Farmscape for January 12, 2017

An Air Quality Specialist with the University of California Davis, says North American advances in the environmental sustainability of livestock production must be shared with the rest of the world if animal agriculture is to survive.
"Sustainable Intensification: How to Satisfy the Rising Demand for Animal Protein without Depleting Natural Resources" was discussed yesterday as part of the 2017 Banff Pork Seminar.
Dr. Frank Mitloehner, a Professor and Air Quality Specialist with the Department of Animal Science at the University of California Davis, says agriculture has to become as efficient as possible, globally, with respect to how we produce animal protein.

Clip-Dr. Frank Mitloehner-University of California Davis:
Currently many countries are not efficient and very resource hungry in the livestock arena.
That has to change and it can change by other countries following the example that North American countries have exercised.
Let me give you one example, not from the pork but from the dairy sector.
The average milk cow in California produces 25 thousand pounds of milk per year.
The average cow in Mexico produces 5 times less.
The average cow in India produces 20 times less.
If you produce 5 or 20 times less milk, then that means you have to have much larger animal herds and the larger herds correspond to more manure, more belching, more land use, more water use and so on.
The bottom line is, if you can increase efficiency, then you decrease emissions.
An example is the car industry.
We know that, if you have a more fuel efficient car, then that has a lower environmental footprint.

Dr. Mitloehner says we, in the North American livestock industry, have to be willing to share our technologies and our knowledge with countries like China and India because, if we don't, their livestock industries will gobble up so many resources that it will affect us here in North America.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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