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The livestock sector and planetary boundaries: a ‘limits to growth’ perspective with dietary implications
journal contribution
posted on 2019-06-01, 00:00 authored by Nicholas Bowles, S Alexander, Michalis HadjikakouMichalis Hadjikakou© 2019 Elsevier B.V. The livestock sector is a key driver of humanity's transgression of several planetary boundaries, with the production of ruminant meat being particularly impactful. Given current trends in demand for animal products, strategies to significantly reduce the livestock sector's environmental impacts are urgently needed. Here we draw on published data to examine livestock's impacts in three key critical sustainability domains within the planetary boundaries framework – climate change, biochemical flows and land-system change, and seek to quantify livestock's occupation of humanity's safe operating space now and into the future (2050). We estimate that the livestock sector may already occupy the majority of, or transgress, humanity's safe operating space across these domains, with such impacts forecast to grow by 2050. Furthermore, we explore the potential of reasonably foreseeable technological measures to mitigate the sector's environmental impacts. While such measures are deemed necessary, their effects are unlikely to be sufficient to shrink the scale of livestock's impacts to a sustainable level, as defined by the three planetary boundaries tested. The implication of these findings is that macroeconomic policies promoting both sustainable production and consumption practices are integral to the realisation of a sustainable food system, where humanity functions within its safe operating space.
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Journal
Ecological economicsVolume
160Pagination
128 - 136Publisher
ElsevierLocation
Amsterdam, The NetherlandsPublisher DOI
ISSN
0921-8009Language
engPublication classification
C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2019, Elsevier B.V.Usage metrics
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Science & TechnologySocial SciencesLife Sciences & BiomedicineEcologyEconomicsEnvironmental SciencesEnvironmental StudiesEnvironmental Sciences & EcologyBusiness & EconomicsLivestockFood systemSustainable consumptionPlanetary boundariesScaleEfficiencyFOOD-DEMANDENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITYLAND-USEMEATCONSUMPTIONIMPACTSFUTURETRANSFORMATIONAGRICULTUREPATHWAYS
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