Environment

This theme is about climate change, pollution, and biodiversity. Livestock contributes to climate change and pollutes water and air, because of emissions related to feed production and to manure, and because of enteric fermentation, which causes methane emissions from the gut. Livestock is responsible for 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gases.

Options for improvement are explored, such as coupling of livestock to crop farming and agroforestry (including trees in a farming system to sequester carbon and to improve biodiversity), breeding cattle to fit into alternative farming systems, and the practice of nature protection by farmers. We call this living labs, the practice as a laboratory.