As meat consumption rises, livestock will continue to have an increasing impact on greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 12% of human-caused emissions, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization warned on Friday.
In a report, the Rome-based organization recommended enhancing animal health, modifying animal feed, and increasing the productivity of the entire production chain as ways to cut emissions.
In wealthier nations, it also recommended reducing meat intake, but it was stated that the impact would be minimal.
Cattle are responsible for 62 percent of livestock-related emissions, followed by swine at 14 percent, poultry’s nine percent, buffalo at eight percent and sheep and goats at seven percent.
Examining the final products, meat production is responsible for 67 percent, ahead of milk at 30 percent and eggs at three percent.
Sixty percent of livestock emissions are indirect, resulting from transportation, the manufacturing of pesticides and fertilizers for animal feed, the destruction of forests for pasture and soy fields, and animal waste and flatulence.
According to the FAO, meat consumption tends to increase along with economic expansion and urbanization, while occasionally it is slowed down by worries about the environment, human health, and animal welfare.
However, the agency predicted that between 2020 and 2050, the increase in global population will likely lead to a 21 percent rise in the demand of animal protein.
The FAO said the most efficient way to reduce emissions is to increase productivity all along the chain, for example using various techniques to increase the amount of milk per cow or sending animals for slaughter at a lower age.
Reducing meat consumption will have a limited impact if it is replaced at meals by non-seasonal vegetables grown in greenhouses or transported by air.
Cattle raised in large US lots tend to emit less than those raised in sub- Saharan Africa, the report says.
“This is not to promote intensification in these regions at all costs, but rather to advocate learning from systems with relatively lower emission intensities,” it said.
