How better livestock efficiency could balance urgent food security and climate goals

A new brief from the Livestock Data for Decisions (LD4D) network discusses an important concept for anyone concerned about tackling both climate change and increasing food security demands.  The brief outlines how low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) could meet their growing demands for animal source foods, while constraining the trajectory of rising emission from the livestock sector.

The authors, a diverse group of experts and researchers working across the sector, highlight the need to improve production efficiency while meeting growing food and nutrition demands. This means supporting investment in measures that improve productivity while reducing the relative amount of greenhouse gases produced per unit of meat, milk and eggs. This would contrast with the ‘business-as-usual’ scenario where investment is limited and there are not significant increases in production efficiency. In this scenario, growing demand will be met through increasing animal numbers, leading to large increases in absolute greenhouse gas emissions.

“The livestock sector is responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions, although the contribution from low- and lower-middle income countries is currently small,” said study author Gareth Salmon from SEBI-Livestock. “However, this contribution will grow over the coming decade as growing populations demand more meat, milk and eggs. Investors in climate action need to see the opportunity to slow the growth of greenhouse gas emissions from the sector – a shift from the conventional focus on absolute emission reductions. Without investment in production efficiency improvements, we risk missing a critical window to limit climate change's escalating impacts” he explained.

Improving production efficiency means optimising resource use, and could include investing in solutions such as:

• Improved animal feed and nutrition, through optimised feed selection and better pasture and rangeland management.
• Higher-yielding livestock breeds that are also more resilient to environmental changes
• Improved animal health: by reducing illness and death rates, animals can be more productive

The authors note, that to be successful, investors must ensure these solutions are well-adapted to local livestock systems and attractive to livestock producers.

High-income countries have historically made big improvements in production efficiency of their livestock sectors and are now pursuing incremental improvements. An opportunity exists in LMICs, where the amount of emissions per unit of animal source foods remains relatively high. The authors also note that there exists ‘significant variation’ in emissions intensity (the units of emissions associated with units of produce) between different countries and between similar production systems within LMICs. They argue this highlights realistic potential for production efficiency improvements. 

“We need to compare two scenarios: what happens if we maintain the status quo for production efficiency as demand for animal protein rises, versus what is possible when strategic investment bends the emissions curve downward,” noted co-author Peri Rosenstein, senior scientist for livestock systems at Environmental Defense Fund. “By optimising livestock productivity in ways that are appropriate for the local context, we can increase food security while creating cost-effective pathways to reduce future climate impacts,” she said. 

The brief was authored by: Gareth Salmon (SEBI-Livestock, University of Edinburgh), Michael McLeod (Scotland's Rural College), Frances Ryan (SEBI-Livestock, University of Edinburgh), Danielle Niedermaier (Land O'Lakes Venture37), Isabell Orlishausen (SEBI-Livestock, University of Edinburgh), Peri Rosenstein (Environmental Defense Fund), Şeyda Özkan (Livestock Climate Solutions), Nick Wheelhouse (Edinburgh Napier University), Anne Mottet (International Fund for Agricultural Development), Ana Miranda (SEBI-Livestock, University of Edinburgh), Laura Cramer (International Livestock Research Institute), Fernanda Ferreira (Clean Air Task Force) & Andrew Bisson (Livestock Climate Solutions)