A peer-reviewed edition of the scientific journal Animal Frontiers published April 15 confirms meat’s critical role in society, building on scientific debate and evidence developed through the October 2022 International Summit on the Societal Role of Meat hosted by Teagasc in Dublin.
Animal Frontiers is the third most-cited journal in agriculture, dairy, and animal science. The journal edition’s guest editors and authors are among the nearly 1000 signatories of a declaration warning that livestock systems are too precious to society to become the victim of simplification and reductionism.
Key findings include:
- “...Plant-based production does not only lead to human-edible food, but also large amounts of inedible biomass. Livestock are the most likely viable option to return the nutrients captured in this biomass back into the natural cycle, while producing high-quality human-edible food.”
- “The outcome of unintended economic, social, and environmental consequences when abandoning livestock could prove catastrophic to the already shaky ecological balance of the resource cycles and the remaining natural capital.”
- “In short, human-managed livestock systems must be part of the solution to environmental sustainability.”
- “The twin challenges of closing the global nutrient gap and achieving environmental sustainability are large. More research is needed than ever before, in all aspects of the sciences.”
- “Human civilization has been built on livestock from initiating the bronze-age more than 5000 years ago toward being the bedrock of food security for modern societies today.
- “Sustainable livestock will also provide solutions for the additional challenge of today, to stay within the safe operating zone of planet Earth’s boundaries, the only Earth we have.”
Teagasc Assistant Director of Research, Declan Troy welcomed the publication, saying: “Livestock farming supports the livelihoods of about one in six people on the planet. It supplies food, nutrition, income and more, to hundreds of millions of people and is of enduring cultural significance for many. Today’s publication shows that deploying scientifically-sound practices in animal agriculture is key to succeeding in the face of global health, climate, and development challenges.”
Experts who participated in the October 2022 Summit called for this major new analysis to inform public policies and recommendations related to meat production and consumption.
Dr. Alice Stanton of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland commented: “The peer-reviewed evidence published today reaffirms that the most prominent global study which claimed that consumption of even tiny amounts of red meat harms health (the 2019 Global Burden of Disease Risk Factors Report) is fatally scientifically flawed and should be retracted. In fact, removing fresh meat and dairy from diets would harm human health. Women, children, the elderly and those of low income would be particularly negatively impacted.”
Dr. Adegbola Adesogan, Director of the University of Florida’s Global Food Systems Institute, noted: “Animal-source foods are superior to plant-source foods at simultaneously supplying several bioavailable micronutrients and high quality macronutrients that are critical for growth and cognitive development. Dietary recommendations to eliminate animal-source foods from diets ignore their importance, particularly the great need for these foods in diets of the undernourished in the Global South.”
Dr. Wilhelm Windisch of Technical University Munich, Germany further noted: “Farmed and herded animals maintain a circular flow of materials in agriculture, by using and upcycling large amounts of material humans cannot eat, turning them into high-quality, nutrient-dense food. One-size-fits-all agendas, such as drastic reductions of livestock numbers, could incur environmental and nutritional consequences on a massive scale.”
The peer-reviewed edition of Animal Frontiers is available without charge at https://academic.oup.com/af/issue
###
About the International Summit on the Societal Role of Meat: The Summit was organised by an international committee comprising Peer Ederer, Founder, GOALSciences (Switzerland); Collette Kaster, CEO, American Meat Science Association (United States); Mohammad Koohmaraie, President of the Meat Division, IEH Laboratories and Consulting Group (United States); Frédéric Leroy, Professor, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium); Rod Polkinghorne, CEO, Birkenwood International (Australia); and Declan Troy, Assistant Director of Research, Teagasc (Ireland). For more information about the Summit agenda and presentations, click here.
About Teagasc: Teagasc – the Agriculture and Food Development Authority – is the national body providing integrated research, advisory and training services to the agriculture and food industry and rural communities in Ireland. The Teagasc mission is to support science-based innovation in the agri-food sector and wider bio-economy that will underpin profitability, competitiveness and sustainability. In order to maximise the impact of its research, Teagasc actively collaborates with research organisations around the world. To learn more, visit https://www.teagasc.ie
