livestock industries

This month, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Lima, Peru, one of the most important battles facing humanity is playing out. At stake: the salvation of the planet. Climate change is already being felt across Latin America and the Caribbean, the World Bank says.

Rising temperatures are changing rainfall patterns, leading to flooding in some places and intense droughts in others. Climate change will mean dry places get drier and wet places get wetter.

Indigenous beliefs, structured by a sound relationship with the environment, are the world over, but unlike in North America, Australia or Europe. They have not been so successfully suppressed in many parts of Latin America, but in some places they are making a resurgence. People living on the slopes of the Andes Mountains, as well as their livestock, are suffering from health problems because the sources of fresh water are diminishing.

Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru and two regional conservationist programs joined the 20x20 Initiative that aims to have all the planned work of re-vegetation 20 million hectares of land well under way by 2020. The initiative aims to change the dynamics of land restoration in the region and initially focuses on bringing 20 million hectares of degraded land into restoration by 2020. The land will be restored partly into natural forests and partly into a “mosaic” of trees, crops, and livestock.

SMH: Latin Americal countries fight climate change

Greenhouse gas emissions from land use changes, such as deforestation, account for 15 per cent of global emissions, or more than what is generated by the world's transport sector. So, programs to avoid destruction of forests help to reduce the amount of heat-trapping gases.

(A main cause of deforestation in South America and Asia has been clearing land for palm oil production. Palm oil has become a major source of biodiesel, a supposedly green fuel - from Blogspot: now can the world have its forests back? )

The response of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) was: for the rich nations to reverse the impact they had made, they must implement carbon emissions reductions of 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. They should shoulder costs of developing countries for mitigation actions, and provide finance and technological help to help developing nations deal with the effects of climate change.

Peru’s intention to show leadership later this year is part of a growing trend where Latin American countries are perceived to be punching above their weight when it comes to participating in global debates and forums on climate change action.

The 20x20 Initiative, which also aims to incorporate more countries of the region into the project, also seeks to tackle the carbon emissions through the protection of forests and fertile lands. UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said, "Today's pledges by countries in Africa and Latin America to combat deforestation and more than double restoration targets will bring significant climate benefits..."

“Land restoration in the region is an essential element to promote equity, poverty reduction, alternatives for development in poor rural areas as well as a mechanism to achieve a low carbon, more resilient future,” said Gabriel Vallejo, Colombia's Minister of Environment, in a statement.." - See more at: http://news.mongabay.com/2014/1207-initiative20x20.html#sthash.rTmKsh5D.Aq8Qlqlk.dpuf

Livestock industries

The global livestock industry produces more greenhouse gas emissions than transport and of the 95 million tons of beef produced in the world in 2000, the vast majority came from cattle in Latin America, Europe and North America.

The World Resources Institute in Washington estimates that converting land to farms and using it for agriculture and livestock accounts for almost half of all greenhouse gas emissions in the region. Degraded land can be restored by adding trees to properties that are currently used for farming or raising livestock, and over the long term, the trees themselves can be sustainably harvested to provide additional income to farmers.

The Green Revolution relied on the intensive use of water and fossil-fuel-based chemicals, giving the world a 40 year reprieve of food security, but we can no longer afford to increase food production through agricultural expansion. Trading tropical forest for farmland is one of the most destructive things we do to the environment.

Governments and environmental groups are reluctant to pursue policies or campaigns to change consumer behaviour due to fears of a consumer backlash. International think-tank, Chatham House , found that consumers with a higher level of awareness of climate change and its impacts were more willing to reduce their dietary behaviour. The greatest potential for behaviour change appears to lie in emerging economies, with respondents in Brazil, China and India showing a greater consideration of climate change when choosing meat and dairy, and a greater willingness to modify their behaviour than consumers in the United States, the UK and Japan.

Developing nations can make headway, and make a pro-active response to environmental repairs and a reduction to greenhouse gas emissions, but in contrast, Australia is going backwards.

Australia's refusal to participate on climate change initiatives

The Brisbane G20 summit yielded major pledges to the Green Climate Fund by the US (US$3 billion) and Japan (US$1.5 billion). Combined with earlier pledges by France, Germany and others, the fund is now three-quarters of the way towards reaching its initial funding target of US$10 billion by the time of a pledging.

Australia stands as the only wealthy country to have ruled out a contribution to the United Nations’ Green Climate Fund. As of last week, the fund had received pledges from 22 countries totalling $US9.6 billion ($A11.2 billion) against an initial funding target of $US10 billion.

The Abbott government's refusal to contribute to the $US10 billion ($11.8 billion) Green Climate Fund risked Australia "being marginalised", Erwin Jackson, deputy chief executive of The Climate Institute said Australia remains one of the few rich nations not to make a pledge to the UN fund. Even Canada, led by climate sceptic Stephen Harper, has pledged $C300 million ($311 million).

Australia will continue to directly pay for climate change adaptation in vulnerable South Pacific island nations through its aid budget rather than donate to a UN Green Climate Fund. Scientists say much sharper emissions cuts are needed in coming decades to keep global warming within 2 degrees C of pre-industrial times, the overall goal of the UN talks.

With heavy investments in population growth, and growth in livestock industries and exports, Australia is locked into high emissions and climate change denial.

Last year our Treasurer announced cuts of $213m to the Biodiversity Fund and $144m to the Carbon Farming Initiative, and native vegetation is in nation-wide decline.

Media Release: Less hooves = more food

Senate candidates from the Animal Justice Party (AJP) will take their ‘less hooves equals more food’ initiative to Canberra this week, to promote a sustainable approach to global food security issues.

The party wants Australia to realise its potential as a food bowl for the world in a sustainable, ethical manner by decreasing animal agriculture and increasing plant-based food production.

The AJP’s lead candidate for the senate in Victoria, Bruce Poon said with the world’s population currently about 7 billion and growing, and production being negatively impacted by climate change, a new approach was desperately needed to future proof the world’s food supply.

“Animal agriculture must be scaled back if we are to stabilise the climate and avoid run-away and catastrophic climate change,” said Mr Poon.

“One of the most pressing drivers of poverty and hunger is that the poor are being out-bid by the rich for grains that wind up feeding livestock instead of people.

“Globally, we feed enough grain to cattle to feed 8.7 billion people each day.

“Even in Australia, where cattle spend most of their time on pasture, they still consume more than twice the grain in any time period that all the people in Australia do.

“Factory-farmed animals such as pigs and chickens also consume large amounts of grain while such intensive farming practices produce other issues such as waste, disease and anti-biotic resistance.

“Put simply, ‘less hooves equals more food’ – for everyone.”

The AJP position is based on the science from several reputable reports authored by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Environment Program (UNEP).

Published between 2006 and 2010 these reports identify animal agriculture as a major contributor to green house gas emissions and species extinction due to loss of biodiversity from clearing.

Mr Poon said animal agriculture was responsible for 92 per cent of all land degradation in Australia, and had caused loss of habitat, species extinction and contributed to climate change.

“Animal agriculture also uses the bulk of fresh water in Australia, for example the Victorian dairy industry uses over half of the state’s available fresh water.

“Australia must demonstrate leadership and commitment to address global food security in an environmentally sustainable way, and we need to do it now,” he said.

Queensland AJP candidate Chris O’Brien said Australian farmers were highly productive and well equipped to turn Australia into the food bowl of the world, but were held back by outdated ideas, practices and misdirected government incentives.

“As part of the global community – and as a wealthy food producing country – Australia has a ethical responsibility to increase sustainable production of plant based food and decrease reliance on animal agriculture,” said Mr O’Brien.

"Our government needs to get serious about reducing land use and environmental degradation caused by animal agriculture.

“Boosting the production of grains, fruits and vegetables for human consumption is a more sustainable way to feed the world that will benefit human health, the environment and reduce the immense animal suffering that is systemic in the production of animals for food.

“Additionally, we need to develop storage and processing industries to value-add to raw product to better meet the demands of the enormous markets on our doorstep.”

The AJP representatives will be meeting with Ambassadors from countries within our region this week to discuss food security issues and how Australia can transform its food production to sustainably meet the growing demand of a hungry world.
ENDS….

Background

Ruminants like sheep and cattle produce substantial methane through the digestion of food. Methane is recognized as one of the most harmful greenhouse emissions (much more so than carbon).

Land is cleared for grazing to grow crops for factory animal farms. Producing animals for food is far less efficient than plant based protein in terms of land, water and emissions.

Cleared land in many areas (like Australia's top end) is burned regularly to keep it from reverting to forest. Keeping land cleared for animals means it can't be reforested to draw down CO2.
Transporting feed to animals and animals to slaughter produces CO2. The necessary refrigeration required to prevent the otherwise speedy decomposition of meat between slaughter and cooking is also heavy CO2 producer (commercially and domestically).

Australia's livestock produce more than twice the CO2 contributions of our coal-fired power stations.

Contacts:

Bruce Poon: AJP lead candidate for the Victorian Senate – 0400 248 226
Chris O’Brien: AJP candidate for the Queensland Senate – 0426 396 715
Professor Steve Garlick: AJP National President – 0428 880 564

New era of food scarcity threat

Environmentalists say the world is on the brink of a new era of food scarcity driven by a "perfect storm" of climate change, water shortage and a rising population” says US analyst and author Lester Brown.

The world is adding 80 more million people are year and that means there's an extra 219,000 people at the dinner table tonight who weren't there last night.

And it's not only that, as you know it's fed to cattle, pigs and chicken. So it's the price of meat that's really at stake here when the price of corn doubles as it has over the last several months.

US Drought

More than half the counties in the US have been declared natural disaster areas by the US Department of Agriculture due to the drought, which now covers more than 60 per cent of the lower 48 states. In response, the US Government plans to buy up to $160 million of meat from its farmers to help them through the drought crisis. Severe draught is also crippling farmland in Russia's wheat belt, while below average monsoon rains in India is also adding to concern that global grain crops could plunge.

Ukraine, also a major exporter of grain, has banned wheat exports due to poor harvest this year.   As a consequence only 50 days’ worth of stocks are left in world’s granaries.

A rise in food prices is often linked to social and political turmoil in poor countries, where people already use most of their income to buy food.

Since the 1990s, a once-standard policy of most countries since ancient times – maintaining of reserves from good years as a hedge against famine in bad years – has disappeared, making all people reliant on this year’s weather – something so stupid it has never been done before. Over time,  these grain reserve programs were discontinued largely because of cost and improved market efficiency. If  future supply disruptions attributable to drought  become more frequent, they  may affect not only livestock production but human food consumption as well.

The high costs of producing meat

Meat raising use up 43% of entire grain harvesting and 85% of entire legume harvesting. Of all the cause of Amazon virgin rain forest deforestation, 70% are cut down in order to raise meat.

If crops wastefully fed to livestock are included, European countries have more than three times more food than they need, while the US has around four times more food than is needed, and up to three-quarters of the nutritional value is lost before it reaches people's mouths.

High corn prices mean high feedstock prices, so impact on livestock industry not only in China but throughout Asia because Asia imports corn for livestock. Many ranchers have been forced to bring their animals to market earlier than usual because they cannot afford the rising price of grain, thus cutting into the market value of their animals. Providing assistance to Mid-Western farmers makes matters worse because a good portion of the grain grown in the “farm belt” is used to feed livestock. Very little of the US's rich agricultural lands actually grows food for direct human consumption; rather a large proportion is fed to cattle.

Meat eating surging in Asia

As recently as 1995, China was basically self-sufficient in soybeans. Today, imports account for 75 per cent of its soaring consumption as rising incomes, especially in the burgeoning middle-class, enable many of the country's 1.35 billion people to consume more meat, dairy products, eggs and farmed fish.

More than a quarter of the meat produced worldwide is now eaten in China, mainly pork and poultry. In 1978 when China started agricultural reforms, its meat consumption was one third that of the US. Today, China's annual meat consumption of 71 million tonnes is more than double the US figure.

Wastage and devastation of eating meat

Entire livestock in the world produce 87,000 pounds of excrements per second, which is 130 times more then the human population.

Raising animals for food requires massive amounts of land, food, energy, and water and contributes to animal suffering. According to PETA more than 260 million acres of U.S. forest have been cleared to create cropland to grow grain to feed farmed animals. Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution claim that the equivalent of seven football fields of land is bulldozed worldwide every minute to create more room for farmed animals.

More than 70 percent of the grain and cereals that are grown in the USA are fed to farmed animals. Raising animals for food is grossly inefficient, because while animals eat large quantities of grain, soybeans, oats, and corn, they only produce comparatively small amounts of meat.

It takes more than 11 times as much fossil fuel to make one calorie from animal protein as it does to make one calorie from plant protein.

Nearly half of all the water used in the United States goes to raising animals for food.

According to Greenpeace, all the wild animals and trees in more than 2.9 million acres of the Amazon rain forest in Brazil were destroyed in the 2004-2005 crop season in order to grow crops that are used to feed chickens and other animals in factory farms.

The EPA (USA) reports that chicken, hog, and cattle excrement has polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and contaminated groundwater in 17 states.

This industry is based on a cuisine that demands animal products, to conform to traditions of our assumed "hunter and gatherer" past, slavishly assuming that the hunting harvest is and must remain the main source of our nutrition. It's rapacious in it's appetite for natural resources, environmental destruction, pollution and ongoing animal cruelty. Farms are not what they once were, with farmers having a close connection with their land and stock. They are big corporations now, and factory farms are inherently cruel - with massive political power.

Much of the world's water supply is quietly being diverted to raise livestock without any media coverage, while millions of people across the globe are faced with droughts and water shortages. Sadly, as the Western diet spreads to the rest of the world, even desert nations in Africa and the Middle East are pouring what little water remains into meat production.

Vegan Organic and Environment

Lester Brown: if it's business as usual, nothing else happens, there'll be food scarcity but I find it inconceivable there wouldn't be responses (from world leaders).

Some nations, such as China, are already taking action by buying arable land around world, including Africa, and, yes, Australia.

SAVE OUR PLANET Energy sectors to shape sustainability of future development -- UN

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, FAOSTAT data for 2009: 8,702,490 beef cattle, 32,049,100 sheep , 474,809,000 chickens and 4,521,760 Pigs were sent to slaughter in AUSTRALIA in just one year (Ref. Food and Agr. Org. of U.N website)

Over 700,000 unwanted week old dairy calves are sent to slaughter ever year in Australia as a by-product of the dairy Industry. (Ref, Animals Australia website)

Embracing a diet full of organic life giving fresh fruit and vegetables and whole grains not only nourishes the body but the mind and spirit as well.

VEGUCATED – the movie Six people- Six weeks – One Challenge

SYNOPSIS
Part sociological experiment and part adventure comedy, Vegucated follows three meat- and cheese-loving New Yorkers who agree to adopt a vegan diet for six weeks. Lured by tales of weight lost and health regained, they begin to uncover the hidden sides of animal agriculture that make them wonder whether solutions offered in films like Food, Inc. go far enough. This entertaining documentary showcases the rapid and at times comedic evolution of three people who discover they can change the world one bite at a time.

Former Australian football player Sam Kekovich has been accused by animal rights activists of accepting "blood money" for an ad campaign in which he urges people to eat more lamb.

As a planet, we're not eating enough lamb," Kekovich says.

The campaign is on behalf of Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA).

A patriotic meal to celebrate Australia Day should be one that does not cause the environmental damage that livestock do, and one that recognises that our ecosystem is already stressed.  Animals suffer confinement, mutilations, extremes of weather, having their young stolen from them and long journeys to abattoirs before their final slaughter.  As human numbers increase, animals lose more and more rights to normal lives.

A new report by the Worldwatch Institute has remade some calculations about just how much greenhouse gases are produced by livestock, previously thought to be about 12 per cent. The report, called Livestock and Climate Change, concludes that livestock’s contribution to greenhouse emissions actually accounts for 51 per cent of the total world's green house gas emissions. That’s nearly three times the previously estimated figure.

Meat production has increased by 500 percent since 1950.

According to the World Health Organisation, 90% of cancers are avoidable.  Many are due to over consumption of fats, livestock products and the toxins we eat and are surrounded by. Paying the "real" price for meat would limit consumption, and thus reduce our public health bill, protect our environment from the massive environmental impacts of deforestation for grazing, limit air and water pollution and the cost to wildlife habitat.   The evil and cruelty of factory farming is a blight on our supposedly civilised society!

Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes, about one child every five seconds, while the wealthy consume meat from grain-fed livestock! Overproducing and over consuming meat, milk and eggs have become a health hazard in the North, while the South suffers from chronic malnutrition — in part due to underproduction and under consumption of these foods.

Comparing livestock products to other food sources shows that producing livestock products requires significantly more water, fossil fuels and land, leading to a greater environmental impact. Simply by altering our food choices., we can make a significant contribution to reducing our ecological footprint.

Last week saw a relatively weak pastiche featuring “Simon Kennovich” in an effort to promote vegetarianism.
LAMB ON AUSTRALIA DAY? Sam Kekovich's rival says, thats un-Australian

The livestock industry is a major contributor to this loss of species, with the World Wide Fund for Nature reporting that 37% of terrestrial ecoregions identify livestock as one of their current threats.

(Steinfeld H, Gerber P, Wassenaar T, Castel V, Rosales M, de Haan C.
Livestock's long shadow : environmental issues and options. Rome: Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations; 2006)

Prof Ian Lowe , ACF President, wondered how anyone could call themselves an environmentalist and still eat meat. He told us that we could help the planet more by reducing, or better still giving up eating animal products than just about anything else we could do as individuals.

According to the CSIRO , over 90 per cent of land degradation is caused by animal industries.

Over farming and over grazing will inevitably result in erosion and loss of habitat, and nearly half of our continent is used for grazing. As a result, our forests are cleared and topsoil is lost.

For a real patriotic feast on Australia Day, go Veg!

The CSIRO recently released their Home Energy Saving Handbook – How to save energy, save money and reduce your carbon footprint.

CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet championed a high animal protein plan - lots of beef, lamb and dairy - which was perhaps not surprising, given that the research behind it was partly funded by the Meat and Livestock Industry and Dairy Australia.

Western Victoria state Liberal MP John Vogels, has slammed the CSIRO's Home Energy Saving Handbook, which promotes vegetarian diets to reduce agricultural green house gas emissions.

According to John Vogels, the CSIRO should apologise to meat and livestock farmers for stating what is scientifically clear - that a move towards a plant-based diet is not only a way to limit greenhouse gas emissions and environmental destruction, but also a route to a healthier diet. "It seems tofu-munching climate change extremists and animal libbers have taken over the CSIRO, wasting taxpayer funds to publish books designed to wipe out our agriculture industries with the ultimate goal of forcing farmers off the land,'' Mr Vogels said.

The book grudgingly admits that although all that meat requires high greenhouse emissions, eating "high-carbohydrate, healthy heart and vegetarian diets…..is an easy way to lose weight and one way to adapt to a lower consumption diet".

In 2007 this MP
attacked Philip Wollen of the Winsome Constance Kindness Trust for telling the truth about the negative impacts of the dairy industry, even going so far as to question his Australian of the Year award. According to him, he could “afford" to be vegan? Surely the diet is actually cheaper?

Vogels says that the Home Energy Saving Handbook was "thinly veiled propaganda advocating Australians change to a vegetarian lifestyle in the name of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. If the populace took this book seriously our beef, sheepmeat, pork, poultry and dairy industries would be at risk because the authors want everyone to move to vegetable diets to reduce personal carbon footprints…” Exactly!

Somewhat contradictorily, Vogels is “pro-life" – against abortions. Apparently this does not include the lives of animals that routinely suffer mutilations, confinement and slaughter to feed our commercial meat and dairy demands. His “pro”-life stand does not include protecting our future generations from the devastation of climate change, or consumers from cancers and other diseases associated with high levels of meat and dairy consumption.

According to the book, the average person’s carbon footprint is about 20 tonnes of CO2 per year (not including emissions from our exported goods) and the biggest contribution to this figure comes from the food, goods and services we buy (about 60 per cent of the total).

The agricultural sector is estimated to account for about 16% of Australia’s total greenhouse emissions (National Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2006) making it the second largest source of greenhouse emissions in the economy. Most if it is from livestock emissions, and that doesn’t include transport, processing and cooking!

With health, the environmental burden, animal welfare and climate change concerns of eating livestock products, surely it is time our diets came under scrutiny from numerous levels? Being enslaved to traditions and tastes should be challenged.

The world demand for food and fibre will double within a single lifetime, eclipsing climate change as the world's next great challenge, experts told the National Agrifood conference in Sydney on 24 September.

Being constantly on top of the food chain is an extravagance in terms of natural resource usage, as well as pollution and methane emissions. Maybe it is time for our Government to actually promote alternative “green” plant-based foods to alleviate the demand for livestock products and transform our agricultural industries so that they become more carbon-neutral. The dinosaurs like Vogels need to be challenged!

A recent CSIRO/NASA report on rainfall in Australia’s southeast revealed that the prolonged drought there may no longer technically be a drought - lower rainfall levels may be the new normal.

Economic considerations always seem to over-ride logic and reasoning!
Science should be objective, and the CSIRO should not have been sponsored by industries with a conflict of interests. They do not have to apologise!

We constantly hear the use of the arguments of JOBS and ECONOMIC BENEFITS to justify environmental consumption!

Al Gore has been involved in the business of raising Black Angus cattle for most of his life.

Not once during the 96 minute presentation, An Inconvenient Truth, did Al Gore mention livestock and our diets as a cause of global warming, or suggest any form of solution or alternatives. This omission would be similar to not mentioning cigarette smoking in a discussion of lung cancer!

According to a report, Livestock’s Long Shadow –Environmental Issues and Options, released in November of 2006 from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, livestock emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to every one of the most serious environmental problems. Additionally, animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalents.

It's not just the well-known and frequently joked-about flatulence and manure of grass-chewing cattle that's the problem, according to a recent report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Livestock:

With a burgeoning world population, and rising middle classes in Asia, the demand for meat and dairy will continue to grow.

The loss of species is estimated to be running 50 to 500 times higher than background rates found in the fossil record, largely due to the land required by livestock.

Land-use changes, especially deforestation to expand pastures and to create arable land for feed crops, is a big part of the industry's damage. So is the use of energy to produce fertilizers, to run the slaughterhouses and meat-processing plants, and to pump water.

"Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems," Henning Steinfeld, senior author of the report, said when the FAO findings were released in November.

With a burgeoning world population, and rising middle classes in Asia, the demand for meat and dairy will continue to grow.

The twin "elephants in the room", livestock production and population growth, are avoided by Al Gore and by many environmental and climate change groups.

Surely these "inconvenient truths" need to be debated at Copenhagen if there are to be any realistic gains made?

Al Gore's web site