{"id":361,"date":"2013-02-02T11:31:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-02T11:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ikrweb.wordpress.com\/?p=361"},"modified":"2013-02-02T11:31:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-02T11:31:00","slug":"so-whats-the-future-role-of-small-scale-livestock-keepers-in-food-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ilse-koehler-rollefson.com\/?p=361","title":{"rendered":"So what\u2019s the future role of small-scale livestock-keepers in food production?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mama<\/a>
Pastoralist leaders Neelkanth \u201cMama\u201d Kurbar\u00a0 from LIFE Network India<\/strong> and Adam Ole Mwarabu from the LIFE Network in Tanzania<\/strong> look down into the Rift Valley at the side-lines of the Third Multi-stakeholder Platform of the GAA (Global Agenda of Action towards sustainable livestock sector development) recently held in Nairobi.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The future of livestock keeping will have to revolve around finding a balance between economy and ecology. Economically it might make sense to crowd huge numbers of animals in small spaces and automate their feeding and management but this runs counter to all ecological principles: it requires huge amounts of fossil fuels (to grow and transport feed, to climatize stables), it results in accumulations of manure that become difficult or impossible to dispose of (turning dung from a much sought after asset into a liability and threat to the environment), it raises disease pressure (so that routine use of antibiotics becomes essential), and it is problematic from the animal welfare angle. It\u2019s also not good for livelihoods \u2013 studies from various countries where the Livestock Revolution has taken hold testify that it results in depopulated rural areas.<\/p>\n

Ecologically, decentralised models of livestock keeping as epitomized by pastoralists are much more preferable. They are based on the optimal utilization of locally available biomass and independent of fossil fuels, manure recycling is integrated into the system, disease pressure is small, and animal welfare is almost solved optimally. So why not support these, if we are concerned about the sustainability of the livestock sector?
\n\u201cBut young people don\u2019t want to do this work and prefer to live in the cities\u201d is the argument that is always raised when one suggests that small-scale livestock keeping may be an answer to the sustainability question. There is certainly some truth in it. Many young people are attracted by the urban life, and \u2013 by all means \u2013 they should be given a chance to go for it. But there are also many youths who find a life taking care of animals preferable to slogging away at menial jobs and a life in slums. So why not encourage these young people, by giving them respect and support, instead of branding them as backward? By directing subsidies towards these ecological livestock production systems instead of the industrialised ones? By building another livestock development paradigm that takes into account the ecological externalities, instead of always comparing the milk yields of the Indian cow with the Israeli cow and automatically concluding that the second one is so much superior?<\/p>\n

According to a remarkable presentation<\/a> by ILRI\u2019s director Jimmy Smith during the third Multi-stakeholder platform meeting of the Global Agenda of Action towards sustainable livestock sector development <\/a>(GAA), 80% of livestock derived food is still contributed by small producers. If we focus on raising the performance of these systems \u2013 for instance through adequate animal health care \u2013 and providing incentives for the young generation, then we can solve the livestock sector sustainability question. And we will help address another burning issue – the high unemployment rates that bedevil not only developing countries, but also Europe and the USA – as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The future of livestock keeping will have to revolve around finding a balance between economy and ecology. Economically it might make sense to crowd huge numbers of animals in small spaces and automate their feeding and management but this runs counter to all ecological principles: it requires huge amounts of fossil fuels (to grow and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “So what\u2019s the future role of small-scale livestock-keepers in food production?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8,9,11,14,15],"tags":[25,26,39],"class_list":["post-361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animal-welfare","category-fao","category-food-security","category-livestock-keepers","category-sustainability","category-uncategorized","tag-food-and-agriculture-organization","tag-gaa","tag-livestock-keepers-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilse-koehler-rollefson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilse-koehler-rollefson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilse-koehler-rollefson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilse-koehler-rollefson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilse-koehler-rollefson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilse-koehler-rollefson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilse-koehler-rollefson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilse-koehler-rollefson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilse-koehler-rollefson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}