Breakout Sessions
Thursday, January 17, 1:30 p.m.
Animal Agriculture and Climate Change
Session Organizer:
Danielle Nierenberg, Animal Agriculture and Climate Change Specialist, The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)
Discussants:
David J. Meisinger, Executive Director, U.S. Pork Center of Excellence
Kate Clancy, Minnesota State University Institute for Sustainable Agriculture
Eric Rice, owner Country Pleasures Farm
Roni Neff, Research Director, Center for a Livable Future, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Session Goals:
(1) To discuss the pre-eminent role of global meat, egg, and dairy production in greenhouse gas emissions and climate change
(2) To address the mitigating impacts of extensive farming practices on rural communities, sustainability, and environmental integrity, as compared with industrial animal agriculture systems
(3) To collaborate with session participants to develop recommendations for governments, industry, large institutions (e.g., corporations, academic campuses), and consumers to best combat climate change
Summary:
Despite the findings reported in FAO’s “Livestock’s Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options,” much of the recent discussion about climate change has focused on personal and business energy use, while failing to account for the gross contributions by the meat, egg, and dairy industries and supporting sectors, as well as the significance of intensive animal agricultural practices that have become the norm in western nations and increasingly are exported into lesser-developed countries. To enhance the discussion and address the direct connection between farm animal production and climate change, initial discussants will identify the ways in which energy use in confinement production facilities, deforestation and production of nitrogen fertilizers to grow feedcrops, and farm animal waste management systems contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Initial discussants will also address agribusiness industries’ existing mitigation techniques, as well as the impacts of converting to more sustainable production systems, and offer specific recommendations for governments, industry, large institutions (e.g., corporations, academic campuses), and consumers to mitigate climate change.
Resources:
Global Farm Animal Production and Global Warming: Impacting and Mitigating Climate Change. Gowri Koneswaran and Danielle Nierenberg.ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES. May 2008, Volume 116, Number 5.
An HSUS Report: The Impact of Animal Agriculture on Global Warming and Climate Change
