustain these huge km2 of land globally. As many as 150-200 numbers of livestock nor these methods. million people could be permanently displaced Industrial livestock production is a highly by 2050 due to rising sea levels, floods and inefficient use of global resources of land, droughts and forced to settle on previously water and fossil fuel energy when compared farmed land.10 As we approach 2050, the huge to plant crops such as cereals and vegetables. resources of land, water and energy that our Every kilogramme of factory farmed meat current intensive livestock production is based requires several kilogrammes of grains for on may simply not be available. Factory animal feed. Around 40% of the world’s farming would become both economically and grain harvest is already used as livestock ethically unsustainable. feed, and that proportion is around 70% in With its high demand for resources and its most rich countries.5 Much of the land, high impacts, factory farming is the wrong energy and water used to grow feedcrops for model for feeding the world in 2050. intensively produced animals could be more In the next decades, we need to halve efficiently used to grow food that is directly the environmental footprint of food consumed by people. The United Nations production and free-up grain to feed people. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change A reduction in animal production, combined (IPCC) in 2001 noted, ‘A shift from meat with lower-input, extensive farming, is the towards plant production for human food most effective response that farmers and purposes, where feasible, could increase policymakers in developed countries can energy efficiency and decrease GHG make to achieve this goal. A reduction in [greenhouse gas] emissions.’6 consumption of animal products is also one A number of economic pressures are now of the most rapid and effective responses forcing a re-evaluation of how we use global that an individual can make to the global resources: forecast population growth to problems of climate change, over- more than nine billion by 2050, rapid exploitation of the global environment and industrialisation of developing economies, to free up natural resources for the use of Peak Oil, higher energy prices, the demand the world’s poor. for biofuel alternatives to oil, the impact of climate change on the availability of land and water for agriculture, people and industry, and the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, starting now. Sustainable Solutions for Animals, People and the Planet - Executive Summary BEYOND FACTORY FARMING 5 FACTORY FARMING’S IMPACT ON RESOURCES Resource inefficiency: Factory Resource scarcity: Factory farming farming gives a poor return on consumes large quantities of inputs of energy, land and water. resources that will be scarce and costly by 2050. Livestock feed consumes nearly 43% of the food energy (kilocalories) produced by the Harvests world’s total harvest of edible crops,5, 11 after post-harvest losses.
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