Managing Healthy Livestock Production and Consumption

Plants are the net producers of ecosystems. But all plants will be eaten, wither, burn, rot or in some other way be consumed. Consumers are insects, microbes, fungi, fish, animals or humans to mention the most important. The consumption of plants, the death of plants are as important for ecosystems as their lives. 

Animals are integral to all (or just most?) ecosystems and play a critical role for nutrient cycling and soil fertility. Despite this, there is a prominent narrative that portrays all livestock as inefficient, harmful or redundant. Clearly, there are many things to criticize in industrial forms of livestock production. There are also limits for how many animals can be fed with farmed crops. But the faults of conventional and industrial livestock production should not lead us to shun livestock production all together.

I have contributed a little* to a new book on sustainable livestock production with the title: Managing Healthy Livestock Production and Consumption 

By addressing gaps of knowledge and presenting scientific perspective studies of livestock’s impact on the environment and the global food supply up to 2050, this book is useful for those advocating for sustainable food systems. Existing evidence of the effects of livestock production on food quality and nutrition is reviewed. Livestock production and consumption is a highly diverse topic where current publications only include/focus a single aspect of the issues, for example, greenhouse gas emissions or health impacts, leading to a biased view of the total impact of livestock production. This book clarifies perceptions by presenting sound scientific evidence across livestock landscapes to better appreciate the ecological web of life and the social web of community related to livestock production. It has interesting case studies on:

• Rotational grazing in the Pampa, Argentina
• Holistic management of livestock, Zimbabwe
• Adapting to climate change in grasslands of Inner Mongolia, China
• Organic livestock management and climate resilience, New Zealand
• Conservation of native vegetation and traditional camel herding in Rajasthan, India
• Sustainability of organic dairy production in Tyrol pastures, Austria
• Feeding spineless cactus to cattle for drought resilience, Kenya
• Integrated organic livestock-crop production system, Thailand
• Improving nutrient efficiency through organic management, Madagascar
• Breeding for gastrointestinal parasite resistance in Merino sheep, Australia
• Animals for feeding soils on biodynamic farms, Egypt

The contents of Managing Healthy Livestock Production and Consumption are

Section 1 – Introduction
1. Introduction to livestock systems
Nadia El-Hage Scialabba
 

Section 2 – Animals and health
2. Livestock food and human nutrition
Nadia El-Hage Scialabba
3. Livestock xenobiotics and zoonoses
Nadia El-Hage Scialabba
4. Healthy livestock production and consumption
Nadia El-Hage Scialabba
5. Pesticide safety in livestock products
Andre Frederick Leu
6. Continuous development of animal welfare, with a focus on organic farming
Otto Schmid and Barbara Fruh
Section 3 - Livestock Landscapes
7. Livestock and future food supply
Nadia El-Hage Scialabba
8. Pastoralism as a response to climate change and water security in Mediterranean mountains and forests
Gregory Lazarev
9. Landscape management: ecological engineering in temperate areas
Joel Salatin
10. Let them graze! Potentials of ruminant production outside the feed-food competition Florian Leiber
11. The promises of food without soil and toil
Gunnar Rundgren
12. Livestock as a tool to regenerate land
Nadia El-Hage Scialabba
Section 4 – Stories from around the world
13. Experiences of low-external-input livestock systems
Nadia El-Hage Scialabba
Improving land management through grazing strategies
Subchapter 13.1: Rotational grazing in the Pampa, Argentina
Lorena Agnelli, Oyhamburu Mariel and Delgado Caffe Jorge
Subchapter 13.2: Holistic management of livestock, Zimbabwe
Andrea Malmberg and Jody Butterfield
Subchapter 13.3: Adapting to climate change in grasslands of Inner Mongolia, China
David Kemp
Subchapter 13.4: Organic livestock management and climate resilience, New Zealand
Glenn Mead
Subchapter 13.5: Conservation of native vegetation and traditional camel herding in Rajasthan, India
Ilse Kohler-Rollefson, Hanwant Singh Rathore, and Aisha Rollefson
Subchapter 13.6: Sustainability of organic dairy production in Tyrol pastures, Austria
Wilhelm Knaus, Thomas Drapela, Roswitha Weissensteiner, Heinz Gstir, and Werner Zollitsch
Subchapter 13.7: Feeding spineless cactus to cattle for drought resilience, Kenya
Margaret Syomiti, Samuel Chirchir, John Duyu, and Dana Hoag
Subchapter 13.8: Integrated organic livestock-crop production system, Thailand
Jintana Indramagala
Subchapter 13.9: Improving nutrient efficiency through organic management, Madagascar
Paulo Salgado, Emmanuel Tillard, Stephanie Alvarez, and Philippe Lecomte
Subchapter 13.10: Breeding for gastrointestinal parasite resistance in Merino sheep, Australia
John Karlsson and Annika Karlsson
Subchapter 13.11: Animals for feeding soils on biodynamic farms, Egypt
Angela Hofmann, Helmy Abouleish, and Anne Bandel
Section 5 – Conclusions
14. Full-cost accounting for decision-making related to livestock systems
Nadia El-Hage Scialabba

* My contribution has the title: "The promises of food without soil and
toil" and is about "farm-free" ways to produce foods. I will soon post a summary of my chapter.