Cattle remain key to sustainable food systems

The cattle industry is one of the chief targets of climate activists who propose plant-based diets as a way of reducing global warming and moving towards sustainable food production. Sara Place, chief sustainability officer at Elanco Animal Health, spoke to Lindi Botha about the underestimated power of cattle to contribute to the well-being of people and the planet.

- Lindi Botha

The conversation about sustainable beef production has become a hot and polarising topic of late. Why has it not been possible to get to a globally understood definition and target?

There are three main domains covered by sustainability: economics, the environment, and social issues. This means that sustainability falls under a wide umbrella. It involves everything from rural livelihoods and the economic viability of farmers, to carbon and water footprints, which garner most of the attention, to social issues. The latter entails everything from nutritional quality to cultural values and animal welfare. In all, this is quite a complex topic, and we can’t always get agreement because we’re trying to balance everything at once.

It’s also not a purely objective topic, even though it is driven by science. People value different things differently. One person may prioritise animal welfare above environmental footprints, while another may prioritise the affordability of food above all else. It’s not that one person is right or wrong; it’s just a reality of a pluralistic society.

Would the planet be better off if we weren’t feeding animals, but rather using that land to produce crops for people?

Resource competition is a key area that we see coming up again and again in terms of cattle and sustainability. The question usually asked is: are livestock eating what could be human food? This can be both an issue of direct feed/food competition and land-use competition with regard to land that’s used to grow crops for cattle and other livestock.