Animal agriculture is an important cause of greenhouse gas emissions and so livestock production will have to change if the UK is to meet climate change mitigation targets. Meat consumption, particularly processed meat, is under scrutiny for its potentially detrimental health impacts. Some production systems are also criticised due to their animal welfare impacts.
There is some consensus around the idea that livestock farming must change or transform, but there is less agreement on how this might happen. A shared view of the sector’s challenges and opportunities is needed to transform the system Yet it is unclear whether stakeholders in the livestock sector share the same vision of the system and its current structure and where it needs to get to.
TRADE will work with sector stakeholders, including:
- scientists
- farmers
- processors
- retailers
- consumers
- investors
- policy makers.
We will seek to understand different accounts of the increasingly contested role of livestock in the UK agricultural economy. This means balancing its economic value and opportunities for innovation with its less tangible contributions to food systems, health, rural economies and social wellbeing. We will investigate potential technological innovations (for example, genetics and breeding techniques), and public preferences for the future of livestock systems in the UK and internationally.
Ultimately, our objective is to understand and measure the environmental, health, economic and societal trade-offs inherent in different transformation scenarios. Without better knowledge of these trade-offs we are unlikely to develop consensus on transformational pathways that address relative gainers and losers.
TRADE explore these issues using methods from the social and biological sciences. This will enable to suggest solutions for the societal, political and economic barriers that may hinder the uptake of new solutions.