New study reaffirms livestock and meat benefits to society
© Tim Scrivener New research has reaffirmed scientific evidence of the crucial benefits of livestock systems and meat to society.
The peer-reviewed study, published in the scientific journal Animal Frontiers on Saturday 15 April, provides evidence of livestock and meat’s benefits for health, sustainability, food security and socio-economic development.
It builds on scientific debate and evidence developed through the October 2022 International Summit on the Societal Role of Meat, hosted by Irish agricultural research authority Teagasc in Dublin.
See also: Scientists seek evidence on red meat health risk claims
The study’s authors are among nearly 1,000 scientists around the world who have warned that livestock systems are “too precious to become the victim of simplification, reductionism or zealotry.”
Teagasc assistant director of research Declan Troy welcomed the publication, saying: “Livestock farming supports the livelihoods of about one in six people on the planet. It supplies food, nutrition, income and more, to hundreds of millions of people and is of enduring cultural significance for many.
“Today’s publication shows that deploying scientifically sound practices in animal agriculture is key to succeeding in the face of global health, climate and development challenges.”
Experts who participated in the October 2022 summit called for this major new analysis to inform public policies and recommendations related to meat production and consumption.
Alice Stanton, of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, said: “The peer-reviewed evidence reaffirms that the most prominent global study which claimed that consumption of even tiny amounts of red meat harms health [the 2019 Global Burden of Disease Risk Factors Report] is fatally scientifically flawed and should be retracted.
“In fact, removing fresh meat and dairy from diets would harm human health. Women, children, the elderly and those on low incomes would be particularly negatively impacted.”
Dr Wilhelm Windisch, of Technical University Munich, Germany, added: “One-size-fits-all agendas, such as drastic reductions of livestock numbers, could incur environmental and nutritional consequences on a massive scale.”
Five key findings of the study
- Human-managed livestock systems must be part of the solution to environmental sustainability
- The unintended economic, social and environmental consequences when abandoning livestock could prove catastrophic to “the already shaky ecological balance of the resource cycles and the remaining natural capital”
- Expanding animal production output is “the most readily available way to nourish the world sufficiently in the future”
- Assumptions that cell-based meat will be more cost-effective and have less of an effect on the environmental than today’s livestock systems are “currently far from realistic”
- Plant-based production does not only lead to human-edible food, but also large amounts of inedible biomass