Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
If the projected future demand for livestock is to be met, it is hard to see an altern-
ative to intensification of livestock production. Indeed the process of intensification
must be accelerated if the use of additional land, water and other resources is to be
avoided. The principle means of limiting livestock's impact on the environment must
be to reduce land requirements … This involves the intensification of the most pro-
ductive arable and grassland used to produce feed or pasture; and the retirement of
marginally used land where this is socially acceptable and where other uses of land,
such as for environmental purposes, are in demand.
Intensification will have a radical influence on the structure of farming, and, predictably,
farms will get bigger. 'The shift to intensive production systems is accompanied by in-
creasing size of operations, driven by economies of scale,' which will include 'a relative
expansion of concentrate-based production systems'. To supply these factory farms 'in-
tensification also needs to occur in the production of feedcrops, thereby limiting the use of
land assigned to livestock production, either directly as pasture or indirectly for feedcrops.'
These feedlots will be focused mainly on monogastric animals - pigs and chickens - be-
cause these species convert plant nutrients into protein more efficiently than ruminants.
This shift to large scale and industrial farms, the FAO continue, 'is only achieved at the
cost of pushing numerous small- and middle-scale producers and other agents out of busi-
ness … Small family-based livestock producers will find it increasingly difficult to stay in
the market.' Currently 1,300 million people, or 20 per cent of the world population are en-
gaged either full-time or part-time in livestock production, of whom 987 million are classed
as poor. Many of these people will have to be displaced:
Many producers will need to find alternative livelihoods … The loss of competit-
iveness requires policy interventions, not necessarily to maintain smallholder involve-
ment in agriculture, but to provide opportunities for finding livelihoods outside the
agricultural sector, and enable an orderly transition… . This trend raises social issues
of rural emigration and wealth concentration. Diversification within and outside the
agricultural sector, and social safety nets are some of the policies developed to address
these issues.
The consequence is a rapid 'urbanization of livestock' in which rural economies are un-
dermined, and enclosed by a dominant urban and globalized economy:
As a result of economies of scale, industrial livestock production generates sub-
stantially lower income per unit of output than smallholder farms, and benefits go
to fewer producers. Furthermore, economic returns and spillover effects occur in the
