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Livestock policy for sustainable development

Nature Food volume 1, pages 160–165 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

The production and consumption of livestock products are under examination on environmental, human health and animal welfare grounds. However, a wealth of evidence suggests that the livestock sector has complex interactions with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with both the problem and solution spaces for livestock interventions varying depending on the context. To circumvent the uncertainty associated with incomplete or conflicting evidence for making policy recommendations, we suggest a sharper focus on local solutions to global targets, as well as due attention to cross-scale feedbacks that occur between them. Our analysis offers a lens that focuses on balancing both the costs and benefits of the livestock sector, and can be used to define better livestock policy that steers the planet towards a more sustainable and food-secure future.

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Fig. 1: Interactions between the livestock sector and the SDGs.
Fig. 2: Hotspots of leverage in the livestock sector.

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Acknowledgements

N.R. and Z.M. were funded by NSERC Discovery grant number RGPIN-2017–04648.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UBC School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Zia Mehrabi & Navin Ramankutty

  2. Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Zia Mehrabi & Navin Ramankutty

  3. School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK

    Margaret Gill

  4. International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya

    Mark van Wijk

  5. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia

    Mario Herrero

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  1. Zia Mehrabi
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  2. Margaret Gill
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  3. Mark van Wijk
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  5. Navin Ramankutty
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Z.M. led the study. All authors contributed to writing and revisions.

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Correspondence to Zia Mehrabi.

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Mehrabi, Z., Gill, M., Wijk, M. et al. Livestock policy for sustainable development. Nat Food 1, 160–165 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-0042-9

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