Research shows livestock industry is ‘green’

Livestock agriculture is green. It is time the industry stopped allowing itself to be pushed around and start using science-based information to tell what it is doing for the world, according to speakers at the recent Southwest Beef Symposium in Amarillo.

Confined cattle feeding is a necessary industry to feed the growing population and also one that is ‘green’ according to researchers.

Dennis Avery, director of the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., told the crowd that as the world’s population increases in wealth and size, farmers and ranchers will have to double global food production within 40 years.

“This is a bigger challenge than Dr. Norman Borlaug faced when he launched the Green Revolution in the 1960s,” Avery said. “Since we already farm 37 percent of the Earth’s land area, we cannot double food production simply by plowing more land and using more of today’s inputs.

“We must find new ways to add yield and productivity on the best land. “