Focusing on dairy cattle, this book explains the factors contributing to animal welfare, makes the business case for improving welfare, and sets out case studies linking welfare to increased productivity.

This paper examines how uncertainties and assumptions behind assessments of global livestock methane emissions play out as research is translated into policy. The authors argue that the simplification of emissions data (during the aggregation of life cycle analyses into global sectoral estimates) results in a misleading and narrow picture of ruminant livestock.

This paper explores how people’s moral views towards different animals change between childhood and adulthood. Based on surveys with participants in the UK, children were found to be less likely than adults to show speciesism (defined as assigning moral worth to beings based on their species), less likely to categorise farm animals as food as opposed to as pets, more likely to think farm animals should be treated better (than adults would treat them), and less likely to think it is morally acceptable to eat meat or animal products. The authors hypothesise that people learn to reconcile inner moral conflicts about eating animal products by forming a hierarchy in which some animals are given a lower moral standing.

This paper offers a global review of the environmental, economic, social, health and ethical impacts of meat consumption, including trends in consumption over the past few decades. It also explores how the sector can become more sustainable by changing both production and consumption practices.

This report from World Animal Protection and Tasting the Future argues that industrial livestock farming negatively affects human health through five main pathways: malnutrition and obesity; antibiotic resistant microbes; foodborne illnesses worsened by animals being reared in stressful conditions; illnesses from environmental contamination, such as zinc in animal excretions; and the physical and mental impacts of poor working conditions in slaughter, processing and packaging facilities. It also sets out proposed systemic shifts and recommendations for policymakers.

This report by IPES-Food (the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems) scrutinises eight key claims about the future of protein (including livestock and alternative proteins), identifies five ways in which these claims result in oversimplified discussions, and sets out three recommendations to reframe discussions and reduce polarisation.

This infographic from international NGO WWF illustrates how much soy, in the form of animal feed, goes into producing animal products such as pork, cheese, salmon, yoghurt and eggs. It also explains the impacts of soy production on land use and ecosystem conversion.

This book, aimed at a non-specialist audience, discusses our relationships with animals, how they feel from the animals' perspectives and how we can improve them. It considers the future of humane, sustainable agriculture.

This paper identifies six key elements of the Paris Climate Agreement and discusses how they could be applied to the challenge of tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR) at the global level. The elements are: a collective global goal; a focus on social and economic transformation; nationally determined contributions that become more ambitious over time; an annual multi-stakeholder forum; global scientific stock-taking every five years; and an international legal framework. Most of these elements are not yet in place in relation to AMR.