Climate news and knowledge #9

Climate News and Knowledge is our fortnightly round up of some of the main stories covering climate change and sustainable farming. This time there is talk of the environmental costs of livestock farming, impacts of climate change on woodland, the time of the small holder and water friendly beef.

Forecasting global environmental costs of livestock production (2000-2050)
Reining in growth of the livestock sector should be prioritised, according to a new piece of research from Dalhousie University, Canada. They found that by 2050, livestock farming could have become unsustainable on three fronts – climate change, nitrogen mobilisation and biomass appropriation. Unsustainable because it breaches the ‘safe operating space’ for humanity (their work is based on Rockstrom et al’s concept of planetary boundaries).

In 2000 the livestock sector alone accounted for 52% of this ‘safe operating space’ of greenhouse gas emissions and if FAO growth forecasts are correct, this could rise to 72% by 2050. This research also finds that nitrogen mobilisation is already at unsustainable levels and by 2050 may account for 294% of the ‘safe operating space’.

The researchers concluded that substitution of ruminants with more efficient converters of protein, such as poultry, could only make modest gains. Instead they believe there is a considerable role for changing diets and consumption patterns.

Climate change and woodland
New approaches to woodland management will be required to address the threats of drought and increased risk of damage from pests, diseases, wind and fire, according to a new paper published by the Forestry Commission last week.

The first leafing date of oaks is now 25 days earlier than in the 1950s – just one example of how  our seasonal climate has already shifted significantly. UK Climate Projections suggest the climate is likely to continue changing, with continued temperature rise, increases in winter rainfall anomalies and decreases in summer rainfall anomalies. However, there is still a great deal of uncertainty surrounding future changes in climate and we need to prepare our woodlands for a range of possible outcomes – spreading the risk. Diversifying genetic makeup of species and planting a range of different species will be essential if woodland is to be resilient to future changes in climate.

We’ve got a free workshop about the benefits of woodland for farmers on the 25th November in Yorkshire, find out more details soon. And have a look at our ‘Forestry and woodlands’ fact sheet.

Small is beautiful – and profitable
This week the world’s largest grocer – Wal-Mart – decided to join the local and sustainable food movement. Pledging to train 1 million workers from small and medium sized farms in sustainable farming practices and to sell $1 billion worth of produce from these farms, this is big news for proponents of local and sustainable food.

Wal-Mart is not alone in seeing the potential. Carlos Sere, Director General of the International Livestock Research Institute said this week that ‘mixed crop and livestock farming systems can compete effectively against large scale commercial operations’. He went on to say that smart investment from agri-business could improve the efficiency of these farms and make them profitable. With land and labour costs relatively low in developing countries, turning these farmers into effective food producers could be part of the solution to the global food crisis. And contrary to the Dalhousie study above, Sere believes a ‘livestock revolution’ is around the corner.

Closer to home, Prince Charles gave a rousing speech at the Farmers Weekly Awards last week espousing the need to protect our small and medium sized farms and turning away from words like ‘unit’ and ‘factory’. He said: “We must resist the temptation to describe farming as an industry and prevent the words turning into reality, because agriculture is exactly that - it is about the land and the culture that those who work on it create, as much as it is about producing food."

Your beef ain’t so thirsty after all…
Findings from Phase II of Eblex’s environmental roadmap for beef and sheep farming reveal that English livestock production is less than 0.5% reliant on piped water. The research conducted by Cranfield University revealed that only 67 litres of piped water is required to produce a kilogram of beef and 49 litres for a kilogram of lamb.

Concerns have been raised about the amount water used in producing beef and lamb, with figures such as 16,000 litres per kilogram of beef commonly cited. But these are global averages and misrepresent the water footprint of beef produced in the UK, where livestock largely graze on a rain-based pasture system. This means the majority of water consumed gets recycled back into the natural hydrological cycle. 

However it remains true that in other, drier parts of the world, beef can have a remarkably high water footprint. This tends to be when livestock are fed grain grown in dry areas dependent on extensive irrigation.