Livestock in the Food Debate - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 505

Farm animals are part of the culture and world life of all rural societies and have
co-evolved for the past 11,000 years (FAO 2007a, b; Smith 2013; Ficarelli 2009). Cows
are a symbol of wealth and prosperity the world over. In India, since the ancient Vedic
period (1500-900 BCE), the cow has been an important religious symbol in Hinduism,
as the lamb is in Christianity (Patton, 2004).
Although pigs and poultry have been reared for their ability to provide a large array
of products by scavenging around rural homesteads, cattle, sheep, and goats, transform
inedible fibres of green grasses and standing hays of grasslands into milk and meat.
Organic manures produced with their excreta maintain soil fertility, supplying, in a
natural way, organic matter and nutrients to the soil. Buffaloes and oxen have been pro-
viding essential power for tilling soils and preparing land for crop production all along.
Livestock agriCulture has a consistent share in achieving the Millennium Development
Goals (Smith 2008; 2013). Livestock provides a vital, and often the only, source of income
for the poorest and most marginal of the rural poor, such as pastoralists, sharecroppers,
female-headed households, and the landless in rural and urban areas.
A Wealthy-driven Livestock
Revolution
Thomas Malthus famously warned that the growth of human population would out-
strip its ability to produce food. The extraordinary increase of agricultural yields and
efficiency of agricultural value chains (from field to fork) remains one of the greatest
achievements of humankind, averting the Malthusian scenario (Martin 2006). This has
been achieved primarily through technological innovations and off-farm inputs pro-
vided by agro-industry and publicly funded research, enabling food supply to match
increasing demand.
Food consumption has risen, of course, but with significant differences across coun-
tries and food types. Average yearly growth rates for global animal products in the last
25 years have been more than double those of cereals. Production of fruits and vegeta-
bles has grown more than cereals but not at the same pace as pork and poultry (6% and
7% per year, respectively; Delgado 2008).
Global meat production has reached 302 million tons by the end of 2012, accord-
ing to new research published by the World Watch Institute. Between 1995 and 2012,
per capita meat consumption has increased 15% especially in developing countries.
Economic growth in developing countries led to increased consumption of 25% during
the same period, whereas in industrialized countries it increased just 2%. Over the last
decade (2000-2011), meat production grew nearly 26% in Asia, 28% in Africa, and 32%
in South America. These changes reflect a dramatic shift in production from industrial-
ized to developing countries over the last decade. In 2000, for example, North America
led the world in beef production, at 13 million tons, whereas South America produced