Gates’s model showed that a Spanish flu–like disease unleashed on the modern world would kill more than 33 million people in 250 days. “We’ve created, in terms of spread, the most dangerous environment that we’ve ever had in the history of mankind,” Gates says. Continue reading
A team of world-leading scientists have just released the world’s first ever scientific eating plan. They say the current food system dangerously overproduces greenhouse gases, misuses fertiliser, and causes large-scale food wastage and massive land degradation. Their solution is to shift to a diet that transforms this damaging food system. While this sounds like a silver bullet, it doesn’t recognise the enormous differences across the world when it comes to food consumption and production systems. Continue reading
Facts and data on livestock and sustainable development are often hard to pin down. A set of fact sheets from the Supporting Evidence Based Interventions project at the University of Edinburgh aims to inform discussion and decisions by providing robust, up-to-date and appropriately interpreted facts about some of the big questions. Continue reading
A new category of infectious diseases is thriving. Amid mostly stabilizing population growth, declining poverty, rising urbanization and emerging economic wealth, other zoonotic, largely foodborne diseases are emerging more quickly, keeping pace with human progress. . . . “While we’re getting rid of conditions that bring about some diseases, we’re also creating the conditions to give rise to new diseases or make other diseases worse,” [ILRI’s Delia Grace] said. Continue reading
Researchers are on the hunt for a cow that produces less methane, one of the major contributors to climate change. If and when those green genes can be easily isolated, they could be spread throughout global cattle populations. Continue reading
The interview below, Could animal-sourced protein really solve the world’s hunger crisis?, of veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert Delia Grace, of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), was originally published in the Oct 2017 ‘Food and Nutrition Security’ issue of the monthly newsletter for Health for Animals. Both display quote graphics are by Health for Animals. Continue reading
On the heels of the 2011 eradication of cattle plague (rinderpest) is a new ‘frieze-dried’ vaccine that could eradicate goat plague—The Economist reports from ILRI Continue reading
We can shrink the carbon footprint of livestock, but we need to properly measure their emissions first. Opinion piece written by Polly Ericksen. Continue reading
This week marked a milestone for the Committee on World Food Security (CFS). For the first time since its reform, it recognized the role of livestock in addressing malnutrition, sustainable agriculture and climate change. Continue reading
Ahead of the CFS43, SIANI spoke with Delia Grace—a veterinary epidemiologist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and a member of the HLPE livestock project team—about the so-called omnivore’s dilemma, the critical issues in livestock production around the world and a vision for policy-makers who will be implementing the HLPE’s recommendations. Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 