FCRN member Peter Stevenson of Compassion in World Farming has produced a policy briefing for the Fourth Session of the UN Environment Assembly, arguing that industrial livestock production has a detrimental impact on soils, water, biodiversity and food security and also undermines small-scale livestock farmers.
The briefing examines innovative forms of agriculture such as agroecology and silvo-pastoralism and suggests that livestock only make an efficient contribution to food production when they are converting materials we cannot consume - such as grass, crop residues and by-products - into food that we can eat. It highlights the benefits of rotational integrated crop-livestock systems. It argues that in the developed world and many emerging countries a reduction in meat consumption would improve people’s health, reduce the pressures on natural resources and make it possible to meet the Paris climate targets.
Read the full policy briefing, Sustainable food systems, food security and halting biodiversity loss - Food and farming: the need for an innovative approach, here (PDF link). See also the Foodsource building block What is food security?
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