- Author: John M Harper
As a member of the Society for Range Management, I receive both the Journal of Rangeland Ecology & Management and Rangelands. The latter is dedicated to getting scientifically correct information in a user friendly, non-technical format out to a wide-range of individuals including educators, students, rangeland owners and managers, researchers, and policy leaders. Recently a very good article, written by author Jerry Holechek of New Mexico State University, appeared in Rangelands that should definitely be shared to a much wider audience. The following press release provides a brief summary and most importantly there is a link to Jerry's full article. I encourage everyone to give it a read and share with your friends and neighbors.
Rangeland Conservation Key to Weathering Changes in Food Production
Released: 2/25/2010 3:00 PM EST
Source: Allen Press Publishing Services
Newswise — During the past century, food production in the United States has achieved a remarkable degree of efficiency and the cost of food has remained low, but some of the conditions that made such a system possible are changing. Rising human population, water shortages, and depletion of fossil fuels all threaten current food production systems. In short, the era of cheap food may well be coming to an end.
A recent article in the journal Rangelands, a publication of the Society for Range Management, explores changing conditions likely to affect U.S. food production, particularly on American rangelands. Decades of cheap oil have led to cheap grain, which has been fed to cattle in an increasingly consolidated animal production system. As fossil fuels become more scarce and prices increase, range operators that rely less on cheap oil and cheap grain may be able to adapt to changes.
Other forces that are likely to influence meat production are growing demand for humanely raised animals; potentially inflationary monetary policies that may stimulate U.S. meat exports; and renewed appreciation for the nation’s rangelands. Grasslands used for raising livestock have been devalued by conditions of the past few decades.
“Both privately and publicly owned rangeland came to be viewed by political leaders and the public as disposable resources because it was thought that our meat could be efficiently produced with harvested feed or imported,” writes author Jerry Holechek of New Mexico State University. “As a rational hedge against the possibility of technological lag or failure, I most strongly believe everything possible should be done to conserve and enhance our rangelands and farmlands so they will meet the basic needs of a world with ever more people (70 million per year), but with shrinking energy, water, and agricultural land resources.”
Historically, other factors have influenced the American farm economy as well, including:
• Gains in technological efficiency.
• Global climate patterns.
• U.S. policy toward the monetary supply and interest rates.
• Conversion of U.S. grain into ethanol.
Though many questions about the future of agriculture remain unanswered, it is important to discuss such questions and prepare for coming changes that will affect our ability to produce food for a growing population.
Full text of the article, “Range Livestock Production, Food, and the Future: A Perspective,” is available at http://www2.allenpress.com/pdf/1551-501X-31.6.pdf
About Rangelands
Rangelands is a full-color publication of the Society for Range Management published six times per year. Each issue of Rangelands features scientific articles, book reviews, and society news. Additionally, readers may find youth, technology, and policy departments. The journal provides a forum for readers to get scientifically correct information in a user friendly, non-technical format. Rangelands is intended for a wide-range of individuals including educators, students, rangeland owners and managers, researchers, and policy leaders. The journal is available online at www.srmjournals.org. To learn more about the society, please visit www.rangelands.org.
/span>- Author: John M Harper
Good neighbors start with good fences. Even with the best fences livestock will sometimes escape. Often times the local Sheriff's office gets contacted when this happens. While very skilled in the jobs they normally do they often have a very hard time containing stray livestock. The livestock owner, on the other hand, is quite skilled in rounding up stock.
Fortunately, in Mendocino County, you can help the local Sheriff by registering your livestock with them. By doing so, they'll have a better chance of matching the wandering livestock to the owner. It's good for the animal, the owner, the investigating Sheriff deputy, and for public safey. To register your livestock go to: http://www.mendocinosheriff.com/animals/livestockReg.pdf and fill out the form. There's a button on the form to email it to the Sheriff's office or you can print it out and mail it to them.
- Author: John M Harper
The following came to me from Dr. Jim Oltjen and hearlds some good news for those in the livestock industry.
The world needs to double its output of meat by 2050 to meet growing demand, the U.N. Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a new "State of Food & Agriculture" report issued last Thursday.
Globally, the livestock sector now produces 228 million metric tons of meat. To meet rising demand, this will need to double in 40 years, putting added pressure on industry and governments to find answers to problems impeding one of the "fastest-growing" parts of agriculture, according to FAO.
"Rising incomes, population growth and urbanization are the driving forces behind a growing demand for meat products in developing countries, and they will continue to be important (Figure). To meet rising demand, global annual meat production is expected to expand from 228 mmt currently to 463 mmt by 2050, with the cattle population estimated to grow from 1.5 billion to 2.6 billion and that of goats and sheep from 1.7 billion to 2.7 billion," according to FAO estimates.
"Livestock contributes 40% of the global value of agricultural production and supports the livelihoods and food security of almost 1 billion people. Globally, livestock contributes 15% of total food energy and 25% of dietary protein. Products from livestock provide essential micronutrients that are not easily obtained from other plant food products," FAO said in its report published in Rome, Italy.
- Author: John M Harper
Despite oft-repeated claims by sources ranging from the United Nations to music star Paul McCartney, it is simply not true that consuming less meat and dairy products will help stop climate change, says a University of California authority on farming and greenhouse gases.
UC Davis air quality specialist Frank Mitloehner says that McCartney and the chair of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ignored science when they launched a European campaign called "Less Meat = Less Heat." The launch came on the eve of the major international climate summit in Copenhagen in December.
McCartney and others, such as the promoters of "meatless Mondays," seem to be well-intentioned but not well-schooled in the complex relationships among human activities, animal digestion, food production and atmospheric chemistry, says Mitloehner.
"Smarter animal farming, not less farming, will equal less heat," Mitloehner said. "Producing less meat and milk will only mean more hunger in poor countries."
Mitloehner traces much of the public confusion over meat and milk's role in climate change to two sentences in a 2006 United Nations report, titled "Livestock's Long Shadow." Printed only in the report's executive summary and nowhere in the body of the report, the sentences read: "The livestock sector is a major player, responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions measured in CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalents). This is a higher share than transport."
These statements are not accurate, yet their wide distribution through news media have put us on the wrong path toward solutions, Mitloehner says.
"We certainly can reduce our greenhouse-gas production, but not by consuming less meat and milk. Rather, in developed countries, we should focus on cutting our use of oil and coal for electricity, heating and vehicle fuels."
Mitloehner said leading authorities agree that, in the U.S., raising cattle and pigs for food accounts for about 3 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, while transportation creates an estimated 26 percent.
"In developing countries, we should adopt more efficient, Western-style farming practices, to make more food with less greenhouse gas production," Mitloehner continued. In this he agrees with the conclusion of "Livestock's Long Shadow," which calls for "replacing current suboptimal production with advanced production methods -- at every step from feed production, through livestock production and processing, to distribution and marketing."
"The developed world's efforts should focus not on reducing meat and milk consumption," said Mitloehner, "but rather on increasing efficient meat production in developing countries, where growing populations need more nutritious food."
Mitloehner particularly objects to the U.N.'s statement that livestock account for more greenhouse gases than transportation, when there is no generally accepted global breakdown of gas production by industrial sector.
He notes that "Livestock's Long Shadow" produced its numbers for the livestock sector by adding up emissions from farm to table, including the gases produced by growing animal feed; animals' digestive emissions; and processing meat and milk into foods. But its transportation analysis did not similarly add up emissions from well to wheel; instead, it considered only emissions from fossil fuels burned while driving.
"This lopsided 'analysis' is a classical apples-and-oranges analogy that truly confused the issue," Mitloehner said.
Most of Mitloehner's analysis is presented in a recent study titled "Clearing the Air: Livestock's Contributions to Climate Change," published in October in the peer-reviewed journal Advances in Agronomy. Co-authors of the paper are UC Davis researchers Maurice Piteskey and Kimberly Stackhouse.
"Clearing the Air" is a synthesis of research by the UC Davis authors and many other institutions, including the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Agriculture, California Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board. Writing the synthesis was supported by a $26,000 research grant from the Beef Checkoff Program, which funds research and other activities, including promotion and consumer education, through fees on beef producers in the U.S.
Since 2002, Mitloehner has received $5 million in research funding, with 5 percent of the total from agricultural commodities groups, such as beef producers.- Author: John M Harper
The following press release from USDA concerns access to pasture for organic livestock operations.