MONOGASTRIS AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Monogastrics and the Environment

The livestock sector has a key and growing role in the agricultural economy. Whereas the Green Revolution was a concerted political and scientific response to rapidly growing populations, the Livestock Revolution currently underway in developing countries is driven by growing incomes or the worlds emerging middle class. It is also an important determinant of human health and diet. The livestock domesticated animals can divide into two groups. They are monogastrics and ruminant organism. A monogastrics organism has a simple single-chambered stomach, compared to a ruminant organism, which has a fourchambered complex stomach. Examples of monogastrics animals include omnivores such as humans, rats and pigs, carnivores such as dogs and cats, and herbivores such as horses and rabbits. Herbivores with monogastrics digestion can digest cellulose in their diet by way of symbiotic gut bacteria. However, their ability to extract energy from cellulose digestion is less efficient than in ruminants. Herbivores digest cellulose via microbial fermentation (biochemistry). Monogastric herbivores that can digest cellulose nearly as well as ruminants are called hindgut fermenters, while ruminants are called foregut fermenters. These are sub divided into two groups based on the relative size of various digestive organs in relationship to the rest of the system: colonic fermenters tend to be larger species such as horses and rhinos, and cecal fermenters are smaller animals such as rabbits and rodents. The great apes (bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orang-utans), in contrast to humans, derive significant amounts of phytanic acid from the hindgut fermentation of plant materials. Monogastrics cannot digest the fiber molecule cellulose as efficiently as ruminants, though the ability to digest cellulose varies amongst species. A monogastric digestive system works as soon as the food enters the mouth. Saliva moistens the food and begins the digestive process. After being swallowed, the food passes from the oesophagus into the stomach, where stomach acid and enzymes help to break down the food. Bile salts stored in the gall bladder empty the contents of the stomach into the small intestines where most fats are broken down. The pancreas secretes enzymes and alkali to neutralize the stomach acid. Recently, a number of studies have under scored the impact of livestock on the global environment, including anthropogenic climate change, nitrogen cycles, and phytomass appropriation .The areas of climate change, reactive nitrogen mobilization, and anthropogenic biomass appropriation and that curbing livestock sector growth should be a major focus in environmental governance. The current environmental impact of livestock is large, but it can be significantly attenuated. Some counter vailing trends are already in place that has the potential to reduce environmental impact drastically, notably the shift to monogastrics and continued efficiency gains in the production of feed and livestock. These tendencies will help mitigate livestocks global environmental impact to a larger extent. Although addressing excessive levels of consumption will help reduce environmental impact, there is a vast mitigation potential on the production side. Addressing environmental impacts of livestock on the production side may also carry important benefits for socially and economically disadvantaged livestock producers in developing countries.

Demand projections point to increases of global meat consumption of 68% and of global milk consumption of 57% over the 2000 base period by 2030 (6). Livestock are used to appropriate the majority of global phytomass captured by human activity, mostly by converting vegetal material of no immediate other use by way of ruminant production. Biomass appropriation does not necessarily imply a negative impact on the environment. In properly managed grass-based systems, grazing and mowing contribute to increased ecosystem productivity and biodiversity. The continuation of ruminant-based meat production systems into modern days, however, implies significant resource use and low resource-use efficiencies when high-value feed is used. This is because of the inherently low feed conversion rates of ruminants and their long reproduction intervals, which entail that more than one-half of dietary energy requirements in cattle production systems are for maintenance (2). In addition, because of the specifics of the digestive system of cattle, sheep, and goats (foreguts), their production is associated with high levels of methane emissions, substantially contributing to climate change. The production of monogastric meat and eggs is associated with much lower emission intensities, phytomass appropriation, and reactive nitrogen. Global monogastric meat production has increased by 103% over the 19872007 period as opposed to an increase of 28% in ruminant meat production (7); these trends are expected to continue into the future (6). Productivity growth, triggered by demand growth and resource scarcity, also has the potential to reduce phytomass appropriation per unit of product and emission intensity. Measured in global protein output per standing livestock biomass, the productivity of ruminant species (beef and sheep) has been stable over the past two decades, whereas productivity of monogastrics (pig and poultry) grew at an annual rate of 2.3% (8). Productivity increases in livestock have been brought about by the broad application of science and advanced technology in feeding and nutrition, genetics and reproduction, and animal health control as well as general improvements in animal husbandry. Because livestock production relies increasingly on products of arable land, productivity increases in crop production also help in reducing the environmental impact that can be attributed to livestock. Close to 90% of total crop production increase is the result of productivity increase as opposed to area expansion (9). This is indicative of the large role that advanced technology can play in reducing environmental impact, particularly in developing country agriculture and livestock production where there are large productivity gaps. Closing these gaps could substantially reduce aggregate environmental impact of livestock. Fig. 1 describes the aggregate of the land use of livestock between 1961 and 2001. Globally, meat and milk production increased by 245% and 70%, respectively, whereas total use of arable land increased by 30% and grazing land by less than 10% (2).

Fig. 1 Expansion of livestock production and supporting land. Following current trends, the shift to monogastric species and continued productivity growth has the potential to considerably reduce environmental impact per unit of product (10), but given the projected increases in demand, aggregate impact is poised to grow further. For a more drastic reduction, livestock production needs to be intensified in a responsible way (i.e., be made more efficient in the way that it uses natural resources and generates harmful emissions, drawing from accelerated technological change and alignment of agricultural policies to global environmental objectives). For example, effective area protection and certification of origin can reduce deforestation and subsequent greenhouse gas emissions from land use change that is attributable to livestock. Deforestation is not necessary for meeting meat demand, and the required marginal growth can be easily achieved by intensification of current production, given the low-intensity levels of production in much of Latin America where most of the livestock-associated deforestation occurs. Another example is methane emission from anaerobic storage of waste (lagoons); regulatory change, perhaps combined with positive incentives, could avoid the majority of emissions from this source. A third example is methane emissions in the form of enteric methane. Regional average methane emission intensity ranges from 1.2 to 7.5 kg CO 2-eq./kg of milk (11). These differences reflect the vast intensity and productivity spectrum of global livestock production. Productivity increases in traditional dairy systems in places like India (the worlds largest dairy producer) can allow for meeting additional demand for dairy products and may also be a powerful tool for raising small producers income if avoided greenhouse gas emissions could be marketed. Forms of responsible intensification and incentives that are realigned to global environmental objectives are needed to drive accelerated technological change. Given the large scope of mitigation and the presence of social/environmental win win situations. Calling for reining in livestock sector growth as a priority in environmental policy, also carries the risk that such efforts target those countries and population segments that currently have low levels of consumption, and where food intakes need to grow as opposed to those countries where they are currently high and where a reduction may also be desirable from a nutritional perspective. Average consumption levels of meat in sub-Saharan Africa are still only about one eighth of those in industrialized countries. Most of Addressing environmental impacts of livestock on the production side may also carry important benefits. However, the consumption growth is taking place in emerging countries, rapidly approaching consumption levels observed in the most affluent parts of the world.

Addressing the dietary convergence and putting in place environmental and public health policies to reorient consumption patterns on more sustainable paths would effectively reduce the sectors impact. Policies directly targeting dietary patterns are often resented as interfering with very personal choices of how and what to eat; educational and awareness programs which promote healthy food choices have been shown to work in some places (13) but are likely to be slow in yielding the desired impact. The extent and form of global environmental impact of livestock production, like in the form of climate gas emissions, have developed in the absence of environmental policies; in the livestock sector, such policies have mostly targeted water pollution and odour issues in industrialized countries and, to a certain extent, in emerging countries. Livestock production and consumption issues have not been a major focus of environmental policies thus far, and it can be argued that such policies could correct for many of the environmental externalities through regulatory and market-based instruments (14). Such policies could alter production modes to much higher efficiencies and shift prices to levels that reflect a social value of resources and emissions. Given the large gaps between attainable and actually attained efficiencies and the vast consumption growth potential in industrializing countries, a dual approach, targeting both production systems and consumption trends, should be pursued to effectively bring down the environmental impact of livestock.

References
1. Delgado C, Rosegrant M, Steinfeld H, Steinfeld H, Ehui S, Courbois C (1999) Livestock to 2020: The Next Food Revolution. Food, Agriculture and the Environment (International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC) Discussion Paper 28. 2. Food and Agriculture Organization, (2006) Livestocks Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options (Food and Agriculture Organization,Rome).