The World Farmers Organization organized a diversified panel discussion on the centrality of animal husbandry in sustainable food systems.
In recent years, livestock production and consumption have been unfairly singled out as the main contributors to climate change. But animal husbandry is actually an important part of a sustainable food system.
The World Farmers Organization is scheduled to be held before the United Nations Food System Summit at the end of July to host a diverse panel discussion on animal husbandry and its central role in sustainable food systems.
Peer Ederer, member of the Science Council of the World Farmers Organization, gave an online speech in Switzerland, outlining four areas of livestock production that could be improved in the future.
The first area is species diversity. Ederer said that of the 40 different species used by humans, about 7,000 can be used in almost any ecological niche.
The second area where improvements can be used is the use of innovation. Ederer said that while innovations that increase output can be used, their use should be accelerated. These innovations come in the form of genomics, data science, artificial intelligence, robotics, and precision animal husbandry, but also in the form of business models that combine the public and private sectors.
Ederer pointed out that the third area that can be improved is the accounting system, which points to ways to measure economic, social, and environmental performance.
The fourth priority area for future improvements is to pay more attention to national or biological regional strategies. After all, there is no universal solution for all farmers everywhere.
“The challenges we face in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity are very serious,” Edler concluded. “We need to deal with these challenges. We believe that through innovation and building on diversity, we can deal with these challenges, but we need to agree on strategies, reliable strategies-and these reliable strategies can only be achieved through all relevant To be formulated by the national consensus of stakeholders.”
Ethiopia’s largest poultry and egg producer, EthioChicken, works in Ethiopia and neighboring countries to help thousands of micro-entrepreneurs and 3 million small farmers increase the production of poultry and eggs. EthioChicken tripled Ethiopia’s egg consumption in just five years. Justin Benade, poultry and egg producer and CEO of EthioChicken, explained.
EthioChicken was launched in 2010 with a vision to increase the production of healthy chickens and increase the income of participating small farmers. The company has 8 breeder breeding households with parents, of which 160,000 parents of dual-purpose breeds are raised for production. They have six hatcheries that can produce about 1.5 million eggs per week. The chicks are hatched and vaccinated, and then transported by minibus to 9,000 agents managed by 73 regional sales managers.
Agents received this one-day-old chick and raised them to six weeks old. From there, they are responsible for selling chickens to as many as 5 million small farmers, most of whom live on only one acre. As a duel breed, each hen provides approximately 200 eggs and then meat.
“These families are indeed our target market,” Bernard said. “These families are often places where people are malnourished and where they really need support.”
EthioChicken is currently working hard to develop export markets. Rwanda and Uganda are establishing similar models.
Annechien 10 Have runs a family-owned pig farm in the Netherlands. The farm has 6,000 sows and 5,000 piglets. Shiyou’s focus on the farm is welfare and long-term sustainability. More than 15 years ago, she began to think about how to make her pigs live a better life. To this end, she pays attention to their needs, especially in housing. Pigs at Ten Have Farm are raised in an open pig house system, and piglets are raised in farrowing pens. An automatic system is used to distribute straw bedding so that the fence is constantly updated.
Later, Ten Have created a market concept, Hamletz, to sell her final product at a higher price to compensate for the improved sustainability of the farm, to provide a better life for the pigs, and to produce more delicious products.
To improve the sustainability of the farm, Ten Have provides outdoor access for pigs, uses more sustainably produced feed, and operates a biogas facility to process collected manure. The biogas facility sends more than 5 million kilowatt-hours to the grid each year, and Ten Have uses some to heat stables and houses. Due to her efforts, she was awarded the Dutch Agricultural Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2019.
“What you are doing must be correct,” she said. “You must be transparent and easily accessible to consumers. We want to give meaning to what we are doing-to bring a better life to yourself, to the animals and the environment.”
Cherie Copithorne-Barnes, the fourth-generation beef rancher in Alberta, Canada, talked about sustainable beef production in Canada. The Copithorne-Barnes Ranch covers 26,000 acres and 1,500 cows are raised on the farm. She is the chair and founding member of the Canadian Sustainable Beef Roundtable, which was first joined in 2009. She said that sustainable beef is a socially responsible, environmentally friendly and economically viable product, giving priority to plants, people, animals and progress.
“We do this by focusing on five main principles, namely natural resources, community people, animal health and welfare, food, and finally efficiency and innovation,” Copithorne-Barnes said.
She said it is vital that part of the supply chain cannot be excluded. Joining forces is the best course of action to avoid unintended consequences and ensure that no one feels left out. In 2016, the roundtable first benchmarked the entire beef supply chain in Canada. Doing so reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the industry and helps make future plans. Once the benchmarks were set, Copithorne-Barnes said she was able to see the advantages of her farm more clearly.
“Our grasslands actually end up absorbing more carbon than our forests,” she said. “Therefore, through rotation grazing and improved genetics-cattle and introduced grass seeds-we can maintain the prosperity of the grasslands.”
But she also sees areas that need improvement, especially the riparian land that needs to protect the cattle from grazing. Copithorne-Barnes’s efforts paid off economically, because sustainably produced beef is more expensive in Canada. All sustainable beef is audited and certified by a third party.
As a dairy farmer, chairman of Dairy Management Inc. and director of the United Dairy Association, Marilyn Hershey knows the importance of sustainable development to the farm. She said they need to be able to continue to provide high-quality protein in a more sustainable way. She said that farmers are very concerned about the environment. Healthy soil produces healthy crops, and healthy crops need to be used to feed dairy cows.
Hershey milks 800 cows on a farm 40 minutes north of the Chesapeake Bay. They are part of a vast watershed from the farm to the bay, which makes nutrient management even more important
As part of the sustainability story, she and her husband installed a biological digester in 2017. Biodigesters capture methane from cow feces and convert it into electricity, which is then sent to the grid. Their biological digesters can also absorb 45-49% of food waste. They divert waste from a local potato chip company and a nearby grocery store to produce energy. The waste produced by the biological digestion process is used as bedding for dairy cows in the stalls. Although not all farms are economical, Hershey says it is for them.
Their method is unique to their farm. It includes a diversified feeding system that produces a variety of varieties and uses feed from no-tillage production. Hershey stated that it is important for the world to understand what farmers do and what they do care about.
“It is very important for farmers not only to have a say in the United Nations, but to continue these conversations after the food system summit and to ensure that our farmers’ voices are heard,” she concluded. “You know, when you talk to any farmer, they care about the environment. We care about our animals.”
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Post time: Nov-21-2021