Role of Livestock in Future Food Systems

Livestock have been an integral part of our food systems for thousands of years, and contributed to the formation of societies and cultures. Livestock have contributed, and still do, to food security by providing high-quality macro- and micronutrients, manure, draught power, and by generating income. An increasing body of literature, however, argues for moderating or even eliminating the production and consumption of animal-source food, such as milk, meat or eggs. Nowadays, animal-source food is at the heart of fierce debates on healthy and sustainable food systems, as animals impose a significant burden on the environment, consume food edible for humans, cause public health risks, and their keeping and killing raise moral concerns. In order to enhance transparent societal debates and make informed decisions about the future role of livestock in food systems, we need to better understand the multiple, and often complex, roles that livestock play in food systems.

The aim of this course, therefore, is to understand and discuss the multiple roles of livestock in current and future food systems.

To this end, we will discuss the multiple benefits and costs of livestock for planetary health, human health and the health and wellbeing of farm animals in food systems across the world. Benefits and costs of livestock can differ largely across food systems in the world because of differences in agroecological conditions (e.g. soils, climate) or socio-economic conditions (e.g. income, culture, religion).

We will also explore different livestock futures, as outlined in the scientific literature, and analyse and discuss the arguments underlying these futures. Some argue for example, that to feed an increasing and wealthier population demanding more animal-source food, we have to produce more animal-source food with less impact on the environment. This argument is the basis for the so-called production narrative. Others argue that consuming animal-source food is resource-intensive and, therefore, should be avoided or limited. Moderating or avoiding the consumption of animal-source food is the basis of the so-called consumption narrative. Besides the environmental argument, this consumption narrative also addresses moral concerns about the keeping and killing of animals, and stresses that high consumption levels of animal-source food, especially (red) meat, in high-income countries are associated with the rise in non-communicable diet-related diseases, such as obesity, heart diseases, cancer or the occurrence of zoonoses. In another narrative, the circular (or agroecological) narrative, producing and consuming within the carrying capacity of the planet or in other words, in harmony with nature, forms the basis. In this narrative, for example, we use arable land only to produce food for humans instead of feed for livestock. Livestock can still play a key role in a circular food system, as they can convert biomass inedible for humans, so-called leftovers, and resources from grasslands, into nutritious animal-source food. Because mainly leftovers are fed to livestock, feed-food competition is avoided. In this narrative, however, the amount of animal-source food that can be produced (and therefore consumed) is limited by the amount and quality of available leftovers and grass resources (e.g. by-products food industry, food waste, crop residues, grass from marginal land), and their utilization potential by animals. The circular narrative addresses production and consumption simultaneously, and stresses the importance of sufficiency. Besides these dominant narratives, other narratives about the role of livestock in future food systems exist, such as the inequality narrative. This narrative argues that the solution is not necessarily to produce more or less but rather to rebalance the system: we need to reconfigure relationships within and among different actors in the supply chain, and with the natural world. Hunger is not a problem of insufficient supply but of insufficient access. It is good to understand that different narratives are not mutually exclusive, and can partly overlap. Our aim is to make you aware of the assumptions, values and beliefs underlying the different narratives about the role of livestock in future food systems and how they relate to each other.

Finally, we will collaboratively explore a few dilemma examples in the livestock sector in order to analyse and understand the benefits and costs of different type of innovations, such sexing of eggs to avoid killing of one-day old chicks.
All the above-described knowledge will also feed into your own analysis of the benefits and costs of an innovation of your choice, which is the basis of your group assignment.

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:

• Define a food system and name the different components;
• Give examples of (the roles of livestock in) food systems to illustrate their diversity;
• List and explain the benefits and costs of livestock in a food system in the domains of planetary health, human health and animal health and wellbeing;
• Explain the dominant narratives of the future role of livestock in food systems;
• Demonstrate the benefits and costs of a livestock innovation in terms of planetary health, human health and animal health and wellbeing.

Assumed Knowledge:
General understanding of animal production systems, and disciplinary knowledge on nutrition, breeding, reproduction, health and welfare of kept animals as acquired in the 1st and 2nd year BAS courses at WU [or HAS Den Bosch].