Background Image
Previous Page  25 / 104 Next Page
Information
Show Menu
Previous Page 25 / 104 Next Page
Page Background

25

Meat production increased from27 kgmeat/capita in 1974/1976

to 36 kg meat/capita in 1997/1999 (FAO, 2003), and now ac-

counts for around 8% of the world calorie intake (FAOSTAT,

2009). In many regions, such as in the rangelands of Africa,

in the Andes and the mountains of Central Asia, livestock is a

primary factor in food security.

Meat production, however, also has many detrimental effects

on the environment, apart from being energy inefficient when

animals are fed with food-crops. The area required for produc-

tion of animal feed is approximately one-third of all arable land.

Dietary shifts towards more meat will require a much larger

share of cropland for grazing and feed production for the meat

industry (FAO, 2006; 2008).

Expansion of land for livestock grazing is a key factor in defor-

estation, especially in Latin America: some 70% of previously

forested land in the Amazon is used as pasture, with feed crops

covering a large part of the remainder (FAO, 2006b). About

FOOD FROM MEAT

70% of all grazing land in dry areas is considered degraded,

mostly because of overgrazing, compaction and erosion attrib-

utable to livestock (FAO, 2006b). Further, the livestock sector

has an often unrecognized role in global warming – it is esti-

mated to be responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions,

a bigger share than that of transport (FAO, 2006b).