Livestock

ISSUES

Animal husbandry

Between 1990 and 2007, meat consumption in the world went from 143 million tons to 271 million tons. It therefore nearly doubled in 15 years (1). It could double again by 2050 (2) Consumption is particularly increasing in developing countries because their populations are rising and because their diet is evolving - populations that are sometimes undernourished or malnourished now have access to richer diets. Today, it can go up to about 30 kg of meat a year per inhabitant, compared to 80 kilos in industrialised countries. (3)
Environmental degradation
Animal husbandry requires large surfaces: it is the human activity which uses the most land. According to the FAO, pastures take up 26 per cent of the Earth's land surface whilst fodder production requires about a third of arable land. (4) In arid areas, overgrazing particularly favours soil erosion.
Extensive animal husbandry is the main cause of deforestation in Ame...

NEWS

Sheep genes reveal room for improvement: study

Meat trade emissions equal to half of all Britain's cars

Mongolian mining hurting Mother Nature

Univers GoodPlanet par Netvibes

DEBATES

Europe’s Ethical Eggs

Peter Singer

Forty years ago, I stood with a few other students in a busy Oxford street handing out leaflets protesting the use of battery...

Water is key to food security

The vulnerability of rain-dependent food production systems...

Famine and Hope in the Horn of Africa

Yet again, famine stalks the Horn of Africa. More than ten...

FOCUS

The return of the wolf

In Antiquity, the wolf symbolised both fertility and ferocity. The Romans portrayed the she-wolf as the adoptive mother of the founders of Rome and the male wolf as the companion of Mars, god of war. But with growing urbanisation, this positive view of the animal died...

VIDEOS

08/02/2012	The mobile phone has revolutionised the lives of the rural poor across the...	02/08/2011	Josette Sheeran, the head of the UN's World Food Program, talks about why,...
15/02/2011	Tracy Worcester's film about factory pig farming, a system which abuses...	27/09/2010	With planning permission for Britain's biggest dairy at Nocton about to be...

GREEN TIPS

Polluters Pay

A month after the explosion at the AZF chemical factory in Toulouse, its manager authorised the discharge of...

INDICATORS

Undernourishment

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