Why Livestock are important

With the pressure of feeding an ever growing population it has been suggested that livestock are a burden on the food chain.  The United Nations estimates that food supply needs to increase by 70-100% by 2050.  There are even some who suggest that going vegetarian would solve world hunger.  There is no doubt we need to do something, but is this the solution?

Presently a third of the world’s cereal harvest is fed to farm animals and for every 100 calories of cereals eaten by livestock only 30 calories of food is generated in the form of meat, milk and eggs.  It is estimated that if this cereal was used for human consumption it would feed 3 billion people.   

However, the question is more how we farm our livestock.  Factory farming often expounded as the solution to producing food more intensely is in fact highly resource intensive.  It means the livestock rely heavily on the type of cereals that would otherwise go into the human food chain. This is bonkers!  What’s more since the start of modern farming we’ve lost about a third of the world’s top soil.  This is one of our most valuable resources, without it we cannot grow anything.  Most of our fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides come from oil and this is very calorie inefficient.

If our livestock are raised in more natural conditions then they become an asset.  Many livestock can thrive in landscapes not suitable for raising crops and they naturally feed on things people would not want to eat.  Sheep on a moorland, pigs through a woodland or chickens in our own backyards recycling our food waste.  Also livestock effectively through their metabolism produce fantastic natural fertilisers for the soil and help to improve our top soil and increase the sustainability of the land. 

The key is to place the right livestock in the right place.  In fact the Shropshire sheep, once close to extinction, has found a new application.  It is one of the few animals that eats exclusively grass and has been used to great effect by tree growers and vineyards to keep the grass down, saving the growers time and money in maintenance.

Do livestock have a place in an ever stretched planet?  Yes, a crucial one.  Not in inefficient, intensive systems but in a more natural environment, earning their keep through the food and soil fertility they leave behind.  Would you want to see a landscape with no animals in it?