Managing Healthy Livestock Production and Consumption is a highly interdisciplinary resource based on scientific and empirical evidence. It is illustrated with best practices of low-input livestock systems from different continents and offers predictive modelling alternatives for a more resilient future. By addressing gaps of knowledge and presenting scientific perspective studies of livestock’s impact on the environment and the global food supply up to 2050, this book is useful for those advocating for sustainable food systems. Existing evidence of the effects of livestock production on food quality and nutrition is reviewed. Livestock production and consumption is a highly diverse topic where current publications only include/focus a single aspect of the issues, for example, greenhouse gas emissions or health impacts, leading to unilateral decisions such as refraining from meat consumption. However, animals are necessary to soil fertility and ecosystems balance and a more realistic resource is necessary for researchers, scientists, and policy makers. This book clarifies perceptions by presenting sound scientific evidence across livestock landscapes for the scientific community to better appreciate the ecological web of life and the social web of community related to livestock production. An edited work written by globally diverse scientists and practitioners, including field workers, technicians, and policy makers, this is a valuable resource for researchers, teachers, and development agents working in the area of sustainable livestock production and consumption of animal source foods. National, international organizations, policy makers, and donors interested in sustainable development of the livestock sector will also find the information here practical and applicable.
Nadia El-Hage Scialabba is an ecologist with 33 years of experience at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome, Italy. One of her earliest achievements was the introduction of Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development chapter into the Earth Summit Agenda 21. As FAO Senior Officer for Environment and Sustainable Development (2000 to 2018), she focused her efforts on strengthening food chain linkages, bringing together the environmental, socio-economic and governance dimensions of development initiatives, while leading the cross-sectoral programme on organic agriculture. She developed integrated approaches to policy, planning and management in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, whether dealing with: geographical units, such as coastal areas and small island developing states; topics, such as biodiversity, livestock, food wastage and health; procedures, such as equivalency of organic guarantee systems, sustainable food and agriculture assessments and full-cost accounting; or nexus conferences, such as food security, climate change and bioenergy. Normative work was coupled with assistance to developing countries through projects in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Central Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean. She has authored over 100 publications, including literature reviews, case studies, scientific articles, guidelines and models, of which the Sustainable Organic Livestock model. Nadia El-Hage Scialabba is currently a Senior Fellow at the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA