Livestock and Climate Justice: Challenging Mainstream Policy Narratives

Abstract

In discussions around food systems and the climate, livestock is often painted as the villain. While some livestock production in some places contributes significantly to climate change, this is not universally the case. This article focuses on pastoral production systems – extensive, often mobile systems using marginal rangelands across around half of the world’s surface, involving many millions of people. By examining the assumptions behind standard calculations of greenhouse gas emissions, a systematic bias against pastoralism is revealed. Many policy and campaign stances fail to discriminate between different material conditions of production, lumping all livestock systems together. Injustices arise through the framing of debates and policy knowledge; through procedures that exclude certain people and perspectives; and through the distributional consequences of policies. In all cases, extensive livestock keepers lose out. In reflecting on the implications for European pastoralism, an alternative approach is explored where pastoralists’ knowledge, practices, and organisations take centre stage.

Pastoralism, Uncertainty and Development

“…Of course, some industrial, contained systems of livestock production, reliant on imported feeds grown in cleared forested areas and transported across the world, are highly damaging to the environment. But failing to differentiate low-input, extensive livestock farming is a strategic error, with significant consequences for pastoralists the world over (García -Dory et al, 2021;Scoones, 2022b).…”