Using livestock for healthier soil

Angus McIntosh, a livestock farmer at Spier, recently hosted an information day during which he discussed the importance of ‘outdoor’ livestock production for the future of food security.

-  Glenneis Kriel

Much has been said about how the COVID-19 pandemic exposed serious limitations in the global logistics and food system, and how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine makes it even more unlikely that the world will be able to end hunger by 2050.

But Angus McIntosh, better known as Farmer Angus, who farms livestock at Spier near Stellenbosch, argues that the situation is compounded by the misconception that the world’s farmers will have to feed a projected population of nine billion people by 2050.

“The world is already producing enough food to feed between 11 billion and 14 billion people. [However], our problem is that a lot of food is wasted along the supply chain or grown for the wrong reasons, such as to feed cattle [or other livestock in intensive farming concerns] or to produce biofuels,” says McIntosh.

Along with this, he believes that economies of scale have resulted in small family farms being replaced by large businesses that are mostly profit-driven.

“Most of these businesses, like mining companies, try to squeeze as much as they can out of the land through the use of intensive production systems and ever-increasing volumes of artificial inputs, such as fertiliser, antibiotics and hormones. These not only have a harmful impact on the environment, climate change and animal health, but also on soil [health]. “Increased use of chemicals have resulted in widespread problems with antimicrobial resistance, [amongst other issues].”

He adds that intensive production systems are commonly thought to be the only way to supply the population with affordable, nutritious food, but the price of this food should be doubled to account for its negative impact on the environment.