1. Industrial livestock:
Magic or mayhem?

2. Peruvian anchoveta
• Peruvian anchoveta – world’s largest
single-species fishery
• Supplies one-third of world’s fishmeal
• 80% of all landings by weight for fishmeal
• 31% of sector revenue; $1.1 billion
• Compared with $2.4 billion, 69% revenue
from fish for human consumption.

3. Dependencies & characteristics
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Feed based on arable land & ocean
Waste
Routine over-use of antibiotics
High saturated animal fats

5. Feeding factories or people?
• Cereals alone – 3 billion people
• Soya meal alone – c1 billion people
• At commodity prices, worth US$280 billion
pa
• Grain to livestock conversion = 3:1
• Lost: 2.6 billion people’s worth of calories
• Commodity price, cost of US$186 billion pa

7. Food waste
Worldwide, UN (2013) estimates:
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A third of food is wasted
= 28% of agricultural land
Cost of US$750 billion
Equivalent to GDP of Switzerland

8. Binned!
Every year:
• Britain bins 110 million animals
• Worth £2.4 billion
• Globally, 12 billion animals
• Worth US$486 billion

9. Antibiotic resistance
• Farm animal use = half world antibiotics
• 80% in the USA
European Commission, 2011:
• Sub-set of drug-resistant bacteria =
• 25,000 deaths per annum
• Healthcare & productivity cost:
€1.5 billion

10. Health Economics Research Centre
• Cardiovascular disease - £29 billion pa
• Lancet estimates 30% reduction in meat
consumption = 15% reduction in disease
• Potential saving - £4.35 billion pa

11. Obesity-related health costs
• Meat from intensive grain-fed vs grass-fed:
• Higher in saturated fats
• Lower in essential nutrients
By 2030, obesity-related health costs expected
to rise by:
• $48 billion in the US
• £1.25 billion in the UK

12. Policy measures
• Encourage land-based farming through
policies, subsidies & tax incentives
• Set targets for reduction in grain-based
livestock feeding
• Reduce over-use of antibiotics
• Tax incentives for better diets (e.g. Fat tax)
• Reduce & recycle food waste

14. UN Food Security Report
“When livestock are raised in intensive
systems, they convert carbohydrates and
protein that might otherwise be eaten
directly by humans and use them to produce
a smaller quantity of energy and protein. In
these situations, livestock can be said to
reduce the food balance.”

15. World crop harvest

16. Wasted!
European Commission
• EU wastes 90 million tonnes of food pa
• 180 kg per person pa
IN ADDITION:
100% calories fed to farm animals yields a 30%
return (70% lost in conversion)
• 117 million tonnes of cereals for animal feed
• 234 kg per person pa

17. European Nitrogen Assessment
EU27, cost/benefit of N-fertiliser per annum:
• Primarily for growing animal feed.
“Human use of livestock in Europe, and the
consequent need for large amounts of animal
feed, is therefore the dominant human driver
altering the nitrogen cycle in Europe”, ENA 2011
• Benefit of N-fertiliser =
• €10-100 billion
• Environmental damage from agricultural N =
• €20-150 billion