Beyond Factory Farming report and summary
Industrial livestock production is resource-hungry and carbon-intensive, depending on high inputs of global natural resources – energy, water and land. Livestock production takes up 30 per cent of the world’s useable land area and consumes a third of the global grain harvest. It also contributes approximately 18 per cent of global man-made greenhouse gas emissions.
Sixty billion farm animals are already used to produce food annually, the majority in industrial-scale factory farms. Policymakers now predict that meat production will double by 2050, potentially doubling the number of animals used to 120 billion a year. The majority of this growth will come from factory farms, which are increasing at six times the rate of traditional mixed farming systems.
The planet will not be able to sustain these huge numbers of livestock nor these methods. A number of economic pressures are now forcing a re-evaluation of how we use global resources: forecast population growth to more than nine billion by 2050, rapid industrialisation of developing economies, Peak Oil, higher energy prices, the demand for biofuel alternatives to oil, the impact of climate change on the availability of land and water for agriculture, people and industry, and the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Our Beyond Factory Farming report outlines the challenges facing the world in producing enough food to feed the world in 2050 and presents the environmental, human health and animal welfare related evidence of why we need to end factory farming. The report presents evidence of the benefits of humane livestock production systems and responsible meat consumption to the environment, climate change mitigation and to human health.
FREE TO DOWNLOAD
This report can be downloaded for free using the links below.
Subtitle: "Sustainable Solutions for Animals, People and the Planet"
79 page report from 2009.
Outlines the environmental and economic factors that will impact global animal production this century, including climate change, the availability of natural resources and the rapidly growing world population. The report also presents evidence of the benefits of more extensive, humane livestock farming and responsible meat consumption to the environment and climate change mitigation.
16 page summary published October 2009
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