• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance
  FEATURED
Thorold Gas Peaker Plant Won’t Be Built After Unanimous City Council Vote September 20, 2023
Indoor Heat Leaves Canadians Unsafe with ‘No Escape’, CBC Investigation Finds September 20, 2023
Agrivoltaics a Win-Win for Farmers, Communities, Solar Developers, and Alberta’s UCP September 20, 2023
‘Beginning of the End’ for Oil and Gas as IEA Predicts Pre-2030 Peak September 19, 2023
‘Turning Point’ for PR Industry as Clean Creatives Targets Fossil Industry Contracts September 19, 2023
Next
Prev

Livestock Farming Still Essential to Smallholders in Poorest Regions

September 21, 2021
Reading time: 2 minutes

NigerTZai/Wikimedia Commons

NigerTZai/Wikimedia Commons

1
SHARES
 

Climate policymakers must look beyond the risks in large-scale animal agriculture and invest in smallholder farmers in impoverished regions to “help rural farming communities adapt in the face of the climate crisis,” say a Ugandan farmer and a U.S. public health nutrition scientist.

“The cows, pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, or camels that many families keep are often their most valuable economic and dietary assets,” write Naluyima Mugerwa and Lora Iannotti in The Guardian. “They serve as a hedge against the impacts of the climate crisis on their farms. They help ensure children don’t grow up malnourished.”

  • The climate news you need. Subscribe now to our engaging new weekly digest.
  • You’ll receive exclusive, never-before-seen-content, distilled and delivered to your inbox every weekend.
  • The Weekender: Succinct, solutions-focused, and designed with the discerning reader in mind.
Subscribe

Livestock farming is an essential food source for half a billion people living in the world’s poorest rural communities, where malnutrition is a prominent health issue. According to 2020 data from the World Health Organization, “149 million children under 5 were estimated to be stunted (too short for age), [and] 45 million were estimated to be wasted (too thin for height)” because of inadequate access to vital nutrients. Many of these cases can be prevented by expanding access to animal-source foods that are “uniquely effective in preventing or addressing chronic malnutrition” in young children, Mugerwa and Iannotti write. 

Livestock farming is under pressure from climate advocates seeking to reduce emissions from large-scale meat producers that contribute to global warming, and rightly so. But “the growing chorus of criticism directed against industrial farming in the west is threatening to undermine support for livestock everywhere—including in the developing world,” the two authors state.

Most livestock emissions come from industrial farms designed to support the meat-intensive diets of developed nations—like those in Europe, where the average resident consumes 69 kilograms of meat every year compared to the average 10 kilograms per African. By contrast, smallholders often use sustainable farming practices that “are good for people and the planet.” For these reasons, Naluyima and Iannotti say global policymakers should use this fall’s UN Food Systems and COP 26 summits to rally support and investment for smallholder farmers.

Participants in the UN Food Systems Summit’s Sustainable Livestock Solution Cluster say global livestock production must be reduced by half to “stay within environmental limits and planetary boundaries,” and acknowledge that livestock production and consumption should be distributed more equitably. 

But they maintain that global food systems must emphasize a just transition to ensure climate policy supports vulnerable communities, while targeting the largest consumers and emitters.

“Ending agricultural expansion for industrial livestock and feed production would be hugely beneficial to farmers, herders, and other practitioners of traditional animal husbandry, who have overwhelmingly maintained sustainable, agroecological practices but whose livelihoods are threatened by climate change and sectoral intensification,” the cluster participants say.



in Climate & Society, Climate Impacts & Adaptation, Drought & Wildfires, Environmental Justice, Food Security & Agriculture, International, Jurisdictions, Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion, Methane, Soil & Natural Sequestration

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Jon Sullivan/flickr
Ontario

Thorold Gas Peaker Plant Won’t Be Built After Unanimous City Council Vote

September 21, 2023
334
Rewat Wannasuk/Pexels
Heat & Power

Virtual Power Plants Could Cut Peak Demand 20%, Save U.S. Grid $10B Per Year

September 20, 2023
1
Jeremy Bezanger/Unsplash
Heat & Temperature

Indoor Heat Leaves Canadians Unsafe with ‘No Escape’, CBC Investigation Finds

September 20, 2023
1

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Jon Sullivan/flickr

Thorold Gas Peaker Plant Won’t Be Built After Unanimous City Council Vote

September 20, 2023
334
/Piqusels

‘Beginning of the End’ for Oil and Gas as IEA Predicts Pre-2030 Peak

September 19, 2023
356
Clean Creatives

‘Turning Point’ for PR Industry as Clean Creatives Targets Fossil Industry Contracts

September 19, 2023
233
William Munoz/Flickr

‘Obituary-Changing’ Revelations Show Exxon’s Tillerson Undermining Climate Science

September 19, 2023
186
HiMY SYeD/flick

Ontario Waits 8 Months to Release Dire Climate Impact Report

September 14, 2023
486
Beckyq6937/Wikimedia Commons

Solar Geoengineering Means ‘Game Over’ for Life on Earth, Critics Warn

September 19, 2023
97

Recent Posts

Rewat Wannasuk/Pexels

Virtual Power Plants Could Cut Peak Demand 20%, Save U.S. Grid $10B Per Year

September 20, 2023
1
Jeremy Bezanger/Unsplash

Indoor Heat Leaves Canadians Unsafe with ‘No Escape’, CBC Investigation Finds

September 20, 2023
1
Wesley Fryer/flickr

Smart Thermostats Boost Grid Stability Amid Intense Heat

September 20, 2023
1
Cullen328/wikimedia commons

Manufactured Housing Could Dent the Affordable Housing Crunch with Energy-Efficient Designs

September 20, 2023
1
Mr Renewables/Wikipedia

Californians Fight for Approval of New Community Solar Plan

September 20, 2023
2
Asurnipal/wikimedia commons

Agrivoltaics a Win-Win for Farmers, Communities, Solar Developers, and Alberta’s UCP

September 20, 2023
1
Next Post
/Pxfuel

Global Farm Subsidies Drive Emissions, Undermine Food System Change

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
The Energy Mix - Energy Central
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}