Livestock | TableDebates

Political Ecologies of Meat

Abstract Livestock production worldwide is increasing rapidly, in part due to economic growth and demand for meat in industrializing countries. Yet there are many concerns about the sustainability of increased meat production and consumption, from perspectives including human health, animal welfare, climate change and environmental pollution.

The Next Pig Idea – interview with Tristram Stuart

In this interview in Policy Innovations, Tristram Stuart describes the rationale behind the organization he has founded called FeedBack, which tackles food waste across the supply chain, globally, "from plant to plate." In particular he discusses the campaign The Pig Idea and the idea of recycling food waste as feed for pigs.

Blog-post: How improving your diet is good for your health and can help tackle climate change

In this post on the Public Health England blog, Alison Tedstone discusses sustainable healthy diets and what such a diet can look like in the UK. It particularly discusses the consumption and production of meat and dairy.

The Impacts of Climate Change Mitigation Strategies on Animal Welfare

This paper provides a useful overview of the effects that measures to reduce GHGs from the livestock sector can have upon the welfare of farmed animals. It argues that most approaches geared at seek to increasing the intensity of production via changes in breeding, feeding and housing may increase productivity per unit of GHG s emitted but they come at the expense of animal health and wellbeing.

Success of Zero-Deforestation Agreements in Brazil – Beef industry keen on reducing deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

This paper finds that the introduction of legally binding agreements, signed by ranchers and slaughterhouses in Brazil, have been effective in halting deforestation.

Gut feelings and possible tomorrows: (where) does animal farming fit?

This new FCRN think piece focuses on the future of livestock production - or rather on a range of different livestock futures.

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Gut feelings and possible tomorrows: (where) does animal farming fit?

This paper takes a closer look at who the stakeholders are in the debate around livestock, the different narratives that they construct about the livestock problem - and the solutions they propose. It does this by constructing four scenarios, each of which imagines a different livestock ‘solution,’ and explores the values that underpin them. In 2023, this paper was adapted into a podcast series called "Meat: The Four Futures." Visit the podcast page to learn more.

Waste not, want not: Reducing livestock's greenhouse gas emissions in the UK

Livestock, domestic animals raised for meat, dairy and eggs, is responsible for 14.5 percent of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Because of the scale of its contribution, mitigation of emissions from the livestock sector must be addressed in order to avoid an average global temperature rise of more than 2°C compared to pre-industrial times.

FCRN China Briefing papers

In 2014, the FCRN released a major report entitled Appetite for change: social, economic and environmental transformations in China’s food system. This provided a detailed and integrative analysis of the dramatic changes in China’s food system over the last 35 years, explored emerging environmental, health, economic and cultural trends and challenges, and identified policy and research implications.