SIANI: Generally speaking, what’s wrong with our livestock systems? Why do we need to change them?

DG: Again, despite the fact that simple messages are always more attractive and easier to understand, the answer to this question is: it’s complicated and the messages should be nuanced, depending on the context.

We are not saying that everything needs to be changed and that the livestock sector is not working; we are saying that it is doing many good things and many bad things. And we need to strengthen the good things and mitigate the bad things, and that requires doing different things in different places, considering that different people have different needs.

So, what are the bad things? The livestock sector may be responsible for 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions; it is a substantial contributor to climate change. Air, land and water pollution from intensive livestock systems is also a big problem. Poor animal welfare, when animals are kept in unsatisfactory conditions, concerns many people.

There is one issue that I am especially interested in. I am an epidemiologist and I mainly work with diseases. Livestock-sourced foods pose the greatest food safety risks. If you get ill from eating any food, it is most likely to be a livestock product or to be more precise, an animal sourced food, as fish are included in the risky food group too.

There are also many emerging diseases. Some of them come from or through livestock, like, for example, avian influenza. Although it has dropped out of the public consciousness and does not make headlines, it is still a big problem and there are outbreaks going on all over the world. It’s possible that an outbreak will come along which may easily spread from animals to humans and it will make the headlines again.

The same can be said about the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), the West Nile virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)- coronavirus and other emerging diseases, many at the human-livestock interface. So, these are the points of concerns, the aspects of livestock management which we need to change.

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