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Solutions to Meet the Need for Feed

Livestock and poultry have been a valuable part of the global agricultural landscape for millennia. As global meat production has quadrupled over the past fifty years, the corresponding growth in production and consumption of animal products and feed requires increased attention to the impacts of these intertwined systems and processes. As a component of the food system’s footprint, animal-sourced foods currently account for 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions, 12% of global freshwater consumption and have been responsible for 65% of global land use change from 1961-2011. Collective action across the feed value chain can deliver positive impacts to climate, biodiversity, water use, and protection of critical landscapes.

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Episode 115: Home on the Range

Video: Episode 115: Home on the Range

We look at how high crop prices, driven in part by rising global food demand, biofuel incentives, and risk perspective and management, are encouraging the conversion of marginal grasslands into cultivated cropland. As more hay and pastureland is turned over to crop production, wildlife habitat becomes increasingly fragmented, leaving isolated “islands” of grass that may be too small to sustain functioning grassland ecosystems. We explore research using Alberta as a case study to understand the impact that conversion of hay and pasturelands into cropland could have on ecosystem intactness and biodiversity.