Sustainable Livestock and Food Systems Transformation
Online Zoom Event
23rd July 2024, 14:00 – 16:00 BST
As part of the debate around the UN Food Systems Summit, St George’s House convened a series of online and in-person meetings, involving a network of over 50 individuals from 30 organisations. The St George’s House Consultation on Global Food Systems in 2023 identified livestock production as a pivotal issue for transformation to ensure food systems are sustainable.
In view of the importance and urgency of this agenda, we now seek to take the debate further.
Livestock production can exacerbate biodiversity loss, deforestation, climate change, air pollution, soil degradation, and overuse and pollution of water. It can contribute to non-communicable diseases and antimicrobial resistance, as well as increasing the risk of zoonotic diseases and future pandemics. Both the IPCC and FAO have highlighted the pivotal role of livestock production systems and changes in meat and dairy consumption in meeting the inter-connected challenges of climate change, environment, health, food and nutrition security, animal welfare, and biodiversity.
At the same time, more than 700 million people are still facing hunger. In low-income countries animal-sourced foods are important source of nourishment for children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and for many people leaving in low-income countries. Meanwhile, small-scale farmers are not adequately supported and have their livelihoods under threat from further unsustainable intensification by large-scale producers. By contrast, in high-income countries the overconsumption of animal protein compromises human health, and the issue of reduced livestock production and animal-sourced food consumption has become highly polarised.
However, international fora, governments, food businesses and civil society have found it difficult to address the role that food-producing animals should play in future-fit, sustainable food systems. It is clear that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Context-specific solutions will be key in advancing towards just and sustainable livestock production systems that can ensure food and nutrition security and equitable livelihoods for all, whilst remaining within planetary health boundaries which will allow internationally agreed environmental and health targets to be met.
This meeting seeks to provide a constructive forum for a wide range of key stakeholders to explore the challenges and develop a way forward together.
The purpose will be to scope the barriers, challenges and common ground to inform an in-person Consultation on Global Food Systems and Sustainable Livestock Production to be held at Windsor Castle early in 2025. The aim is to co-create an agenda for action and a shared narrative in support of preparations for the critical climate COP30, for the UN Food Systems Summit 2025 Stocktaking Moment and other key global policy fora.
