Are Cows Environmentally Efficient ?

Abstract

Livestock production has been identified as one of the sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which are the main drivers of climate change. But some of the information that is disseminated to the public is unfounded, leading to misinterpretations. Of course, the Paris Agreement must be taken seriously to achieve the goals of stabilizing global warming, and there are many opportunities and solutions to stabilize and even reverse global warming. This study was part of the Demola project and aimed to study the production model of cattle farming, assess the literacy of citizens in general, and assess the potential environmental impact of this sector. The survey applied to 1142 citizens revealed that 90% of the people surveyed consume beef, milk and its derivatives. Of those who do not consume these products, 58% adopt a vegetarian diet and 40% were lactose intolerant. Regarding sustainability, consumers are unaware of whether farms comply with sustainability standards or whether this economic sector contributes negatively to environmental impact. The literature research and the contact with several producers and researchers revealed that different livestock production systems can be environmentally sustainable, depending essentially on the management mode. There are several steps that can be implemented to mitigate environmental impacts: feed supplements that reduce methane emissions, genetic improvement that selects more efficient animals, technological innovations that increase the yield and efficiency of the farm and consequently sustainability. With this study it was found that, even with the efforts of the livestock sector to reduce environmental impacts, there is still a lot of misinformation on the part of the various hierarchical levels of production and the entire livestock sector.