Primary Production/Meat and the Environment

Book chapter, 2014

The demand for animal products is predicted to double by 2050 and already today, the global livestock sector is one of the top two or three most significant contributors to some of the most urgent environmental problems. In this article, those impacts are discussed that emphasize on land use change resulting in declining biodiversity and emissions of carbon, human interference in the nitrogen and phosphorus cycle, largely associated with nutrient fluxes and losses from feed cultivation and manure handling, greenhouse gas emissions, and use of chemicals. There is an urgent need for improving animal and crop production as well as manure management in the life cycle of animal products. Consumption of animal products also needs to be addressed, because the mitigation potential for technological improvements probably is not sufficient to meet future climate targets.